What is the special function of cross talk?

Crosstalk originated in Beijing and became popular all over the country. It is generally believed that it was formed during the reign of Xianfeng and Tongzhi in Qing Dynasty. It is a form of Quyi performance with a long history, wide spread and deep mass base. In Beijing dialect, there is also "dialect crosstalk" in local dialects. In the process of cross talk, we have absorbed the artistic advantages of ventriloquism and storytelling extensively, combined Zhuang with harmony, expressed truth, goodness and beauty with satirical jokes, made people laugh as the artistic feature, and took "speaking, learning, teasing and singing" as the main artistic means. There are three forms of performance: stand-alone performance, counterpart performance and group performance. Stand-up crosstalk is performed by actors and tells jokes; Crosstalk is asked and answered by two actors, and there are usually two categories: "one is heavy" and "one is heavy"; Crosstalk, also known as "group work", is performed by more than three actors. Traditional plays satirize all kinds of ugly phenomena in the old society and reflect all kinds of phenomena in life mainly through humorous narration. After liberation, in addition to continuing to carry forward the satirical tradition, there are also works praising new people and new things. Traditional songs include The Battle between Guan Gong and Qin Qiong, Drama and Dialect, Jia Xingjia and Stripping the Jacket, with a total of more than 200 songs. The works that reflect real life have great influence, such as Nocturnal Walking, Buying Monkeys, Yesterday and Hat Factory.

● Crosstalk knowledge

Learn to speak and sing.

Quyi terminology. Four basic artistic means of cross talk tradition. "Speaking" means telling jokes, riddles and tongue twisters. "Learning" is to imitate the calls, hawking, singing, styles and languages of all kinds of birds and animals. "Tease" is to catch each other and make you laugh; "Singing" means making up some funny words and singing them in various tunes, or exaggerating some opera lyrics and tunes to make people laugh. In cross talk, there are often programs that emphasize one or two of them, such as "Turning careers" and "Opera Dialect", which emphasize "learning" and "singing", while "Eight Fan Screen" and "Spring Lantern Mystery" emphasize "telling jokes". Actors often form different styles because they are good at using some means.

To give [somebody]/[something] news in advance

Quyi nouns. The prologue of a crosstalk performer before performing a formal program on stage is sometimes a short program to attract the audience's attention or point out the content of the formal program.

Enter life

Quyi terminology. Refers to a piece of content used to introduce stepping stones into the topic during cross talk performance, which has the function of connecting the preceding with the following.

burden

Quyi terminology. Refers to the methods of organizing jokes in cross talk, one-man show, Shandong fast book and other genres. When a joke is brewed and organized, it is called "tying the burden", while generate calls it "shaking the burden". It is customary to call jokes "baggage".

Three turns and four shakes

Quyi terminology. Crosstalk is one of the means to organize baggage. Refers to the cross talk performance, after repeated bedding and foil, rendering the story of the characters or creating an atmosphere, and then shaking off the burden to produce jokes.

A heavy head

Quyi terminology. One of the manifestations of cross talk. When two actors are performing, one is the main narrator, that is, teasing; The other is to use dialogue to assist narrative, which is bang. Because the narrative story is mainly funny, it is called.

acer truncatum

Quyi terminology. One of the manifestations of cross talk. Refers to a cross talk performance, in which two actors undertake basically the same tasks (teasing and cheering), such as organizing the burden by arguing with each other.

seize

Quyi terminology. When performing cross talk and storytelling, the funny content of the program is inserted to make the audience laugh. Actors often grasp the theme of interjection on the spot and combine the content of the program to achieve good results.

(of crosstalk performers) tell jokes.

Quyi nouns. Actors who mainly tell stories when performing cross talk or cross talk are usually called "A" now. In cross talk, jokes and jokes cooperate with each other. Through the foil and foreshadowing of jokes, the narrative gradually forms a burden and produces jokes. Group crosstalk with "mud seam" is basically the same as "bang"

(of a supporting role in cross talk) using words or expressions to help the protagonist make the audience laugh.

Quyi nouns. Actors who tell stories with humor in cross talk performances are now usually called "B".

Mud joint

Quyi nouns. An actor who tells a story with "humor" during a cross talk performance is usually called "C" now.

went on errands

Leg skills-In cross talk, in order to learn to sing or perform an emotional episode, two people put on a little makeup, subcontract the corner, enter the role performance, and then quit the narration. This cross talk joke is called "leg work" in the industry.

What is crosstalk? This is an easy and difficult question to answer. It's easy to answer, because its answer has long been made public and well known. The first sentence of many crosstalk performers after coming to power is: "Crosstalk is the art of language." This answer is undoubtedly correct. Unfortunately, many people just ignore this definition.

In recent years, in order to change the depressed situation of cross talk creation and performance, various forms of cross talk reform came into being. Guitar crosstalk, disco crosstalk, song-and-dance crosstalk, even male-female crosstalk and dwarf crosstalk have all tried many methods, and they have spent a lot of effort but ignored the fundamental proposition that crosstalk is the art of language, so they are doomed to failure. Ignoring the importance of language in the art of cross talk deviates from the aesthetic characteristics of cross talk.

However, the definition of "cross talk is the art of language" is not accurate enough, and its extension is too broad, which can not well distinguish cross talk from other arts. In Quyi art, storytelling and sketching are also language arts, while singing Quyi is nothing more than the combination of language art and music art. There are elements of language art in drama art, film art and vocal music art, and even Lian Wenxue is a written language art. If we can't draw a clear line between crosstalk art and other arts, it will be difficult for us to further understand the essential characteristics of crosstalk art.

In fact, as long as you analyze it carefully, you will find that the social life content and artistic expression reflected by cross talk are quite unique. Quyi is a general term for all kinds of rap arts. Most of them, whether they are storytelling, storytelling, quick writing, singing, rapping, drumming and playing lyrics, are telling a story, except for a few schools represented by crosstalk (such as Shanghai's one-man show, Minnan dialect and Taiwan Province's answer drum).

Crosstalk, as one of the comic art forms, neither reflects life mainly through narration and description like novels and storytelling, nor vividly reflects life through actors' body movements like drama and movies, but mainly discusses and talks about life through dialogue.

Crosstalk, as a kind of dialogue art, has very different characteristics from various narrative arts and performing arts, which are described as follows:

1. Crosstalk is a language art with dialogue as its main form of expression. Crosstalk mainly reflects the dialogues of various characters in real life. In narrative art, the dialogue of characters can not be separated from the constraints of plots, while in cross talk, the role of plots is far less important than in narrative art. In cross talk, plots serve to organize burdens, which are composed of dialogues. It is incomprehensible not to talk about the objects and topics in the conversation, so it is not allowed to tell stories. On the contrary, the plot in cross talk can be intermittent, intermittent or even absent.

Some cross talks don't even need a plot at all, but only use the charm of dialogue to organize the burden, directly expose contradictions and express the theme. Accordingly, when listening to cross talk, the audience should not indulge in the complexity and twists and turns of the plot, but should understand the performers' positions, views and opinions on issues and events. These views and opinions are mainly expressed through dialogue.

The characters in cross talk do not require completeness and fullness, but often only describe their words, which directly reflect the thoughts, positions and temperament of the characters. The characters in cross talk, like the plot, are all tools to organize the burden, so the characters often come and go at the drop of a hat. Character is often incomplete, exaggerated and distorted in many cross talks, and does not present a complete and true image. In some cross talks, there are no roles.

The internal structure of crosstalk is relatively loose. Sometimes there is no close relationship between "talking", "living" and "saving the bottom" in the plot, but it is maintained by a broader theme. In cross talk, the change of content is often not reflected in the promotion of the plot, but in the transformation of the topic.

In a word, for crosstalk art, the characters and plot structure that are very important in narrative art are not important. Crosstalk pays the most attention to baggage, which is composed of dialogue. Just open a cross talk and you will see many dialogues. These dialogues vividly reflect people's words in real life. Of course, these dialogues are all plagiarized from life, but they have all been carefully artistically processed.

Second, the burden of crosstalk is mainly in the form of dialogue. When talking about the basic concept of crosstalk, Ma Ji, a famous crosstalk artist, pointed out: "(crosstalk) is an art that makes people laugh by organizing a series of unique' burdens', in which burdens are the burdens of language art, and the language here is the language of the art of burdens. Language, burdens and laughter can be said to be the three major elements of crosstalk art, and they are indispensable." (Quoted from Quyi (No.2, 1987) In Ma Ji's "Looking Back in Thirty Years", among the three elements he listed, language and laughter are also possessed by other crosstalk arts, only the burden is unique to crosstalk art, and the burden is in the most important position in crosstalk art. Therefore, the analysis of the content and form of baggage is the key to our study of cross talk art.

The word "Yu Bao" is a figurative word, in fact, it refers to a process of brewing and developing comedy contradictions in cross talk. The so-called "three turns and four shakes" is a commonly used structure in cross talk baggage. Among them, "three turns" refers to the repeated rendering and emphasis of contradictions and fantasies; "Four Shakes" refers to revealing the truth of contradictions through "three turns".

As we know, the characteristic of comedy contradiction is to "cover up one's own essence with another illusion of essence." (Quoted from Marx's

Sorting out the baggage through character dialogue is the most widely used and important method in cross talk. This is true not only in the cross talk of "mother and daughter" type, but also in the cross talk of "one head" type. Not only cross talk, but also stand-up cross talk. For example, in the stand-up comedy "Zhuyu Baiyutang", the burden of guaranteeing the bottom consists of the dialogue between Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang and ministers. This kind of burden formed by dialogue can be seen everywhere in cross talk works, and the list is endless.

Dialogue is not only reflected in the organization method of baggage, but also in the application of various cross talk artistic means. "Talking about learning to sing" is the four basic artistic means of cross talk. "Speaking" means telling jokes and tongue twisters. "Learning" means imitating the language, voices and characters of various vendors. "Funny" means making up some funny words and singing them in various tunes. The use of these artistic means can only conform to the artistic law of cross talk creation if it is brought into the category of dialogue. Crosstalk performance can't be learned for learning, but sung for singing. What crosstalk performers say in dialect still needs to achieve the purpose of dialogue; The songs and operas sung are either used as arguments in the dialogue, or the contents of the dialogue are expressed by changing the lyrics. At present, some "Liu Hua" crosstalk performances (that is, crosstalk based on learning to sing songs and operas) have actually turned into concerts with audiences. Although it can also achieve the theater effect, it violates the essence of cross talk as a dialogue art, and this creative tendency of "singing for the sake of singing" is not desirable.

Third, crosstalk performers perform as interlocutors. Crosstalk actors play neither the narrator nor the actor in the drama, but the interlocutor. The language used by crosstalk performers is not narrative language, but conversational language (that is, question and answer language). This is more obvious in the cross talk between mother and son. In fact, in a heavy type of cross talk, Doby's cheering actors are also having a dialogue. Although the words of funny actors do have narrative elements in content, they are still expressed as dialogues with eye-catching actors in form; The content described here can only be said to be an answer, and the story cannot be told in isolation from the specific dialogue environment.

Crosstalk actors are always interlocutors, not actors (the word "actor" in English can also be translated as "actor"). Crosstalk actors mainly rely on dialogue to shape characters, not on external images and body movements. The external image of crosstalk performers is "to change with the constant", which is closely related to the special aesthetic way of crosstalk. Some researchers think that crosstalk performance is a kind of "I play myself" performance to a great extent (see page 76 of the ninth series of Random Thoughts on Quyi Performance by Lu), while others think it is a virtual performance. (See Xue's The Art of Laughter, pages 64-65) But in any case, the body movements of crosstalk performers are only auxiliary means to make the dialogue more vivid, and these movements are not as important and complete as those in drama.

In a heavy type of cross talk, although there are not many words to praise the actors, it should play the role of making the finishing point. The importance and necessity of supporting roles can be seen as the testimony of the proposition that cross talk is the art of dialogue.

Among several types of cross talk, group cross talk is further developed and evolved on the basis of counterpart cross talk, which transforms the bilateral dialogue in counterpart cross talk into multilateral dialogue; It has some dramatic elements.

The situation of stand-up crosstalk is quite special. Stand-up crosstalk evolved from folk stories and jokes. It has both the artistic characteristics of stories and jokes. In this regard, experts have expressed incisive opinions.

Feng is the same; Among the numerous Quyi, there is a performance form in which a person tells an interesting story, which is called stand-up crosstalk ... (stand-up crosstalk), but it doesn't necessarily have a beginning and an end. Its system is different from short stories, stories, jokes and cross talk. It is a unique oral literature genre. "(quoted from Quyi 1986, No.5, Inheriting Tradition, Enriching and Improving).

Wang Xingzhi thinks: "It may not be true to put stand-up crosstalk directly into the artistic category of short stories, but because they are both narrative art forms, from the perspectives of narrative objects and characterization, they not only have many similarities, but also have many unique features of stand-up crosstalk." (Quoted from A Novelist's Friend or Enemy, China Quyi Collection, p. 280)

Li Fengqi also pointed out: "Stand-up crosstalk is good at telling stories, and some of them focus on reasoning, which is the so-called' discussion type'. This kind of cross talk is easy to be empty, boring and difficult to write, and it is almost extinct in new works. " (Quoted from "Vivid Picture of Social Customs", published in Quyi No.5, 1986)

It seems that experts believe that stand-up crosstalk is a comic narrative art, and stand-up crosstalk is not a dialogue art in form, but it has many variants compared with traditional narrative art (storytelling, stories, etc.). For example, stand-up cross talk focuses on the dialogue between characters in content, and mainly relies on dialogue to form a burden and shape the image. Because the organization of the burden in the creation of stand-up crosstalk is restricted by the plot and characters, it is very difficult to create stand-up crosstalk. Story-based stand-up crosstalk creation has almost disappeared in recent years; Because of the insurmountable contradiction between content and form, argumentative stand-up crosstalk gave way to counterpart crosstalk.

Crosstalk is born out of stand-up cross talk, but it is "shine on you is better than blue", and its artistic life is enduring. This has a lot to do with the harmony of its content and form. Simply put, the main content of cross talk is dialogue, and the form it takes is also dialogue, and the relationship between them is isomorphic. Fourthly, dialogue is not only reflected in the creation and performance of cross talk, but also in the process of appreciation. Crosstalk, as a stage art (basically so at present), its performance and appreciation are unified in time and space. Crosstalk, like other stage arts, has the problem of communicating with the audience.

As we all know, crosstalk is an art that is best at communicating with the audience, and the theatrical effect produced by crosstalk performance is often beyond the reach of other stage arts. In addition to the content of cartoons, the form of dialogue and the unique artistic expression of cross talk are also important reasons. In narrative art, the creator is confident that he has the power to penetrate isolated events, grasp their "inner essence" and give them the order of causal connection, thus forming the fictional plot and history of the story and instilling these contents into the audience. Here, the flow of information is basically one-way and the audience is basically in a passive position.

In narrative art, a penetrating plot constitutes a closed structure with a head and a tail and linear development, and external interference is not allowed. In the art of drama, there is a theory of the fourth wall. It needs to erect a hypothetical wall between the actor and the audience, so that the communication between the actor and the audience becomes indirect.

The art of cross talk is different. The "plot" in cross talk is intermittent, with or without. So the content of cross talk makes people feel uncertain. The burden of cross talk often gives the audience an illusion and hides the truth. In this way, the audience is encouraged to think positively, thus strengthening the exchange of ideas between the two sides. In contrast, storytelling (and other folk arts) actors should not only explain the causal relationship of things clearly, but also define the theme and ending of the story in advance by winning the first time, and the audience only needs to passively accept it. In cross talk performance, actors no longer enjoy the status of "storytellers" as storytellers, and actors and actors, actors and audiences all appear as equal interlocutors. They can express their different views on things. This kind of different opinions from many aspects not only constitutes the formal characteristics of cross talk, but also is the source of comic contradictions in cross talk. Here, all the speeches and words of one actor have to be strictly tested by another actor and audience. His mysterious, contradictory, absurd and exaggerated words cannot escape the audience's ears. He often laughs because of "making a fool of himself" and is in an embarrassing situation of "losing face". The audience felt their psychological advantages through laughter and received a subtle education through laughter. The appreciation process of cross talk can better achieve the purpose of "entertaining through education", so the art of cross talk is very popular among the masses.

Crosstalk performance is directly oriented to the audience, and there is no "fourth wall" in cross talk performance. Many actors also ask questions directly to the audience, or answer questions raised by the audience to meet the audience's requirements. This greatly strengthens the contact and communication between actors and audiences.

In the process of enjoying cross talk, although the audience can't talk directly with the actors, they can express their views and attitudes through laughter. In addition, in many cross talks, the comedian's words often represent the audience's point of view, and the comedian often talks with the comedian as the spokesperson of the audience.

From the above analysis, it can be seen that in the process of performance and appreciation of cross talk, the communication between actors and audiences is two-way and very close. This feature is inseparable from its unique artistic form-dialogue form. This form satisfies the audience's sense of participation and produces a unique artistic charm. Crosstalk has formed a "talk about everything" friend with the audience. It absorbs the wisdom and humor of the masses, expresses their pursuit of truth, goodness, beauty and optimism, and exposes and satirizes the falsehood, evil and ugliness in life. Crosstalk has become a wonderful work of national art with its exquisite life content and unique artistic form.

In a word, crosstalk is the art of comedy in content and dialogue in form. These two characteristics of cross talk in content and form are not isolated and irrelevant, but are mutually inclusive, infiltrated, interdependent and transformed. Hegel believes that "content has its form", and content and form are the unity of opposites: "content is not it, that is, form turns to content, and form is not it, that is, content turns to form." (See pages 286-287 of Hegel's Little Logic) Starting from this proposition, we can call crosstalk "the art of dialogue comedy" or "the art of comedy dialogue". Just as the proposition "Drama: The Art of Action" does not exclude the dialogue of the characters in the drama, so does the proposition "Crosstalk: The Art of Dialogue", including the actors' body movements, narrative elements in the dialogue and various artistic means. Crosstalk is the art of dialogue, which only further clarifies the prescriptive nature of this special artistic expression, and does not cut off the inextricable connection between cross talk and other comic arts.

The proposition "Crosstalk: The Art of Dialogue" seems simple, but in fact, it only provides us with the basis for studying the art of Crosstalk and the password to decipher many mysteries of Crosstalk. For example, we all know that crosstalk is the product of civil society, but we don't know why. Mountford, a British scholar, wrote in the book History of Urban Development, "Dialogue is one of the highest forms of urban life and a flower on the vine. The diversity of characters contained in the city theater makes dialogue possible. " (See page 88 of the History of Urban Development) This passage is a wonderful circumstantial evidence of the origin of crosstalk art in China. It can be seen that the city is not only a place for acting, but also a place for cross talk. As the most basic and important function of human language, dialogue exists widely in all fields of social life.

Dialogue is not only the exchange of information, but also the exchange of feelings. Thinking in the form of dialogue is easier to find, understand and solve contradictions, and it is easier to stimulate people's inspiration and give play to their wit and humor. Dialogue is also a natural ally of science and democracy.

Crosstalk, as a non-narrative art of dialogue, has the characteristics of openness and can accommodate a wide range of social life. However, it must be limited by the time and space of performance. As a comic art, crosstalk is not allowed to enter all kinds of non-comic factors. Therefore, cross talk is an art with strict restrictions on content. The essence of the dialogue art of cross talk determines that it is auditory art, and these characteristics of cross talk in content and form determine its unique strengths and weaknesses. A deep understanding of these characteristics will play a beneficial role in the study of cross talk art, and we may not be able to understand our feelings; Only what is understood; We can feel it more deeply.

Representative works: continuous promotion to the third class, confused county official, career change, misjudgment of the Three Kingdoms, drama gossip, flattery, four-character couplet.