In March 2015, Mr. Xiaolin passed away at the age of less than 60. At that time, the Beijing Times asked me to write a small article, the title of which was "This program is finished." The "Laughing Forest Radio" that audiences are familiar with has since stopped broadcasting forever.
Mr. Xiaolin's long-term partner, Mr. Li Guosheng, is a key figure on the road of cross-talk art, and has given him a lot of help as an experienced senior. The advantages of giving full play to Xiaolin's singing quickly stood out, also thanks to Teacher Li's initiative.
Teacher Li Guosheng is now more than 80 years old, but he still feels full of energy. The interview was about the tea house near his home, and we waited outside the door when it was almost time, and in the distance we saw Teacher Li wearing sneakers, standing up and looking up at the waist board without bending, with a signature kind smile.
Teacher Li has a very rich experience, and has a teacher-student relationship with Mr. Liu Baorui and Mr. Guo Qiru, especially after the Cultural Revolution and Mr. Hou Baolin for several years, Mr. Hou's evaluation of him is that even his eyes will roll over. Not only on the stage, but also in the process of talking with me, some interesting details were mentioned, and the expression on Teacher Li's face was very rich, and his eyes really seemed to be able to talk.
Less than a month after the interview, the old and strong teacher Li founded the Li Guosheng Xiangsheng Studio, and continued to promote the younger generations to play a residual heat to promote the development of the cross-talk cause. A few months later, in May 2019, the hip-hop bag shop held a cross-talk performance of "Mr. Old and Little", and Teacher Li participated in the performance as one of the old gentlemen. In the background to see Teacher Li again, learned that he was going to give a young actor a piece of "Big Bodyguard" that day, I asked him when he last said this paragraph, Teacher Li moaned a little and then said, Oh, it's been almost 50 years.
A few hours later, Teacher Li Guosheng walked up to the stage of the Grand Theater of the Palace of Nationalities with great energy, and the audience immediately broke out into warm applause. Since last year, I have seen Teacher Li on multiple performance stages.
Li Guosheng was interviewed. Yang Ming photographed
<h1>Interview with Li Guosheng</h1>
Li Guosheng: Born in 1939, from Beijing. In the 1950s, he participated in the cross-talk training class of the Central Radio Rap Ensemble and was guided by Liu Baorui and Guo Qiru. Later, Bai Luo Rongshou became a teacher. In 1963, he joined the Hebei Provincial Quyi Team as a cross-talk actor, and then specially recruited into the Chengdu Military Region Battle Flag Cultural and Labor Troupe as a cross-talk actor and musician. During the Cultural Revolution, he changed careers and insisted on cross-talk performances after work. After the end of the Cultural Revolution, he praised Hou Baolin and was recognized by Hou Baolin. In 1979, he was transferred to the Beijing Qu Art Troupe, and in 1980, he partnered with Xiaolin and founded the "Xiaolin Radio". Representative works include, "Learn to Broadcast", "Super Football Game", "Strange Solo", "Such a Ceremony", "As Long as You Live Better Than Me" and so on.
<h1>"Teacher Liu Baorui said, you must be able to be both funny and praiseworthy</h1>."
Q: In the 1950s, you used to attend a cross-talk tutoring class run by the Central Radio Rap Company, right?
Li Guosheng: Yes, it is called the cross-talk training class. The radio rap company was going out on a tour, and the tour at that time would take months as soon as it went out. Teacher Guo Qiru was older at the time, and Teacher Liu Baorui was ill, so the two of them did not participate in the tour. If you stay at home, everyone feels that something is not appropriate, so under the organization of Teacher Wang Duo, a cross-talk training class was held, and Elder Guo and Elder Liu were two bishops. It is said that the enrollment of the whole city of Beijing is actually from all over the country, as long as they know the news, those who have the conditions have come.
Q: Was there a selection at that time?
Li Guosheng: Yeah, exams. Elder Wang Zhi personally examined it.
Q: Do you remember what you took at that time? Is it just lip service?
Li Guosheng: No, Elder Wang Will not test your cross-talk paragraphs, and will chat with you after he goes in. What is the last name? How old is it? Didn't go to work? Still in school? Where do you work? Who's in the family? Do you have a performance partner? It just so happens that I have a partner who went with me. He asked the partner again and said okay, here you go.
Q: That's it?
Li Guosheng: Yes, but my partner did not pass, and it was brushed down at that time.
Q: You were in your teens and twenties at the time, right?
Li Guosheng: 20. 19 years old.
Q: What were you doing at the time?
Li Guosheng: I just arrived at the gas and heat company, but at that time I was already the general dispatcher. I trained at Tsinghua after I finished my studies and then became a technician.
Q: Do you just like crosstalk?
Li Guosheng: Yes, I like it, but I have not been in contact with professionals. Especially these two teachers, that's what I have in mind... In today's parlance, it is an idol. I greatly admire these two teachers. Just like that, I went to the exam.
Q: That means the exam went very well. If you want to teach the class, is it Liu Lao and Guo Lao who are teaching?
Li Guosheng: It was Guo Lao who started teaching me, and he taught me a cross-talk passage called "Change of Career". In the classmates found a person to let me give him a hug, teaching and teaching almost, Guo Lao said you two change it.
Q: Just let you tease?
Li Guosheng: Yes, just let me tease, he gives me a hug. At the end of the course, there was a report, and when I reported it, I became funny. Just when those actors had returned from the tour, Teacher Hou sat downstage to watch our report.
Q: That means you started by learning to hold, and then you started to laugh.
Li Guosheng: Yes, because that classmate is three years older than me.
Q: It started with him holding a little bit for you.
Li Guosheng: No, the more he learns, the more nervous he becomes. His voice was a little higher than mine, so Elder Guo began to arrange for him to tease first. Later, when he studied the Peking Opera in "Changing His Profession", he learned farther and farther away. Later, Elder Guo said you should try it, and as a result, I opened my mouth, and Elder Guo said that you two should change it. After the program was finished, the other students dispersed. Teacher Liu asked me, do you want to learn? I said I wanted to learn. Willing to learn more? I said I would like to learn more. He said then you don't have to go, as long as I'm at home, you come every day when you have time, and I'll teach you.
Group photo of cross-talk actors of the Central Radio Rap Group. In the front row, from left, are Guo Quanbao, Guo Qiru, and Liu Baorui, and from the left in the back row are Li Wenhua, Ma Ji, Hou Baolin, Yu Shiyou, and Hao Aimin
Q: It turned out to be going to study at home.
Li Guosheng: Right.
Q: At that time, did you study "Three Levels in a Row" and "Confused County Official" with Mr. Liu?
Li Guosheng: Of course, I haven't fully learned the hand, I'm far behind. But Several stand-up comedies that Were popular in the late 1950s were taught to me.
Q: It's so rare. These two gentlemen are now gone, what impression do they leave on you?
Li Guosheng: I was very impressed. Let's talk about Teacher Liu first, because I have a long time with him, I have a short time with Teacher Guo, and he is not in good health later, so I don't go to his house to always trouble him. According to our words, Teacher Liu's belly is very spacious. Isn't crosstalk talking about basic skills? Teacher Liu is very solid, and he has mastered a passage with ease. At the Nanjing Cross-Talk Conference, he single-handedly saved the bottom and repeatedly honed the passages, so his personal skills were very superb. As a student, I didn't learn much, but I remembered two words that were memorable to me, and I practiced them later, and I was stained. He asked me, do you want to say crosstalk? I said I wanted to say. He asked, want to say okay? I said of course I would, but who wouldn't want to say yes? He said first, to be able to be both funny and hilarious. You have to master both praise and teasing, so when you start with a new paragraph, you have to do two-faced words. Let you hold the words, you have to know the words, let you laugh, you must also know the words of the praise. That way you can put a paragraph on it. Another sentence, if you want to say crosstalk well, think and be funny and praise, you must say it well. Remembering these two sentences, I did take a big advantage later. Although Teacher Guo taught me for a relatively short time, there was one thing that impressed me very much. When Guo Lao was holding it, on the stage was a thick and simple old man, learning to sing when teaching me, especially the Jingyun drum, that is, Liu Baoquan selling porridge, why was my classmate nervous? He always couldn't sing well, And Elder Guo said you should sing like this, and then Elder Guo sang it again and it touched me. As soon as I listened, people on the stage for a lifetime, people do not show, but singing out full of charm, "hanging stove baked cake flat and round." "(Sing) That ending note is going to be like this, and the taste will come out." Therefore, Guo Lao can become the foundation of everyone who praises everyone, and the people have a family, and they accumulate a lot of income.
Hou Baolin and Guo Qiru performed cross-talk
<h1>"You're the only artist with an art pitcher."</h1>
Question: You studied with these two old gentlemen, but you later worshiped Mr. Luo Rongshouluo, why didn't you think of worshiping these two gentlemen?
Li Guosheng: This is the difference between yin and yang. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, it was not like advocating worship of teachers as they are today, they were all called teachers. But if the teacher likes the student, and you are willing to go further, talk about worshiping the teacher.
Q: You were studying there, were you a radio rapper?
Li Guosheng: Not counted.
Q: Does the job still work?
Li Guosheng: Yes, the work is still working. But the teachers, leaders, and business backbones of the radio rap group attach great importance to these children.
Q: Oh, you went on to talk about the worship of the Master.
Li Guosheng: At that time, at a certain time, everyone thought, should I worship a teacher? At this time, teacher Liu Baorui went to Harbin to publish a book and came out with his stand-up comedy selection. He was not in good health and did not know how long it would take to organize it before it could be published. He said to me, boy, you, you should worship the master, I still teach you, you pray for Rongshou. What are the benefits? His legs are long, and I don't.
Cross-talk master Luo Rongshou
Q: Teacher Liu rarely sings.
Li Guosheng: What he said about "no" was that he didn't act. He said that after you worship him, he will teach you again, and your way of life will be wider. For Teacher Luo, I have also listened to him since I was a child, so I worshiped him like this, and my way of life was a lot wider.
Q: I don't hear much of Mr. Luo's recordings now, but I've heard that he has a very artistic personality, such as "Selling Cloth Heads", others sing foreign white noodles, he sings high white noodles, and he has also published a book on how to say good cross-talk.
Li Guosheng: It's called "A Brief Discussion on the Art of Crosstalk", a pamphlet. However, for my master, it was very difficult to produce this pamphlet, because he had never been to school, and he had accumulated it little by little. It was hard to come out of the book, and he wrote it for almost two years. When I was writing, I told him, Master is not good like this, you said I will give you a record, I will write the manuscript first, and then you will take it and change it. He said boy, don't need it, then I am not impressed. Master told me that you are the only "artist with art" in my door. This is the teacher's affirmation of me, in fact, my brothers have also been on stage and have said a few cross-talks, Mr. Luo thinks that none of them count me as this, because I am taught by Liu Baorui.
In 1979, Li Guosheng took a group photo with Luo Rongshou and others
Q: The starting point is high. You only became a professional cross-talk actor after Mr. Bailuo, is that right?
Li Guosheng: Right. Wasn't everyone willing to go professional at that time? Just at that time, Tang Jiezhong came to Beijing, one was to learn from Teacher Liu, and the other was to bring a pair of suitable actors back. In this way, he looked up to me and Li Guoying, my first partner, we all learned from Teacher Liu. Tang Jiezhong wanted us to become soldiers, and as a result, Li Guoying's political trial failed. At this time, the Hebei Provincial Quyi Team was recruiting, so I went to the Hebei Provincial Quyi Team for half a year. After returning, the Chengdu Military Region wanted to be a cross-talk actor, so we went to the exam and passed. Before that, the Guangzhou Military Region also transferred me, but the unit did not allow me to go, and Chengdu still did not allow me to go this time. Am I not at a gas and heat company? I was leaving the heat company, and there was some controversy, because I was already the general dispatcher at the time, and it was not so easy for the company to find a general dispatcher now. Later, the director of the bureau learned about it, and he said that since Li Guosheng loved this, he had such a strong point, and he had studied for such a long time, and it was the army that wanted him, so why did he hold him so far and not let him go? I agreed. As soon as he agreed, who would dare to hold on? And so I became a soldier.
Q: You are a musician and cross-talk actor in the Chengdu Military Region, right?
Li Guosheng: I am a cross-talk actor and musician. We went to the War Flag Literary Troupe and put it in the Military Band. The military band is mainly in charge of honor guards, and comes to Beijing twice a year, once on "May Day" and once on "Eleventh". Later, we also went down to the army to perform, and the audience didn't listen to the number, so they added a few singing, and then a crosstalk, and allegro, so they recruited us in. I went there first to praise, because I still had the image of a soldier, the leader later arranged for me to tease. At that time, my partner's name was Li Shiming.
<h1>"Didn't you notice that this boy's eyes roll over?" </h1>
Q: How many years have you been in the Chengdu Military Region?
Li Guosheng: Six years.
Q: I see you came back and went into the factory again.
Li Guosheng: At that time, it was a job change. Because it was still during the Cultural Revolution, who wouldn't want to be a worker? The working class leads everything.
Q: Is it still the same factory?
Li Guosheng: No, the Armed Forces Department gave me a light bureau.
Q: But you're still performing in your spare time, aren't you?
Li Guosheng: That was after 1973, participating in the propaganda teams of various bureaus in Beijing.
Q: Were you teasing or hilarious at the time?
Li Guosheng: It's funny.
Q: Later, at the literary and art evening of the National Science and Technology Conference, you gave Mr. Hou Baolin a hug. This is an honor, of course, but also a manifestation of ability, how did Mr. Hou choose you at that time?
Li Guosheng: At that time, the movement was over, and Elder Hou wanted to go out of the mountains. Guo Qiru Guo Lao died, and Guo Quanbao, the young Guo Lao, had a heart attack and could not get on stage. He didn't have a hold, he looked around, weighed the pros and cons, and wanted to find someone new. He met me when he reported back at the end of the qu art training class, and we came into contact with it again in later amateur activities. So once he asked me, Guosheng, the movement is over, all aspects must return to normal, soon after the festival, I want to perform, you come to give me a hug, are you willing? His latter words were purely polite, and I said of course I would. He said, then you come home. Halfway up my way to his house, I turned first to my master's house. My master lives in Xuanwu Gate, and Mr. Hou lives next to Shichahai in the south of Qiankuo. I rode to my master's house, and master asked me why I was here. I said that there is something I want to discuss with you, Mr. Hou wants me to hold it, do you say I can go? My master said, you bastard, why can't you go to him? You stand next to him, it's not the same as who you stand next to.
Li Guosheng took a group photo with Luo Rongshou, Sun Baocai, Gao Fengshan, Zang Hong and others
Q: Did you have a regular partner at the time?
Li Guosheng: At that time, there was a fixed partner, and we had a light game. Around 1973, I wrote a cross-talk called "Intimate and Seamless", which had a great influence in the city after the performance, and won the first prize, which was called "Nocturnal" in the industry. My master told me at the time that he must go.
Q: Were you a little hesitant? Usually it is funny, but it is necessary to cooperate with Mr. Hou.
Li Guosheng: Right. But one thing, Teacher Liu's influence on my education was too deep. Standing next to Mr. Hou, I can't tease, right? The audience still doesn't down. But I thought in my heart, I can give Mr. Hou a good hug, there is nothing wrong with it, that is my biggest gain. In this way, I cooperated with Mr. Hou.
Li Guosheng and Hou Baolin performed crosstalk
Q: I see that Mr. Hou once had an evaluation of you, he said that you are typhoon positive, simple, the key is a sentence, the eyes will roll baggage.
Li Guosheng: I tell you, how did this sentence come about. I told Mr. Hou that I was willing to work with him. He said that before the Spring Festival, there was a performance at the People's Theater for the Institute of Mathematics of the Academy of Sciences. Let's say it's a Saturday show, and he says you come home on Friday. I went to his house that day, and he said boy, let's make "Change of Career." I said yes. He asked, do you have one? I said I had. He asked, whose way are you? I said, that's only your way. Who taught you? Elder Guo taught me.
Q: That's right.
Li Guosheng: Hou Ye said, that's it, no need to say the right words, tomorrow you will be home at four o'clock in the afternoon. I thought about how to get on stage before he had to ask me a few words, and the key baggage had to remind me a few words. I am very familiar with the words of "Change of Career", because I said that it is not a two-game, but an enlightened learning. At four o'clock the next day, I went to his house, and after a while of idleness, the master and mother also talked to me for a while. The theater was so close that a car came at six o'clock to pick us up. The pair of words can only be said backstage, and I thought to myself that I can't be nervous, in our words, I can't "top the melon". As soon as I arrived in the background, I thought, I can now correct the words, but I didn't sit down in the background, and Chen Jingrun came. The two of them were already familiar with each other, and the movement had just ended...
Q: Talk about it.
Li Guosheng: These two people talked too much, and talked until the start of the performance.
Q: Your show should be in the back.
Li Guosheng: We are in the middle. I still played a little drum at the head, Mr. Hou said, what's up, get ready to play, and the result is that I ignored my stubble. I thought to myself, thanks to this work I am familiar with, but the baggage is still not mastered, I have no bottom.
Q: After all, the two of you haven't worked together.
Li Guosheng: Yeah, I was really nervous. The performance was very smooth, and when Mr. Hou returned two small steps to the backstage, he said to me, OK boy. I said what to do, with the melon. He said yes, a good word. My heart was solid. The next day at his house, Teacher Wang Shichen also went. Wang Shichen said to Mr. Hou, Brother Hou, you have to "pick melons" for him, which means that he has to let me not be nervous. Hou Ye said that there was no need to pick this, it had to be picked by himself. Wang Shichen asked Mr. Hou, do you say he can do it? Mr. Hou said, Shi Chen, didn't you notice that this boy's eyes would roll over? So this sentence came from this, this is what Mr. Hou said happily.
Hou Baolin (center in the front row), Wang Shichen (first from the left in the front row) and others took a group photo
Question: Since Mr. Hou said this, it means that your praise still has its own characteristics, can you say so?
Li Guosheng: You can say so. My job was given to me by Teacher Guo sentence by sentence, I first learned to hold the praise, and then I teased, and then smashed my teasing with the basis of the praise, so I was more porcelain in this work. Guo Lao's characteristics, I learned a little bit of fur.
Q: Mr. Hou said that we are acting crosstalk, we are not talking about crosstalk, this is what Mr. Hou said, right?
Li Guosheng: Yes, mr. Hou said.
Q: What he said should also be used to describe the fact that your eyes are anti-baggage.
Li Guosheng: Right. You have to have your own thinking, but also follow the storyline, and you react according to the performance of the comic, so that it is real.
Q: We didn't have a chance to see you and Mr. Hou working together, so there shouldn't have been a video at that time, right?
Li Guosheng: There is no video.
Q: However, from the performance you and Mr. Xiaolin cooperated with, we can still see what Mr. Hou means when he says that his eyes are rolling over.
Li Guosheng: The performance of the science and technology conference you just mentioned, that was a year later, when the two of us had been working together for a year, and it was no longer a problem for me to play. That performance was at the Workers' Gymnasium. Cartoonist Fang Chenglao wrote a cross-talk called "Perpetual Motion Machine", and he gave the work to Mr. Hou, who liked it. He said to me, boy, we have to do this. We started talking to each other, honestly, every day, for a week. When I went backstage on the day of the performance, Elder Hou suddenly said to me, boy, I may not be able to take this word down. I said you can't take it down, so what should I do?
Q: How old was he at the time?
Li Guosheng: More than 60 years old, and after exercise, memory is affected. I was blindfolded. He said very cautiously, you tease me. I couldn't close my mouth when I opened it. He asked someone to call Lao Tian, the person in charge of the radio station's recording, and he told Lao Tian that when we both changed today, he teased me, and when I returned, I teased him. We all knew that we couldn't go wrong with the performance that day, and the leaders who were there were all present. Lao Tian said, then you two will listen to the words again, and we will repeat the words, but we are still not very skilled. The people who urged the scene came to urge us to wait for the scene, at this time Lao Tian stomped his feet and said, "Go on." As soon as I came to the stage, I thought, I deserve to live and die personally, I have nothing to lose by sharing here, and I can't let Hou Ye spread here. As a result, we finished talking relatively smoothly, and then we changed back to the scene and said two short paragraphs, and we went down. Halfway to the road, Hou Ye turned his face and said, Rabbit cub is OK. Backstage, I asked Teacher Tian how he was, and he said that he was much better than when he was right. He said hard, I took off the costume, covered in sweat, took off my shoes, even the socks were wet. This is also stained with the light of Teacher Liu's words, when memorizing the words, I also wrote down the words of teasing, if I remember it temporarily at the performance, I will definitely not be able to remember it.
Q: You also had a strong memory.
Li Guosheng: I was just in my 30s.
Q: Imagine if you didn't change over that day, or If Mr. Hou teased you, could he have forgotten?
Li Guosheng: It is by no means a small look at Mr. Hou, who has been exercising for ten years, and his burden is too heavy. He definitely made such a decision, which was definitely more thoughtful.
Q: After watching an interview with Teacher Hou Yaowen, once performing "The Riddle of The Lamp" or what, I put my two arms flat and typed a word, which was originally the "peace" of "peace", but Mr. Hou said that it was "peace" and "peace". He realized that his mental strength had deteriorated, and it was easy to make mistakes in re-performing, and he withdrew from the stage since then.
Li Guosheng: Later he said that "Riddle of Lights", which is the oldest version of "Riddle of Lights", is also a coincidence. We performed for the Ministry of Communications, the minister of communications was just replaced by Ye Fei, who was familiar with Mr. Hou when he was in Fujian, and Mr. Hou went to the front line to offer condolences at that time. Once after the performance, Ye Fei flew backstage and said, Mr. Hou will go back later, I invite you to have a late supper. We both went with Li Shuangjiang to the guest house. Mr. Hou understood in the car, saying that he invited us to come, it must be a condolence to the canteen. He asked me, "Four Flavor Herbs" Do you have it? I said yes. What about "calling the door"? I said yes. He said, how do you have everything? I said that this is not your version, "four flavor herbs" open, "called the door" is the bottom, in the middle is "the big girl and her sister posture posture" ah. He said okay, then we'll make this up tonight. When Li Shuangjiang finished singing there, we both said this paragraph, and the effect was particularly good. I can understand that Mr. Hou has not appeared in ten years, and such a big wrist runs to the canteen to comfort and perform for the cook waiter, so everyone plays and applauds. Mr. Hou, who came back from the car, said that in the future, we will live like this. Until then, we've all done different jobs on different occasions. Later, at the Shenyang Ten Thousand People Gymnasium, the two of us also made "Playing The Riddle of Lights", the effect was also very good, and then returned to the scene. After coming down to the backstage, Yang Zhenhua was a little dissatisfied.
Q: He was also on fire at that time.
Li Guosheng: He is on fire, when he is on fire. Yang Zhenhua said, Mr. Hou, just a period of "Playing the Riddle of the Lights" will fool us? Mr. Hou reacted very quickly, he said, Zhenhua, you don't understand, the audience is mainly looking at me as a person now. That's right, I haven't seen it in so many years, and everything is the same. You see that everyone is everyone, you are committing Ge here, and you have been given "Ge".
<h1>"Don't you love to sing now?" Then we'll sing</h1>."
Q: I see that you were transferred to the Beijing Qu Art Troupe in 1979.
Li Guosheng: Seven or nine years. Hou Lao announced his retirement from the stage.
Q: So you partnered with him for three or four years?
Li Guosheng: Yes, the beginning and tail add up to three years.
Q: You started working with Mr. Xiaolin in 1980, right?
Q: How did you get together?
Li Guosheng: Mr. Hou quit the stage, and I had nothing to do. Tang Jiezhong told me, you might as well talk to Hou Ye, you tune the radio rap group to come. As a result, Mr. Hou disagreed. I have no interest in going back to the unit, I have been out for three years. At this time, Li Jindou and Shi Wenhui introduced me to the Beijing Qu Art Troupe. Zhao Zhenduo also asked the secretary at the time, Lao Yang, saying that Guosheng was coming, so what time did we arrange for the inspection? Lao Yang is an administrative cadre who has been transferred to the army, he said, Guosheng? Which country is prosperous? Zhao Zhenduo said, That's Li Guosheng. The one who worked with Hou Ye? Yes, that's him. Old Yang said that everyone has cooperated with Hou Baolin, what field do we still test? And so I got into the group. Xiao Lin began to talk about entering the regiment earlier than me, his Shandong Kuaishumen master was Liu Sichang, but at that time Miyun did not let him go, so in fact, he entered the regiment later than me, and only came in in 1980. Xiao Lin's earliest partner was an old actor, the cooperation between the two was not appropriate, the group was afraid of delaying this child, several leaders saw that Xiao Lin was a talent, singing well, and discussed who to partner with. Some people say that if this child wants to succeed, there is only one person who can save him, Li Guosheng. As soon as the group heard it, they let Me and Xiao Lin start to partner. I was still with Shi Wenhui. So during that time, I gave both Shi Wenhui and Xiao Lin a hug, and the regiment tried to find a hug for Shi Wenhui. I went to the regimental commander Yu Zhen and said I was looking for one, this man's name was Li Shiming, and his praise was bigger than mine. After two performances at the Xidan Theater, I helped him hold and tease, so he entered the group. Shi Wenhui also cooperated well with him.
Li Guosheng and Xiao Lin perform cross-talk
Q: Your 1981 performance was called "Xiaokangzhuang", which won an award at the National Qu art competition at that time, and it should reflect the rural landscape, right?
Li Guosheng: That's right.
Q: Is there also a singing right here?
Li Guosheng: Mainly singing, relying on singing to express the joyful mood of the peasants.
Q: That is, from the very beginning of your collaboration, you have made singing a feature of yours?
Li Guosheng: I am definitely not selling myself and boasting, I told Xiao Lin at that time, if you want to come out as soon as possible, you must give full play to your strengths, and you cannot have the slightest concealment and reservation. Don't you love to sing now? Then we will sing, of course, it will attract some criticism, people will say that we are "foreign devils", or that our performance does not conform to the law of crosstalk, but you know in your heart, I must understand in my heart, first raise your wrist out, return to the head, let's say again, you say anything he admits, because you have a wrist. Xiao Lin listened to me at this point.
Q: Your judgment has proven correct. The kind of crosstalk you performed in the eighties was called fashion crosstalk, and there were a lot of popular songs in it, so the performance was very popular. Can you still recall the original hot performance scene?
Li Guosheng: First, our performance form conformed to the aesthetic concept of the audience at that time, they needed to be happy and needed to listen to these songs; second, the content of our program was basically positive energy, and did not leave the main line of highlighting politics; third, the song and dance were more suitable for the two of us. Although we have also performed a lot of flat cross-talk, such as "Super Football Game", "Reform Measures", "A Bucket of Cans", "I Am Chinese", plus a "Learn to Broadcast", we stood on our feet.
Q: Teacher Xiao Lin's learning to sing is the signature of your cross-talk, as a popular actor, have you considered how to make yourself not an indispensable foil in your performance? What issues have you been aware of in your cooperation? Like adding some of the dances you just mentioned?
Li Guosheng: I thought about how to cooperate with his singing, but I can't move around on the stage like some people in order to cooperate with the funny singing, and the teacher taught me not to allow me to do that. In addition, the foundation of cross-talk I studied is indeed higher than that of XiaoLin, I have studied for a long time, and I have studied all the works of Pingyi, how can I use a little richer foundation than him to make up for his deficiencies, which I have done. The two of us didn't have any idle people on the stage, he sang a song in its entirety, and I had something to do next to me, at least I could lead the audience to listen. The reason why we are recognized by the audience is that we adapt to the needs of the audience.
Q: That is to say, let the audience enjoy the funny singing, but also do not feel that the praise does not work.
Li Guosheng: Otherwise, the praise would not have played its rightful role.
Q: As you said earlier, you already anticipated that this way of performing might cause controversy. As far as I know, for the characteristics of Mr. XiaoLin's performance and singing more, his master Ma Ji teacher has made comments, are you two convinced?
Li Guosheng: I know Ma Ji very well, he didn't tell me directly. He rarely watches us perform, and Presumably listens to what others say. Xiao Lin is Ma Ji's apprentice, and Ma Ji should also be a pun, one is to give him a hint to make him vigilant, don't come up and sing, only singing; second, the focus of crosstalk is still baggage. If he had said that, I would have believed that Matthi was well-intentioned. Indeed, during the long period of cooperation between the two of us in Xiaolin, later we began to focus on talking and making the work more fulfilling.
<h1>"Laughing Forest Radio, now start broadcasting"</h1>
Q: On the spring evening of 1987, you performed "Learning to Broadcast" that you just mentioned. In fact, this work was mainly to promote Xia Qing, Lin Ru...
Li Guosheng: Yes, those announcers.
Li Guosheng and Xiao Lin perform cross-talk "Learning to Broadcast"
Q: Is this a temporary idea?
Li Guosheng: Not temporarily. This was Jiao Naiji's idea, and he said that we should publicize these announcers. During the creation process, Jiao Naiji told me that we had to think of a way to make this show fire. He said that he was difficult to ride the tiger, Zhao Lianjia had three programs, the censorship had passed, and I still had one here. The minister of culture at the time was Lin Ru's husband, named Wang He, but later divorced (it was found to be Wang Feng, who was then vice minister of radio and television and director of CCTV).
Q: The show was promoted.
Li Guosheng: Yes. Moreover, several of them were indeed the biggest wrists at that time, Xia Qing, Ge Lan, Fang Ming, Tie Cheng, Ding Ran, Ya Kun, Lin Ru, all in Ah. Jiao Naiji said, what should I do with this book? I said I'm coming. I began to think about it and started writing after discussing it in the afternoon, and the next day at noon, I gave jiao Naiji the book. He looked, brother I have a request, can you write my name? I said no problem. However, when performing, the two clips in the middle are in the form of falsehood, that is, the section where Xiao Lin learns Xia Qing.
Q: I can tell that the recording was played.
Li Guosheng: Right. Because Xiao Lin can't learn how to learn.
Q: Those few sentences are really trying to learn?
Li Guosheng: Right. Fang Ming's voice he could learn to resemble, but since Xia Qing needed to put the recording, he also put the recording.
Q: When I first saw this section, I was young, and I thought it was arranged on purpose. But in any case, without the intention of inserting willows, the brand you learn to broadcast has risen, that is, the "Laughing Forest Radio". With this as a brand, you later said the "Super Football Game" you just mentioned, the next year's Spring Festival Gala said "Don't squeeze", including listening to some of your theatrical version of the recording at that time, as long as you say "Xiaolin Radio is now starting to broadcast", the response from the stage is very strong. You were looking to make a series?
Li Guosheng: I didn't mean it, I thought it was a shortcut. At that time, all the passages that we mainly sang were all here with me, because of what? I don't have anything else to do. If you need to dance, I dance with it. I need to gag, and the baggage is also mine. And at the earliest, he still had too much baggage on Xiao Lin's body, afraid that the baggage would not ring out.
Q: Compared with satirical works, positive energy themes are not easy to come out of baggage, how did you solve the contradiction between the theme and the cross-talk effect at that time?
Li Guosheng: There are several ways, the first is to make up for it with Xiao Lin's singing.
Q: Make the audience applaud.
Li Guosheng: Yes, let the audience applaud. The so-called "sharp" is there. Then there is the use of the amount of work to distort, but the distortion should be moderate, so that the audience can accept, so that the baggage. Then there is the pretending to be stupid, or blowing, you can sing I can also sing. With these means, it seems that it is not too revealing. Before we also had a few cross-talks based on singing, I felt that none of the two people were talking about crosstalk, which was not easy. In the seventies, there was an actor who also loved to sing, not as fine as Xiao Lin, but he sang well, and he also got up from singing, and then he was in a unit with us, but he never turned around, the conditions were good, but then he didn't come out.
Q: There's a particularly fun piece called "Before the Show," which is when you pretended to be a bear. That's in "Quyuan Miscellaneous Altar", right?
Li Guosheng: Yes, "Quyuan Zatan".
Q: The format is very novel, but we can hear that you are not speaking live, you are recording in advance, right?
Li Guosheng: It wasn't recorded either, someone was dubbing me.
Q: Isn't that your voice?
Li Guosheng: It's not my voice, it's the voice of the program author, his name is Wang Cunli. We were all together when we were younger.
Q: He was right next to him when he was acting?
Li Guosheng: He is next to him, and he sincerely learns from me. The audience thought I was speaking in a bearskin.
Q: There are also many passages that you mainly talk about rather than sing, such as "Comparison" and "Such a Ceremony", which is equivalent to deliberately adjusting. From the perspective of age, your partner with Mr. Xiaolin is a bit like the partner of Jiang Kun and Teacher Li Wenhua in the early days, and their cooperation is called "Naughty Boy Drama Lao Shu", what do you think is the difference between you and their style?
Li Guosheng: This is what Yu Zhen, the leader of the Qu Art Troupe, said openly. At that time, someone proposed to let me partner with Xiaolin, Yu Zhen said good, let Guosheng go, we also want to come to a couple to lead the new, like Li Wenhua and Jiang Kun.
Q: Compared to their pair, you are still different.
Li Guosheng: The key is that they rushed to catch up, we did not catch up. As soon as the campaign ended, they launched new works...
Q: "So photographed."
Li Guosheng: Yes, we didn't catch up with that group, and when we started performing, the audience's appreciation mentality was normal.
<h1>"Saying good crosstalk is my life's goal</h1>."
Q: Since the end of the 1990s, the two of you have faded out of the front stage, and Mr. Xiao Lin has been hosting TV shows, what have you been doing all these years?
Li Guosheng: I retired at that time.
Q: From the glory of the past to the gradual fading out, will there be a gap in your heart? Because I see you are still in such good shape, physical condition and expression are so good. When you first retired, you were still in very good shape.
Li Guosheng: There is no gap. Although I retired from the unit, in fact I have not rested, I have been talking about crosstalk, there are young actors who need to be praised, I will go to help, when no one needs help, I will go myself.
In May 2019, Li Guosheng performed cross-talk with young actors. This article was taken by the author
Q: You also said stand-up, right?
Q: Do you mean Mr. Liu Baorui's passages?
Li Guosheng: Right. But then I also told some stories, that is, I learned from others. I can still do it, as the old gentlemen said, it is okay to learn from other people's work, and don't waste other people's work.
Q: After Mr. Xiao Lin went to host the show, you didn't talk much together, right?
Q: It is a great pity that in 2015, Teacher Xiaolin suddenly passed away, how do you evaluate Teacher Xiaolin's business and personality? When we first cooperated, he was only about 30 years old?
Li Guosheng: He was 17 years younger than me, and he was only twenty-four or five when we first started talking together. Xiao Lin is a very smart person, the conditions are very good, the contact with cross-talk is late, but the contact with quyi is very early, his father is singing Shandong fast book, he has followed Liu Sichang since he was a child, the Shandong fast book actor of Beiqu, that is Mr. Gao Yuanjun's apprentice. Xiao Lin's cross-talk background is slightly worse, but Shandong Kuaishu also needs to shake the baggage, so he is not unfamiliar with the baggage. And after all, he is young, he has new ideas in his head, and sixty percent of his ideas have been realized by our research, and forty percent of them sometimes I will stop him. So he can catch fire, or he has his foundation.
Cross-talk actor Laughing Forest
Q: In particular, the singing aspect is really outstanding, and listening to his singing is a bit of a professional feeling.
Li Guosheng: Yes, in the amateur propaganda team, he was a tenor soloist, and at that time he sang Shandong Kuaishu and sang.
Q: It's also a trick. Do you see that you are still on stage at the age of eighty, is it because it is difficult to give up crosstalk?
Li Guosheng: I have been stupid in my life, nothing else, some young people are willing to cooperate, anyway, not too tired, the body can withstand.
Q: You just walked over and I saw that your steps were very strong. Have you taken in apprentices?
Li Guosheng: My apprentices are very old, and they are relatively early, and they do not receive much. Later, many people wanted to worship me and I didn't accept it, my point is that you worshiped me and influenced you. If you don't worship me, someone can tell you what is inappropriate for you, and if you worship me, no one will tell you, because it hinders this face. When others tell me, they all say this to them, your idea of worshiping the master is right, but it is not right to worship me, because I am too big in my generation now, and I pay attention to this, you say that you worship me when you are twenty or thirty years old, and people in their forties and fifties still have to call you something, like Fu Qiang is always calling for a master.
Q: You have said a lifetime of crosstalk, what is crosstalk in your mind?
Li Guosheng: Speaking high, saying good crosstalk is my goal for a lifetime; at a lower level, crosstalk is my rice bowl.
Lee Kwok-sung in the backstage of the show. Yang Ming photographed
Q: Are you satisfied with the current development of crosstalk?
Li Guosheng: There are two points. I am satisfied that there are more practitioners, which shows that there are more people who like crosstalk, and it also shows that there are more people who need crosstalk. But in addition, the bowl of cross-talk rice is easy for everyone to see, and it is good and bad here.
Q: You and Mr. Xiaolin have learned to sing a lot of works, and recently there was a young man from deyun society who was more popular, called Zhang Yunlei, who also mainly learned to sing, singing "Exploring Qingshui River" and commenting on excerpts and so on, have you noticed?
Li Guosheng: I don't have much contact with young people now, and I don't bother to go out without anything. I have seen that some people also love to sing, and my overall feeling is just a cross-talk singing, not a cross-talk. In the words of the old gentleman, the singing of cross-talk can be reversible, you sing well the audience has surprises, you sing badly, they think you are sincere, feel funny, there is a "shame" this saying. Now young actors learning to sing are still stuck in "covering shame".
Q: Not enough.
Li Guosheng: You see That Mr. Hou also learned to sing Peking Opera, and Mr. Hou learned from Ma Lianliang, who once learned in front of Ma Lianliang. Young actors sing and the audience listens to it, but it's too hard to make the audience impress you.
Q: It takes a lot of effort. Are you looking forward to the future of crosstalk?
Li Guosheng: I look forward to it.
At the end of 2019, Li Guosheng performed crosstalk. Yang Ming photographed
Q: What do you think the future of crosstalk will look like? What's the difference with now?
Li Guosheng: There must be differences, and there should be differences. The things accumulated by cross-talk have been stolen or borrowed a lot from some other arts, cross-talk is a bit fragmented, some young actors are a little confused in their hearts, cross-talk techniques can be placed anywhere, not called cross-talk, for cross-talk it is like a sick medicine to eat the wrong one. I think it's a red flag, but I think crosstalk can definitely still exist, why? Everyone is willing to be happy, and now the publicity of the health of the elderly says that mentality is the first, and crosstalk is a good medicine for everyone to lift the knot. In addition, there are more practitioners now, and the academic qualifications are higher than in the past, and even if I was highly educated in the past, now I can only be regarded as illiterate. Under the pressure of employment and competition, he must take a road and exert his enthusiasm, so there is still hope for crosstalk. Now let's see how to improve the ideological level and artistic level of the actors, and I personally think that the future will be even better than now.
Q: There is a tendency now that some people have come to power if their basic skills are not so solid.
Li Guosheng: And now there is a phenomenon that he has not yet learned much, he has already begun to teach, there are schools everywhere, there are these teachers everywhere. Of course, I'm not saying that people can't teach, he gave the real things he learned to children, that is also good for children, I'm afraid...
Q: The Scriptures are crooked.
Li Guosheng: Yes, I am afraid that I will read the scriptures. It's just that this matter is too hurtful to say now.
Q: Including you, the cross-talk actors in the 1980s were brilliant, and in this day and age, do you think it is easier for new cross-talk people to come out, or is it more difficult?
Li Guosheng: It is even more difficult to come out, because the objective factors are not as good as then.
Q: At that time, there were a lot of satire works, but now there are basically none, and it is often shown as two actors smashing each other.
Li Guosheng: Now how do you satirize? Satirizing the people, can the people be happy? You satirize the big aspect, it doesn't work, and even if you say it, it's nothing in the eyes of the audience.
In November 2020, Li Guosheng and Liu Hongyi performed the cross-talk "Selling Cloth Heads". This article was taken by the author
Question: Teacher Jiang Kun said at an internal symposium that in the past, cross-talk actors said what the people did not dare to say, so the people applauded you, but now the people dare to say that we dare not say, how to solve this problem?
Li Guosheng: This requires actors to work hard and find their own range of activities through cross-talk skills. Mr. Hou also found his own way when the famous family was born.
Q: Mr. Hou purified crosstalk, and after purification, people still sound happy.
Li Guosheng: Yes. And at that time, there was a big background, liberated, and the old society was compared with the two heavens, at this time people stood up to purify crosstalk and set up a crosstalk improvement group. From the late 1950s to before the Cultural Revolution, the praise type of cross-talk rose, and now people are not as enthusiastic about the praise type of works as in the past, but it has accumulated experience and opened up a path for cross-talk creation, and this aspect cannot be lost in the future.
Q: Before the advent of the singing type of crosstalk, people thought that crosstalk was not suitable for singing.
Li Guosheng: Yes, like "Good Captain" and "Good Company Commander", later formed a climate, but now it is simply abandoned, the praise type of cross-talk has historical merit, and its contribution to cross-talk is to expand the scope of performance.
Q: Do you think it can still make a difference now, just look at how the cross-talk actors do it?
Note: Unless otherwise noted, the pictures in this article are from the Internet
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