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27th June 2011

Just For Laughs Reverses Canada’s Trade Deficit With China

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Just For LaughsJune Jiang Kun and Mark ‘Dashan’ Rowswell team up in the ground-breaking television special, the Chinese Comedy & Variety Show, in Mandarin with English subtitles, filmed at the Toronto Just For Laughs Festival. The English-subtitled version will air on OMNI. 2 and OMNI British Columbia, Sunday July 10, 2011 at 8:30 PM. The 90-minute special premiered on OMNI Television February 6th, to coincide with Chinese New Year, and following that was seen by millions in China when it aired on April 22 and 23 on Chinese network CCTV3.

Jiang Kun, China’s biggest comedy superstar brings his full Quyi Performing Arts Group to Just For Laughs Toronto for a live show that defies description. His comedy partner, and host of the television special, is Canadian ‘Dashan’, who has been called “the most famous foreigner in China.”

Just For Laughs’ own Chairman Mao, Andy Nulman said, “we’re thrilled that this risky undertaking proved to be hilarious, and we’re hoping to help out the Western world’s economy by selling something TO China, for a change. I always thought Mandarin sounded funny, but now I know it does. Now that we know we got great ratings in China, with about 30 to 40 million viewers tuning in, I will do my best to convince the Canadian government not to invade their nation.”

The on-stage performances feature a hilarious mix of comedy and variety; acts include spoken-word comedy, the three M’s of variety: music, magic, mime and the wildly popular Aerfa (the Justin Bieber of China).

Jiang Kun is without question the biggest comedy star in the world given the number of fans he has, as his comedy specials regularly rate in the multiple-hundreds of millions with the Chinese audiences. Dashan, AKA Mark Rowswell, has worked in China as a performer, television host and cultural ambassador for over 20 years. A Canadian, he studied Chinese at Beijing University, and a chance television appearance jump-started his comedy career, gradually turning “Dashan” into a household name across China.

Filmed as part of the Toronto Just For Laughs Festival, this is the second television project of Just For Laughs in a third language (other than the two official Canadian languages). Last year’s Just For Laughs Hinglish started the initiative, in Hindi. In collaboration with OMNI Television, it’s our mission to bring laughter to Canadians from a wide range of ethnic communities, and comedy fans around the world… no matter what language they speak.

This entry was posted on Monday, June 27th, 2011 at 11:27 am and is filed under National News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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