I lived in China for a month and a half (the whole time in Beijing except for one week in Yantai) during the summer of 2017. This remains one of the craziest and greatest things I’ve ever done.
While in China, I, naturally, researched opportunities to perform stand-up comedy, and I found the Hot Cat Club (it’s not what it sounds like), which held a comedy open mic every Wednesday.
From then on and until the end of my trip, each Wednesday night, I would take a cab from where I was staying in Beijing, and ride the 30 or so minutes up to the Hot Cat Club.
(At the end of one of these rides, I paid the cab driver, and he gave me change in what I later learned were fake Chinese yuan bills. I’m not even mad; it was such a tourist moment.)
The shows were a lot of fun. I met stand-up comedians from Ireland, Argentina, Finland, the US, South Africa, and more places. I was very happy.
In fact, one of the happiest memories of my life involves me riding a cab back from the show, opening the car window, and just looking out and up to the sky and the passing buildings, having just had a good stand-up comedy set in China in front of an international audience.
I’m feeling grateful. Sometimes, it’s good to look back.
Looking back at having done stand-up in China… And looking forward to it happening again!