A letter of eight cents, at least disgusting boy for half a year - Ma Ji, Zhao Yan," "Special Diseases"
From the content of this cross-talk line, it can be seen that this cross-talk has been around for many years, and the postage was only 8 cents at that time.
Moreover, this cross-talk is also a satirical theme, satirizing some "pink-eye" patients in society.
What triggered this article is the prejudice of some people on the Internet against Mr. Ma Ji, and some people think that Ma Ji will only sing the praises of cross-talk and take cross-talk to a dead end, which has two problems.
First, Ma Ji's praise cross-talk level is very high, using cross-talk techniques, adhering to the pursuit of cross-talk elegance and common appreciation, is the top work in the praise of cross-talk, singing cross-talk itself has no problem, the problem lies in the level of creation.
Second, who says That Ma Ji will only say that he can only sing praises? On the contrary, his satirical cross-talk is not only numerous but also very broad and deep, such as "Special Disease", "Hundred Blowing Charts", "Five Senses Fighting for Merit", "A Salesman", "Telephone", "One Servant and Two Masters", "Leather Bag Company", "Recruitment" and so on.
The author believes that "Multi-storey Hotel" should be regarded as a classic masterpiece in Ma Ji's satirical cross-talk.
First, the background of the creation
"Multi-storey Hotel" was created in 1979, and Ma Ji and Tang Jiezhong premiered in Changsha.
Ten years after the creative theme and creative enthusiasm were imprisoned, the creative enthusiasm of the cross-talk actors in the late 1970s was unprecedentedly high, and a large number of new cross-talk gushed out, of which satirical themes accounted for the majority, such as "Hat Factory" and "So Photographed".
And Ma Ji not only created the "White Bone Essence Appearance" that reflected current events together with Zhao Yan, but he also keenly grasped some unhealthy trends that appeared in society and created "Multi-storey Hotel".
If you stand today, in terms of creative themes and ideas, "Multi-storey Hotel" and "Elevator Adventure" and "Thief Company" have many similarities, which can be called the three major cross-talk of satirical themes, and the creation time of "Multi-storey Hotel" is much earlier than the other two paragraphs, while the three cross-talk use absurdist techniques, and "Multi-storey Hotel" is undoubtedly closer to life, and some ironic content in cross-talk even exists to this day.
Second, multi-faceted irony
Relatively speaking, "Thief Company" and "Elevator Adventure" are grasping a satirical theme and digging hard, so that the three points of force into the wood penetrate the back of the paper. "Multi-storey Hotel" is relatively more comprehensive in this regard, with the cross-talk actor Lao Ma staying in a multi-storey hotel as the central point, and exposing and satirizing around multiple levels.
Hotel accommodation fees a day a dollar five, cheap ah, however, there are heating costs, cooling fees, another management fee, another health fee, another water and electricity fees, another furniture depreciation fee, another door and window repair fee, another futon removal and washing fee, another pillowcase, pillow towel fee... Such a routine can still be seen forty years later.
Staying in the hotel needs a letter of introduction and stamping, this procedure was normal in that era, but the stamping process was a variety of matryoshka dolls, first to the city reception, stamped; transferred to the city service company, stamped; then transferred to the grass-roots main store, stamped; and then transferred to the district grass-roots branch, stamped; this is to the multi-storey hotel.
Check-in needs to go to a special business room, passengers of different occupations need to go to different business rooms to handle, the first business room management organ, the second room to manage industry, three rooms to manage agriculture, four rooms to manage transportation, five rooms to manage finance and trade, six rooms to manage culture, education and health.
The work situation of the multi-storey hotel staff is even more varied, the business room is playing chess, the health room is playing poker drilling tables, the security room is reading newspapers, making furniture, listening to the radio and sleeping... Now there are also, playing mobile games, watching ball games, speculating in stocks.
The process of various departments requiring passengers to fill out forms is the key expression of this cross-talk, the content is too much and too funny, here is just one example: name, alias, former name, gender, place of origin, date of birth, family origin, personal composition, reason for coming to the city, who introduced, about a few days to stay, whether with important official documents, drawings, top-secret documents, what is written in it... This is all routine operation.
Later, passengers enter the store with several boxes of matches, a few lighters, are there any firecrackers? How many cannons hit the lights? A few two kicks, a few strings of ma leizi, a few hanging whips, a few hanging cannons, a few boxes of dripping gold, a few packs of rat.
After filling out a bunch of tables, Lao Ma was finally assigned to room 901 to live in, and found that the room was dirty like a garbage heap, there were more than a dozen guests on the ninth floor, and there were only more than forty people in the service section, these people were section chiefs, deputy section chiefs, unit chiefs, deputy unit chiefs, squad leaders, deputy squad leaders, team leaders, deputy team leaders, deputy team leaders, two people in charge of personnel, two in charge of security, two trade union cadres, two women cadres, two people in charge of family planning, two people in charge of education... There are still a few left, and I can't get busy at all.
Lao Ma wants to eat a bowl of noodles in advance before the performance, and needs to be approved by various departments of the hotel and then needs a certificate from the Cultural Affairs Bureau. The old horse had no choice but to find the manager, but also all kinds of prevarication, need to check whether there is a document about cooking noodles in advance, and also need the managers to hold a special meeting to study.
When the old horse returned from the train after three days of performance, the manager chased him to the train station, and the bowl of noodles was approved.
On the whole, "Multi-storey Hotel" has taken a route that looks a bit "laborious and undesirable", that is, repetition and cumbersome, there are too many problems inside, so many that you have not yet experienced this problem, and the next problem comes again, and the process of filling out the forms between various departments in addition to the different contents, the style is also repetitive, of course, there is also the process of the old horse being dominated by the sixth business room Xiao Man to find the security room.
From the perspective of cross-talk alone, it seems that "Multi-storey Hotel" is not concise enough, but in fact, this is the creator's good intentions, that is, to make you feel helpless and ironic with content that makes the audience feel cumbersome and wordy, which is a negative and positive effect.
Ma Ji showed extraordinary basic skills in the performance process, narrating all kinds of cumbersome and wordy filling in the form without dragging the mud and water, articulate expression smoothly, and its knowledge and common sense coverage is very wide, which is much more difficult than the traditional cross-talk.
Third, the icing on the cake crosstalk TV
For many viewers, the impression of "Multi-Storey Hotel" may mainly stay on a cross-talk TV in the 1990s.
Because "Multi-Storey Hotel" is slightly older, its fame is weaker than that of "Elevator Adventure" and "Thief Company" nearly a decade later, but fortunately, the filming of Xiangsheng TV in the 1990s has re-excavated this classic work.
Playing the old horse in the "Multi-storey Hotel" Cross-Talk TV is Su Wenmao's apprentice Liu Junjie, who was still relatively young at the time (in fact, he was in his forties), and the three places that left the deepest impression on the author in this Cross-Talk TV are the three places.
One is the sixth business room of Xiao Man, this fashionable girl looks very good at acting, she did not play this role into a comic character, in fact, the performance of Xiao Man in Ma Ji's cross-talk is very exaggerated, but in the cross-talk TV Xiao Man's performance is very lifelike, eyebrows and expressions look similar to some of the clerks we often met in the past, in fact, there are now, especially in the financial departments of some companies.
In fact, this is also the style of the entire cross-talk TV, that is, it does not deliberately shoot according to the original cross-talk, but tries to be as close to life as possible, so that people can feel that this is a common thing in life.
In addition, there is another actor who performs very well, that is, the waiter on the ninth floor of the hotel, she and lao Ma explained the room situation and sat on the sofa with their own care, and the details were very impressive.
The second is Liu Junjie's performance, on the one hand, his expression changes, from the beginning of the unsympathetic to the invincibility in the middle and then to the final resignation, it feels like the whole person is assimilated by the atmosphere of the multi-storey hotel. In fact, this is also a true reflection of our own encounters with similar situations.
Another detail is his dress, from the beginning of the dress to the final messy appearance, the hair is messed up, the clothes are also messed up, the leather bag is also hanging obliquely, and the image of being tired from the tedious process is easily expressed.
The last one is the scene where the manager chases the train station with a bowl of noodles, a very realistic and very lifelike cross-talk TV ends with a satirical comic-like scene, which is not only in line with the original but also the finishing touch.
"Multi-Storey Hotel" still seems to be outdated after forty years, because the distance between the cross-talk and life is very close, exaggerated but also realistic, absurd but also real, so it is not too prestigious to say that it is a classic.
In the end, the reason why Ma Ji is called the last master of the cross-talk industry is not only the result of history, not only the influence of the inheritance and inheritance of the teacher, but more importantly, the breadth and depth of Ma Ji's creation and performance of cross-talk are rare in the entire history of cross-talk, and his master status is indisputable.