文字难度：★★★
黄西(Joe Wong),一位来自中国东北的化学博士,在美国用英语给美国人说美式“单口相声(stand-up comedy)”,且颇受广大观众喜欢,后获邀在美国CBS电视台著名的脱口秀节目——《大卫·莱特曼深夜秀》上进行表演。这段不足六分钟的美式“单口相声”表演令黄西迅速走红全美,其表演视频在视频网站YouTube上的点击率超过了36万次。越来越多人知道了这位用带着中国口音的英语讲精彩笑话的华裔移民,而黄西也希望能借助相声改变美国社会对亚裔移民的印象。
值得一提的是,国内各大媒体报道黄西的故事时,有不少称其为“美国版小沈阳”,对此黄西表示:“我也看了他的表演,但我不明白大家为什么这么讲。我自己也是东北人,能理解小沈阳的幽默方式,但是我们的东西很不一样,风格、写的东西和用词都很不一样。”对此,大家不妨讨论一番。^_^
据悉,今年10月,黄西将回国,在北京、上海等地进行演出。下面就让我们一起走近这位在美国喜剧界崭露头角的明星博士!
A good way, it’s often said, to measure one’s understanding of a second language is the ability to understand a joke. While Joe Wong doesn’t only get 2)punch lines in English, he makes them up.
On April 17, 2009, Joe Wong made his television 3)debut as a 4)comic on 5)The Late Show with David Letterman. The 39-year-old 6)Arlington resident and Chinese national is the latest in a prestigious line of Boston comics to 7)make it onto the national stage.
Wong’s journey to the 8)stand-up 9)mic is more unusual than most. Raised in the northeast province of Jilin, China, Wong came to the U.S. in 1994 to pursue a PhD in chemistry at 10)Rice University in Texas. Despite 11)penning a few humor columns for the school paper, he was subsequently rejected from a creative-writing class because of what he was told were weak sample submissions. It was at that point that this Chinese student decided to give up trying to write things that would make Americans laugh.
But after graduation, in 2001, Wong 12)caught a live comedy show by performance-art & comic legend 13)Emo Philips at a Texas nightclub. “I had no idea there is an art form called stand-up comedy,” said Wong, who wears round glasses and has short hair, and, not surprisingly, smiles often. He said that in China, the only thing comparable to stand-up was “14)crosstalk.” Though he could only understand about half of Emo’s jokes, Wong said he fell in love with the art. “It was very smart... It expands...the way you think. It just puts a little perspective on life, too,” he said. And he was inspired to try stand-up himself.
人们常说,判断一个人是否掌握另一门外语,最好的方法是看他能不能听懂笑话。而黄西不但能听懂英文笑话,还能编造英文笑话。
2009年4月17日,黄西以喜剧演员的身份在美国电视节目《大卫·莱特曼深夜秀》上初次亮相。自此,这位现居住在阿灵顿的39岁华裔谐星继一众波士顿喜剧名嘴之后,成功走上全美舞台。
黄西走上“单口相声”表演舞台的历程比大多数人的都要特别。黄西在中国东北吉林省长大,1994年前往美国得克萨斯州莱斯大学攻读化学博士学位。虽然他曾为校刊撰写过一些幽默专栏,但后来报读一个创意写作班时却被拒之门外,得到的解释是,他提交的作品样本较为逊色。从那时起,这个中国学生就决定不再去写东西来逗笑美国人了。
然而,毕业之后,在2001年,黄西在得克萨斯州一家夜总会观看了由舞台界及喜剧界传奇人物艾默·菲利普斯出演的一场现场喜剧表演。“我当时压根不知道有‘单口相声’这门艺术,”黄西说。他戴着一副圆框眼镜,留着短发,而且不出意料地,总是面带笑容。他说,在中国,唯一能跟“单口相声”相比的只有“两人相声”。虽然他只能听懂艾默说的部分笑话,但是他说自己已经爱上这门艺术了。“这门艺术非常巧妙……能够拓展……你的思维方式,同时,让我们对生活有所体悟。”他说。由此,他受到启发,尝试投身“单口相声”表演行列。
Upon moving to Boston to do a job as a cancer researcher, Wong enrolled in a stand-up class at the Brookline Center for Adult Education. He got his first “15)break” telling jokes at a bar in 16)Somerville, in the winter of 2002. “In the beginning, it was tough, because people didn’t want to give me stage time,” said Wong. “I don’t look like a 17)go-getter. I look timid. People don’t have a lot of confidence in me.”
Letterman comedy 18)scout Eddie Brill would 19)beg to differ. After first spotting the comedian onstage in 2005, Brill asked Wong to send him some tapes of more material. Three years later, he came to see him perform in Boston again. Wong said that he took a “Darwinian approach” to writing jokes: writing 100, 20)ditching 99. He and Brill worked together to 21)hone a Letterman-22)friendly 23)act, and it paid off—audiences love Wong. “I didn’t pay that much attention to the crowd response while I was there 24)taping,” said Wong of his Letterman appearance. “But, when it 25)aired, and I watched myself on TV, I was really surprised. I didn’t expect the amount of applause breaks that I received.”
Though he said he rarely saw Asian Americans in the audience when he’s up on stage, Wong—who was a self-described “all-American immigrant”—said that much of his 26)repertoire focused on his own immigrant experience. And he was determined to use comedy as a platform for representing the immigrant community to the rest of the U.S. “In this country, immigrants are referred to as ‘27)Generation Zero,’ ” he said. “There is no voice for them. There are a lot of interesting things going on in their lives, but (because of language and cultural barriers) they can’t tell their story. I want to be a voice for immigrants. That’s the ideal situation.”
搬到波士顿从事癌症研究员的工作之后,黄西报名参加了布鲁克林成人教育中心开设的“单口相声”表演课程。2002年冬天,他取得了第一次“突破”——在马萨诸塞州萨默维尔市的一家酒吧里讲笑话。“开始的时候很艰难,大家都不愿意给我上台表演的机会,”黄西说,“我看起来很胆怯,不像个“牛人”。他们对我没有太大信心。”
专为《大卫·莱特曼深夜秀》挖掘人才的艾迪·布瑞尔肯定不赞同这一观点。2005年第一次看过黄西的表演之后,布瑞尔便让黄西把更多的表演录像带寄给他。三年后,他又来到波士顿看黄西的表演。黄西说,他用“达尔文的方式”创作笑话:写100个,淘汰99个。他和布瑞尔一起打造出一个适合《大卫·莱特曼深夜秀》风格的表演段子,结果他们的努力没有白费——观众都很喜欢黄西。“在现场录影的时候我没有太多留意观众的反应,”谈及他的那次《大卫·莱特曼深夜秀》表演,黄西说道,“但是,节目播放时,看着电视中的自己,我真的很惊讶,我没有料到自己会获得这么多的掌声。”
虽然他说在台上表演时,很少在观众席见到亚裔美国人,但黄西——自称是个“完全美国化的移民”——说他的许多节目题材都来源于自己的移民经历。而且他决心以喜剧表演作为平台,向其他的美国人展示移民群体。“在这个国家,移民被称为‘零世代’,”他说,“没有人为他们说话。他们的生活中其实有很多有趣的事情发生,但是(由于语言和文化障碍)他们无法讲述自己的故事。我想成为移民群体的‘代言人’。那是个理想的状况。”
Surprisingly, said Wong, one of the 28)culture shocks he experienced in the U.S., was not due to coming from China to America, but coming from Texas to Massachusetts. He was on stage at a club in Boston telling jokes about his home country. “People laughed and they enjoyed it,” he said. But then, he started talking about his time in Texas. “The audience started 29)booing me.” Turns out, 30)blue-state Bostonians didn’t want to hear about their 31)red-state counterparts 32)down south.
But stereotypes and racism still existed, whether in blue or red states. “Sometimes you go to certain clubs (in Boston or New York)…and you still see people use racial 33)slurs about the Chinese. You rarely see Asian audience members there and so nobody is afraid of offending anybody. It’s not very good,” he said.
When asked why he thinks there are so few Asians in the audience, Wong said he had an idea why: “It’s an interesting story, I heard it from another comic in 34)L.A. She told me that she goes to colleges to perform and she rarely sees any Asian students there, even though every school has a lot of Asian students. She asked (the audience): ‘Where are all the Asians here?’ And they would say: ‘Oh, they’re studying.’”
His best jokes, he said, are not planned. “My best material just comes to me… I don’t exactly know how,” said Wong, who always carries a little brown 35)notepad in case he gets an idea.
For now, Wong is balancing his “civilian” life as engineer, husband, and new dad with the 36)barrage of phone calls from 37)casting directors and agents that began after his Letterman spot aired. He’s optimistic about these new opportunities, but 38)pragmatic. “As for giving up my other career—that depends on the demand for my comedy,” he said. “I’m still not confident about my writing. Most of my comedy is about 39)trial and error. I don’t know what the future holds.”
But, 40)jokes aside, Wong said he tries to give back the community by performing 41)benefits such as the show for the 42)Asian Community Development Corporation, a Chinatown nonprofit developer.
黄西说,让他很惊讶的是,他在美国遭遇到的一大文化冲击不是源于他从中国来到美国,而是因为他从得克萨斯州移居马萨诸塞州。有一次,他在波士顿一家俱乐部表演,讲述关于中国的笑话时,“人们大笑,都很喜欢那些段子,”他说。但是,当他开始讲述自己在得克萨斯州的生活时,“观众开始向我发出嘘声。”后来才知道,属于蓝色州的波士顿居民不爱听他们那些南方红色州同胞的故事。
但是,不管是在蓝色州还是红色州,成见和种族主义依然存在。“有时候你去(波士顿或纽约的)一些俱乐部……你仍然会看到有些人拿中国人来开些带有种族侮辱色彩的玩笑。在那里,你很少会看到有亚裔观众,所以没人会害怕冒犯到别人。这样不是很好。”他说。
当被问及为什么观众中鲜有亚洲人的时候,黄西说出了他的想法:“这是一个很有趣的说法,是我从来自洛杉矶的另一个喜剧演员那里听来的。她告诉我,她去大学表演时很少见到观众中有亚裔学生,尽管每所学校都有很多亚裔学生。她问(观众):‘这里所有的亚裔学生到哪去了?’观众回答道:‘噢,他们正在学习呢。’”
黄西说,他最好的笑话并不是预先设计好的。“我最棒的素材是突如其来 的……我也不太清楚为什么会这样。”黄西说。他总是随身带着一个小小的棕色记事本,以便灵感突现时可以及时记下来。
现在,黄西正在平衡他的“平民”生活——集工程师、丈夫和新晋爸爸多种角色于一身,同时还要应付自从《大卫·莱特曼深夜秀》节目播出以来各方星探和经纪人密集的电话攻势。对于这些新机会,他的态度乐观而务实。“如果要我放弃我的另一正职——那要取决于人们对我的喜剧作品的需求情况。”他说,“我对自己的写作仍然不是很有信心。我的大部分喜剧作品都是经过尝试、失败,再多番修改而成的。我不知道将来会如何。”
不过,先不耍嘴皮子,黄西说,他会尽力参与慈善义演来回报社会。例如,他曾参与亚美社区发展协会组织的义演活动,该协会是一家位于唐人街的非盈利性机构。
小资料：
Wong's punch lines on The Late Show with David Letterman (更多信息：http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XOTM4OTYxNDQ=.html)
l. "I'm an immigrant. And I used to drive this used car with a lot of bumper stickers(汽车保险杠上的贴纸)That are impossible to peel off. One of them said, 'If you don't speak English, go homc.' And I didn't notice it for two years."
2. “I tried really hard to become a U.S. citizen, and I had to take this America history lessons...whcre they ask us qucstions like... who's Benjamin Franklin? Well,I like aah...the reason our convenience store gets robbed...” (小编闲语：这则笑话有点费解吧？一起来看看谁是Benjamin Franklin-本杰明·富兰克林(1706-1790)是美国著名政治家、科学家，同时亦是杰出的外交家及发明家。他发明了避雷针、蛙鞋等。值得一提的是，每张百元美钞上都印有本杰明·宫兰克林的肖像。这下，大家该明白了便利店被抢和Benjamin Frankjin之间的关系了吧？^O^）
3. " just had my first child last year:. and aah...l was really amazed by it...you know...l was at the delivery room...holding on my son...thinking to myself...wow...he was Just bom...and he is already U.S. citizen...so I said to him...ah...do you even know who's Benjamin Franklin...now I have a sign on my car...it says...ah... ‘Baby on Board'...this sign is basically a threat...it just says I have a screaming baby and a nagging(唠叨的)wife...and l am not afraid of dying anymore...” （小编闲语： “Baby on Board”本意指的是汽车后窗上用来提醒防止发生汽车追尾事件警示贴纸，这里黄西活用其字面意思“车内有婴儿”，一语双关，妙趣横生。）