Introducing Comedy UN - Shanghai’s most exciting new comedy club
Shanghai really is a city where anything is possible - a city which still maintains a massive appeal for people from all walks of life from all around the world, there is something for everyone here! You name it, be it in the arts, sports, culinary, corporate and academic worlds, there’s no shortage of activities one can find themselves involved in if they so wish - and stand up comedy is no exception here.
Most people in the city have a reasonable awareness of the presence of comedy in Shanghai - it has had 2 active comedy clubs openly running for a number of years (Kung Fu Komedy and Shanghai Comedy Club) - a good comedy club is a fixture of any major city around the world, and with a growing appetite among locals and expats for some good quality laughs, out pops the city’s latest and most exciting club, Comedy UN. Founded by former Kung Fu Komedy regular Storm Xu, Comedy UN has been running since September 2017 and already rapidly garnering a growing fanbase for it’s regular weekend English and Chinese showcase gigs! The name stems of course from it’s selling point of hosting comedians from various pockets of the globe - the regular acts coming from countries including Scotland (your’s truly), England, USA, Australia, Iran, Canada, South Africa and of course the host nation China! Despite it’s infancy as a club, week after week there has been a steadily growing audience of punters more or less selling out the shows and is already gaining a reputation for itself abroad as a place to come to gig at with a number of internationally based comics being lined up to perform in the coming months! Located inside a small residential compound on the corner of Middle Yan’an Road and South Shaanxi Road, the shows begin nice and early enough on a Friday or a Saturday by 7:30pm, enough time to hit a bar before or after or even a live music gig! I for one have done that double whammy - gig at Comedy UN followed by YYT - what’s not to like? :)
This weekend main man Storm Xu will be performing his latest hour of material ahead of his forthcoming Melbourne International Comedy Festival appearances. “Shanghai Gangsta” documents Storm’s experiences of growing up in Shanghai and provides hilariously cynical viewpoints of Shanghai today from the point of view of a born and bred native!
Storm has been active in the comedy scene almost since it’s inception way back in 2011/2012. His material is a hit with both local and international audiences alike, having performed all over China and beyond in the US, Australia and occasional regional performances in South East Asia. Here is an example of some of his work
So if you wanna come down and catch Storm in action, details are on the poster! You can follow Comedy UN on wechat too (just search comedyun to receive regular updates about all forthcoming shows!). They are also hosting open mic nights too every Wednesday so if you’d like to see the regulars for free trying out new material or people going up for the very first time, they kick off at 7:30 every Wednesday evening. Details on this poster below!
Smartshanghai recently did a feature on the club if you’d like to know more info - this can be found here
Next blog post will explore more about the Comedy Scene here in general and my own experiences so far as a semi novice rookie entering the scene and what anyone who may be considering it should expect! I’ll also profile a bit more on some of the individual comics too but certainly this piece is a start to make awareness of what’s going on!
Oh and yes, I will do a few more music blogs soon too - got a lot of news on that front but a good place to start I think will be the upcoming Harley’s show on Saturday with Parachutes on Fire, Dahaha and Hogchoker! More on that later!