A Talk With Chengdu Based Comedian Cory Ahead of His First Beijing Show

With zero Covid being a distant, albeit traumatic, memory there are now plenty of exciting things happening around the capital and this couldn’t be any more true than when it comes to Beijing’s comedy scene. Yes, recently we’ve had visiting comedians galore and now there is more fresh meat coming to the capital.

This weekend (Apr 15), Cory Goldblatt will be coming up from Chengdu for his Beijing headliner debut. Ahead of the show we talked to Cory to find out more about his comedy journey, style and upcoming show. 

How long have you been doing stand-up comedy for?  
I started doing stand up in May of 2020.

What made you decide to start doing comedy and how did you get started? 
I’ve been told my entire life that I should be a comedian, I grew up with very funny people around me. My father was a salesman with an outstanding sense of humor; people loved him because of this. In school, I was always the class clown who cared more about getting a reaction from other students than getting A's in class. A few friends pushed me to get on stage and I tried out some material I thought of on a meditation retreat. First set went reasonably well and I have signed up for every open mic since to get as much experience as possible. 

What was it like doing stand up for the first time?
I was nervous and I’m pretty sure I was shaking with fear, although the audience didn’t notice and the videos I have seem to hide that. For my first five minute set, almost every single joke landed. I thought that this comedy thing was pretty easy until I bombed hard on my third set… which was the greatest thing that could happen as it grounded me into the reality of being a comedian.

What has been your best and worst moments since doing comedy? 
I would say that headlining last year was one of the best moments for me, as a comedian. It took me almost two years to put together a solid set where every single joke landed, which isn’t easy. The worst moments on stage are where you are trying something new at an open mic and you end up killing the room. Either by trying something new, like raising your voice to invoke a reaction, or trying something edgy which makes people feel awkward. Then the next comic has to get on stage which is like doing stand-up at a crime scene.

What comedians would you say have influenced you the most?
I’m a bit old school and everyone I love is unfortunately dead. I’d say my style of comedy is reminiscent of an earlier period of comedy like the 1970s to 1980s. I absolutely love Rodney Dangerfield and Joan Rivers. If you watch a tight five minute set, there are like ten short jokes that are all funny. You are laughing your ass off. It’s all short jokes that are hard hitting and go straight to the punch line with not too much filler on their sets.

I also like Seinfeld, Dave Chapelle and Louis C. K. If you watch their sets and pay close attention, you can really pick up different techniques. Seinfeld is obviously the king of clean comedy. He’s also a master of timing, even his old sets have calculated timing for each joke. It’s pretty impressive actually. I also frequently watch clips from the 1970s featuring Dean Martin Celebrity Roasts, and I LOVE those. Don Rickles, George Burns, Sammy Davis Jr, etc. are names that most people really can’t relate to. Older comedians all know these names, although I’d argue very few people born after 1990 know who they are. 

Will this be your first time performing in Beijing, if yes how are you feeling about it?  
Yes. I have heard great things from other comics about Beijing. A nice mix of expats and local Beijing people who speak fluent English with overseas experience. So I am really looking forward to this show.

How do you come up with new material and create solid sets?  
I have found that every comic comes up with material differently. Some people can sit at a computer and just write. I can’t do that, I have the attention span of a ferret so that method hasn’t worked for me… at all. Most of my best material comes from socializing where either someone will say something, and then my mind goes on a tangent about something completely unrelated and a story just forms in the mind. I verbally record how this unfolds and then overtime continue to polish the joke until it just works. 

Also I have spreadsheets of every set that I have ever done and I rank the jokes based upon the amount of laughter I get. Jokes that work, I’ll try to improve them by making them shorter and removing any information/word that isn’t 100 percent necessary to the punch line. Jokes that don’t work, I’ll try a few more times, changing the wording. If after two or three sets the joke gets just a few laughs, or none at all, I’ll scrap it. So after two to three months, I’ll have a number of jokes that I rank between seven to ten and when I put them all together, I have a solid five to seven minute set that consistently works. Over time, I’ll have 20 to 30 minutes of proven material.

Can you tell us a little bit more about your upcoming show on Apr 15? 
This relates to the previous question as this show is three years in the making. All of my favorite jokes that consistently get laughs will be included here. This show is close to 45 minutes of my A level material.

Any advice for other budding comedians out there? 
Do every mic possible, record every single set and watch them, constantly try to make your best jokes even better until you can’t improve it anymore. When you bomb, and you will bomb, just get back on stage at the next open mic, eventually you’ll get your rhythm back. Try to figure out what works for you: don’t try to imitate a comic that has a completely different style unless you feel comfortable doing it. Spend time with other comedians, my best material comes from socializing with other comics and talking nonsense about nothing.

Cory will be performing his headline show hosted by the Comedy Citadel on Apr 15, 8.15pm at La Maison Lyonnaise. Tickets are RMB 115 and can be purchased by scanning the QR code in the poster above. 

La Maison Lyonnaise
44 Guanghua Lu, Chaoyang District
朝阳区光华路44号

READ: The Who's Who of Vendors at the 2023 Hot and Spicy Festival

Images: courtesy of Cory Goldblatt