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Jesse Appell, an American comedian known as 艾杰西 in China, raised funds and sent medical supplies to affected areas in China by doing what he does best: Make people laugh.
Jesse is a former Fulbright scholar who studied the traditional art of Chinese comedy – Xiangsheng, or "cross-talk". After he returned to the U.S. during the Chinese New Year, he found himself unable to fly back to China because of the COVID-19 outbreak. He didn't sit still, putting on performances that presented the funny side of Chinese lives in quarantine. His set was a breather from the somber mood, with peals of laughter.
Talking about why he did this, he said that telling the story of the people in China can help Americans to understand China better.
"I need to tell the story of the people that were over in China that Americans might not be able to see," he said. "And their story was kind of a way of being able to get what was happening in China into the eyes of the American audience, but in a way that felt like it was funny. And that was easy enough for Americans to understand, but also deep enough that people could get a real sense of what was going on."
He also hosted a performance in his high school. And all seats were occupied.
"We have a small theater and a big theater. I thought maybe we could get the small theater filled up. That was 200 seats. And I thought that if I did advertising and we had the school do advertising, maybe we could fill up 200 seats and I walked into the big auditorium which was 600 seats and it was like full, people were in standing room only," said Jesse.
He feels very proud of this performance, because not only his high school community and their parents, but also the Chinese community which he didn't know when he was in high school, had come to the show. To his surprise, 200 Chinese people showed up.
"It felt amazing and there was an energy in the air because nobody expected it to be that big," said Jesse.
At such a heavy time, having humor for Jesse is necessary.
"I really believe, especially when it's hard times, we need to find a way to laugh. We just have to find a way to laugh. And if you don't do that, everything gets way worse," he said.
The comedian quoted a sentence from John Cleese, one of the creators of Monty Python, who said, "A lot of times people mistake being serious and being solemn. Being serious means that you're taking the topic seriously. But that doesn't mean you should be solemn. Like as a funeral."
For Jesse, even though many people who are suffering, it doesn't mean that everyone needs to necessarily be very sad, because that doesn't help people get through.
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Time (GMT): 1415, 2015
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