Chapter 634: You Still Dare Not to Laugh?
Translator: AL_Squad Editor: Chrissy
One by one… another batch of six to seven hundred people soon poured in, filling up the positions of those performers in the first batch and continued the dialogue that they left on.
After saying his line, the last person in the previous batch waved goodbye to the audience and stepped out of the arena, and the new batch finally found their chance to speak.
"Speaking about foreign cultures, I know a person who especially holds the foreign culture in esteem, in particular, the culture from the Western Continent."
The performer from the second batch who first spoke was also standing in the middle of the crowd. Obviously, his status was extraordinary, and his lines were longer than the other performers. However, after that, he returned to the queue and stood with a stupid smile.
After that, the six to seven hundred people took their turn to tell a joke about Li Si 1 , who overpraised foreign culture. It was a similarly ridiculous story and a similar end, where there were many propaganda and preaching inserted. It was also impossible to find the funny part in the whole process, however, the two people on the rostrum were still rolling on the ground laughing out loud.
Xuan Mo could not hold back anymore. She stood up and went to Wang Lu. After hesitating for a moment, she squatted down and patted him on the shoulder. "Hey, where's the funny part in that story?"
At this time, Wang Lu was slamming the floor with his palm in laughter. Upon hearing Xuan Mo's question, he looked up and replied, "Hahaha, okay, hahaha, just now, hahaha, that, hahaha, no, I have to finish my laugh first…"
Xuan Mo was startled for a while. "I understand, go on then."
When she returned to her seat, she always felt that she was being played as a fool.
Soon afterward, the second batch of performers finished their story and left, and the third batch entered the stage in an orderly manner. It had the same six to seven hundred people, and it also brought a new and long story...
The only difference was that, after the story was finished, Wang Lu and Wang Wu laughed a lot less.
It seemed like for Daoist Master of Jindan Stage, laughing wildly for more than four hours was also a great burden. Xuan Mo thought so and then glanced at Wang Lu. As a result, she caught him doing something. She saw that when he was rolling on the ground laughing, he seemed to take something from his mustard seed bag and put it in his mouth.
As an Earth Immortal, Xuan Mo's reaction speed was lightning fast. Just as she saw it, she immediately reached out with an invisible hand and grasped Wang Lu's hand, forcing him to show what he had in his hand.
They were two round pills.
"What are these?" As soon as she asked that, she already had the answer. "Ha, Worry-less Pill? It could make people fall into extreme joy, forget all the troubles and laughed loudly? It turns out, this is the funny part?"
Being caught while his pants were down, Wang Lu could not deny it. He had to get up from the ground and gave his Master a kick, who was still laughing on the ground, to indicate that she did not have to laugh anymore.
"Hahaha, I, hahaha, had just, hahaha, swallowed, hahaha, the pills, hahaha."
"... Very well, go on then." Wang Lu sighed and then said to Xuan Mo, "Actually, this is all just a misunderstanding."
Xuan Mo wished that she could slap him silly. "Do you really think this kind of excuse can fool me?"
Wang Lu firmly said, "I'm not fooling anyone, instead, I'm doing my best to help those in need. Those performers who work hard on the stage need our laughter and applause! Thus, even if I have to take drugs, I have to give them laughter! Of course, it is best to laugh without taking any drug, but unfortunately…"
"... So you knew their performance is not funny at all!"
Wang Lu said, "Well, as long as one is not an idiot, one would not feel their comic monologue performance funny. But at least they give out very positive energy, the main theme is very educational…listen, right now they're talking about how to treat the foreign cultures correctly!"
"Group of comic monologues is not for lecturing people, okay!"
Wang Lu said, "This issue could be discussed later, but right now, the problem is that, apart from lecturing, they don't know how to talk about other types of comedies."
"Then don't ask them to perform!"
Wang Lu shrugged. "Then they would starve to death. These performers are actually very poor. Except for this kind of group of comic monologues, they don't have any other kind of comic monologue to perform. Before I found them to perform in the opening ceremony, most of them lived a hard life in their respective art circles. Fortunately, some countries' monarchs like art, so they could still hang on to survive in some places… but there are also those who don't even have the qualification to hang on, which caused them to starve."
"And then?"
"And then, I think that this opening ceremony is an opportunity to show their situation to the people. Believe me, these people are more of representatives of the overall situation of the Nine Regions than those stand-up comedians who have both fame and fortune."
"So what about it?"
Wang Lu said, "This opening ceremony was set to let our Union of Ten Thousand Immortals show you all kinds of things in the present Nine Regions. And I would rather let you see the real situation of Nine Regions than showing off just the brilliant part. In fact, don't you think that those performers are a little bit like us?"
"Oh?"
Wang Lu pointed to one of the performers who was trying to express his line. "Look at him. Although there's only one line, at least, at the moment when he performs, that line is entirely his all, and he would do his best."
Xuan Mo glanced coldly at the stage. "His expression is stiff and one of the words is mispronounced. Is that all that he could do?"
"Yes, though to us it worths nothing, it is all for him."
With that, Wang Lu waved his hand and the scene at the stage suddenly changed. In addition to those hundreds of performers, there were also many pictures.
Xuan Mo's heart immediately turned cold.
According to the regulations, no one could interfere with the performance. Wang Lu just waved his hand and a lot of pictures appeared. It was not that he used a magical spell, but rather… he had already prepared it beforehand and calculated the time!
In other words, did he even calculate that they would have this conversation?
However, soon she had no time to think about these things because the pictures on the scene had already moved.
It recorded the daily life of a stand-up comedian.
It was a daily life that was unbearable to see. In a shabby thatched house, a woman in rag hoarsely said, "Old Zhang, yesterday my second brother and sister in law came again."
The man named Old Zhang frowned. "Did they come here asking for debts again? I told them that I would definitely pay them back. As long as landlord Zhang run another stand-up event again, I could earn money to pay them back."
The woman just sighed. "When would landlord Zhang run another stand-up event? Moreover, even if he does, would you be surely invited to perform? Wasn't your last performance not funny at all?"
Old Zhang patted the table angrily. "I was secretly learning from a famous master in the county, how could it not be funny? Moreover, the young master of landlord Zhang's family is precisely lawless, doesn't he need to be persuaded to do good?"
The woman opened her mouth but did not speak.
Old Zhang became angrier. "I know what you want to say, learning through entertainment is useless right? The lines that I have learned is not funny, right? Just you wait, in these two days, I could come up with funny lines!"
Then the pictures changed. At the bank of a deserted river, Old Zhang stutteringly said, "And then-and then that young man quickly turn around. This head turn was nothing important, guess what? He-he saw his wife."
With that, Old Zhang hesitated for a moment. Looking at the surface of the river, he grabbed his disheveled hair and then repeated it.
"This head turn was nothing important, guess what? He saw h-his wife."
After a moment of silence, Old Zhang repeated his words again, "He saw his wife…"
Speaking to this, even he himself could clearly feel how boring his line was.
So what if he saw his wife? What was so funny about it? But there should be, right? But if there was, why no one laughed? Why was there no laugh in my stand-up? No one laughed!
I just wanted to perform a stand-up comedy, I just wanted to hear people laugh! Why-why couldn't...
"Hahaha!"
Suddenly he looked up and laughed. His laughter echoed in everywhere around him. It seemed to be a happy laughter, but also sad. Halfway through his laugh, Old Zhang was already crying.
"Why!? why is it not funny at all? Why?"
Then the story ended there. The pictures changed, now it showed a close-up look of a performer who was reciting his line on the stage.
That performer was Old Zhang. Compared to the story, now he looked more energetic. He was dressed in a brand new patches-less plain robe and had neatly trimmed hair. The whole person seemed to be ten years younger; even the wrinkles on his face seemed to be smoothed out.
Although he had only one line, at this moment, he poured all that he had into this line.
"This head turn was nothing important, guess what? He saw his wife, hahaha!"
In the last sentence, the six to seven hundred people on the stage laughed out loudly together with him.
——
On the rostrum, Xuan Mo stared blankly at the scene.
Outside the venue, the audiences who were watching the show broadcasted through the signboards were also shocked.
What was exactly happening here? Why did those clumsy stand-up comedians suddenly light up the light of humanity?
If the previous group of comic monologues shows were just disgusting farce, right now, people's heart suddenly became a bit warmer and gratified when they saw the smile of Old Zhang. Some people couldn't help but float out a smile on their face.
Wang Lu proudly said, "See, the audience has given the performance the fairest evaluation with their facial expression!"
"Do you think this kind of praise out of sympathy and compassion worthy of pride? This… is simply a fraud!"
Wang Lu said, "How could it be a fraud? Old Zhang is really just a bad comedian, and I just properly showed how bad he is."
"This kind of show, which has been smeared with artistic technique, is not real!"
"So you know that it's just a show. This is a big show, a program, not a news interview. Yet, you think I shouldn't use the artistic expression? Don't you think it's ridiculous?"
Xuan Mo was suddenly at a loss for words. Especially when she saw those several naive Earth Immortals around her whose emotions had been deeply affected. When they began to laugh together with the stand-up comedians on the stage, she really had nothing to say.
"Very well, just consider you win this time."