On this week's audio-only Teatime with Jesse, we have Rachel from Crazy Laugh Comedy and Shawn from Chinese Comedy at Silicon Valley.

Rachel, Shawn, and I sip on some pretty decent Moganshan green tea and talk about the differing comedy landscapes in China vs. America. We talk about getting started in comedy, how bad ChatGPT is at writing jokes, and how not ALL comedians have to be depressed.

0:30 Meet Rachel (Crazy Laugh Comedy) and Shawn (City Comedy)

0:47 Moganshan Green tea is decent

01:25 Seeing the growth of China’s comedy scene in the US

01:41 How to get started in comedy in America

3:27 Doing comedy online isn’t that fun

4:32 Standup provides a voice for you

5:10 You need a creative outlet

6:17 Be yourself, everyone else is taken

7:29 American vs. Chinese political infighting

8:58 No serious problems are easy to solve

9:19 Businessmen fail all the time

11:40 Finding a sense of community in New York

12:21 Finding community in Silicon Valley

13:00 Tech advertisements are pretty niche

14:08 Coming back to America after living in China for 10 years  

16:00 Doing jokes as an American who was a foreigner in China

16:25 No one is looking for a white guy who speaks Chinese

18:00 Rachel quit her job

24:10 Comedy is expansive

26:00 Bilingual translators and bilingual comedy

26:32 Translating with ChatGPT

26:54 ChatGPT can’t tell jokes

27:40 You still need human taste

29:45 Putting together comedy shows in China

30:41 Using online content to drive offline growth

31:07 Using online exposure to attract attention to comedy clubs

31:35 How do comedians come together at comedy clubs

32:55 Comedians aren’t all depressed 

33:08 You don’t have to suffer to be a comedian, but you might have to be anxious

35:48 LGBTQIA+ comedy in China

37:24 Being outside of the mainstream

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