Life's a barrel of laughs for droll duo

For new players of mobile first-person shooting games, struggling with the controls is a common challenge. You might intend to pick up loot only to accidentally fire a round, trigger untimely emotes or gestures during intense moments, or even inadvertently take out your own teammates in the heat of battle.

Common blunders like these have been reproduced onstage by twins Gao Chao and Gao Yue on Tencent's comedy competition program Amazing Night.

Leveraging the advantage of being identical twins, they portray characters with the same in-game skin controlled by novice players, using striking body language to turn awkward moments into uproarious comedy.

Being twins makes them more recognizable to audiences compared to other budding comedians. Nevertheless, their identical looks have also imposed constraints when it comes to writing scripts.

Throughout the season, the pair have portrayed a range of characters, including an individual and his soul, twins with a unique connection that allows them to share sensations, and superpowered brothers born from gourds — the latter sketch drawing inspiration from the classic Chinese animated series Calabash Brothers.

Gao Chao and Gao Yue secured third position in the comedy sketch competition.

Growing up in Qingdao in Shandong province, they began by imitating the skits on China Central Television's Spring Festival Gala, China's most-watched TV program.

"We have loved watching the gala's comic performances since we were children. When we were in first grade, our mother started encouraging us to imitate the comedians. We would perform our skits at family reunions on festive occasions," Gao Chao says.

Later, the brothers competed in school talent shows and put on local performances. By fifth grade, they began studying with cross-talk performer Li Bingjie, learning to hone their comedic craft.

As they entered university in Liaoning province, they continued to spend all their time together and studied traditional performing arts while sharing the same dorm room, and putting on cross-talk performances at local theaters.

After graduation, Gao Chao tried his hand at part-time directing and scriptwriting jobs while Gao Yue took up acting roles in plays, mini-drama series and commercials.

Later, as the popularity of short videos grew, they began scripting, acting and editing funny short videos.

"We have both loved the same things since we were kids. We always dreamed of doing comedy but we didn't know which direction to take," says Gao Chao.

"Was making funny short videos doing comedy? I wasn't sure. We also felt that cross talk wasn't exactly what we wanted to do," he says.

Their uncertainty dissolved in 2021 with the debut of the comic competition reality program Super Sketch Show, which brings together scriptwriters and comedians to create sketches over the course of multiple rounds of competition.

The most common form of comedy featured on the show is sketch, which is typically comprised of a series of short, entertaining scenes or vignettes usually lasting between one and 10 minutes.

"After watching the program, we felt that sketches were precisely the type of comedy we had always wanted to pursue," says Gao Yue. "This inclusive form seems to encompass all the whimsical ideas we have."

He adds that performing sketches on stage reminds him of the days when he and his brother re-created classic comedy skits at family gatherings.

"It's like we're telling a group of people who like us, 'I have a little show for you all, let's see if it makes you laugh'," says Gao Yue.

They describe their productions as "single-cell comedies" and their primary goal is to entertain.

"When it comes to film and drama, I think of myself as genuinely portraying a character, not just myself. But when I'm doing a sketch, I feel like I am still me, I just happen to wear the hat belonging to a specific character as I perform for the audience," says Gao Yue.

Beijing-based media company Mewe produces both the Super Sketch Show and Amazing Night. It has been holding workshops to nurture and discover talented comedians in recent years.

In preparation for Amazing Night, which aired between July and September, they interviewed 3,600 actors and scriptwriters.

The workshop schedule is quite intense. Attendees initially learn the basics of sketches, then move on to developing and rehearsing their pieces, with the possibility of a public performance on the fifth day.

The audience's reaction determines whether the competitors proceed to the next phase, according to Li Nannan, chief producer of Amazing Night.

Typically, Mewe arranges around 10 public performances before recording the sketches for the show. They are usually attended by an audience of about 500, primarily aged between 18 and 35.

Gao Chao and Gao Yue are among the comedians who most frequently participate in these public performances.

The relatively introverted Gao Chao, who is marginally older than his twin, focuses on the script while the more outgoing Gao Yue contributes ideas and unexpected humor.

"We complement each other in our creative process," Gao Chao says.

After the competition, the pair plan to explore the possibility of coming up with their own hour-long comedy show, which they hope to perform in a theater in the near future.