Wu Liuqi “doing a comedy, like a child playing secretly”
Not long ago, the popular variety show “Annual Comedy Contest” broadcast by iQiyi received enthusiastic response. Comedian Wu Liuqi’s work “Drifting” is refreshing. He relied on the classic funny elements of clowns and hand-made. The fancy props awaken people’s innocence. Li Dan commented on the spot: “I think Wang Zi and Wu Liuqi are the best comedians in China.” Ma Dong lamented that Wu Liuqi’s interactive improvisation is a completely new form. At that time, people suddenly feel sad”. Huang Bo laughed and said that Wu Liuqi’s play can be defined as “a play that accompanies children to watch without smoking at the door.”
At 12 noon on November 22, in a corner of the rehearsal hall far away from the bustling urban area, a reporter from the Beijing Youth Daily caught Wu Liuqi’s nervous creation and chatted about his comedy.
What’s interesting is that whenever a reporter tries to get him to sum up questions such as spirit and inner core, he will put on his iconic hijab and grin. The answer is the same: I don’t know. The topic will also be sloppy by him, but when it comes to the performance scene and the various props, Wu Liuqi will be enthusiastic, hand gestures, eyebrows and eyes moving, funny and vivid.
Shadow is a magical thing
After Wu Liuqi participated in the annual comedy competition, the first game was directly promoted with a high score of 8,000 votes and entered the piu team of Captain Huang Bo. Many viewers have noticed that when Wu Liuqi appeared on the stage, Ma Dong would carefully greet the audience on both sides and sit in the front row to watch. “In fact, this is also taking into account the characteristics of my interaction with the audience-too far away, the rhythm may be lost when I step off the stage and then interact; there is also a problem of the relationship between the audience, the closer the audience is, the more I feel like the actors It’s a world. It’s fun to play. If you’re far away, the audience won’t have a sense of participation.” Wu Liuqi said frankly. In fact, the episode of “Drifting” was a bit nervous. The relationship between watching performances and even the audience is different from the theater. When I brushed my teeth the night before, I thought that interacting with the teachers is definitely not the same as the ordinary audience. I had to prepare more.” Really used it: When interacting with the presidents, Ma Dong improvised the “stem”, Wu Liuqi calmly directed at Xu Zheng, followed up with the sentence “Too big Too (bald) scoop”, and burst into laughter. In fact, Wu Liuqi has been engaged in stage performances for ten years. He has been performing in various theaters all the year round. He can always meet some actors to see, especially sometimes improvisational actors, which invisibly improved his responsiveness. .
Speaking of it, “Drifting” is the second work written by Wu Liuqi and has been performed many times. The reason why it was chosen as the first work of the competition is that “it may not be that dense, but it is the richest”. “Drifting” was inspired by Wu Liuqi when he was learning English when he watched “Bookworm”. “I had the idea of making a puppet show at the time. I saw “Gulliver’s Travels” and left it halfway through it. When the book went to bed, he was thinking about it, and it happened to put together “Gulliver’s Travels” and the little paper puppet.” When the comedy contest was presented in “Drifting” this time, Wu Liuqi made a lot of adjustments, supplementing and supplementing the story with details, “It is more clown. This time I used 15 props. So meticulous, only the little finger puppet, no TV, and no light and shadow from the flashlight. When I was a kid, I used to play with the flashlight at home, and I also liked to play the hand shadow game of wolf eating rabbits. I always think shadow is a very magical thing, like I like to draw inspiration from this kind of life in performance.”
Wu Liuqi entered Captain Huang Bo’s piu team and felt “It’s really happy. Huang Bo came to the rehearsal venue very often, always bringing us food, and always taking us to other groups together.” Although most of Wu Liuqi’s plays seem to be played by one person alone, Huang Bo has also given him advice in addition to the exchanges of the main creative partners. It’s not enough. The audience may deduct points in this regard. I added some parental love details. I think what he said is quite in place. At first glance, he is an old artist. “Wu Liuqi’s deepest feeling is that, Huang Bo is very easy-going, and he himself is quite funny. He always likes to add Qingdao dialect to others. “We all feel that he rarely votes for our team. If the content is not good, he will not vote even for his own team. “.
Find the style, find the “small direction”
Wu Liuqi was born in 1990. “When he was a child, he looked amused and obedient. He liked it when he saw him.” He described himself as having fun since he was a child, learning badly, and always picking up the teacher’s comments in class, “The whole class is happy, and I enjoyed it at that time.”
When Wu Liuqi was a child, he liked to listen to cross talk, especially Liu Baorui, and he also liked to imitate at home. “Just in the third or fourth grade, I can talk about “Fighting” from start to finish, and the adults will say, oh, this is quite talented, but in fact, no one takes it seriously.”
Wu Liuqi laughed and said that his comedy has a lot to do with Wang Zi, “We both grew up young, and we both knew each other. We lived in the same government compound and played from childhood. We all belonged to the series of poor learning, that is The kind that is okay, Wang Zi came up with an idea, and I followed…I always want to tease with others, I push when standing in line, move here, move there, and when others are in a hurry, I will run away. So, I owed it again. Then there was a teacher who taught Wang Zi to learn Allegro. My mother thought I was very poor. It would be nice if I didn’t learn this. So we both learned Allegro for more than a year together.”
After graduating from junior high school, Wu Liuqi was admitted to the North China Folk Art School. He scored quite well for his lines, recitations, and performances without physical objects during the interview. The school is in Tianjin, and there are many cross talk drama clubs. Near graduation, Wu Liuqi also played cross talk in Tianjin for a year and spent time in teahouses. He felt that the biggest gain was “no stage fright”.
Until now, Wu Liuqi still appreciates the comedy foundation that comedy skills of cross talk and allegro have laid for him. “For example, our cross talk organization’burden’ is trembling, in fact, foreign comedies also pay attention to three beats, also called three time jokes. I think these categories have similarities.” Later, out of hobbies, he and Wang Zi set up the Nada Top Drama Club, focusing on mime and clown performances. “I remember it very clearly, April 2011. Established on the 1st. It was pure hobby at the beginning. It may also have something to do with people who can persist for so many years. Like Wang Zi and myself, and Xiuyu and Pan Yue who joined later, we are very comfortable together. Remember that At that time, we often sit at the entrance of the subway. We can sit until 11 or 12 o’clock at night, watching people coming and going, thinking about chatting, and saying nothing serious.”
I first came into contact with object dramas because of a workshop from France in 2013 to select actors and teach drama courses in China. When Wu Liuqi joined, he felt particularly fun. “At that time, there was no place to learn these niche dramas. I used to learn entirely by myself, so I cherished the learning opportunities in the workshop. Most of the teachers were foreigners. Many of the things they saw in China were fresh, not just for use. I also found a lot of small objects in life, such as cups, bowls, balls, etc., and set up a room for us to practice. How to use the puppet to realize the jump in and out of characters, people and objects may have What kind of relationship… I really learned a lot of skills.” He also likes to think for himself, “For example, if you want to use a cup as a prop, you have to think about its character? Where are its eyes? Is it jumping or walking? How to walk… These are very inspiring to me.”
After that training, Wu Liuqi’s homework was not only very satisfied by himself, but everyone also liked it. He was later selected to rehearse and tour in China with the crew of the workshop. He also participated in the French Saravilla International Puppet Show Festival. , France Terrass International Theater Festival, France Loire Theater Festival and Sino-French Cultural Exchange Festival. Several years of experience in object dramas, coupled with the training in screenwriting classes, made Wu Liuqi feel “find style, find a small direction”. In the following years, he has accumulated more in performances at the Edinburgh Theatre Festival and Wuzhen Theatre Festival in England. Experience of stage play.
Enjoy the “unexpected interaction” on site
Wu Liuqi’s performance has almost zero contact with the audience. He feels that “a sense of presence” is very important. Therefore, whether it is mime, object drama, or clown show, he has to have a “sense of presence.” “Those particularly changeable interactions can make the actors more exciting. If you do a play that is separated from the audience, if you perform too much, there will often be a kind of fatigue. I had a play called “Hit the Flies” before. I created it in 2012 and I still don’t feel tired of acting until now, because every time the audience is different, they respond differently to you and have a good time together. Some people dare not move when they come up, and they have to be mobilized. For example, there is a link in “The Cleaner” where I squatted down to polish my shoes and put his feet on my lap. Some viewers were embarrassed, so I put a cloth on my legs to make him feel at ease. People come up, you tease him, he teases you, but something very new will come out. For example, I designed a detailed point, I shook hands with the audience, after shaking hands, I pretended to think that he was dirty, wiped my hands, some viewers Look, just wipe your hands and play together. The unexpected interaction at the scene is very exciting and I really enjoy it.”
During the epidemic last year, Wu Liuqi compiled a purely interactive sketch “The Great Director”, which invited the audience to the stage and asked them to follow the actors’ demonstrations. The link is designed like this, but there is no preset for the on-site performance, and the state is completely handed over to the audience, making Wu Liuqi particularly happy: “There are all situations on the scene, but even if he is standing there, the scene will be very difficult. Interesting. There was an interaction. A girl was always doing things wrong, she was too shy, so she didn’t dare to do it, so I acted angry, helpless, etc. At this time, someone in the audience wanted to perform, and when that person came up, everyone interacted. Very excited.”
There was a summer performance when the air conditioning in the theater was not turned on, and there were headlights on the stage. It was extremely hot. Wu Liuqi discovered that the audience on stage was still working hard there. “It may only take ten minutes, but everyone is sweating all over. I look at the sweat shining from the lights and feel that they are supported and happy!”
Another time I went to Tianjin Cao Yu Drama Festival to perform, and Wu Liuqi was particularly impressed. “We didn’t need to interact with each other during that special tease. Those audiences just took the trouble from the bottom and turned around by themselves. Yes. When Wang Zi was acting, an old man interpreted for him in the audience, “This is the door to open,” the car is driving…The effect on the scene is very good. The audience’s liking can make the actors more engaged.”
Many netizens feel that “watching Wu Liuqi’s drama has a healing effect”, but Wu Liuqi admits that he has never thought about healing at all. “I just show my past experience, mood and state of some things, and naturally record them. A life.”
Some netizens ridiculed that “his play can only be played by children”, but Wu Liuqi didn’t care, “I think it’s okay. Everyone has a feeling. It’s not necessary for everyone to feel good. I will still stick to what I want to do.”
There are also people who worry: “He is in his thirties, can he continue to act in clowns?” Wu Liuqi said with a smile, “The clown is a character, maybe I am slower and naive. But I think the drama needs to be handsome. The handsome guys also need ugly guys, so I’m actually not so stressed and I’m pretty happy doing it.”
Making props can waste sleep and food
In Wu Liuqi’s view, acting is like writing a diary, and a work is a feeling of the moment. After it is compiled into a short play, many things will be changed with the performance, “I used to be willing to make something for adults, faster and more exciting. But after I have a baby, I want to make something for children. , So now we are starting to play children’s dramas and do children’s playgrounds.”
Before the comedy contest, there was no performance in catching up with the epidemic, so Wu stayed with his daughter every day. This kind of parent-child time also brought him unexpected inspiration: “When I accompanied her to read and tell picture books, I was inspired by many stories. She has a book to move, and there is a big rabbit and a little rabbit in it. When they hugged each other, they gestured with their moving arms and said, “I love you so much”, so the love drawn by the big rabbits is a big circle. I think this kind of expression is quite impactful.”
Wu Liuqi also plays the things that he usually buys for his daughter, so as long as he is at home, the daughter will stick to him and play with him. “She has a triangular magnet, which can use various triangles to make various shapes. I will make them for her. Putting my hands in the shape of a puppy, I acted as another puppy and played interactively with her. This game was simply not enough for her.”
However, Wu Liuqi seldom thinks about the drama at home, “In real work, I sometimes work in the park, sometimes in the coffee shop. When I’m at home, I don’t have much motivation or ideas. I always write a keyword and add pictures. , Others may not understand, because it is all action, there is no dialogue or anything, there is no need to write too detailed. In my opinion, comedy is to play, how to play out of one’s own state. The process of making these works is just It’s like a child playing secretly, and playing secretly is often the happiest.”
Wu Liuqi is a “prop control”, he likes to challenge himself on props, and he never gets tired of it. After the performance, he always feels regretful about the props, “Because the use of more props may cause mistakes in some places. Influence. This time I was actually not satisfied with “Goodbye Ground”. The balloon was not easy to grasp at the end. One time it was awkward. During the live performance, the balloon flew up. I didn’t expect that there was an air conditioner on it and it was blown directly. gone……”
When Wu Liuqi makes props by himself, he can go to the point of forgetting to sleep and eat. “I like to make props by myself. I feel that if the spiritual world is rich enough, it will be very enjoyable for a person to stay in his own world. For example, making props, I can do it. one day”. It may take 20 minutes to perform a play, but he used more than 30 props at most once. That is really a challenge in all aspects-how to transport, how to arrange, how to splice, how to install the stage, how to find it quickly, and how to take it out. Smoothly… “I remember playing in the theater for 20 minutes, I had to install the stage for an hour, and then dismantle the stage for another hour. I went home in the middle of the night to get it upstairs and had to go upstairs for half a day. One summer I was too lazy to move upstairs, so I just set it aside. I got in the car, and the next day I saw that the hot melt glue was fully melted, so I had to put them together again, which was equivalent to doing it all over again.”
At the rehearsal site, Wu Liuqi’s props filled a room, and several large cardboard boxes were stacked against the wall, which also contained his props. He seemed to be able to use things that everyone thought was useless, ranging from popsicle sticks to mattresses. “As soon as I make props at home, the girl will make trouble. Sometimes I make one for her to play with, or make a broken repair for her to play with.”
This time in the comedy competition, Wu Liuqi said that his family was the happiest: “My daughter was very excited when she saw me on TV and shouted’Dad, Daddy’. She also likes to watch Wang Zi, and she is watching it. Learning. My parents watched it back and forth several times. My mom told me, “You have to act something that everyone can understand.” They rarely watch my scenes and may feel a little bit unable to keep up. But in fact, there are parents I’ll be a little awkward when I’m acting…” For Wu Liuqi, the biggest advantage of participating in the comedy contest is, “It’s able to screen out those who like us, unlike before. It takes a long time to dig for it to find out, oh, this group of people like us.” He also hoped that “tickets can sell better”, “because I want to continue playing the scene, so it’s quite awkward.”
Text/Photo courtesy of our reporter Li Zhe/Wu Liuqi
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