From Qingdao With Laughs: Ian Burns of Redstar & Punchline Comedy Club
Between pumping out events, magazines and websites, Ian Burns has a lot on his plate. Who is this busy man, and why might the Punchline Comedy Club event on May 19 be particularly tasty? To Tiffany Ap he reveals all this and more.
What brought you to China?
I came to China in 1994 so that would make this my 16th year in China. I was brought here with a company, and after about ten years, I decided to form my own business in the creative industry, Redstar Entertainment – we publish magazines, do events, websites, all sorts of things. My birthday is August eighth (8.8), so I think I was probably destined for China.
How did you get involved with Punchline Comedy Club?
I used to organize the comedy club here in 2001 as a hobby. Bringing the comedy club to Beijing felt really good because everybody really enjoyed it. Later, after I started my own business, I felt like I should do it more formally and more regularly. So now I do two different cities – Qingdao and Beijing. We bring over three comedians approximately every two months, but I want to make it monthly.
How would you describe the show?
There are three comedians and the format is brilliant because hardly anybody goes away from the show thinking the whole night was terrible. It’s belly laughing, uncontrollable laughs – as people we don’t do enough of it. Because there are three comedians, the acts are all completely different styles. The show is diverse, there’s variety.
If I ever get any complaints, the complaint is that their cheeks hurt from laughing too much. People have a great night out, they see me and shake my hand and say it’s wonderful. That is very satisfying.
What kind of qualities do you look for in an act?
We look for comedians that we feel will work in this type of environment. Having said that, the most important thing is quality. We don’t bring over people whose acts we’ve never seen, only the best.
What kind of people do you see in the audience?
Mostly expatriates, a great mix of them and it’s basically representative of the expat community in Beijing. I’d love this to be more attended by Chinese audience and it will happen one day but at the moment it’s a smaller percentage of our audience – mainly because of the speed of delivery and the cultural jokes. Additionally, comedy club is also an established institution in the UK. There’s a very strong culture surrounding it there; in China, not so much. But we do have an increasing number of locals in the audience. Still, maybe less than five percent.
What are your hopes for the comedy show?
I want to build this into an institution. I want everybody to know that “Oh yeah, it’s comedy night tonight.” We’ve found a great venue in the Opposite House. All our events are held here and I want this to be its permanent home because it really is such a cool venue. We do the happy hour upstairs at Mesh right before the show and its location in Sanlitun means everybody can be there very easily.
My dream is for this to be every month. After that, if all goes well, hopefully make it two nights a month instead of one night, then introduce a more local element, perhaps Chinese comedians.
Punchline Comedy Club’s next event is Wednesday, May 19th at the Opposite House featuring a trio of comedic acts – Jeff Innocent (UK), Richard Morton (UK), and Louis Ramey (USA) perform. RMB 290 at the door; online booking deal: 4 tickets for RMB 870. 8:30pm with Happy Hour starting from 6.30pm at Mesh. www.beijingcomedy.com B1/F, The Opposite House, Bldg 1, Sanlitun Village, 11 Sanlitun Lu, Chaoyang District. (6410 5222) 朝阳区三里屯路11号三里屯Village1号楼瑜舍地下1层
