Introverted, shy, reserved. These are hardly words one would normally associated with a comedian, but Yue Yunpeng, who possesses all these traits offstage, has become one of China’s favorite crosstalk superstars.
Among the many crosstalk performers who are also currently active in theater and TV shows, Yue’s prevalence comes second only to his master, Guo Degang. Not only a star of the traditional Chinese comedic performance scene, 31-year-old yue has expanded his horizons to include movies. In the romantic drama I Belonged to You which was released on Sept 29, he plays a silly yet loveable fool.
Like many of his peers, Yue first started to learn crosstalk as survival skill. But unlike most other apprentices, buttering up the master wasn’t one of his strong points. Even worse, he found himself judged by peers as not being cut out for the art, even ending up on the verge of being thrown out of the comedy club Deyun Society on three separate occasions.
Modern crosstalk is made up of four essential skills-- speaking, imitating, teasing and singing. Yue, a man of few words, later discovered his vocal chords were best suited to singing and imitating -- his self-- arranged song Five Rings has become a national hit.
Yue has also gradually formed his own style of speaking -- mean, but in a fanny way. He reorganizes some classic crosstalk works and adds his own distinctive Henan dialect to them. If audience members heckle crosstalkers during a show, while Guo Degang would retaliate in a witty way, Yue goes for a more direct approach, normally shouting: “Get out!” His straightforward language, alongside his exaggerated facial expressions -- especially his popped -- out but small eyes -- create hilarious comedic effects.
An article by Blog Weekly calls Yue “the Forrest Gump of the corsstalk world”, but while crosstalk may not have come naturally to him at first, his persistence and sincerity have led to his success.
As a down-to-earth figure, Yue attracts fans not only with his talent, but more importantly, his authenticity. He even admits to Marie Claire magazine that he take offers of TV reality shows and films just to make more money. Wang Yuqin, Yue’s agent, also tells Blog Weekly that Yue doesn’t like it when someone stands behind him to take a picture and then ridicules his big face.
He doesn’t see himself as a pin-up celebirty. He’s not a flatterer. He responds to annoying things just as we non-famous people do. But just like us, he’s not perfect, except at crosstalking, that is.
Source: i21st.cn
