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Wu Liuqi doesn't need fancy sets to tell his tales. With a big red nose, a pair of round spectacles like Harry Potter, and his expressive body language, Wu, a 31-year-old mime artist, made his stage debut in the reality show Super Sketch Show, broadcast by streaming platform iQiyi, with a five-minute performance, titled Bob's Travels.
Playing the role of Bob, who finds a magic hat which turns him into the captain of a big boat, Wu takes the audience along on his voyage into a fairy tale world, where he meets new friends.
"The audience love to see the actor use nothing but his skills to create a magical world," comments one viewer on Sina Weibo.
Actor Cao Muzhi, who also participated in the reality show, says he was "taken back" to his childhood while watching the one-man show. "I even felt a little bit lost after returning to reality."
Wu, a Beijing native, has been performing and touring as a mime artist for 10 years. This is the first time Wu performed in a reality show which premiered on Oct 15 and is being streamed weekly on iQiyi.
The reality show invites five celebrity judges and audience members to vote for 25 groups of contestants. With many rounds of competition, comedians work as soloists or in groups to create original shows for the final win.
"Comedy is hard. The judgement is made based on one rule — whether it makes you laugh or not," says Ma Dong, founder of Beijing-based media enterprise Mewe, which produced the reality show. "All comedy, at its core, is tragedy, if you look deep enough into it. That's why it is so hard."
The reality show is open to lesser-known comedians who bring surprises. Some of them are veteran actors, who have been performing in TV dramas, movies and musicals for years, but still haven't achieved fame, while some are newcomers.
"There are many great comedians in China and we want to offer those who may not have been seen by the audience before, a platform," Ma Dong says.
The art of mime is usually considered a niche compared to other theatrical art forms. Wu, however, sees it as a relaxing break from the fast-paced life, which is loud and chaotic.
When Wu started to perform as a mime artist, his first show was seen by fewer than 10 people, all of whom were invited to the show for free.
"In the beginning, I struggled to make people laugh. It took me a long time to learn, to practice, to see what keeps an audience laughing and what makes them disinterested," says Wu.
Ten years ago, Wu and his childhood friend Wang Zi, also a mime artist, founded a club in Beijing, hoping to popularize the genre. They named the club Na Da Ding, or "handstand".
"When you need a good idea for a show, it helps to do a handstand for a few seconds, and let the blood flow to your brain," Wu says.
Now, with around 10 members, the club tours nationally. Last year, Wang performed about 130 shows at small live house venues in China.
"For me, mime is very cool because it is totally dependent on the self-expression of the artists," says Wang, 31, who also showcased his act in the reality show, incorporating dance, hand gestures and a clown performance in his works.
Before Super Sketch Show, Ma Dong's company successfully produced a reality show, titled The Big Band, in 2019, which brought once-underground Chinese indie rock bands into the limelight.
In 2020, the second season of the reality show also achieved success, which attracted many young music fans to outdoor festivals and live house venues to enjoy their live performances.
For Super Sketch Show, Ma Dong and his team spent a year working with scriptwriters, actors and actresses — double the time they worked on The Big Band.
"The process of preparing for Super Sketch Show was full of concern. We didn't want to entertain ourselves. We were just trying to make people happy and to deliver a warm, funny package for all ages," says Ma Dong.
吴六奇不需要华丽的场景来讲述他的故事。带着一个大红鼻子，一副像哈利波特一样的圆形眼镜，以及他富有表现力的肢体语言，31岁的哑剧艺术家吴六奇在流媒体平台爱奇艺播出的真人秀节目《超级小品》中首次登台，进行了五分钟的表演，题目是《鲍勃的旅行》。
吴六奇扮演的鲍勃找到了一顶神奇的帽子，使他成为一艘大船的船长，他带着观众进入一个童话世界，在那里他遇到了新的朋友。
"一位观众在新浪微博上评论说："观众喜欢看到演员只用他的技能来创造一个神奇的世界。
演员曹牧之也参加了这个真人秀节目，他说他在观看这个独角戏时被 "带回到 "他的童年。"回到现实后，我甚至感到有点失落。"
吴六奇是北京人，作为默剧艺术家已经表演和巡回演出了10年。这是吴秀波第一次参加真人秀节目，该节目于10月15日首播，每周在爱奇艺播出。
该真人秀节目邀请了五位明星评委和观众为25组选手投票。通过多轮竞争，喜剧演员以独唱或小组形式创作原创节目，以获得最后的胜利。
"喜剧是很难的。判断的依据是一条规则--它是否能让你发笑，"制作该真人秀的北京媒体企业Mewe的创始人马东说。"所有的喜剧，其核心是悲剧，如果你看得足够深。这就是为什么它是如此困难。"
这个真人秀节目向不太知名的喜剧演员开放，他们带来了惊喜。他们中有些是老演员，在电视剧、电影和音乐剧中表演多年，但仍然没有取得名气，而有些是新人。
"中国有很多优秀的喜剧演员，我们想为那些可能以前没有被观众看到的人提供一个平台，"马东说。
与其他戏剧艺术形式相比，默剧艺术通常被认为是一种小众艺术。然而，吴晓波认为它是对快节奏生活的一种放松，因为快节奏的生活是喧嚣和混乱的。
当吴六奇开始作为默剧艺术家表演时，他的第一场演出只有不到10个人观看，所有这些人都是被免费邀请来观看演出的。
"一开始，我挣扎着要让人们笑。我花了很长时间去学习，去练习，去看什么能让观众笑，什么能让他们不感兴趣，"吴说。
十年前，吴晓波和他的儿时伙伴王梓（也是一名默剧艺术家）在北京成立了一家俱乐部，希望能普及这一类型。他们将俱乐部命名为 "那大顶"，即 "手台"。
"当你需要一个表演的好主意时，做几秒钟的倒立，让血液流向你的大脑，这很有帮助，"吴说。
现在，俱乐部有大约10名成员，在全国进行巡回演出。去年，Wang在中国的小型现场演出场所进行了大约130场演出。
"对我来说，默剧非常酷，因为它完全取决于艺术家的自我表达，"31岁的王志刚说，他还在真人秀节目中展示了自己的表演，在作品中融入了舞蹈、手势和小丑的表演。
在《超级素描秀》之前，马东的公司在2019年成功制作了一档名为《大乐队》的真人秀节目，将曾经处于地下的中国独立摇滚乐队带入人们的视线。
2020年，该真人秀的第二季也取得了成功，吸引了许多年轻乐迷到户外音乐节和live house场地欣赏他们的现场表演。
为了《超级素描秀》，马东和他的团队花了一年时间与编剧、演员一起工作--是他们在《大乐队》中工作时间的两倍。
"准备《超级素描秀》的过程中充满了担忧。我们并不想自娱自乐。我们只是想让人们开心，为所有年龄段的人提供一个温暖、有趣的包装，"马东说。
