美国国家公共电台 NPR Just For Laughs Comedy Festival Offers A Look At Up-And-Coming Talent

 

NOEL KING, HOST:

This week, comedian¹ Jerry Seinfeld performed to a packed stadium in Montreal. He was in Canada as part of the annual comedy festival called Just For Laughs. Now, at the same time at the same festival about 10 minutes away, a group of much less famous comedians² were performing their best stuff to a much smaller crowd. They are known as the New Faces, and they're hoping to make it big. NPR's Andrew Limbong reports.

ANDREW LIMBONG, BYLINE³: A New Faces showcase is a lot like any other comedy show. It's in a small theater. There's a host, a bar. Comedians get on stage and do their thing and so on and so forth⁴. What makes it different is the audience. Sure, there are folks just looking to have a good time and get some laughs in, but there are others who are technically⁵ on the clock with badges around their necks that say industry. These are people with job titles like talent coordinator⁶ and director of programming.

SAM JAY: It matters because this is your career. People talk. This is water-cooler talk.

LIMBONG: That's Sam Jay, a comedian who just a few hours prior crushed her set at the New Faces of Comedy showcase which focuses on stand-ups. Big names did New Faces - Hannibal Burress, Amy Schumer, Jimmy Fallon. But most of the comics I spoke⁷ to weren't thinking about that. You really can't. Here's Sam Jay again.

JAY: So I get obsessed⁸ with what they going to do, so what should I do? Oh, he does this type of material, so I should stay away from that, when you really should always just be yourself. So I try to silence that in my mind as much as I can.

LIMBONG: In true comedy training ground fashion, the festival is adamant⁹ that none of these sets is recorded by the audience, but her set - which centered around her marriage falling apart - sounded like something you'll be hearing in a special soon anyway. Other standouts included a 26 year old from New Jersey¹⁰ who was just on Colbert.

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "THE LATE SHOW WITH STEPHEN COLBERT")

RAMY YOUSSEF: My name is Ramy Youssef, and I'm Muslim. Like - yeah. Yeah. Like from the news.

(LAUGHTER)

YOUSSEF: Have you guys seen our show? Fox News or any of the news really. They're all about us.

LIMBONG: And Rae Sanni, who delivered a joke about being a stripper but not having the right kind of body to make it super lucrative¹¹. This is from a set of hers in Brooklyn earlier this year.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

RAE SANNI: I was sitting on the floor of the locker¹² room crying because I had only made $29, and I hadn't tipped out the DJ yet, right? And, like, one of the fat [expletive] big [expletive] money-making [expletive] came over. She's like, next time, use your personality.

(LAUGHTER)

LIMBONG: And it's not just stand-ups. There were showcases for sketch¹³ actors, online video creators and arguably the lowest on the totem pole with the most to gain, people un-repped - no manager, no agent, just their jokes.

JEREMY MCCLELLAN: I have no idea how I would get on "Jimmy Kimmel" - right? - or, like, you know, "Conan," or whatever. I have no idea how - just, like, email conan@gmail? I don't know. I don't know.

LIMBONG: That's Jeremy McClellan, one of the un-repped comedians a little before his set. For a guy without representation, he'd been doing relatively¹⁴ well, booking international tours, getting some press, but he's hit a ceiling that's hard to DIY your way through. That said, he did expertly weave his way through his joke about getting into an argument with his wife about the wage gap.

MCCLELLAN: But like I explained to her, that's just because men naturally gravitate towards higher-paying professionals like doctor or engineer or CEO, whereas women - this is true - just naturally gravitate towards lower-paying professions like female doctor and female engineer and female CEO.

(LAUGHTER)

LIMBONG: A lot of the comedians agreed the best advice is to just be yourself. Eyes on your own paper. Don't think about the suits in the crowd. Here's Ramy Youssef.

YOUSSEF: It's just such funny advice. Be yourself, and it's like also do it in six minutes. Also, like, everyone's here.

LIMBONG: And everyone's hoping to say that they were in the room when the next Jerry Seinfeld was a New Face. Andrew Limbong, NPR News.

(SOUNDBITE OF BENJAMIN GIBBARD'S "I DON'T KNOW")

1 comedian   

n.喜剧演员；滑稽演员

参考例句：

• The comedian tickled the crowd with his jokes.喜剧演员的笑话把人们逗乐了。
• The comedian enjoyed great popularity during the 30's.那位喜剧演员在三十年代非常走红。

2 comedians   

n.喜剧演员，丑角( comedian的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The voice was rich, lordly, Harvardish, like all the boring radio comedians'imitations. 声音浑厚、威严，俨然是哈佛出身的气派，就跟无线电里所有的滑稽演员叫人已经听腻的模仿完全一样。 来自辞典例句
• He distracted them by joking and imitating movie and radio comedians. 他用开玩笑的方法或者模仿电影及广播中的滑稽演员来对付他们。 来自辞典例句

3 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

4 forth   

adv.向前；向外，往外

参考例句：

• The wind moved the trees gently back and forth.风吹得树轻轻地来回摇晃。
• He gave forth a series of works in rapid succession.他很快连续发表了一系列的作品。

5 technically   

adv.专门地，技术上地

参考例句：

• Technically it is the most advanced equipment ever.从技术上说，这是最先进的设备。
• The tomato is technically a fruit,although it is eaten as a vegetable.严格地说，西红柿是一种水果，尽管它是当作蔬菜吃的。

6 coordinator   

n.协调人

参考例句：

• The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, headed by the Emergency Relief Coordinator, coordinates all UN emergency relief. 联合国人道主义事务协调厅在紧急救济协调员领导下，负责协调联合国的所有紧急救济工作。
• How am I supposed to find the client-relations coordinator? 我怎么才能找到客户关系协调员的办公室？

7 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

8 obsessed   

adj.心神不宁的,鬼迷心窍的,沉迷的

参考例句：

• He's obsessed by computers. 他迷上了电脑。
• The fear of death obsessed him throughout his old life. 他晚年一直受着死亡恐惧的困扰。

9 adamant   

adj.坚硬的，固执的

参考例句：

• We are adamant on the building of a well-off society.在建设小康社会这一点上，我们是坚定不移的。
• Veronica was quite adamant that they should stay on.维罗妮卡坚信他们必须继续留下去。

10 jersey   

n.运动衫

参考例句：

• He wears a cotton jersey when he plays football.他穿运动衫踢足球。
• They were dressed alike in blue jersey and knickers.他们穿着一致，都是蓝色的运动衫和灯笼短裤。

11 lucrative   

adj.赚钱的，可获利的

参考例句：

• He decided to turn his hobby into a lucrative sideline.他决定把自己的爱好变成赚钱的副业。
• It was not a lucrative profession.那是一个没有多少油水的职业。

12 locker   

n.更衣箱，储物柜，冷藏室，上锁的人

参考例句：

• At the swimming pool I put my clothes in a locker.在游泳池我把衣服锁在小柜里。
• He moved into the locker room and began to slip out of his scrub suit.他走进更衣室把手术服脱下来。

13 sketch   

n.草图；梗概；素描；v.素描；概述

参考例句：

• My sister often goes into the country to sketch. 我姐姐常到乡间去写生。
• I will send you a slight sketch of the house.我将给你寄去房屋的草图。

14 relatively   

adv.比较...地，相对地

参考例句：

• The rabbit is a relatively recent introduction in Australia.兔子是相对较新引入澳大利亚的物种。
• The operation was relatively painless.手术相对来说不痛。