The city's original comedy promoters, Punchline Comedy, are bringing in a loaded triple bill of Paul Zenon, Andrew Stanley and Damian Clark. We chat with Stanley about his hit Irish TV show, Eddie Murphy and lording over Dublin's famed Comedy Cellar.
Congratulations on coming to China. Will this be your first time here?
Nope, I have been here a good few times now. I love it every time I come over. The people are incredibly friendly and the audiences are always made up of good people. Plus, I get to buy some of the mental alcohol that is sold in a tiny shop near the Great Wall, which makes for mad nights; so what's not to love.
How would you describe your comedy style?
Very interactive over the top messing!
Who were some of your early influences and did you have a eureka moment in terms of developing your own style?
I would have heard a lot of Billy Connolly growing up and then the first DVD I watched over and over was Eddie Murphy's Raw. I definitely became more confident in my ability to chat with and interact with the audience a few years ago and have since developed that.
You've performed at comedy festivals across the world. Do you ever get nervous performing in a country or city for the first time?
Yeah, of course I do. Every time I am in a new venue it is a different experience and I am the one who has to be on fire on stage. The key is to be as good as you can be no matter how big or small the audience and room are. Even if it's a show to a couple of four-year-old kids, the show has to work as well as you can make it work.
You're the resident MC at the Comedy Cellar in Dublin. I imagine it must be a rowdy crowd.
The big deal with The Comedy Cellar is that aside from it being the home of Irish comedy, it also has no PA system. So you have to be on top of the laughs as well as the audience and control everything with no amplification at all. He who shouts loudest wins!
Your show I Dare Ya! was the highest rated debut comedy on Irish TV. What was the format and any plans to do more TV?
Myself and Damo Clark decided that we would love to get paid to not make any more decisions in our life and basically that's what it was. People dared us to do things and we filmed the results. There is always plans in the works for more shows and maybe we will even do a ten year anniversary show of I Dare Ya!
Besides standup are there any projects that you are working on that you’d like to promote?
I am currently working with the Movember team on a new initiative they have this year called Move for Movember which encourages extra physical activity for all men daily in order to increase general health awareness in males. That and I get to grow a sweet moustache, which should be very well groomed by the time I hit your clubs.
Local comedy scenes are starting to develop across China. Any advice to people starting out with the form?
Write down everything you can, work on new ideas at every opportunity and believe in the things you are saying. If you believe it then you can sell it onstage.
Has there been anything that's happened in 2015 that has really inspired some of your recent comedy?
I had a bit of a mishap on TV recently where a joke got picked up wrong by the presenters and then a big storm happened over nothing really. I get to talk about it on stage now though so it's all good.
Is there anything you would like to add?
Come and see the show! I need the money to buy noodles!!
> Nov 27, 8pm, RMB290. Zapata’s, tickets. See event listing.
> Nov 28, 8pm, RMB290. Blossoms, 2/F, Kerry Hotel Pudong, tickets. See event listing.
> Click here for our chats with Paul Zenon and Damian Clark.
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