Saturday night laughs

Popular weekend TV show spotlights a diverse range of comedians and performance styles, providing a lighthearted diversion for Chinese viewers, Li Yingxue reports.

From musicals, sketches and cross-talk, to mime and drama, there's a TV show that's bringing all kinds of comedy together, giving audiences even greater reason to smile.

Aired on Saturday nights on China Central Television, the variety show, Xijude Xiju (gathering of comedy), is delivering a diverse collection of comedic performances, inspired by everyday moments and ordinary people.

Premiering on Nov 19, the show gathers 16 groups of comedians who deliver their meticulously prepared performances and are ranked by the 150 members of the live audience.

After the second episode was released, the hashtag of "What kind of people are most likely to be cheated" was trending on social networking platform Weibo, attracting over 52 million clicks, following the cross-talk performance by Zheng Jian and Li Ding on the topic of scams.

During the skit, the two performers acted out how common scams work, including bogus transactions through the internet and the fraudulent impersonation of officials.

Celebrity guests, including actress Cai Ming, actor Feng Lei, martial arts star Zhao Wenzhuo and Hong Kong pop star Alam Tam, among others, have been invited onto the show to comment on the performance of the comedians.

Feng was impressed by mime artist Zhang Shuangjian's love-themed performance, in which Zhang used delicate physical expressions and funny actions to enable the audience to feel the sweetness, romance and sadness, as well as a sense of helplessness, in the love story.

"He performs one person's whole life, which is heartwarming and touching. From a technical aspect, the difficulty of his performance is also very high, yet he manages to deliver," Feng commented following the conclusion of Zhang's act, adding: "I want to try that kind of performance, but it's too difficult for me."