Yan Hexiang: The cross talk industry is in volume

  China News Weekly reporter/Du Wei

  Published in the 988th issue of China News Weekly on March 22, 2020

  On February 14th, in the third issue of the fifth season of "Tucao Conference", Deyun Club selected the player and the first solo (solo performer) of the Deyun Men's Team after Yan Hexiang took the stage, "Prince Princess re-employed" and "offensive support" "Crosstalk actor, Tucao has a comfortable rhythm" and the like covered the screen.

In Yan Hexiang's view, these evaluations contain the public's misunderstanding of cross talk and the cognitive bias that overemphasizes the difference between cross talk and talk show.

  Because it was the "auxiliary" Deyun young master Guo Qilin who was appointed by Guo Degang, Yan Hexiang was called "Prince Princess" by some fans.

He likes cross talk since he was a child. In the third grade of elementary school, he participated in the Beijing Chunya Cup primary and secondary school students' art performance with a self-written double reed. He won the first prize in the Quyi category and was recommended to a key middle school.

  Because of the barriers in the crosstalk industry, saying that crosstalk is difficult to survive, coupled with his good science performance and other considerations, Yan Hexiang did not take the road of art at the beginning.

In 2004, he graduated from Beijing University of Technology with a major in communications engineering, and went to China Mobile to work as a network engineer, which is one of the high-income occupations today, a "code farmer".

In 2006, Deyun Society recruited students for the first time from the society, and Yan Hexiang applied for the exam and became a member of the Crane Division.

In the first few years, he practiced basic skills such as Guankou during the day, and stood at the end of the stage at night to listen to cross talks. After the performance, he swept the floor and wiped the table.

  For nearly 10 years since then, Yan Hexiang has been wandering between the two roles of "code farmer" and cross talk actor.

He would use his unit to eat, ride a motorcycle to the small theater to talk about a cross talk, and then rush back to work.

Until the end of 2016, Yan Hexiang was informed that he would accompany the young master Guo Qilin to participate in the third season of "Happy Comedian". He felt that talking about cross talk outside may not be concealed from the unit. In addition, at that time, the development of Deyun Club was in full swing. He was also in a rising period, so he moved from it to resign and became a full-time cross talk actor.

  At the end of last year, in an interview with a media, Yan Hexiang bluntly stated that crosstalk actors do not create, have low education, and have no works.

In the cross talk world, he also has obsessive fans.

The bookstore with more than one hundred people is almost all girls in their 20s.

In the past two years, he has started to appear in various variety shows, but he still has some vigilance about the current road of cross talk.

On the eve of the semi-final recording of "Tucao Conference", Yan Hexiang accepted an exclusive interview with "China News Weekly" on the past and current situation of the cross talk industry, talk show and cross talk.

Cross talk and talk show are essentially the same

China News Weekly: When did you first pay attention to the talk show?

Yan Hexiang: The

first time I watched the talk show was in 2016.

Da Shan hosted a talk show at the Tianqiao Theater in Beijing. He talked about his observations of life, such as the dislocations and contrasts he experienced in China over the years as a Canadian, which was very interesting.

Da Shan is also a comedian, and this performance can be seen as a combination of two art forms.

His translation of talk shows was very interesting. He called stand-up comedy "stand-up comedy", just standing there and immediately amused everyone. I think this translation is very good.

China News Weekly: After you participated in person, do you think there is any difference between talk show and cross talk?

Yan Hexiang:

My point of view is that there is no difference in essence.

After "Tucao Conference" finished talking about the talk show, many viewers said on the Internet that I was using the cross talk rhythm and cross talk skills to talk about the talk show.

But I don't actually feel that way. I'm just using the way I speak to say things.

Of course, this way is realized in the long-term practice of cross talk performance.

  From Da Shan's translation of stand-up comedies, it can also be seen that cross talk and talk show are basically the same thing.

I think there should be a concept of cross talk. Talk shows, including speeches or charming speeches, can be called cross talk.

Of course, cross talk actors have their own language skills summarized in the course of long-term stage practice, and they have a grip on the regularity of the performance and have some normative things.

China News Weekly: But I feel that the rhythm of cross talk, especially in theater, is slower than that of talk shows, and the information density is not as high as that of talk shows?

Yan Hexiang:

There is a difference.

A very important feature of the talk show is that the audience’s usual intake of information such as current affairs hotspots has helped the talk show actors complete the pavement. That is to say, the talk show actors have already assumed that the audience knows this pre-information when they perform. Need to pave the way.

The cross talk is that the audience does not know some information, so it is necessary to pave the way first, and then shake out a burden.

But to be honest, this method can no longer keep up with the speed and density of information dissemination in today’s society, so we have to adjust the pace of paving, and even some traditional techniques "three turns and four shakes" (that is, three times of paving with the same logical structure and way of thinking. , The fourth time to use thinking inertia to shake out the baggage and jokes) may also be changed to "two flips and one shake" or "one flip and one shake". To keep up with the audience's thinking pace, we have to admit that the times have changed.

  One important reason why talk shows are so popular is that people’s ability to enjoy delayed enjoyment has declined and they are unwilling to wait. Cross talk is considered to be procrastinating. From another perspective, it is because of the burden and jokes that many works finally shake out. burst.

China News Weekly: When dealing with the talk show industry, did you find any differences in their perceptions of each other?

Yan Hexiang:

Talk show actors will think that stand-up comedy is telling a complete story, in which there are performances and characters being created, while talk shows are both expounding something and expressing opinions.

I don't think this is the case. Stand-up comedy can also express opinions, and I will also consider incorporating opinions into paragraphs in the future.

China News Weekly: You also mentioned that talk show actors should learn skills from cross talk actors, and cross talk actors should learn creation from talk show actors?

Yan Hexiang: What cross talk

actors need to learn is the cognition of intellectual property rights.

In the cross talk industry, intellectual property awareness has been relatively weak in Chinese history.

In the past, mentorship was a way to protect intellectual property rights.

From the founding of New China to the 1970s and 1980s, cross talk was broadcast for free on TV. After a lot of works became popular, the whole country was talking about them.

In 2006, after Deyun Club became popular, the intellectual property rights of many traditional cross talks were not easy to say because it was not known who created it.

  In contrast, the talk show industry has inherent awareness and ethical standards to safeguard intellectual property rights.

Talk show actors will never use other people's jokes, because once you let everyone know that you have used other people's even a slogan, a small joke, everyone will laugh at you.

They formed this ethos from the beginning, which will motivate them to play hard to create. This is what we have to learn.

Today's cultural people no longer write cross talk

China News Weekly: In 2005, how did you feel when you heard Guo Degang's cross talk for the first time, and how was it different from the cross talk you heard on radio and television before?

Yan Hexiang:

I went to the small theater and heard Master's single-

talk

and a traditional

cross talk

"Civil and

Martial Arts

".

My master is very trendy and has adapted a lot of traditional cross talk.

Those works in 2005 have run through a lot of Internet language and current affairs. Today's cross talk actors' ability to grasp the contemporary is far less powerful than Mr. Guo's ability to grasp the contemporary at the time.

  The difference with TV comedy is that in the theater, Mr. Guo communicates with the audience. Many people start to come into contact with the theater comedy after learning about Mr. Guo, and he brings this form to the audience again.

China News Weekly: What did Deyun Club teach you?

Yan Hexiang:

In the beginning, it must be to break all your self-esteem and make you feel that you are

worthless

.

In this way, you can learn old works and practice basic skills steadily.

Maintaining awe of these classic works and studying with great concentration are the core of the teaching of Deyun Club.

Language is very subtle. If you learn a short paragraph and a small burden, once you speak, the audience may be happy, and you will easily become satisfied, and you don't want to dive down to learn.

Like a talk show, everyone can express themselves freely. This is different from the initial teaching of cross talk.

China News Weekly: After Guo Qilin's "Happy Comedian" became popular, there were fewer cross talk performances.

Yue Yunpeng has been busy with various variety shows in recent years and has almost no new works.

Although the performances in the small theater of Deyun Club are very popular, day after day there are old jokes and traditional cross talks. What do you think?

Yan Hexiang:

On the one hand, the creative methods and content of the entire industry are different from the past.

In the past, writers like Lao She, He Chi (note: "Buy a Monkey" and "Starting at 10 O'clock" by Ma Sanli), Liang Zuo and other writers have created cross talk works in different eras. In the 1980s and 1990s, the whole Everyone in the business is writing cross talk.

  Why do today's cultural people no longer write cross talk?

There is a cultural export problem.

In the past, I wrote novels, cross talks, and sketches. They were short and quick, reflecting real life, and presenting them quickly and vividly.

In this era, entertainment is diversified, with short videos, movies, and variety shows. Good screenwriters can write more things. People don't pay much attention to cross talk.

  Moreover, today, we have cut off our contacts with intellectuals, when we cut it off, why we cut it off, and why we no longer visit the intellectuals and ask them to help us create. These are all questions.

  On the other hand, after Deyun Club became popular, we have to admit that we have always maintained our inherent thinking about traditional cross talk.

In 2006, we restored many traditional cross talks to the stage. To be honest, it was not because the audience liked to listen, but because the audience had not heard it.

After this stage, the problem of inertia of appreciation arises.

We continue to say in the theater that the students behind are also continuing to learn these works. There are such a large number of works here, and the audience is still listening. More of us are to survive and support our families to make money. These works are enough.

Subjectively, creative ability and consciousness are not so strong.

China News Weekly: Nowadays, the performance of cross talk actors is mainly based on traditional cross talk. Everyone is content with the status quo. Is this a crisis in the cross talk industry?

Yan Hexiang: It's

a crisis. This is what we call the

involution of the cross talk

industry today.

  Nowadays, the reduction in the frequency of creation of many actors may be rooted in their cognition of cross talk.

Many newcomers are ignorant of cross talk and lack the process of nurturing.

When many people came to learn cross talk, they knew about Ma Sanli without knowing that many of Zhao Peiru, Guo Qiru, and Liu Baorui were there, and some even didn't even know about Ma Sanli and Hou Baolin.

Actors who come to learn cross talk today know Yue Yunpeng.

You can't figure out the context of this industry, you don't know the time when cross talk used to create works, and you think cross talk is just some old jokes.

He began to listen to cross talk, what he listened to was "Selling and Selling" and "Reporting the Name of Vegetables". He had never heard of a new piece.

China News Weekly: In the 1950s, famous cross talkers, represented by Hou Baolin, set up a cross talk improvement group to make cross talk more civilized. But nowadays, a lot of ethical chords are heard in small theater cross talks, and many stories have shit, piss and fart. Is it also a step backward?

Yan Hexiang:

Some old

jokes

will contain ethics, and actors will use this to train some skills when they first

learn

. But blindly pursuing ethics and flooding the theater with ethics and shit must be a regression.

  I actually hate some anti-intellectual voices in our industry, including crosstalk actors who can not go to school and blindly make money to be famous, talking about ethics and shit.

These actors are not aesthetically good, and many actors do not know what high-level, humorous things are.

China News Weekly: You said before that the crosstalk industry is almost over, what should you do?

Yan Hexiang:

Things will definitely go to the opposite side in the end.

For example, if you keep talking about old jokes, the audience will gradually feel that there is a problem, or the audience will become narrower and narrower. When the narrowness reaches a certain level, another Guo Degang will appear.

My master became popular back then because of the gradual decline of TV comic dialogue in the late 1990s.

Someone will come out in the future, and the source will be cleaned up.

If there is no such person, everyone will be content with the status quo and feel that they are very good.

  Why do comedians have more opportunities in this era?

In fact, the content of our own performances has not kept up with the development of science and technology. It is only because of the advancement of science and technology that cross talk can be seen and heard at any time through various media means. It is the times that have given us good publicity, and it does not mean that we are really Advance with the times.

Talk show may evolve to be more "higher" than cross talk

China News Weekly: Will Xiaoguo Culture one day seize the market of Deyun Club, or talk show will crowd out the market for cross talk?

Yan Hexiang:

So far, I don't think it will be.

Both sides have some shortcomings. The problem in the cross talk industry may be that it does not recognize the importance of advancing with the times, observing life, and creation. The talk show has not yet recognized the importance of human language skills. This is just a demonstration. Two points necessary for stage charm.

This is just my observation of participating in the "Tucao Conference", not all of the talk show. Later, if I participate in the "Talk Show Conference", I will have a more comprehensive understanding.

China News Weekly: Will you participate in the talk show?

Yan Hexiang:

I will participate, and I will definitely bring my work to participate.

China News Weekly: From a longer-term perspective, if any industry makes up for the corresponding shortcomings, is it a great threat to the other party?

Yan Hexiang: It

must be.

This is also a place that makes people think about it.

I always cite an inappropriate example. Talk show and cross talk are like the relationship between dolphins and people. Dolphins are very intelligent creatures, but they have evolved tens of millions of years less than primates, but they are also evolving.

On the surface, people are now smarter than dolphins, but you don't know whether dolphins will evolve into intelligent creatures higher than humans. This is very interesting.

  However, for a long time to come, due to China’s large population base, the audience attracted by talk shows is basically concentrated in first- and second-tier cities. Crosstalk still has a huge sinking market, and revenue and momentum will continue to increase explosively, but It is not ruled out that the future talk show will be deployed to third- and fourth-tier, fourth- and fifth-tier cities.

China News Weekly: What do you think about the emergence of the Deyun girl now that cross talk is becoming more and more popular?

Yan Hexiang:

After the culture of the

fan

circle was introduced to China, it coincided with certain characteristics of the art form of

cross talk

.

Crosstalk performances naturally have the characteristics of offline meet-and-greets, so they meet the needs of fans to understand and perceive idols.

This way of praising people has existed before the Quyi industry.

China News Weekly: Will this make cross talk actors go to their heads?

Yan Hexiang:

Some viewers only look at the actor, some look at the

art of cross talk

, and some combine the two.

Now, those who come to see the actors are more expressive, and we tend to be blindfolded by them.

Therefore, I have to clearly realize that I should understand what people are thinking of those who watch the content of the performance but do not express it.

One day, if this group of people think your performance is not good enough to attract him, he will walk away quietly, which is very scary.

China News Weekly: What is your position for your future?

Yan Hexiang:

I like the words Yang Mengen said in "Tucao Conference", which is the first solo of the Deyun Men's Team.

I actually want to be the first solo in the Chinese language performance category.

Maybe for some time in the future, I will try various categories such as stand-up comedy, storytelling, talk shows, and speeches.

I am actually more willing to do things that break boundaries and tear down walls, tear down the walls of cross talk and talk show that the audience recognizes, and tear down the walls of storytelling and stand-up comedy.

  Without the blessing of these labels and symbols, we will only talk about a person on a stage, not limited to specific costumes, wear, and show you for 20 minutes, 30 minutes, cocoa, good content, good information density, next time Asking you to buy a ticket, are you still coming?

Make the language performance more original, let everyone return to the content itself, and stop all disputes and internal scrolling.

  China News Weekly, Issue 11, 2021

Statement: The publication of the "China News Weekly" manuscript is authorized in writing