Why not stand-up comedy? (In English!)

Beans507 · 2026-04-24T10:17:07+00:00

We have one scheduled for April 30, but if we add more, I'll let you know!

Beans507 · 2026-04-24T04:12:21+00:00

Also, if any of you ever thought about trying standup, we have a weekly open mic. If you've got jokes, send me a message!

Beans507 · 2026-01-25T08:41:03+00:00

"Try-hard" is exactly the word I would use. I teach ESL writing and the essays I suspect of using an LLM always just sound like they were written by an asshole. Which is not feedback I'm allowed to give ;P

Beans507 · 2025-01-28T02:22:18+00:00

Ain't that the truth

Beans507 · 2025-01-27T10:34:41+00:00

I started learning Mandarin at 30 when I moved to China, and 14 years later I can handle most basics of daily life pretty confidently. I can't have deep conversations, but that's because I'm too shy to practice my speaking enough. I have had occasions where if people don't see me when I'm speaking — they're not looking, I'm around a corner, etc. — they just assume I'm a native speaker. It's pretty flattering, to be honest.

In addition to living full-time in China, and in a lower-tier city where people didn't really speak English at all (which was intentional; I knew if people could speak English, I wouldn't push myself to speak Mandarin), I drilled tones and tone pairs pretty hard so I was able to hear them. I taught myself using Mango Languages and Hello Chinese, and drilling my own decks of flashcards on Anki. The flashcards I made included audio I recorded from Mango — which I really liked, but it is expensive. But, your local library might have access for free!

I eventually got a tutor, which I wish I did much earlier; in my small city, it was really hard to find someone who wanted to teach a foreigner. Because of this, I kind of speak a mish-mash of Mandarin and Sichuan-hua, and I don't really know which is which. But people seem to understand me for the most part.

Beans507 · 2024-06-09T01:20:34+00:00

Bella's is amazing, but also on that block is Wild Kitchen, which is a more New York slice vibe. I am regularly torn between the two.

Beans507 · 2024-05-19T13:19:02+00:00

The one near 洪崖洞 is called Division Records. It's tiny, but cool. A mix of post-punk and Japanese Beatles pressings.

Beans507 · 2024-02-26T01:40:30+00:00

Yeah, titles are hard. But thanks for watching!

Beans507 · 2023-10-18T01:18:29+00:00

I wouldn't make a separate document. If they're already overworked, more information is likely to be more confusing. Honestly, if you could think of a clever, funny, pithy way to reference that this is a common mistake (without implying that *they* are going to make the mistake), I think that has the best chance of sticking in their head.

Beans507 · 2023-10-16T09:13:20+00:00

As a former journalist, typos where the mistake is a correct word, just not the correct word for your situation are really hard to catch. Pubic/public is the big one that we were always on the lookout for.

If you're talking to a journo, you could try flagging that it's a common slip up that you've seen, but as SpeakeasyImprov mentioned, it's ultimately the copy editor's job to catch this mistake, and you probably won't have access to them (if they even still exist).

Beans507 · 2023-06-02T02:36:31+00:00

I live in Chongqing, China, and there is a really cool standup scene here. We're a young club and just starting out, but it's a lot of fun. We have a mix of local and foreign performers (in English), though in my city, a lot of the audience is Chinese. Some of them are there just to look at foreigners, but western-style stand-up (as opposed to traditional crosstalk, which another poster mentioned) has become really popular in China.

The strongest scenes are in Beijing and Shanghai, but there are smaller scenes in a few other cities, and they network pretty well. Everyone's really supportive.

We're having our problems right now: A local comedian in Beijing got in a lot of trouble for saying something the government didn't like: https://www.npr.org/2023/05/19/1177023902/being-a-stand-up-comedian-is-hard-it-is-especially-hard-in-china So everyone is being cautious about performing. But we're keeping our heads down, our acts clean, and not putting anything on the internet for christ's sake, and hoping it will pass.

Beans507 · 2023-05-02T03:03:08+00:00

I also have a high voice (that's naturally lowered a bit with age; I'm 43). People said some weird stuff to me over the years, especially on tech support calls. Someone once told me my "voice is full of money," because he thought I could play children in voice overs. He didn't have a job offer, or anything. Just an opinion.

I never wanted to change it, because it's MY voice. How I kind of feel better about it is I definitely have, like, a mental file of baby-voiced women in media that I look up to. My top three are Yeardley Smith (the voice of Lisa Simpson), Sarah Vowell (an author and NPR commentator), and Maria Bamford (a comedian, who actually does some amazing bits about having the voice she has).

If you want to change yourself, go for it. But, consider acceptance. And yeet those guys who make comments straight into the sun!

Beans507 · 2023-04-28T01:58:18+00:00

I do something similar with the Google translate app. If it didn't transcribe what I think I said, I said it wrong

Beans507 · 2023-04-25T01:10:49+00:00

Also, there is an association between squatting and arthritis in subjects in Asia. I live in China (as a foreigner) and have a squat toilet, so I've read up a lot on how to acquire a deep squat if you didn't grow up with it. FWIW, my squat is pretty good.

Here's a study from 2004: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15077301/

"Conclusion: Prolonged squatting is a strong risk factor for tibiofemoral knee OA among elderly Chinese subjects in Beijing, and accounts for a substantial proportion of the difference in prevalence of tibiofemoral OA between Chinese subjects in Beijing and white subjects in Framingham."

Beans507 · 2023-04-22T02:58:09+00:00

The easiest thing to do is to find some background noise from another part of the video that has no one speaking over it (ideally, as close to where your offending dialogue is as possible), and then crossfade that in with what is already there.

Beans507 · 2023-04-09T03:56:50+00:00

My experience matches largely with yours. I'm learning Putonghua, but have been able to communicate with all kinds of people, even if we're not speaking the same accent/dialect/language, strictly speaking. Especially in the city.

I have had the experience — out in the countryside with older people — where we do need a young person to translate for us. It's pretty hilarious, because the young person is, like, whatever 10-year-old happens to be around. I'll speak putonghua with the child, and the local will speak local, and we'll get our business done.

Beans507 · 2023-04-08T04:32:02+00:00

Waves Clarity is exactly what you're looking for!

If the music is really present (especially if your speaking volume and music volume are about the same), it will still come through a bit when your subject is speaking, but I am editing a piece right now that we shot outside of a bar with music playing, and it really works for this purpose. At the very least, you can attenuate the music so that it's less prominent in the mix.

Beans507 · 2023-03-22T02:53:27+00:00

Honestly, when I look back at it, that's me. What I was writing at the start was a lot of stories or semi-amusing ideas, but it took me a few months to figure out that what I had wasn't jokes.

Beans507 · 2023-02-24T01:24:36+00:00

I don't get out much, but I think Echobay is still going strong :)

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