Two of Beijing's Top Comics Crack Wise Ahead of Side-Splitting Apr 21 Set at Salud

Jennifer Hsiung, a Canadian, and Lincoln van der Westhuizen, who hails from South Africa, are set to split plenty of sides on Apr 21 during Comedy Club China's latest HotPot showcase. Both comics have vastly different styles, yet they each kill with crowds as part of an increasingly hot standup scene. Ahead of the Saturday showcase, they both tell us about what's making them chuckle as of late, what it's like to be a comic in the Chinese capital, and what bits they're working on next.

TBJ: When did you guys realize you wanted to get into comedy?
Jennifer: I got into it after my second son turned one. A girlfriend had stumbled into Comedy Club China’s Wednesday open mic at Hot Cat Club and said to me later “Jen, you’re smart, vulgar and funny – you should give it a try.” So I got drunk one night at dinner with friends – and by drunk I mean half a glass of red wine drunk, because with me, that’s all it takes. And that was enough liquid courage to get me onstage at Hot Cat. I was basically ranting about my vagina, giving birth the natural way, why I should have taken Kegel exercises more seriously, and my problem with the poor selection of tampons in China. Let’s just say there were references to camels, manta rays and Steve Erwin.

After doing what I thought was pretty good for a first timer — which I now think was just a fluke, and people were probably laughing out of shock more than anything else — I gave it a second go and bombed completely. That made me want to redeem myself, and the third time I got on, I did some serious preparation and it worked! The adrenaline of performing, the feeling of making people laugh, the challenge of writing material — like a super intense Sudoku puzzle — all got me hooked and that’s how it all started. Two months after the birth of my third son I competed in the 2017 Hong Kong International Comedy Competition and made it into the finals. I will be competing again In May as well – this time in Shanghai.

TBJ: Lincoln, I interviewed former Comedy Club China head David Fertitta before he left recently, and he told me a story about you doing an all ages show. What was that experience like?
Lincoln: I got asked to do the show, and it’s just one of those things in comedy where you don’t turn down stage time. David didn’t have a problem with declining, and he might’ve been right. It was the middle of the day, and I quickly realized how blue my material was. I started talking to the kids about Star Wars, and they just didn’t care.

I asked one kid a question, and he wasn’t interested, he just started speaking to his sister. Totally lost interest. It’s honestly the most soul destroying thing that can happen to you, when the audience can’t focus on your jokes.

TBJ: Jennifer, you have a great bit about a panda at a Chinese zoo reminding you of rapper Biggie Smalls. What made you realize pandas could be so gangsta?
Jennifer: Out of all the species of bear out there, the panda is the only one that seems capable of chillin’, which makes him look boss. We visited this panda base in Chengdu where you pay extra to sit on a bench beside a panda bear for a photo. And the staff have to constantly fuel the bear with a fresh supply of bamboo. From a distance, pandas are all cute and fluffy, but when you’re inches away from one that’s when you realize that it’s still a bear. Sharp claws, sharp teeth. That thing can kill you. He might seem like a vegetarian but I think that’s just conditioning, because if those teeth can gnaw through thick ass bamboo, they can easily take out a chunk of human flesh. So it was this dangerous element that threw me onto the notion that the panda is gangsta. And like Biggie Smalls – the Notorious B.I.G. – the panda is fat, and truly represents the east side. He’s just sittin’ there in the tall grass of Chengdu, with his bitches, getting fat on bamboo. A Xiong Mao, counting his Mao’s…

TBJ: Your background is in broadcast journalism. We’ve all seen plenty of newsroom bloopers on YouTube. Did you and your colleagues make similar flubs?
Jennifer: The biggest newsroom bloopers we have had are all teleprompter related. Nothing too bad and exciting, it’s not like that scene from Anchorman where someone types gibberish into the teleprompter as a joke, and we actually end up reading on live TV, “Hello and welcome to this edition of who really cares.  I am the biggest douchebag ever, and I want some head. I mean, here are the headlines...” Nothing like that. Just the teleprompter getting jammed forcing us to look down at our script to read. Sometimes when I am tired, I might stumble on a word. If you made a Vine video of all the words I’ve messed up, it would either sound like I’m gargling with Listerine, or in need of an exorcism.

TBJ: Do you guys think being a foreigner in China is an asset for a comedian? After all, a lot of bizarre stuff can happen to us laowai here.
Lincoln: I don’t know if it’s an asset or a hindrance. But as a South African, you have a special perspective. Because, unlike most expats, you’re not from the UK or the US, so you have insight that a lot of people haven’t heard.

I find if you perform in front of Chinese people, they appreciate if you make it clear you enjoy it here, and then you can point out things that are so self-evident they may not have even considered it. It obviously depends on your perspective. But when I make fun of China, more often than not I'm really making fun of other expats, or my own inabilities and shortcomings.

TBJ: What aspect of the show are you guys looking forward to the most?
Jennifer: All the comedians on the bill are so talented. I’m looking forward to Lincoln’s set— he is a very likable guy. He calls himself a poor man’s Trevor Noah, but I think of him more as a cultured Will Smith. He is super funny and quick on his feet, which makes him a great host because he’s not afraid to engage with the audience and do crowd work. The other guys I will be performing with, Riley Hageman, Eric Selley, and Josh Tyas, all very distinctive and humor-inducing as well. I don’t know why I used that phrase. I guess I just didn’t want to repeat the word funny. Anyway, it should be a great show. I’ll be the only woman performing amongst an army of male comedians, so you might as well call me Mulan.

TBJ: Are you working on a new bit recently, or did something funny happen that might inspire great material later?
Jennifer: I have a lot of new bits lately. But they’re more like scattered crumbs. So I’ll have to Hansel and Gretel some ways to tie them together. See, I’m always working!

Something funny did happen recently. My mother convinced me to go to this blind massage place that her friends were raving about. She said it’s better than a regular massage because the blind masseuses use more of their senses, they have heightened senses. I’m like “Okay fine, I’ve never had a massage by X-Men – let’s give it try!” We get there, the place is so dark – walking through the hallway it was literally the blind leading the blind. They put me and mom in the same room. Well 15 minutes in, I look over to my mom, and her masseuse has his elbow in her back, and in his other hand he’s looking at his cellphone. I will be working that into my set this Saturday I think.

Jennifer Hsiung and Lincoln van der Westhuizen will perform with a fully stacked lineup of comics on Apr 21 at Salud. For more information, click here.

Photos: Courtesy of Comedy Club China