Embrace the Funny Side of Cynicism with Cale Holmes on Apr 23

American standup Cale Holmes, a staple of Beijing's comedy circuit, is set to do his first comedy headliner this coming Saturday. I caught up with Cale ahead of the show to find out more about the gig, his road to comedy, and the reason behind it's name: Cynicism.

Cale first started doing standup comedy in 2016 when he was studying at Columbia Journalism School in New York. After graduating, he moved to Washington DC where he continued working on his standup, and has been part of the comedy scene in Beijing since the pandemic. Overall he’s been doing comedy for about five and half years now, but he jokingly told me “I only got funny a few years ago”.

I asked Cale about how he got interested in doing comedy. “I’ve always liked making people laugh, when I was a kid I always wanted to be taken seriously but no one took me seriously. Then I realised that they will if you make them laugh, adults love a funny kid.”

Touching on this more he added “[I] also got into comedy partly because I was bullied as a kid, if you’re the funny kid and you can laugh it off then the bullying isn’t so powerful anymore.” Which leads onto his other reason for getting into comedy, saying “it was kind of a way of dealing with trauma. I always say comedy is like therapy but with funny voices and people pay me so luckily I don’t go broke in the process.”

Delving deeper into the why he started doing comedy Cale told me “I was inspired by people like George Carlin, Chris Rock, Richard Prior, Dave Chapelle and John Stewart growing up. These are often the people I would consume, they didn’t only influence my way of being funny but also the way I think about the world.” Cale sees comedy as “like a public service honestly”, explaining “I’m motivated to spread laughter… we’re passively experiencing the world around us but comedy is my opportunity to get on stage to tell people how I feel about it and maybe in the process make people laugh, make people think, sometimes even make people upset.”

Expanding on people being upset, Cale has said that he has become used to dealing with hecklers over the years and that “Paddy O’Sheas is the best place to learn how to handle hecklers”, although “usually to be honest you don’t get heckled a lot in Beijing but when you do it’s kind of easy to come back with a quick joke”.

Being able to deal with hecklers is surely a sign of a veteran comedian, but I also wanted to know what Cale’s first time doing stand-up felt like. “It was kind of like sex, it was very overwhelming, over way too fast and afterwards I kind of felt a little bit winded like I need some water, mainly because I was drunk… The first time was weird because I actually killed, I did good and I was like holy shit I didn’t expect that to go that well, I thought I was going to bomb.” Before going on he was incredibly nervous and saying to himself “I don’t want to do this, I can’t do this, I don’t want to go on stage”, but was given reassurance and a beer from a friend which helped.

This echoes his feelings about doing his first headline show saying “I don’t want to do it, I don’t want to do it, I don’t want to do it”. Joking aside he said “I’m very nervous but also very excited, I invited a lot of people. I was going to do it in October but it ended up not happening, it was probably for the best, maybe I needed a few more months to refine my act, but now I’m ready.”

Speaking more on the upcoming show’s title Cynicism, he said the idea came when he was asking people what his comedy persona was and someone told him “you have a very thoughtful but also cynical sense of humor, so I thought that the best idea for my first special should be cynicism”. The flyer for the show has been made to look like the famous poster used by former US president Barack Obama during his first presidential campaign; however  “hope” has been replaced with “cynicism”. 

Cale is keen to point out that cynicism is different than despair, saying he views cynicism as “realizing the world isn’t such a shiny place and that institutions aren’t perfect but doesn’t mean there is no reason not to laugh. We can laugh at the expense of the world around us and everything that’s happening: everyday struggles, shit at work, dating…it’s easier to take on if you realise you can laugh about it… it’s not so daunting… so cynicism is actually healthy that’s what I want to try and achieve with this headliner.” He adds “I’m not saying don’t care about things, you should care, but people shouldn’t take things too seriously at the same time.”

He points to fellow Beijing comedians such as Joe Wong, Eric Selley and Donnie Fan who also have a cynical aspect to their comedy and have helped him develop and progress. I asked him more about how he has progressed since he started doing comedy. “Firstly I’ve gotten more funny, at least most of the time, and I’ve developed my persona finally…My first ever performance I was borrowing a lot persona wise from Chris Rock, not the same jokes but the same mannerisms and I also relied a lot on Bill Hicks and George Carlin later on. But now I’m not imitating those people but emulating them and making it my own thing”.

He also told me how his day job, as a journalist, has helped him develop his comedy act referencing the common writing advice that you have to “drown your babies” i.e. delete parts of your writing that don’t serve your story, which can also be used when writing jokes. He says that this has enabled him to become more “succinct and crisp” (we both agree crisp is a great word). Coming full circle to touch on how he believes comedy to be therapy he explains how it has also enabled him to tap into his inner child.

On tips for other Beijing comedians his advice is simple: “keep getting up on stage”, adding that it’s important “to be receptive of constructive criticism, luckily the thing about Beijing is the comedy circuit is very supportive, people will want you to do better because if we all do better and we all are funnier the whole scene is better for it.”

This leads on to his choice of openers for his show, explaining that he chose one of his openers Edge Ma not only because she’s really funny but because she’s relatively new to the comedy scene. Cale tells me Edge only started doing English standup in January of this year. He says “I wanted to book her because I think it’s very important for new comedians to get experience.” Along with Edge, another opener is Russell Walker who like Cale is half Texan and has “the same cynical take on humor and the world.” To round it all off Eric Selley will be hosting for what is sure to be one hell of a show. 

**SOLD OUT**

Cynicism presented by Comedy Club China will run Apr 23 8pm at The Great Outdoors, tickets are RMB 100 in advance or RMB 120 on the door. Scan the QR code on the poster to buy tickets.

The Great Outdoors 野友趣
12 Fangjia Hutong, Dongcheng District
东城区方家胡同12号

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Images courtesy of Cale Holmes