Drama and Dialect (Hou Baolin) Lines

A: Being a crosstalk actor is not easy.

B: What?

A: The minimum requirement is that you must be able to speak.

B: This condition is very easy. Who can’t speak?

A: Talking is different from talking.

B: What’s wrong?

A: Look at how ordinary people talk: just express the content and let the other party understand it.

B: Oh, what about the cross talk guy?

A: Crosstalk is an art form, so it must use artistic language.

B: Oh.

A: Its artistic language is very different from ordinary people’s speech.

B: Yes?

A: The language of cross talk must be refined.

B: Hey.

A: When you watch our performance, we speak Beijing dialect.

B: Yes.

A: The Beijing dialect we speak is not ordinary Beijing dialect, but refined Beijing dialect, which has been refined and artistically processed.

B: The cross talk lines are refined language.

A: Well, the characteristic of cross talk language is that it is short, concise and logical.

B: Yes. A: Look at the Beijing dialect we speak, even the audience from other places can understand it.

B: Oh.

Extended information:

Hou Baolin’s cross talk masters are Chang Baochen and Zhu Kuo, and he also studied Peking Opera under Yan Zefu.

Zhu Kuoquan, male, is a famous cross talk master and Shu Lai Bao cross talk actor. Also known as "Big Bread", he is a fifth-generation crosstalk artist. He was one of the famous "Five Crosstalk Masters" (Gao Deming, Zhang Jieyao, Zhu Kuoquan, Xu Degui, Tang Jincheng) in Beijing in the 1830s.

Zhu Kuoquan laid the foundation of modern cross talk art.