The First-Ever Chinese Stand-up Comedy Tour Lands in the US

SEATTLE, Jan. 28, 2023 /PRNewswire/ — China’s Xiaoguo Comedy kicks off its first-ever North American city tour on January 27^th, playing to a packed house of 2,000 people to welcome in the Chinese New Year at McCaw Hall in downtown Seattle, USA.

While sending Chinese New Year wishes to the North American audience, the show also successfully brings Chinese stand-up comedy to a North American stage for the first time. Mainstays from the hugely successful show performed on stage, including the famous comedian, Li Dan, along with a raft of comics from China, including Cheng Lu, Yang Meng‘en, Doudou, Liang Haiyuan, Rock, Xiao Bei, Xiao Lu, Mao Dou, House, Kid, and Hangge. The performers bring out brand-new material exclusively for the American audience in a show lasting about 3 hours, leaving those watching in fits of laughter and hysterics.

While stand-up comedy originated in Europe and the US, the art form has been growing rapidly in popularity in China in recent years. Chinese stand-ups typically draw more from their own experiences and current lives in China, incorporating painful points in life into their segments and winning the hearts of domestic audiences with their sharp observations and expressions. Stand-up comedy has gradually become a “mouthpiece” for many young Chinese people to express themselves and a unique way to tell the stories of contemporary society.

“Back in 2020, Xiaoguo Comedy was invited to participate in the Mandarin Comedy Week during the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, and tickets sold very well for the 1,000-seater theater,” said He Xiaoxi, co-founder and CEO of Xiaoguo Comedy. “After that, we immediately started planning overseas tours in North America, Australia, and New Zealand. With the gradual optimized  pandemic restrictions this year, we were able to put the first North American tour for Chinese stand-up comedy high up on our agenda as a means of letting the world know more about Chinese young people and comedy.”

With the successful conclusion of the tour’s first stop in Seattle, the show now rolls on in the US with dates in San Jose, Los Angeles, and New York City, with the staff of the Chinese Consulate to pay the visit to the show, as well as Toronto and Vancouver in Canada, along with five other cities in the North America. Venues have been carefully selected from a series of landmark and large professional theaters in order to bring the show to more than ten thousand spectators during the tour. The comedy lineup will also participate in the NBA’s Lunar New Year celebration activities.

After only a few years of development, stand-up comedy has gradually become one of the most popular forms of comedy among Chinese audiences, especially the young audiences. During the Spring Festival break this year, the stand-up comics from Xiaoguo  Comedy appeared in multiple broadcasting networks’ produced galas, among them were He Guangzhi, Xu Zhisheng, Zhao Xiaohui, and Qiu Rui, who jointly appeared on the CCTV (China Central Television) Spring Festival Gala stage, sending the blessings of the new year to Chinese people all over the world.

Pressure and anxiety expressed by Xiaoguo Comedy’s stand-up comedian, including the struggle to settle down in big cities and pressure from marriage and the workplace, resonate with Chinese young people. It is also the deep-seated reason why this form of art is becoming popular. In 2022, Xiaoguo Comedy set up its YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter accounts to communicate with global stand-up show fans, attracting more than 120,000 followers in just over half a year and feeling the love and passion of overseas fans.

“Xiaoguo Culture has always wanted to share the country’s comedy with fans of the art form from all around the world,” He said, adding that he expects this North American tour to send international students in the US laughing into the Year of the Rabbit. The troupe also plans more overseas tours in the future to share the humor and joy of China with even more parts of the world.

For more information, please visit Xiaoguo Comedy’s pages on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.