Lifestyle FRIDAY, DECEMBER 12, 2014 An Irishman walks into a Chinese bar... is this a joke? he thing about stand-up is you need to know banned the use of puns in advertisements and TV where the line is,” says Irish-American come- broadcasts so as to avoid “misleading the public, espe- “Tdian Des Bishop, but China makes it easy: cially minors”. “The government tells you where the line is, so don’t Bishop, 39, points to Communist Party limits on worry.” In China, where outspokenness can be perilous, expression that draw a sharp line between having an Western-style stand-up comedy remains a niche art opinion and publicly voicing it. But some topics such as form, but Bishop is hoping to change that, one pollution can be made fun of, and attitudes among Mandarin-language performance at a time. Born in China’s younger generation are changing. After a sum- London, raised in the New York borough of and mer away, he drew laughs from a Chinese audience sent to a boarding school in Ireland at 14, Bishop is no with a joke about the country’s tightly-controlled news stranger to new cultures. outlets. “I’ve been in Ireland for a month, looking at for- Within Ireland, he is best known for his TV series “In eign news, and every day, there’s news about China,” he the Name of the Fada”, in which he lived in Connemara said. “Slowly but surely, I’ve been a little disappointed and immersed himself in the Irish language, culminating with China. with a performance in it. He did the same for “Des “But I’ve been back in China now for three days Bishop: Breaking China”, living with a family in Beijing watching the Chinese news. Now, everything is good.” for a year and chronicling his experiences learning Performer Joe Wong, however, pointed out that the Mandarin, but had to make a few adjustments for a new notion of some topics being out-of-bounds was not lim- audience. “When I first started doing stand-up here, ited to China. One of the country’s best-known comics, everybody said, ‘It’s not going to work. You’re not going he grew up in China, moved to the US two decades ago, to be able to make fun of China,’” he said after a show- returned to Beijing last year and now hosts a TV show. ing of the series. “But actually, you can. They’re open to Compared with their Western counterparts, many some things. I found it a lot easier than I expected.” Chinese comics try to include more physical comedy or focus on topics related to love or family, Wong said. a month he spent working at various minimum-wage Off limits “There’s kind of some limits in every culture,” he said. “In jobs, and a much-debated investigation of Ireland’s This photo taken on Laughter may be a universal language, but it comes America, there are things you can’t talk about onstage deep-rooted drinking culture. Bishop stopped drinking November 22, 2014 shows in different accents and what draws laughs in China dif- as well: you can’t make fun of, say, the disabled, or himself at the age of only 19 after already struggling for Irish-American comedian fers from the West. The country has long has its own tra- women, or minorities. “In China, there’s certain things years with alcohol. “The fact that some people got very Des Bishop performing in ditional type of comedy called “xiangsheng”, most often you can’t talk about, but there’s still a lot of things you upset just basically, to me, proved the point,” he said. Beijing. — AFP photos performed by a duo and involving rapid-fire wordplay. can talk about.” According to his fellow comics, part of Bishop’s appeal But solo stand-up has only established itself in recent for Chinese audiences is his ability to see the country years, and is still limited mainly to large coastal cities. Forget to laugh with a fresh eye. “Des sees what Chinese people, myself “Most people have no idea what (stand-up) is,” said Mia Sometimes the lines are neared-or crossed. included, also see but often fail to notice, on the Chinese Li, a comic from Shandong province who performs in Answering questions from a crowd after his Beijing culture, the language, the people and their way of life,” both languages. viewing, Bishop remarked that stand-up in China cur- said Li. She cited the late US comic pioneer George “At the beginning of a show, the host always says rently exists only in three cities-Beijing, Shanghai and Carlin: “Comedy is reminding people of things they something like, ‘You are about to see a person just Shenzhen. “What about Hong Kong?” an audience already know but forget to laugh at.”— AFP standing there talking and he or she will try to make you member asked. “Oh, Hong Kong? Yeah. You can do laugh by talking to you,’” she said. Most political jokes whatever you want in Hong Kong,” he replied. “Except are off limits, as is dirty humor and any punchlines con- vote.” Bishop has long immersed himself in unfamiliar sidered too critical of China. Even innocuous-seeming environments and then used stand-up as a way to nar- attempts at humor can spark a backlash from authori- rate his experiences. ties, and China’s state media watchdog last month He made documentaries for Irish broadcaster RTE on Dee Dee Ramone’s artistic side on display in New York

n one painting, the stand together on top of a Another artistic outlet globe as if the band is larger than life. In another, the Sex The Ramones released their first album in 1976, sending IPistols’ is chased out of the infamous Chelsea shocks through the music world through the band’s strident Hotel. The paintings are part of a new exhibition in New York of energy and unabashed simplicity, with most songs lasting around Dee Dee Ramone, the bassist and songwriter of the legendary two minutes. The band, whose original members have all died, punk band, who had a little-known visual-arts side that he pur- had enormous influence on rock music’s development. U2 wrote sued in the years before his death in 2002. True to the punk a song about the Ramones on the band’s latest album, with the ethos that the Ramones pioneered, the paintings show little for- Irish superstars recalling being mesmerized in their youth at see- mal training. But they are forcefully direct in their expression, ing the New York punks in Dublin. depicting both the attitude and lifestyle of rock ‘n’ roll in the The exhibition, which opened Wednesday and runs until 1970s and 1980s.The painting style is cartoonish, with charac- January 1, has a fitting location-the storefront gallery of the ters drawn with outsized physical features. Most of the work Chelsea Hotel, where Ramone lived with Zampini and which he depicts the Ramones or other bands-most frequently fellow profiled in a novel. The hotel, which is under renovation, became punk icons the Sex Pistols, whose Britain by storm a few years legendary for the famous musicians who stayed there and their after the Ramones’ debut. wild antics. Most notoriously, , the girlfriend of Sid Ramone, who struggled with depression and drug abuse, Vicious, was found stabbed to death in the hotel in 1978 under sometimes painted himself triumphant with his bass but in oth- murky circumstances. er self-portrayals appears macabre with tattoos of scorpions and Jerry Only, bassist of the punk band Misfits, recalled that he skulls over his body. “He would paint himself depending on how would see Ramone’s art on display in his room at the Chelsea he felt that day,” said his widow Barbara Ramone Zampini, who Hotel. organized the exhibition. The paintings have previously gone “He needed an outlet when he wasn’t playing or writing on display in Los Angeles, where the street artist Shepard Fairey music,” said Only, who showed up to the exhibition’s opening has championed his work, but the exhibition is the first in New reception in his signature leather vest with metal spikes. The exhi- York. “He didn’t really have any art show before he passed away. bition also includes a collection of pictures of the band, including He would have paintings and sell them because we didn’t have a series of black-and-white shots taken on the New York subway any money,” Zampini told AFP. “I thought it was about time to by noted rock photographer Bob Gruen. “Dee Dee was just get- bring it over to New York because this was his hometown.” ting into painting,” Gruen said. “He could have gone on and had a Zampini, who is originally from , said she hoped to real career but he passed away, so it’s too bad people didn’t know Jerry Only, bassist of the punk band Misfits, writes on a wall bring the exhibition later to Europe and Latin America. what he could do.”— AFP during an exhibition of artwork by Dee Dee Ramone. — AFP