You are a jester of kings and nobles, and you are good at irony and teasing. This profession was called "Xieyou" in ancient times. The king did something wrong and could not directly criticize it, so he made fun of it and satirized it. In the pre-Qin era, there was an unwritten rule that saying the wrong thing was not a crime.
Later, Xi changed from a satirical emperor to a satirical official. During the Sixteen Kingdoms period, Emperor Schleswig of the post-Zhao Dynasty made an excellent man put on official clothes and pretend to join the army because an official who joined the army embezzled official silk, so that other actresses could tease him from the side. From then on, the performance of Xi You was called "joining the army".
In the late Tang dynasty, the drama of joining the army had developed into a multi-person performance, and the plot of the drama was more complicated. In addition to male roles, there are also female roles. In the late Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties, it was renamed "Zaju".
In the Song Dynasty, there were even five kinds of plays with different names. However, although the basic content of these plays is still funny and funny, the objects of ridicule have changed from the initial court figures to street figures.
From court to folk, from allegory to entertainment, burlesque has undergone a qualitative change. However, burlesque, a real drama, was born out of the funny business in the civilized drama that rose in Shanghai at the beginning of the 20th century.
In China's early dramas, its clown career was actually the role of a funny career in civilized dramas, but the farce was founded by early civilized actors. So later people think that burlesque is a kind of drama bred from civilized drama.
In the early civilized dramas, before the main drama every day, there was a funny little drama performance starring the funny business of civilized dramas. Most of these funny plays are full of interest and are very popular with the audience.
Under the background of the commercialization of cities in the south of the Yangtze River with Shanghai as the center, burlesque is almost a kind of small drama that started at the same time as the new drama and civilized drama in the early 20th century. In fact, it is a funny character in a civilized drama.
The actors of civilized drama are divided into five trades, also known as "four pillars and one beam", among which the funny trade belongs to one of the four pillars. Funny business is almost a clown, but its position in civilized drama is more important and effective than clown. The word "funny" in later burlesque also came from this. In the process of the evolution from civilized drama to burlesque, the funny business is the main thing that plays a role.
At the beginning, the funny business had several tasks besides acting. First, before performing the main play, perform a small play or rap as foreplay. Because the audience entered the scene one after another, some did not enter the scene on time, and they had to wait for the later audience, so they would not be bored with the first audience, so they added a little drama or rap in front of the curtain.
There are one-act plays and short plays with two or three acts, which are called triangle plays, burlesque or burlesque. In these small plays, the actors appear on the stage as roles and only perform funny rap, not drama.
Another task of the comedy industry is to perform and joke in plays. For example, after the old students' long speeches and sad complaints, comedians came on stage to adjust the atmosphere to attract the audience's laughter.
On the other hand, funny things are also done after the drama. If the drama is a tragedy, after the drama, the actors of the civilized drama need to perform another funny little play to make the audience laugh.
It can be seen that the antics in the civilized drama are not essential to the civilized drama itself. Qin Haha, a famous actor in civilized drama, described the performance methods used by comedians to adjust the theater atmosphere in the article "The Year of Yi Hai Hua":
Civilized drama was very fashionable at that time, and it was very disciplined. For example, when a servant talks to his master, he should bend his back, keep his eyes on the ground, and then back off.
The comedian, on the other hand, smirked at his host and was rude. If he reports that a guest is coming, he will first say that a guest is coming, and then say that a man is coming. It was not until the third time that he said the guest's name. This will make the audience laugh. Some people add a copper wire to their braids and jump when they walk. Of course, the stunts are thorough.
The funny performances in civilized dramas are welcomed by many audiences. In this way, gradually, there are screenwriters who write short plays for comedians. In order to give full play to comedians, short plays are called "burlesque". The civilized drama is preceded by an interesting drama, so it is also called "hospitality".
From the above point of view, the comic performance in civilized drama itself has a strong independence, it is not an organic part of civilized drama, and it has no fundamental internal connection with the ontology art of civilized drama, which is the fundamental reason for the final appearance of monologue art.
As early as the end of Qing Dynasty, there was a street performer Du Baolin who sold pear toffee in Hangzhou, Zhejiang. Before selling candy, he always talks about the current events or anecdotes of the day. His singing is easy to understand, lively and interesting, and is very popular with the masses.
Du Baolin called this kind of singing "Speaking of Bao Chao". In order to attract the audience, he sang with some jokes and funny stories, satirizing the wealthy businessmen and dignitaries at that time. In order to prevent anyone from disturbing him, he claimed that his rap was "a little dizzy" in Quyi, and he laughed with irony and curses.
He wrote the words "Wake up and laugh" in big letters on a wooden box full of pear cream candy, which shows that Du Baolin is a very clever street actor.
Jiang Xiaoxiao, the predecessor of the famous civilized drama, is one of Du Baolin's loyal audiences. Later, he enriched Du Baolin's jokes and performed on the stage in Hangzhou and Shanghai, which was also well received by local audiences. His specialty is speaking first and singing second. Because he is good at reflecting social phenomena, he is called "funny talk", "social funny" or "civilized funny".
Later, Wang, a civilized opera actor, was also influenced by Xiaoredizzy Quyi, and often used the funny jokes in Selling Pears and Butterflies in the performances of civilized operas.
There used to be a next-door play in Hangzhou, in which an actor hid behind a curtain and performed various ventriloquism. The actor created a quarrel between a couple, the crying of a child, the persuasion of a neighbor, even the barking of crows and dogs, a fire, a fire fighting and so on. Sometimes, there are emotions and festivals that make up a complete story. There are several characters in these stories, but all of them are sung by one actor.
1920 or so, once, Wang was invited to perform in the auditorium, and he was funny alone. He adopted the performance method of the next-door play, only removed the curtain and used a little funny jokes with fever, which was welcomed by many people. Since then, Wang Jing has often given similar performances. Wang named the play "one-man show" because it was a performance by one person against several people.
1927, Wang left the civilized troupe and officially began to sing a monologue. Since then, monologue has stood as a form of drama.
Wang is good at local dialects, various street sounds, opera singing and folk tunes, and has written and performed such tracks as Local Waiter, Empty City of Ningbo and Crying for a Wonderful Root.
His singing is very popular all over the world. Many people invited him to sing after watching his performance, and he was often overwhelmed by himself. Later, he invited Qian Wuliang, who performed ancient colorful tricks, to do it, and the two performed together, which is still called "one-man show". ? Later, the crosstalk performers Jiang Xiaoxiao and Wang, who became popular in Shanghai, were equally famous and were called "the three crosstalk masters". They each appeared on the Shanghai Quyi stage with their own singing and performance characteristics, announcing the birth of a new form of Quyi.