Punchline Comedy Hits the Mark in Shanghai

Last Friday and Saturday night the Punchline Comedy Club was back in Shanghai doing what they do best: making people laugh. Taking place in front of a packed crowd at The Hacienda, Zapata’s brand new upstairs restaurant, it’s fair to say that the show was a hilarious success. Punchline founder John Moorhead was on hand to make sure everyone was welcomed before handing the microphone off to the show’s moderator Tim Clark.

Tim kicked off the show by taking a few easy jabs at the crowd of expats from all over Europe and America. In between sets, made sure the crowd was never let off the hook and kept everyone in a great mood (ok, so the buckets of beer and booze helped).

Dwayne Perkins was the first act to take the stage. Hailing from Los Angeles, Dwayne’s act included a refreshing taste of American culture while telling jokes that could also appeal to a Shanghai audience – I mean, who doesn’t like a good joke about white people dancing, right? “The main thing is to have a couple of jokes in the beginning about where you are, share with people your experiences, and then after that (if your jokes are universal), you can just go into your regular routine. I kind of write my jokes so there is no local references, so they work everywhere,” he said after the show.

The headliner of the show was British comedian Bob Mills, who was unbelievably hilarious from the moment he got on stage. Mills’ act offered up a healthy dose of British humor, like jokes about air traffic controllers in Fleet, U.K., who would rather be drinking than helping a plane land. But he also did a phenomenal job making light of politics and history, like when he apologized to the Shanghai crowd on behalf of Great Britain for “the whole Opium War thing.”

Punchline Comedy definitely didn’t disappoint a crowd who was in the mood to laugh, and hopefully they’ll be coming back to Shanghai sooner rather than later.

Mike Finstad is the Managing Editor of ShanghaiExpat. He had a great time at the show last Friday, and was thankfully not singled out by any of the comedians as an easy target. If you have any comments or questions about this article, please send an email to: editor@shanghaiexpat.com.