[INTERVIEW] MaMaHuHu's Jorge Castellanos

We like comedy. Comedy makes us laugh. And laughter releases endorphins. Endorphins make us feel good inside. Similar to eating chocolate, or having a good romp in the sheets. However comedy, like chocolate, is something you can pay for without it being weird. That is excellent news for us and for the people who do the comedy.

I met up with Jorge Castellanos a Texas-born, Virginia-raised American whose parents come from Cuba. He has been in Shanghai for around 6 years and has been seriously focusing on comedy for the last year or so.

We sat down for a chat and I asked him some questions about who he is, why he is here, and why on earth he’s doing stand up comedy.

Why did you choose to move to Shanghai? 

I had this job working for a big animal charity in America. You would think would be great but it just wasn’t. They pretend it’s all about helping animals, but it really isn’t and most of their money was going into internal costs, and the owner of PETA is trying to abolish the pitbull dog breed and it’s just not great. Then one day I sat watching this woman freak out over some doughnuts that had been bought in and I just thought.. is this my life? And then literally that day I looked up how to move overseas. I found these English teaching jobs and three weeks later I arrived in Shanghai.

How was life in Shanghai when you first arrived?

It was a bit miserable. I was so desperate to leave America I just sold all my shit and came here. I lived at the end of line five in the middle of nowhere, just me and one other foreigner. My girl friend had broken up with me instead of moving with me… It wasn’t great.

How did you transition out of teaching?

I just quit. One day I just quit. I was working at an international school and I was moving up in the ranks. I really liked it and I think I was good at it. But then I began thinking about transitioning back to the U.S. and I realised that my experience wouldn’t translate. I didn’t like the thought of being 36 years old and on 20k a year struggling to support a family. 

What do you do now for work?

I run a year book buisness and work for an app called Hello Chinese, which is a bit like Duolingo, so I work out of their offices a lot. It’s fun and I get to build things which is great and I really enjoy it. I enjoy the education space and it pays the bills.

So where does comedy fit in?

I have always wanted to be a comedian but I never thought it would be possible. In my head I always felt like famous people were comedians and not people like me. One day I went to a workshop at Kung Fu Komedy and it was hosted by a travelling comic and I didn’t think he was that funny at all. But he was a big deal, you know, he paid his rent by doing stand up. I realised if he could do it I could do it. And I set myself a deadline and I started.

What is MaMaHuHu and how involved in MaMaHuHu are you?

MaMaHuHu was started years ago as a video platform where Alessio and Matt (Alessio Avezzano and McGill, co-owners of MaMaHuHu) used to make funny skits. It stopped for a long time due to people involved going in separate directions, but Alessio and Matt bought the rights back and we have just begun making videos again.

https://v.qq.com/txp/iframe/player.html?vid=y05348h47fz&width=500&height=375&auto=0

We are going for a mixture of funny stuff and more serious stuff. We want to move away from just doing ‘China is this and the west is this’. We want to get smart and more creative about the videos we make. In fact, we have a top secret one coming up that is going to be really cool, but I can't tell you about it. [He told me and it sounds GREAT and I want to be in it. Pllleeeaaaaassseeee.]

What do you think the future holds for you in Shanghai?

My goal is to continue to dio comedy through Kung fu Komedy. Andy (Andy Curtain who runs Kung Fu Komedy) has built a base for comedy in Shanghai and I have had the opportunity to perform with some incredible visiting comics. So my plan is to use that as a base to explore being a comic in Asia.

What I didn’t realise for a long time is that you don’t need to be super famous to pay your bills. There was just this comic from india doing a show at the comedy store in LA and he sold out ten nights. No one has even heard of him in the U.S. but in india he is a massive big deal. It’s easy to forget there is comedy outside of the U.S. and U.K.

I don’t want to be rich or famous, I would just love to use jokes to pay my bills.

Meeting Jorge was excellent, he was realistic and refreshing to speak to. We went on to get way off track and discuss sexism and racism in comedy and the arts generally. It was great and super interesting. He is a really friendly guys who is hilarious and clearly very intelligent. 

I went to see Jorge perform that night at the Kung Fu Komedy Store to see if he was a funny as I hoped he was. And he was! Excellent. I would recommend checking him out when he next has a spot on stage or buying him a beer next time you see him out and about.

Check out MaMaHuHu’s wechat account by searching: Mamahuhu 马马虎虎

And you can catch Jorge every Friday and Saturday night at: Kung Fu Comedy Club, 4/F 1 Xiangyang Bei lu, near Julu Lu.

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