1978 Synthetic Writers

Chapter 511 Final Synthesis
Jiang Kun reacted quickly as well.

A thought quickly crossed my mind and I immediately figured it out.

The audience took it as a true story!

Indeed, Jiang Kun recalled that from the moment he fell into the tiger's den, almost everyone's nerves were on edge, staring at him expectantly.

Looking at it now, not to mention the audience's amusement, the atmosphere was so intense that even he dared not laugh.

But now that the show has started, no matter what, it has to be finished.

"When that tiger kicked me, my mind went blank for a second, and a whole host of heroic figures flashed through my mind!"

"Hey! Still trying to portray a hero!"

"When I looked up, I saw a lot of people looking at me. We are the youth of this era. We can't let the young people down by falling into the tiger's mouth in front of so many people! You all remember the Peking Opera 'Wu Song Fights the Tiger'?"

"Hurrah!"

"Okay? That's fake! Today, I'm going to practice for real! I'll really show you all!"

"Oh, you're really good at hunting tigers."

"What do you mean?"

"That's a good idea."

"That's a good idea, but you'd better get your legs up!"

My legs went weak!

"At the time, I thought that we had all received legal education."

"That is."

"Do you know about the 'Animal Protection Law'? Anyone who kills a tiger will be sentenced to two years in prison!"

"You have a pretty strong sense of the rule of law."

"Who made this law? So it's like I'm breaking the law by hunting tigers, and the tigers can eat me for free?"

"That's to protect wild animals."

"You protect women and children, but why do you protect wild animals that are strong and powerful?"

"Then it must be protected."

"I'm just thinking about it here, but things are in complete chaos up there."

The man shouted, "Help! Someone's fallen into a tiger's den!"

Someone even encouraged me: "Hey buddy, hang in there!"

Upon hearing this, I exclaimed, "What? Hold on? Where am I? How can I possibly hold on?! You're all just talking without understanding the situation. You come down here and try to hold on!"

"Weren't they worried about you?"

“You can’t just let it get so chaotic! An old man shouted at me, ‘Kid, you need something to fight a tiger. Here, let me throw you my walking stick!’”

"A walking stick?"

"A woman called out to me, 'Brother, do you need a knife? I have a fruit knife here!'"

"Hey! Look at these two weapons."

"This person suggested throwing bricks inside so I could climb up using them as stepping stones."

The person who suggested it said to throw me a cigarette so I could take a puff and perk myself up.

An elderly woman, so kind and good-hearted, even had tears in her eyes. She leaned over and called out to me:

'Child, here's a pen. Write down what you want to say first!'

"Oh my, this old lady is really interesting."

"Listen to this chaos! Nobody's even trying to organize things. Couldn't they at least set up a temporary rescue team from the jaws of death?!"

"How could we possibly have enough time?"

"Would throwing this fruit knife and cane work?"

"These two weapons are barely enough to fight a tiger."

"The tiger is being lazy, what should I do? Should I poke the tiger with my cane?"

"Hey, don't do that, you'll just rouse the tiger."

"And you old man upstairs, what's wrong with your eyes? Look at the place you left your cane here."

"Where?"

"I'll throw it right behind the tiger's butt! Then I'll grab it and pull it by the tail!"

"Hey, don't move around!"

"."

Jiang Kun and Tang Jiezong performed this scene with their voices hoarse.

To his and Tang Jiezong's relief, the applause at the scene was decent.

However, Jiang Kun also understood that the applause was probably not because his crosstalk was funny, but because the tiger didn't eat him in the end, so everyone was glad that he had "escaped from a desperate situation".

"How could this be?" Jiang Kun was a little surprised.

This piece, "Thoughts in the Tiger's Mouth," is absolutely excellent crosstalk, even though it's a "one-sided" crosstalk routine.

"One-sided emphasis" means that the lead comedian's lines and performance are heavier, while the supporting comedian's are relatively lighter, unlike "mother and son comedians" where the lead and supporting comedians have roughly equal lines.

Although "Tiger's Mouth Reverie" is a "one-sided story," the focus of this crosstalk is not on narrating the plot, but on the comedian's imitation of the young worker falling into the tiger's den.

That kind of self-talk and daydreaming makes the audience feel very close to it and find it vivid.

Tang Jiezhong, who plays the straight man, uses various techniques such as kicking, talking, selling, and kicking to complement his comedic performance, ultimately expressing the mentality of some young people who are empty-headed, stubborn, and insecure.

Through this absurd and outrageous story, this thrilling and treacherous scene is transformed into a comedy that makes people laugh.

In Jiang Kun's view, Jiang Xian's crosstalk is definitely an "alternative" work in crosstalk creation and a new type of crosstalk.

The use of formal language like "A young worker accidentally fell into a tiger's mouth and died while visiting a park, and relevant departments reminded tourists to pay attention to safety" and long sentences like "You said that if you climb Mount Everest, there would be a big tiger following you, so can anyone climb it?" to form a punchline is absolutely inconsistent with the general rules of crosstalk creation.

Therefore, Jiang Xian has definitely broken through the traditional structure of crosstalk.

But
No matter how good your innovation is, your goal is still to make the audience laugh.

That's where the problem lies.

Jiang Kun thought there was nothing wrong with the crosstalk, and there was nothing wrong with Jiang Xian's writing.

This story, "Tiger's Mouth Reverie," can turn the thrilling and treacherous experience of falling into a tiger's den into a hilarious comedy.

The reality is:
The audience found it terrifying and frightening, and couldn't laugh at all.

"Could I have misjudged him?" Jiang Kun wondered.

He didn't think Jiang Xian's writing was bad, but he understood that some things and some art were too ahead of their time and might not be understood by the general public at the time.

Take Van Gogh, for example. His paintings were worthless during his lifetime. He only sold one painting, "The Red Vineyard," for about 400 francs, which is equivalent to more than 6000 RMB in today's world.

However, after Van Gogh's death, more than nine of his works were valued at over 200 million RMB.

And then there's Einstein. When he proposed his theory of general relativity, people thought he was crazy. But later, his theory was gradually proven to be correct.

In Jiang Kun's view, "Tiger's Mouth Reverie" may also be such a work, born at the wrong time, unable to be understood or appreciated by people.

When Jiang Kun returned to Beijing, he told Jiang Xian about his performance experience, and Jiang Xian immediately slammed his fist on the table.

"Not funny? How could that be?"

"Show me your act."

Jiang Xiancai didn't believe that anyone could watch a classic crosstalk piece like "Tiger's Mouth Reverie" and keep their composure.

Jiang Kun obeyed and immediately called Tang Jiezong over, where he put on this show for Jiang Xian at his home.

Jiang Xian immediately understood the reason.

"You're acting way too hard!"

“Even I’m scared when I hear this!” “What?” Jiang Kun quickly realized that Jiang Xian felt he hadn’t used the right “force”.

“You need to relax a little,” Jiang Xian said.

"How do I relax?" Jiang Kun quickly asked Jiang Xian for advice. After all, Jiang Xian was the creator of this crosstalk, and he must have already thought about how much force to use and what expression to make when saying each line.

Jiang Xian didn't know how to explain it to Jiang Kun, so he simply said, "How about this, I'll read it for you and show it to you."

"That would be wonderful!" Jiang Kun exclaimed with delight.

So Jiang Xian picked up the manuscript of "Thoughts on Tiger's Mouth".

He had already reached the progress of "replacing" (99/100), just 1 short, but he never expected that the final 1 would be achieved by reciting a crosstalk for Jiang Kun.

He couldn't perform crosstalk, but he had watched Jiang Kun's "Tiger's Mouth Reverie" countless times. He could still imitate the general tone, so he read the script word by word to Jiang Kun.

"."

"After much thought, I can't make any rash moves."

"Just as the old lady said, while my mind is still clear, I'll leave a few words behind!"

"I'm not getting any younger."

"The fortune teller said that I will face a major calamity this year when I turn 28."

"I just celebrated my birthday a few days ago, and I was feeling pretty good about it!"

"Now that I think about it, I guess they calculated it for me according to the lunar calendar."

"You can run from the first day of the month, but you can't hide from the fifteenth."

As Jiang Kun and Tang Jiezong watched, their eyes grew brighter and brighter.

have to.

That was definitely too much force.

Jiang Xian's current state and appearance, well, it's probably a case of money and wealth each accounting for about half of his wealth:
Despicable.

But it has to be this way to bring this crosstalk performance to life.

"Teacher Tang, could you lend him a hand?" Jiang Kun nudged Tang Jiezong's arm.

Tang Jiezong immediately understood and got involved.

"Hey, leave a few words for your workplace."

"How so? Leaders, fellow workers, you went out for fun on Sunday and got eaten by a tiger without paying attention?" Jiang Xian chimed in.

Tang Jiezong coughed once, and gradually got into the swing of things:

That's the actual situation.

Jiang Xian looked miserable: "It's all my fault. I lacked organization and discipline, was too undisciplined, and underestimated the consequences of the tiger eating me."

"Estimate? It's impossible to estimate!"

"What's the point of checking me if I'm already dead? Oh well, I'm dead, so be it. Anyway, I've never died once in my life."

"Huh? No one who's alive has ever died!"

“This time, we’ll be tougher when we talk to the leader! We’ll tell him, ‘Give us whatever amount of compensation you want, we won’t quibble or try to extort you.’”

Well, it doesn't qualify as a work-related injury; at most, it'll be classified as 'natural death.'

Looking at his appearance, Tang Jiezong couldn't help but laugh. "I think that's all he'll ever be."

"Young man, why did you have to be so careless? You got eaten by a tiger, and now you probably won't be able to recover anything."

Jiang Kun watched intently from the side, laughing and chuckling to himself, while also feeling quite annoyed.

Why didn't you follow Jiang Xian's approach when you were acting?

Although his acting wasn't great, the tone of voice paired with that word was absolutely perfect!
Jiang Xian pretended to call out, "Hey! People up here! Shouting slogans won't work, the tigers don't understand! Hey! You guys really have heroic spirit, come down a few of you!"

"What? Tell them to come down?"

"So what?"

"Even if they come down, they'll still end up as tiger food."

"If you feed the tigers, that's called sacrificing yourself to save others, a worthy death. They'll even publish it in the newspapers. But what about me? Feeding the tigers is utterly worthless."

"No, no, no, you'll make the newspapers even if you die."

"It'll only get a couple of sentences in the newspaper at most."

Which two lines?

A young worker fell into the jaws of a tiger and died while visiting a park. Relevant departments are reminding visitors to be careful.

"Just those two sentences?"

"Listen to this, they won't even publish my name, I'm a complete negative example!"

"You still want to be the positive one?"

"Hey, what are you guys thinking? You sent me to the zookeeper? The zookeeper is off on Sunday? He's off, but the tigers aren't! You guys better call the police, call 110, 119, the police, the fire department, anything! What? You've been looking for a phone nearby and there isn't one?"

The zoo's management is so stingy, they can't even install a phone.

"Alright, alright, you all go! Once you leave the zoo, find a TV station and have them send a film crew to film how the tiger will eat me!"

Why are you filming this?!

"Make a movie about a tiger eating a man, sell it to foreigners to earn some foreign exchange, and that's my way of contributing to the Seventh Five-Year Plan before I die."

"You've got quite a high level of awareness!"

"That awful zoo! I'll make sure they pay for what they do after I die!"

"Yes! Let them check it thoroughly!"

"Yes, this will not happen again!"

"This is a one-time exception? So you'll let it slide this time, buddy? I'm a human being, and if I die, the zoo director will be dismissed! The zookeepers will be investigated! Six months' bonuses will be withheld!"
"."

Jiang Kun was laughing so hard he couldn't stop, and the play "Jiang Xian Falls into the Tiger's Den" finally came to an end.

With the help of a rope made of more than 30 leather belts twisted together, he finally climbed out of the tiger's den and escaped safely.

The first thing he did after escaping wasn't to thank the people for their help, but to ask the girl who rescued him for her contact information.

cheap.

Too cheap!
But while it was cheeky, it was also incredibly funny, which gave Jiang Kun a lot of confidence.

He's so happy, how could the audience not be happy after seeing him?
I learned it several times at Jiang Xian's house, listened to Jiang Xian's advice, and finally thanked Jiang Xian before taking my leave.

"Comrade Jiang Xian, let's go back and rehearse again, and strive for a great success next time we perform on stage."

"Okay, remember to call me when the time comes, I'll be waiting to see."

"no problem."

After seeing Jiang Kun and Tang Jiezong off, Jiang Xian poured himself a cup of tea to soothe his parched throat. He had talked so much that his voice was almost hoarse. He wondered how those crosstalk performers could have so much saliva; maybe they were just born with a silver tongue.

He took a sip of tea to moisten his throat and stopped thinking about "Tiger's Mouth Reverie," because after he read "Tiger's Mouth Reverie" to Jiang Kun, the progress of "substitute" in his mind successfully increased by 1.

"Inspiration [replaces] Current progress (100/100), collected successfully."

Looking at the two entries, "[Beijing Youth]" and "[Substitute]", that I had already collected in my mind.

Jiang Xian roused himself and shouted out that long-forgotten phrase:

"System, synthesis."

The command was given, and a beep sounded immediately in my ear.

"Completed:"

"【Beijing Youth】+【Substitute】= Novella 'The Troublemaker'"

(End of this chapter)