The funniest place in Asia just might be Hong Kong. Not for Chinglish mistranslations or culture shock hijinks - but for the comedians who expound about them on home turf. Stand-up comedy with its inherent irony and sarcasm isn't quite in line with the punny, physical humour of traditional Chinese comedy, but times are changing with the opening of another comedy club.
The TakeOut Comedy Club opened in SoHo four years ago, and on April 1 is expanding over the harbour with its first shows in Tsim Sha Tsui. What once catered to a largely expat audience now holds three stand-up or improv shows a week, in Cantonese and English, with open-mic nights for each language and a far more diverse crowd that crucially includes plenty of Chinese faces.
'It's great to see more than 160 locals laughing in one room,' founder Jami Gong says. 'Our last two Chinese shows sold out and we have a bigger Chinese audience than four years ago. More and more people want to do stand-up, which is what we've always wanted.'
Though Gong says his motivation isn't the money, the club has been taking in more revenue year on year, with a recent feature on TVB Jade drumming up awareness and larger crowds.
'Three things unite the world: sport, music and comedy. TakeOut was born in 2002 to hit the local market. That's why we're expanding to Tsim Sha Tsui. Many locals don't come to our SoHo club as it is a Western area. So now we will go to them. We are growing, and I hope to break even one day,' Gong says.
Many of the names on the TakeOut bill are amateur comics who have day jobs to pay the bills, although some are well known enough to draw income from being funny - such as Vivek Mahbubani, 28, a Hong Kong-born Indian who performs American-style stand-up in Cantonese and English. 'I really think local audiences are getting into the style of stand-up the way we do it,' he says. 'People are slowly warming to the idea that non-celebrities can do comedy too. The goal is six laughs a minute.'