Comedy camp is no laughing matter

With around 25 percent of participants from Macao and Hong Kong, teachers at the camp provided special assistance to these students in creating comedy sketches in Cantonese, skillfully utilizing the language's characteristics to craft jokes.

For example, the Chinese idiom he jiu bi fen (states divide after long periods of unification) sounds like "must get married to a pet puppy "in Cantonese. This pun inspired a comedic scene in which a man and a woman fall for each other after frequently encountering one another while walking their respective dogs.

The company collaborated with the Macao Conservatory earlier this year to host a comedy training program. They also presented a Cantonese adaptation of Shear Madness, one of the longest-running nonmusical plays in the world. Additionally, the first Macao International Comedy Festival featured two foreign comedy shows: A Comedy of Operas from Spain and A Dance Tribute to the Art of Football from Norway.

The company also wishes to collaborate with foreign drama festivals and comedians.

"Currently, we are planning to curate Chinese-language comedies for the second edition of the festival and submit them for consideration to prestigious international drama festivals," Cheng adds.