Every day Zhao Dong goes around the city on a two-wheeled motorcycle running errands (差事) for its citizens for around eight hours. At night, the 26-year-old young man, taking off his helmet (头盔) and blue jacket, dives into small theaters where he is going to use stand-up comic sets inspired by his personal stories as a deliveryman to make people laugh.
In 2019, he found that running errands can bring him a good income. Then he moved from his hometown to Xi'an, and became a deliveryman. He turned all the hardships he has been going through these years into funny jokes, which brings a refreshing life. For him, the skill of humor is not something he was born with, but what he has been diligently (勤奋地) training with his sincerity and eagerness to get a better life.
On a freezing winter night, he stopped for a while in a bar after finishing the errands and heard rounds of cheers and laughs coming from the bar, and he was told that it was an open-mic event for stand-up comedy (脱口秀) . He was crazy with the joyous atmosphere into which he wanted to get himself integrated. The club owner later sent him a guidebook for stand-up comedy and gave him a chance to go on stage. His performance attracted wider attention and he received an invitation from the Shanghai-based comedy company Xiaoguo Culture to join a comic training camp last year. It was his first time to take a plane and get out from Shaanxi province. He soon found that Shanghai offers more opportunities for stand-up comedy performers.
In October, he moved to the city. There, he still chose to be a deliveryman and put on comic performances for four or five times a week. For him, what's special about the comic form is its inclusiveness (包容性). "It welcomes people from all walks of life and varied backgrounds to share stories and express opinions on the same stage," he says.
