Latest news with #standupcomedy
Daily Mail
18 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Major Hollywood star announces exclusive Australian tour
Pete Davidson is heading to Australia later this year to perform some exclusive stand-up comedy shows across three major cities. The Hollywood star, 31, has carved out a respectable career as an actor, writer and stand-up comedian and will bring his unique style of comedy to Sydney, Melbourne and Perth. Davidson's highly-anticipated tour will see him perform three shows across late September and early October. He will first take the stage at Perth's Riverside Theatre on Monday, September 29, before heading to Melbourne's Palais Theatre the following night. The Suicide Squad star will then wrap up at Sydney's Enmore Theatre on Wednesday, October 1. From A-list scandals and red carpet mishaps to exclusive pictures and viral moments, subscribe to the DailyMail's new showbiz newsletter to stay in the loop. From 2014 to 2022, Davidson captivated audiences as a cast member on NBC's long-running sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live. His comedic talent also shines through in his stand-up specials, including his Netflix release Turbo Fonzarelli, and his 2020 hit Pete Davidson: Alive From New York. Notably, Davidson was named one of Forbes' 30 Under 30 and recognised in Time's 100 Most Influential People of 2022. Tickets will be sold through Live Nation and are available for general purchase from 10:00am AEST on Friday, August 1, and range in price from $92 - $150. Davidson was last in Australia in 2022 to film the movie Wizards! in Cairns, Queensland, opposite Orlando Bloom and Naomi Scott. Last week, Davidson and his girlfriend Elsie Hewitt announced they are expecting their first child together. And while it has been claimed the pregnancy was something the couple 'weren't planning' - the SNL alum and English model are beyond 'excited' to become parents. The comedian - who has previously been linked to high-profile celebrities such as Kim Kardashian and Ariana Grande - first sparked romance rumours with Hewitt in March. A source opened up to Us Weekly about their baby news and stated, 'Pete and Elsie definitely weren't planning on starting a family but are over the moon about it. 'They are so excited. They have a really playful relationship, and things are going really well.' Despite dating for a 'short amount of time,' the pregnancy 'has brought them even closer. It's a healthy relationship for Pete.' The insider explained that fatherhood was something Davidson always wanted for his future and that 'the timing in his life is perfect.' The actor also broke his silence over the pregnancy news while recently talking to E! News. 'I'm very lucky and very happy,' Pete expressed to the outlet, and added he could not wait, 'to take care of something and show it the childhood I didn't have.' He continued: 'I assume you just try to give them what you didn't have, and what you didn't like, not do it.' The actor has talked about his dreams of being a dad in the past - such as when he made an appearance on Kevin Hart's show Hart To Heart back in 2022.
Yahoo
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Bradley Cooper's ‘Is This Thing On?' to close New York Film Festival: Everything to know about the star's latest Oscar contender
Bradley Cooper's Is This Thing On? has been selected as the closing night film of the New York Film Festival, where it will make its world premiere at Alice Tully Hall on Oct. 10. Blending drama and comedy, the film could mark Cooper's next bid for an Oscar. WHO'S IN THE CAST? The film stars Will Arnett and Laura Dern in the lead roles with a supporting cast that includes Andra Day, Christine Ebersole, Ciarán Hinds, Sean Hayes, Peyton Manning, and Amy Sedaris, as well as appearances by stand-up comedians Chloe Radcliffe, Reggie Conquest, and Jordan Jensen. More from Gold Derby Jim Jarmusch's 'Father Mother Sister Brother' set for North American premiere at New York Film Festival 'After the Hunt' is the latest Best Picture hopeful to open the New York Film Festival WHAT'S THE PLOT? Arnett and Dern portray Alex and Tess Novak, a couple whose marriage unravels. As they navigate co-parenting their two young sons, Alex decides to radically change his life path by pursuing a new career as a stand-up comedian in New York. The story is inspired by the real-life journey of John Bishop, a British comedian who made an unconventional late-career shift into stand-up. WHO'S BEHIND THE SCENES? The film marks Cooper's third directorial effort, following A Star Is Born (2018) and Maestro (2023). The script is written by Cooper, Arnett, and Mark Chappell. It is produced by Cooper's Lea Pictures and will be distributed by Searchlight Pictures. WHERE WAS IT FILMED? Much of the film was shot on location throughout New York City, a decision that Cooper said deeply influenced the film's tone and authenticity. 'We are honored and humbled to premiere our film at the New York Film Festival. Earlier this year we had the wonderful opportunity to shoot this story all throughout the city, so it's very exciting to debut it on the closing evening of the festival. NYC injects an energy into every aspect of filmmaking that just can't be replicated. I have attended many premieres at NYFF over the years and to have the support and belief in our film from Dennis Lim and his team is an enormous thing for us. Thank you! On behalf of Will, Laura, and the entire cast and crew—we can't wait!' AWARDS CHANCES? If Cooper's past is any indication, Is This Thing On? may be a serious contender in the upcoming awards season. His 2023 biopic Maestro earned seven Academy Award nominations, while his 2018 directorial debut A Star Is Born received eight Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, Best Actor, and Best Adapted Screenplay. Dern is an Oscar winner for Marriage Story and an Emmy winner for Big Little Lies. While Arnett has been nominated for seven times for an Emmy and is best known for his work on Arrested Development and his voice role as BoJack Horseman. Best of Gold Derby Everything to know about 'The Batman 2': Returning cast, script finalized Tom Cruise movies: 17 greatest films ranked worst to best 'It was wonderful to be on that ride': Christian Slater talks his beloved roles, from cult classics ('Heathers,' 'True Romance') to TV hits ('Mr. Robot,' 'Dexter: Original Sin') Click here to read the full article. Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Joking about her abusive husband launched this Chinese comedian to stardom. The authorities aren't laughing
With her short hair and unshowy clothing, Fan Chunli looks every bit the middle-aged woman from rural China. Among a crowd of youngsters vying to become the next breakout star in one of China's most popular stand-up comedy contests, she stands out. But when the 50-year-old takes the mic, she beams with life and drips sarcasm, unloading jokes about her abusive ex-husband that bring the audience into a mix of laughter and tears. Hailing from a place where simply knowing how to use the internet 'makes me the Elon Musk of my village,' Fan is the latest sensation in China's booming scene for stand-up comedy, an artform that offers an outlet for pent-up grievances in a country that often stifles open discussion of politics or society. But Fan's acerbic takes on patriarchy and domestic abuse have alarmed some officials in China, where women's rights remain a sensitive issue. Trying to boost birth rates and thwart a looming demographic crisis, the ruling Communist Party is urging women to embrace traditional gender roles. It has cracked down hard on the country's nascent feminist movement, which it deems a malicious Western influence. During the performance that shot her to fame earlier this month, Fan laid bare the absurdity facing many victims of domestic violence in the country. She said she was beaten by her ex-husband. But when she told her parents she wanted a divorce, her father warned her not to bring disgrace to the family. 'When men are involved in domestic violence, it's not shameful. When women demand a divorce, it's shameful,' she said, drawing cheers during her performance at The King of Stand-up Comedy, a popular contest streamed by online platform iQiyi. Fan's performance appears to have chagrined at least one local government. As footage of her routine went viral last week, officials in the eastern province of Zhejiang issued a warning saying such jokes are 'catalysts that provoke' gender conflict. The statement didn't directly name Fan, or the show in question, alluding only to a newcomer dubbed an 'industry gem' – the nickname given to her by the show's judges. 'The content of some talk shows is gradually deviating from its nature of humor, simplifying gender issues and repeatedly making a fuss about the 'opposition between men and women,'' the local government's publicity department wrote on Chinese social media platform WeChat. The province has no specific link to Fan or the TV show, but the department occasionally posts commentaries on recent trends. Any discussion of gender issues, it said, should be 'rational.' Not your average female comedian China's government has cracked down on feminist activism over the past decade. Most notably, a group of women who became known as the 'Feminist Five' were arrested after planning protests on public transport against sexual harassment in 2015. Authorities have, however, allowed some mild-mannered discussion on social media, while movies featuring feminist themes continue to screen without a problem – as long as they do not amount to a call for action, experts say. But Fan's background – provincial, not well off or highly educated – may be contributing to official disquiet over her popularity, adding an extra layer of scrutiny. 'She's a middle-aged woman who comes from a rural background, not one of those typical urban liberal elite feminists,' said Meng Bingchun, a communications professor who researches feminism at the London School of Economics (LSE). 'And this seems to indicate that this kind of discontent and grievance related to gender issues and the traditional Confucian, patriarchal values is probably more widespread than they (the authorities) are willing to acknowledge,' she told CNN. Traditional social codes can sometimes prove as strict as any government diktat. Late last year, Chinese e-commerce giant JD faced a boycott by customers infuriated by its casting of trailblazing woman comedian Yang Li in a promotional live stream. Those leading the action were apparently still stung by Yang's signature quip from five years ago, chiding mediocre men: 'How come he looks so average, yet still so confident?' Bowing to the online backlash, the company apologized and severed ties with Yang. 'Trapped' Fan has never openly identified herself as a feminist. But in a post on the online platform Weibo, she wrote that she believes leaving behind the social constraints of rural life can lead to 'the awakening of women.' 'For example, when I say I want a divorce in my village, I'm seen as an unpardonable villain,' she wrote. 'But when I talk about my divorce outside, the audience applauds.' Growing up away from China's major cities, she didn't receive any formal education until the age of 8, she told Chinese state-owned Sanlian Lifeweek in an interview. But that soon ended after junior high. Raised in an era when opportunities mostly went to men, she recalled picking up a job in a city before getting married, and her mother handing all the money she sent home to her brother. 'Girls growing up in rural villages have no rights to inherit anything. Not the house. Not the land,' she told Sanlian. 'At the time… I just wanted to get married.' But after getting married, she found out 'family and marriage trapped women, making it impossible for them to make money.' For Fan, life before stand-up was a cleaning job at an obscure village in her home province of Shandong, in China's northeast. Her path to stardom started with an unlikely twist. In 2023, struggling to make ends meet, she recalled selling her jewelry to see a performance by her idol, a comedian named Li Bo, state-run media reported. At the show, she was supposed to be roasted during an improv segment, but Fan's quick-witted responses impressed the performer, who decided to introduce Fan to the trade, she said. Drawing from life Fan has plenty of experience to draw on when it comes to divorce, having contemplated her own for more than two decades. 'I was already thinking about getting a divorce when my eldest daughter was born,' she told Sanlian. The mother of two described her ex-husband as a gambler, whose absence left her to look after her sick father-in-law alone. She also poked fun at his uncouth manners, saying he ate congee – a popular Chinese rice porridge – directly from the ladle. One time her ex-husband and his father beat her up so badly that her face was covered in bruises, she alleged. She ran home to tell her parents that she wanted a divorce, only to be deterred by her mother, who told her to break up the relationship only if he was having an affair. The last straw was a year or two ago when she caught her husband once again going ladle-to-mouth with the congee. 'This time,' she recalled thinking, 'I'm leaving without looking back.' By then, Fan had already got a grounding in comedy performance, with slots at local comedy clubs. After leaving her husband – conceding both of their two houses to him, to get him to agree to a divorce – she decided to give stand-up a real shot, she said. During her viral performance, she moved from innocent self-mockery to full-throttled roasting of her ex-husband, who she calls a 'corgi' because of his diminutive stature. 'How tough is it for a rural auntie to come to the city for work for the first time?' she asks. Then she considered her current, dire situation. 'I glanced at my husband beside me and thought, 'I'm not scared of this challenge.'' Apart from her marriage, she also opened up about other taboo topics for Chinese women, such as oft-marginalized biological realities. Noting her newfound late-life stardom, she said that – unlike many women who retire when their periods stop – 'my menopause will come with my debut.' Moving on Fans who CNN spoke to are rooting for the rising female comedy scene in China, pushing back against Zhejiang officials' warning against 'gender opposition.' Zhang Yuanqi said she watched Fan's show with her mother, who similarly left an abusive home, a decade ago. She said comedians like Fan are 'not trying to stir up 'gender opposition'; they're just turning their life experiences into jokes.' 'What we want to hear is our own lives,' she said. 'I started to wonder if my mom had similar worries that she kept to herself, thinking she had to handle them alone,' Huang Xueyao, a 21-year-old university student, said. Fan touched on issues women encounter daily, she said, adding that she couldn't understand the local government's warnings. 'They tell us to stop. What's really behind the officials' thinking?' added Huang, who said she hopes to take her mother to see Fan perform in person. Meng, from LSE, said the Chinese government is grappling to understand this newly emerging form of entertainment, which may explain the cautious approach, though the warning from the Zhejiang authorities is unlikely to have further consequences on Fan. As of Sunday, Fan's Weibo account remains active (a deactivation would be one of the first signs a performer has fallen afoul of China's censorship apparatus) – though some posts railing against the veiled official warning have been removed. For the rising performer, comedy is more than just a newfound career, but also a way of getting catharsis. 'The biggest change in me since I've started doing stand-up comedy is that I no longer get angry at my ex-husband's every move,' Fan told Sanlian. 'There is a feeling of reconciliation.'
CNN
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- CNN
Joking about her abusive husband launched this Chinese comedian to stardom. The authorities aren't laughing
Crime Asia China Social mediaFacebookTweetLink Follow With her short hair and unshowy clothing, Fan Chunli looks every bit the middle-aged woman from rural China. Among a crowd of youngsters vying to become the next breakout star in one of China's most popular stand-up comedy contests, she stands out. But when the 50-year-old takes the mic, she beams with life and drips sarcasm, unloading jokes about her abusive ex-husband that bring the audience into a mix of laughter and tears. Hailing from a place where simply knowing how to use the internet 'makes me the Elon Musk of my village,' Fan is the latest sensation in China's booming scene for stand-up comedy, an artform that offers an outlet for pent-up grievances in a country that often stifles open discussion of politics or society. But Fan's acerbic takes on patriarchy and domestic abuse have alarmed some officials in China, where women's rights remain a sensitive issue. Trying to boost birth rates and thwart a looming demographic crisis, the ruling Communist Party is urging women to embrace traditional gender roles. It has cracked down hard on the country's nascent feminist movement, which it deems a malicious Western influence. During the performance that shot her to fame earlier this month, Fan laid bare the absurdity facing many victims of domestic violence in the country. She said she was beaten by her ex-husband. But when she told her parents she wanted a divorce, her father warned her not to bring disgrace to the family. 'When men are involved in domestic violence, it's not shameful. When women demand a divorce, it's shameful,' she said, drawing cheers during her performance at The King of Stand-up Comedy, a popular contest streamed by online platform iQiyi. Fan's performance appears to have chagrined at least one local government. As footage of her routine went viral last week, officials in the eastern province of Zhejiang issued a warning saying such jokes are 'catalysts that provoke' gender conflict. The statement didn't directly name Fan, or the show in question, alluding only to a newcomer dubbed an 'industry gem' – the nickname given to her by the show's judges. 'The content of some talk shows is gradually deviating from its nature of humor, simplifying gender issues and repeatedly making a fuss about the 'opposition between men and women,'' the local government's publicity department wrote on Chinese social media platform WeChat. The province has no specific link to Fan or the TV show, but the department occasionally posts commentaries on recent trends. Any discussion of gender issues, it said, should be 'rational.' China's government has cracked down on feminist activism over the past decade. Most notably, a group of women who became known as the 'Feminist Five' were arrested after planning protests on public transport against sexual harassment in 2015. Authorities have, however, allowed some mild-mannered discussion on social media, while movies featuring feminist themes continue to screen without a problem – as long as they do not amount to a call for action, experts say. But Fan's background – provincial, not well off or highly educated – may be contributing to official disquiet over her popularity, adding an extra layer of scrutiny. 'She's a middle-aged woman who comes from a rural background, not one of those typical urban liberal elite feminists,' said Meng Bingchun, a communications professor who researches feminism at the London School of Economics (LSE). 'And this seems to indicate that this kind of discontent and grievance related to gender issues and the traditional Confucian, patriarchal values is probably more widespread than they (the authorities) are willing to acknowledge,' she told CNN. Traditional social codes can sometimes prove as strict as any government diktat. Late last year, Chinese e-commerce giant JD faced a boycott by customers infuriated by its casting of trailblazing woman comedian Yang Li in a promotional live stream. Those leading the action were apparently still stung by Yang's signature quip from five years ago, chiding mediocre men: 'How come he looks so average, yet still so confident?' Bowing to the online backlash, the company apologized and severed ties with Yang. Fan has never openly identified herself as a feminist. But in a post on the online platform Weibo, she wrote that she believes leaving behind the social constraints of rural life can lead to 'the awakening of women.' 'For example, when I say I want a divorce in my village, I'm seen as an unpardonable villain,' she wrote. 'But when I talk about my divorce outside, the audience applauds.' Growing up away from China's major cities, she didn't receive any formal education until the age of 8, she told Chinese state-owned Sanlian Lifeweek in an interview. But that soon ended after junior high. Raised in an era when opportunities mostly went to men, she recalled picking up a job in a city before getting married, and her mother handing all the money she sent home to her brother. 'Girls growing up in rural villages have no rights to inherit anything. Not the house. Not the land,' she told Sanlian. 'At the time… I just wanted to get married.' But after getting married, she found out 'family and marriage trapped women, making it impossible for them to make money.' For Fan, life before stand-up was a cleaning job at an obscure village in her home province of Shandong, in China's northeast. Her path to stardom started with an unlikely twist. In 2023, struggling to make ends meet, she recalled selling her jewelry to see a performance by her idol, a comedian named Li Bo, state-run media reported. At the show, she was supposed to be roasted during an improv segment, but Fan's quick-witted responses impressed the performer, who decided to introduce Fan to the trade, she said. Fan has plenty of experience to draw on when it comes to divorce, having contemplated her own for more than two decades. 'I was already thinking about getting a divorce when my eldest daughter was born,' she told Sanlian. The mother of two described her ex-husband as a gambler, whose absence left her to look after her sick father-in-law alone. She also poked fun at his uncouth manners, saying he ate congee – a popular Chinese rice porridge – directly from the ladle. One time her ex-husband and his father beat her up so badly that her face was covered in bruises, she alleged. She ran home to tell her parents that she wanted a divorce, only to be deterred by her mother, who told her to break up the relationship only if he was having an affair. The last straw was a year or two ago when she caught her husband once again going ladle-to-mouth with the congee. 'This time,' she recalled thinking, 'I'm leaving without looking back.' By then, Fan had already got a grounding in comedy performance, with slots at local comedy clubs. After leaving her husband – conceding both of their two houses to him, to get him to agree to a divorce – she decided to give stand-up a real shot, she said. During her viral performance, she moved from innocent self-mockery to full-throttled roasting of her ex-husband, who she calls a 'corgi' because of his diminutive stature. 'How tough is it for a rural auntie to come to the city for work for the first time?' she asks. Then she considered her current, dire situation. 'I glanced at my husband beside me and thought, 'I'm not scared of this challenge.'' Apart from her marriage, she also opened up about other taboo topics for Chinese women, such as oft-marginalized biological realities. Noting her newfound late-life stardom, she said that – unlike many women who retire when their periods stop – 'my menopause will come with my debut.' Fans who CNN spoke to are rooting for the rising female comedy scene in China, pushing back against Zhejiang officials' warning against 'gender opposition.' Zhang Yuanqi said she watched Fan's show with her mother, who similarly left an abusive home, a decade ago. She said comedians like Fan are 'not trying to stir up 'gender opposition'; they're just turning their life experiences into jokes.' 'What we want to hear is our own lives,' she said. 'I started to wonder if my mom had similar worries that she kept to herself, thinking she had to handle them alone,' Huang Xueyao, a 21-year-old university student, said. Fan touched on issues women encounter daily, she said, adding that she couldn't understand the local government's warnings. 'They tell us to stop. What's really behind the officials' thinking?' added Huang, who said she hopes to take her mother to see Fan perform in person. Meng, from LSE, said the Chinese government is grappling to understand this newly emerging form of entertainment, which may explain the cautious approach, though the warning from the Zhejiang authorities is unlikely to have further consequences on Fan. As of Sunday, Fan's Weibo account remains active (a deactivation would be one of the first signs a performer has fallen afoul of China's censorship apparatus) – though some posts railing against the veiled official warning have been removed. For the rising performer, comedy is more than just a newfound career, but also a way of getting catharsis. 'The biggest change in me since I've started doing stand-up comedy is that I no longer get angry at my ex-husband's every move,' Fan told Sanlian. 'There is a feeling of reconciliation.'
CNN
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- CNN
Joking about her abusive husband launched this Chinese comedian to stardom. The authorities aren't laughing
With her short hair and unshowy clothing, Fan Chunli looks every bit the middle-aged woman from rural China. Among a crowd of youngsters vying to become the next breakout star in one of China's most popular stand-up comedy contests, she stands out. But when the 50-year-old takes the mic, she beams with life and drips sarcasm, unloading jokes about her abusive ex-husband that bring the audience into a mix of laughter and tears. Hailing from a place where simply knowing how to use the internet 'makes me the Elon Musk of my village,' Fan is the latest sensation in China's booming scene for stand-up comedy, an artform that offers an outlet for pent-up grievances in a country that often stifles open discussion of politics or society. But Fan's acerbic takes on patriarchy and domestic abuse have alarmed some officials in China, where women's rights remain a sensitive issue. Trying to boost birth rates and thwart a looming demographic crisis, the ruling Communist Party is urging women to embrace traditional gender roles. It has cracked down hard on the country's nascent feminist movement, which it deems a malicious Western influence. During the performance that shot her to fame earlier this month, Fan laid bare the absurdity facing many victims of domestic violence in the country. She said she was beaten by her ex-husband. But when she told her parents she wanted a divorce, her father warned her not to bring disgrace to the family. 'When men are involved in domestic violence, it's not shameful. When women demand a divorce, it's shameful,' she said, drawing cheers during her performance at The King of Stand-up Comedy, a popular contest streamed by online platform iQiyi. Fan's performance appears to have chagrined at least one local government. As footage of her routine went viral last week, officials in the eastern province of Zhejiang issued a warning saying such jokes are 'catalysts that provoke' gender conflict. The statement didn't directly name Fan, or the show in question, alluding only to a newcomer dubbed an 'industry gem' – the nickname given to her by the show's judges. 'The content of some talk shows is gradually deviating from its nature of humor, simplifying gender issues and repeatedly making a fuss about the 'opposition between men and women,'' the local government's publicity department wrote on Chinese social media platform WeChat. The province has no specific link to Fan or the TV show, but the department occasionally posts commentaries on recent trends. Any discussion of gender issues, it said, should be 'rational.' China's government has cracked down on feminist activism over the past decade. Most notably, a group of women who became known as the 'Feminist Five' were arrested after planning protests on public transport against sexual harassment in 2015. Authorities have, however, allowed some mild-mannered discussion on social media, while movies featuring feminist themes continue to screen without a problem – as long as they do not amount to a call for action, experts say. But Fan's background – provincial, not well off or highly educated – may be contributing to official disquiet over her popularity, adding an extra layer of scrutiny. 'She's a middle-aged woman who comes from a rural background, not one of those typical urban liberal elite feminists,' said Meng Bingchun, a communications professor who researches feminism at the London School of Economics (LSE). 'And this seems to indicate that this kind of discontent and grievance related to gender issues and the traditional Confucian, patriarchal values is probably more widespread than they (the authorities) are willing to acknowledge,' she told CNN. Traditional social codes can sometimes prove as strict as any government diktat. Late last year, Chinese e-commerce giant JD faced a boycott by customers infuriated by its casting of trailblazing woman comedian Yang Li in a promotional live stream. Those leading the action were apparently still stung by Yang's signature quip from five years ago, chiding mediocre men: 'How come he looks so average, yet still so confident?' Bowing to the online backlash, the company apologized and severed ties with Yang. Fan has never openly identified herself as a feminist. But in a post on the online platform Weibo, she wrote that she believes leaving behind the social constraints of rural life can lead to 'the awakening of women.' 'For example, when I say I want a divorce in my village, I'm seen as an unpardonable villain,' she wrote. 'But when I talk about my divorce outside, the audience applauds.' Growing up away from China's major cities, she didn't receive any formal education until the age of 8, she told Chinese state-owned Sanlian Lifeweek in an interview. But that soon ended after junior high. Raised in an era when opportunities mostly went to men, she recalled picking up a job in a city before getting married, and her mother handing all the money she sent home to her brother. 'Girls growing up in rural villages have no rights to inherit anything. Not the house. Not the land,' she told Sanlian. 'At the time… I just wanted to get married.' But after getting married, she found out 'family and marriage trapped women, making it impossible for them to make money.' For Fan, life before stand-up was a cleaning job at an obscure village in her home province of Shandong, in China's northeast. Her path to stardom started with an unlikely twist. In 2023, struggling to make ends meet, she recalled selling her jewelry to see a performance by her idol, a comedian named Li Bo, state-run media reported. At the show, she was supposed to be roasted during an improv segment, but Fan's quick-witted responses impressed the performer, who decided to introduce Fan to the trade, she said. Fan has plenty of experience to draw on when it comes to divorce, having contemplated her own for more than two decades. 'I was already thinking about getting a divorce when my eldest daughter was born,' she told Sanlian. The mother of two described her ex-husband as a gambler, whose absence left her to look after her sick father-in-law alone. She also poked fun at his uncouth manners, saying he ate congee – a popular Chinese rice porridge – directly from the ladle. One time her ex-husband and his father beat her up so badly that her face was covered in bruises, she alleged. She ran home to tell her parents that she wanted a divorce, only to be deterred by her mother, who told her to break up the relationship only if he was having an affair. The last straw was a year or two ago when she caught her husband once again going ladle-to-mouth with the congee. 'This time,' she recalled thinking, 'I'm leaving without looking back.' By then, Fan had already got a grounding in comedy performance, with slots at local comedy clubs. After leaving her husband – conceding both of their two houses to him, to get him to agree to a divorce – she decided to give stand-up a real shot, she said. During her viral performance, she moved from innocent self-mockery to full-throttled roasting of her ex-husband, who she calls a 'corgi' because of his diminutive stature. 'How tough is it for a rural auntie to come to the city for work for the first time?' she asks. Then she considered her current, dire situation. 'I glanced at my husband beside me and thought, 'I'm not scared of this challenge.'' Apart from her marriage, she also opened up about other taboo topics for Chinese women, such as oft-marginalized biological realities. Noting her newfound late-life stardom, she said that – unlike many women who retire when their periods stop – 'my menopause will come with my debut.' Fans who CNN spoke to are rooting for the rising female comedy scene in China, pushing back against Zhejiang officials' warning against 'gender opposition.' Zhang Yuanqi said she watched Fan's show with her mother, who similarly left an abusive home, a decade ago. She said comedians like Fan are 'not trying to stir up 'gender opposition'; they're just turning their life experiences into jokes.' 'What we want to hear is our own lives,' she said. 'I started to wonder if my mom had similar worries that she kept to herself, thinking she had to handle them alone,' Huang Xueyao, a 21-year-old university student, said. Fan touched on issues women encounter daily, she said, adding that she couldn't understand the local government's warnings. 'They tell us to stop. What's really behind the officials' thinking?' added Huang, who said she hopes to take her mother to see Fan perform in person. Meng, from LSE, said the Chinese government is grappling to understand this newly emerging form of entertainment, which may explain the cautious approach, though the warning from the Zhejiang authorities is unlikely to have further consequences on Fan. As of Sunday, Fan's Weibo account remains active (a deactivation would be one of the first signs a performer has fallen afoul of China's censorship apparatus) – though some posts railing against the veiled official warning have been removed. For the rising performer, comedy is more than just a newfound career, but also a way of getting catharsis. 'The biggest change in me since I've started doing stand-up comedy is that I no longer get angry at my ex-husband's every move,' Fan told Sanlian. 'There is a feeling of reconciliation.'
