People in the same industry are enemies. If you become famous, others will be jealous of you!
Chinese literary and art circles have been controlled by certain people for a long time. If you look at the people who talked about cross talk in the Spring Festival Gala, you will understand that they are all from the same group! I don’t have any cross talk skills at all, and I talk about bad cross talk every day, just making jokes, and anyone can say it! Unlike Lao Guo, although he tells a lot of dirty jokes, Lao Guo's skills can also be seen from them! How could cross talk be so popular without Lao Guo!
Guo Degang was born in Tianjin in 1973. He joined the art world at the age of 8. He first learned storytelling from the elder Gao Qinghai, and later learned cross talk from the famous cross talk master Chang Baofeng. During this period, he devoted himself to learning Peking Opera, Ping Opera, Hebei Bangzi and other operas, and moved around in the Liyuan, doing Wen Chou and Tong Chui. By drawing on a variety of art forms, he formed his own style. He started to travel to Beijing in 1995, performing traditional cross talk in theaters for a long time, and is proficient in more than 600 old jokes. In 1996, he organized the cross talk team Deyunshe, and has partnered with famous artists such as Fan Zhenyu and Zhang Wenshun. In 2005, he joined the Railway Art Troupe and became a student of Hou Yaowen. The jokes often performed by Deyun Club include: "Tie a Doll", "Learning Radio", "Looking for a Church Meeting", "White House Meeting", "Reporting the Name of the Dish", "Revealing the Tile", "Entrusting Wife and Presenting Son", " "Layang Movie", "Wuzhuizi", "Sheep on the Tree", etc., and also discovered, preserved and performed some traditional crosstalk that are no longer seen, and are deeply loved by crosstalk fans in Beijing and Tianjin.
The development history of Deyun Society
It is said that in 1995, five short-bodied men from Tianjin bravely broke into Beijing. Within ten years, they recruited disciples to set up companies in cross talk, and eventually became popular all over the country. Who is the hero? This person's name is Guo Degang, and his company is the famous Deyun Society. While many people marveled at the "overnight success" of Guo's Deyun Club, little did they know that it had already celebrated its first tenth anniversary. Regarding the ups and downs that Guo Degang and Deyun Club experienced on the way to attaining righteousness, I paraphrase Guo Banzhu’s classic line: “Everyone is willing to listen, are you willing to listen, are you willing to listen?” I must be willing
The first time I went to Beijing alone to do cross talk at the Dream Teahouse and Theater
“In order to control the number of people, we have tried every means. We now only have one ticket booking phone, but even so, two operators still often answer the phone My voice is hoarse.”
On October 25, 2006, when a reporter interviewed Zhang Fuyan, the manager of Tianqiao Music, he pointed at the phone in his office and complained. Tianqiao Music is now a relatively fixed performance venue of Deyun Club. Tickets for Deyun Club’s performances every Thursday to Sunday are hard to get, so if you want to watch a performance at Tianqiao Music, you need to book tickets one week in advance. This situation was gradually formed after several years of accumulation, starting from 1995 when Guo Degang started his business.
“The first time I came to Beijing was to become famous. It was popular at that time to drift to the north. It was a very popular idea at the time for us to come to Beijing to bark at any good dog. When I first came to Beijing, my mentality was to follow a certain The troupe will become famous once it can perform in the Spring Festival Gala, but after arriving in Beijing, I found that it was not what I imagined." Recalling the difficulties of starting a business ten years ago, Guo Degang was very emotional.
In 1995, Guo Degang, who had "lofty" ideals, came to Beijing alone to start a business. When his dream was shattered and the cruel reality was faced, he continued to make a living by starting a company, planning, and hosting. While making a living, he started planning cross talk performances with colleagues in the folk arts industry. The first people he found were Zhang Wenshun, a senior in the cross talk industry, and Li Jing, a young actor who had loved the art of cross talk since childhood. Since they had similar interests, they began to meet and spend their spare time to perform in Beijing Tea House, Guangde Building and other places. Starting in 1996, crosstalk actors Xing Wenzhao and Xu Deliang began to join the performances organized by Guo Degang. By 1998, the performance group headed by Guo Degang expanded to more than a dozen people, and the performance venues also expanded from teahouses to Zhonghe Theater, Huasheng Tianqiao, etc. In a slightly larger teahouse and theater.
"Performances in the first few years were usually performed from afternoon to evening, with a ticket costing 2 yuan. When there were many actors, they would do cross talk, and when there were few, they would tell stories. The teahouses only made money for tea. All the box office revenue belongs to us actors. Although the conditions are very favorable, since there is no fixed performance venue and audience, if the income per person can reach 30 yuan per day, we will be happy for several days. This is the result. Everyone. They don’t even work for this little money,” Guo Degang recalled.
Speaking of this experience, Xing Wenzhao, an old artist from Deyun Club, was also very sentimental. He told reporters that he and Zhang Wenshun both had the experience of performing for an audience, "One audience, five or six actors, after one performance, Everyone only earns 10 yuan a day.”
“When I first met Master, their cast was relatively well-organized, and they hired eight or nine old gentlemen from outside Tianjin, and they were usually around 65 years old. This situation lasted for about three or four months. At that time, Deyun Club was still called the "Beijing Crosstalk Conference". This is a memory of He Yunwei, Guo Degang's great disciple. He Yunwei began to study under Guo Degang in 2002. In 1999, when he first heard Guo Degang talk about cross talk, he was just a teahouse customer. The "Beijing Cross Talk Conference" he mentioned was the predecessor of Deyun Club.
The second cross talk conference took shape and entered Guangde Building three times in five years
In 1998, since the performance organized by Guo Degang already had a considerable number of actors, he followed the instructions In the cross talk world, the performance of this small group is called "cross talk conference".
“I saw Guo Degang’s performance at Zhonghe Theater in 1998, and I felt that Guo Degang’s inheritance and understanding of traditional cross talk was unique,” ??Wang Wenlin, a veteran artist of Deyun Society, told reporters.
When it comes to the audience accumulation, Guo Degang also feels the same way: "Many viewers think that my way of speaking cross talk is different from others, and basically they go to teahouses to listen to cross talk for this reason." So, from then on, Beginning in 1998, the "Beijing Crosstalk Conference" organized by Guo Degang began to become famous. For one performance, more than 100 people could sit in the teahouse. Sometimes guests could not get in, so they even put their tea bowls on the windowsill and stood outside to listen. However, this good situation did not last long. Due to the constant flow of performances and the poor operating conditions of some theaters, many audiences were lost. "When it was popular, we split the bill with several theaters 37 points, and the theater got three points. The better theaters asked for 46 points, and finally asked for 19 points, which was their nine points. We really couldn't do it anymore, so we had to leave." Guo Degang said.
"Guo Degang entered Guangde Tower three times."
When talking about the "history" of Guo Degang's development from a few audiences to dozens or hundreds of people, the people in Guangde Tower Manager Zhang Jiping thought of this joke. It turned out that before confirming the performance of Tianqiao Music, Guo Degang had been looking for a theater with which he could cooperate for a long time. When it persisted until 2002, Guo Degang's "Crosstalk Conference" could be said to have moved into Guangde Building like a "rescue". "Before 2002, Guangde Tower mainly featured cross talk performances. At that time, some actors from the Beijing Folk Art Troupe, such as Li Jindou, performed here, and the box office was also very good. After some actors from the Beijing Folk Art Troupe joined various cultural troupes in 2002, Guangde House Lou's cross talk performance fell into a trough, and Guo Degang happened to take over," Zhang Jiping said. However, according to his recollection, the performance of the "Cross Talk Conference" was not very ideal at that time, and there were still times when there was only one audience. So we worked together for a year, but still couldn't stick with it.
Two years later, in 2005, Guangde Building implemented self-financing. At this time, Guo Degang once again led the team to start cross talk performances here. At that time, Guo Degang also occupied a place in Tianqiao Music. According to Zhang Jiping's recollection, it was the Spring Festival of 2006 when Deyun Club entered Guangde House for the third time. At that time, they were very popular and brought more than 10,000 yuan in box office revenue to Guangde House in one performance. The most glorious period of Delou's performances in recent years.
The third episode of the newly renamed Deyun Society Encountering Zhiyin Tianqiao Music
“In 2003, after the performance at Guangde Tower ended, some actors of the ‘Cross Talk Conference’ wanted to make a living. A number of them left one after another, and there were only one or two cross talk performances occasionally, which was already in a semi-stagnant state. Later, Guo Degang also took He Yunwei and others to perform at the "Tian Shang Xuan" (restaurant), which basically meant no income, and he mainly brought actors. Let's practice." Xing Wenzhao also told an episode when recalling the situation during the Guangde Tower performance. He told reporters that although some actors left, actors who loved cross talk still joined in, so the performance team reached more than a dozen people, and starting that year, the cross talk conference began to be renamed "Deyun Club" and had its own website.
In early 2004, Guo Degang accidentally watched an amateur drum performance at Tianqiao Music and found that the location and area of ??this theater were very suitable for Deyun Club. It happened to coincide with the management restructuring of Tianqiao Music, so When Guo discussed the performance intention with Tianqiao Music's manager Zhang Fuyan, the two parties "hit it off" immediately.
So starting from October 2004, Deyun Society began to perform at Tianqiao Music.
“I didn’t expect Deyun Society to be so popular at first, and we accepted them with a supportive attitude.” Zhang Fuyan recalled. He told reporters that when Deyun Club first settled in Tianqiao Le, it also experienced a period of desolation. The original customers were in their twenties and thirties, and each ticket cost 20 yuan, which was divided between the theater and Deyun Society. The income of Tianqiao Le Teahouse after a day's performance was only about 200 yuan at most.
"We went hand in hand like this. I was anxious at the time, and Degang was anxious as well, but neither party had any intention of terminating the cooperation." Zhang Fuyan said.
Persistence finally paid off.
In May and June of 2005, the number of guests at Tianqiao Le gradually increased. By New Year's Eve 2006, the crowds were overwhelming. Since the performances in many theaters in Beijing were unsuccessful, why was Tianqiao Music's performance so popular and extremely popular? Zhang Fuyan believes that there are reasons for Deyun Club itself, but on the other hand, it is the geographical advantage of Tianqiao Le. Guo Degang and Xing Wenzhao believe that this is also because actors have been exercising all year round and their professional skills have been improved, thus attracting audiences. In addition, media attention also plays a big role.
According to Guo Degang’s recollection, the first media intervention was Dapeng, the host of Beijing Art Radio’s “Happy Teahouse” program.
Epilogue: After all the hard work, the success comes true, setting up a base to train students
Now that the show is popular, Deyun Society has also experienced success. Li Jing told reporters that Deyun Club currently has 39 actors and 67 administrative staff. The appearance fee for a commercial performance has reached 300,000 yuan. This is compared with 100 yuan per person for a performance a few years ago. , it’s a world of difference; now most of the actors in Deyun Club also perform cross talk as a career, and their monthly income is enough to cover family expenses: the appearance fees of old artists such as Wang Wenlin and Xing Wenzhao have doubled compared with the past; Li Jing is now known as the young leader of Deyun Club. This year she bought a house with a mortgage and put all her work into performing and managing Deyun Club; Yu Qian also gave up all film and television activities and devoted himself to Deyun Club. performances; and He Yunwei has not only grown from a layman who only knew one or two jokes at the beginning to a connoisseur who has mastered more than 120 jokes, but also earns an average performance income of more than 1,000 yuan per week.
However, Guo Degang is not limited to making everyone live a good life. For future development, he not only continues to explore and organize traditional cross talk, but also sets up a large-scale school to train students in the "Crane" character subject , and handed it over to Li Jing for management. When it comes to running a school, Li Jing talks eloquently.
“Our requirements for recruiting students are not high. As long as they really love cross talk, they will take care of their food and housing, and sometimes give them some pocket money.
However, students who sign up have to go through a process. Guan is the assessment and selection of Deyun Club members. Therefore, the number of students in this class has been eliminated from the original hundreds to the current 20 people, and they will be eliminated one after another.
"De" comes from the genealogy, " "Cloud" is taken from the study room
Speaking of the ten years of Deyun Society, we must mention the origin of the name "Deyun Society". In the old society, there was a saying in the crosstalk circle of "the eight virtues of crosstalk" (that is, the word "de") Eight star actors of his generation). Among them are Ma Sanli’s father Ma Delu, Ma Sanli’s teacher Zhou Deshan, Li De? "" is followed by the generation with the character "宝", such as Hou Baolin, and then followed by the generation with the character "文", such as Su Wenmao. After the character "文" is the generation with the character "明", such as Jiang Kun, Feng Gong, etc., and Guo Degang also belongs to the "Ming" generation. "" generation, but so far, almost no actors have been named according to the word "明".
However, if calculated according to the seniority in the cross talk world, the seniority of Deyun Society is a bit confusing. For this reason, Guo Degang's The reporter explained everything one by one: “My name was chosen according to our family’s genealogy.
Xu Deliang and Zhang Dewu thought that my "virtue" sounded very good at first, so they changed Xu Liang to Xu Deliang and Zhang Chengwu to Zhang Dewu. As for my apprentice's generation, there is no clear rule in the cross talk world about what a word is. In addition, there are rules in the cross talk world that allow you to choose a word for yourself. It happened that Mr. Zhang Wenshun liked the word "cloud" very much, and his study room was also called "Tingyunxuan", so there were He Yunwei and Cao Yunjin. "
According to Guo Degang, the original intention of establishing Deyun Club was also to make the team more formal.
"'Crosstalk Conference' is just a form of performance, representing a regional feature, not like the name of a crosstalk group, so I wanted to call it Beijing Deyun Folk Art Research Society. Xu Deliang thought it was too hard to pronounce, so it was finally changed to Deyun Society." Guo Degang said. , the students they are recruiting for the "Crane" character science are not ranked by seniority, but are chosen by themselves. "Clouds and cranes rise to the sky, dragons soar across the sea"
We recruit a group of students every two years in the name of this pair. However, the students in the Bazi Department are of the same seniority, but have different ages of admission. This is also arranged according to the standards of the opera industry.