He is a well-deserved master of comedy, and his glorious comic career should not be underestimated

After Ma Ji, there will be no more masters. This assertion has been mentioned and recognized by many people in the comedy industry, and it has also been affirmed by most people in the comedy enthusiasts. However, there are always some people who are quite depreciative of Ma Ji's comedy career, for all sorts of reasons, and the author will talk about Ma Ji this time.

Ma Ji, in fact, is a seriously underestimated master of comedy, even if his career as a master of comedy title can not summarize his comedy achievements.

1. Tea-house training, master teacher, comic genius

In some people's opinion, Ma Ji seems to be a halfway house from the bookstore employees suddenly turned into a comedian. In fact, Ma Ji has also been "smoked" by the comics.

When he was a child, Ma Ji and a relative of Chang Lianan knew each other, and he often went to the Qiming Tea House to listen to the comedy, which was quite like his later teacher Hou Baolin. Even due to the hardship of life, both of them have been selling ice cores on the streets, perhaps he always had to go the same way with Hou Baolin.

On the eve of the liberation, young Ma Ji went to Shanghai as an apprentice, and learned to speak Shanghainese and Cantonese in the process of receiving customers, which proved that he did have a talent for language. After work, he listened to comedies on his talk box, and went to the theater to see Tong Zhiling's "The Great Split Coffin".

It can be said that although Ma Ji, like Hou Baolin, did not learn comedy from elementary school, they both have an extraordinary heart of advancement. If Hou Baolin's initial intention to devote himself to the comedy business is to make more money, Ma Ji's initial intention is to like and love.

Thus, Ma Ji did not change his profession halfway, instead, listening to and speaking comedy has always been his hobby, and he also has quite a high degree of talent for comedy. 1955, he joined an amateur society in Beijing and began to accept the cultivation of Liu Bao-rui and Guo Quan-bao.

In 1956, Ma Ji became a star in the Amateur Workers' Show, performing his own satirical comedy, "Looking for a Date". First, Liu Baorui invited him to study professional comedy, and later he was spotted by Hou Baolin. So that year he was transferred to the Central Radio Rap Troupe, and his name was changed from Ma Shuhui to Ma Ji.

Being recognized by both Hou Baolin and Liu Baorui, as well as the top brass of the troupe, Ma Ji's talent and ability can be imagined.

2. Traditional comedy, modern comedy, creative comedy

In the Central Radio Rap Troupe, Ma Ji had four teachers, Hou Baolin, Liu Baorui, Guo Qiru, and Guo Quanbao. Although there was some jealousy between Hou and Liu due to their rivalry for Ma Ji, which made it somewhat difficult for Ma Ji, he was able to make progress in both traditional comedy and new comedy by having some of the best learning conditions in the history of comedy.

Nowadays, some people talk about Ma Ji as if he's only a new comedian and not a traditional comedian, but Ma Ji's traditional comedy skills are very good, and his four teachers didn't give him anything for nothing.

Ma Ji said the traditional comedy has "theater fans prescription", "selling cloth", "couplets", "pulling teeth", "looking for the hall", "Za needle", "learning to evaluate the play", "learning Yueju Opera", etc., the traditional comedy, he can speak and sing and tease, and their skills are also quite deep. For example, the "Disciple Training" he performed with Zhao Yan and Karlo in the Spring Festival night is a traditional comic opera.

Not only can he talk, but he can also adapt traditional comedy, such as his "Three to Zero," which was adapted from "Counting the Treasures," "New Geographic Map," which was adapted from "Geographic Map," and "Five Officials Competing for Merit," which has elements of "Six Animals Prospering. Such adaptations extended the vitality and appeal of traditional comedy. A few decades later, another comedian also became popular through a large number of adaptations of traditional comedy, and perhaps Ma Ji saw in him the shadow of his own years so he gave him a happy inscription.

Not only this, Ma Ji created more than 300 pieces of comedy in his life, such as "Ode to Friendship", "Multi-Level Hotel", "Hundred Blows", "Plateau Rainbow", etc. He has always advocated for the comedian to walk on two legs, creation and performance in parallel.

3. Glorification of comedy, satirical comedy, funny comedy

One of the big misconceptions some people have about Ma Ji is that he is simply defined as a glorified comedian, which is very wrong.

Ma Ji's "Looking for a Date" in the amateur competition was a satirical comic, and Ma Ji's comic career started out as a satirical comic.

Nowadays, many people think it's meaningless to talk about glorification of comedy, but it's not about the subject matter, it's about the level of creativity. The most classic Ma Ji's "Ode to Friendship" is so, not only accomplished the task of publicity at the same time also let the audience laugh. The same is true for Wang Peiyuan's "Digging for Treasure," which not only celebrated but also did a lot of popularizing.

And Ma Ji's "Black Spot Disease", which he created through months of living in the countryside, even served as an internal reference, and the comic strip gave the top leaders real information about the situation in the countryside.

If we were to say whose satirical comedy is the most daring and direct in China, I believe Ma Ji would be in the top two, with Yang Zhenhua being the other. His "Multi-Level Hotel" satirized bureaucracy, "Five Officials Competing for Merit", "Hundred Blow-ups", and "Rumor" are all excellent satirical works, and even his "Beijing's Best" was banned due to its overly fierce satire.

Comparing with Ma Ji, who has so many satirical works and strengths besides Yang Zhenhua?

For purely funny comedy, Ma Ji's New Geographic Map is also a good work, not only funny, but also science: "The whole family knocked up Cairo, hit Bangkok, sang up Santiago, a burst of Munich in front of my eyes, it turned out that Burma, so I ordered up Sumatra, saw a piece of Rangoon. Up came three plates of fruit, Congo, Paris, Nicaragua, eat too much to go to the toilet still have to London."

Those who say that Ma Ji will only sing the praises of the comedy is actually do not understand Ma Ji, people Yunyun open mouth, if you really listen to Ma Ji's work will not have this argument.

4, pay attention to inheritance, cherish talent, courageous self-criticism

We all know that Ma Ji's disciples, many people think that Ma Ji's disciples follow Ma Ji is nothing more than want to lift the蔓儿, but look into it will find that Ma Ji's most promising disciples are not to worship, but Ma Ji to find or even go to the robbery.

For example, Jiang Kun, it was Ma Ji personally ran to the Northern Wilderness to perform in a series of shows to impress the leadership of the Corps before agreeing to the transfer of Jiang Kun. Zhao Yan at first just from the Great Northern Wilderness transferred to Tongzhou, Ma Ji sent people every day to stare at the leadership of the other units to soften him before turning him over. Feng Gong and Liu Wei were personally tapped by Ma Ji to go to the middle school in Tianjin.

It's not just disciples, Li Wenhua was recommended by Ma Ji into the Central Radio Rap Troupe, Tang Jiezhong year to study in Beijing, his unit Guangzhou Military Region resolutely do not let go, Ma Ji boldly to the then Chief of General Staff Luo Ruiqing wrote two letters to the Tang Jiezhong snatched over.

Guo Degang Yu Qian Fang Qingping's godfather Lian Chunming, although not a comedian is a comedian creative talent, his uncle is also Ma Ji, Ma Ji's discerning eye, Lian Chunming has become a well-known comedy writer.

Other masters are sitting at home waiting for people to worship, Ma Ji is around the initiative to recruit, there is only one reason, love talent. Seeing a good comic talent can not give up, try to find ways to dig out. And unlike Hou Yaowen, Ma Ji's digging is a diamond in the rough, and after digging it over, he has to bring it himself.

Ma Ji's disciples have become very famous, and after they became famous, some of them got away from the life and the masses more and more far away, and Ma Ji asked them more than once to continue to go deeper into the life, even if it is to move a horse zipper to sit on the side of the road to observe the passers-by, as well. Some disciples can do it, but some people can not do it, but nestled in the home behind closed doors. Ma Ji is painfully aware of this, but he doesn't think it's the disciples who are at fault, but rather his own failure to teach them.

5, the courage to open up, aggressive, long-term

Now a mention of the sketches of the pioneers, we think of Wang Jingyu and Chen Pesi Zhu Shimao, in fact, Ma Ji as early as 1982 realized that the sketches of the era may come, he thought that with the popularity of television, the visual arts are likely to be more promising. So he worked with Zhao Yan and others to recreate the comedy based on sketches from that year's acting exams, and they wrote 13 sketches, one of which was Cosmic Brand Cigarettes.

Looking back at the show Cosmic Brand Cigarettes now, you realize that it can be viewed as stand-up comedy, but it can actually be viewed as a one-man sketch. Unlike stand-up comedy, which focuses on storytelling, "Cosmic Cigarettes" adds costumes, props, and intermediate performances, and the identity of the performers never jumps out, so it's okay for you to think of it as make-up comedy, and it's not impossible for you to think of it as a skit.

Ma Ji's protégé, Huang Hong, would later use the same techniques of comedy in his creation of Playing Poker, so we look back at Playing Poker and you'd think it could be considered a make-up comedy as well.

Ma Ji not only took the first step in the sketches, he also tried his hand at comedy movies, and "Laughing Through the Love Net" is arguably the most successful movie in the comedy world so far, with the plot, the intention, and the hilarity all being benchmarks. What is remarkable is that Ma Ji in the movie will be the main part of the drama are given to the disciples, but instead of his own role in a small part of the role of the antagonist.

Some might say that Ma Ji's attempt to diversify his comedy was inappropriate, but what was the tone of society in the 1980s? Reform! Ma Ji's reforms made comedy the hottest form of entertainment in the 1980s and early 1990s, and it was also the most glamorous and prosperous era in the history of comedy. Who are the hottest actors in the history of comedy? It was Ma Ji and Jiang Kun. In the 1980s, they would cause a sensation in any place they performed, and their popularity could be imagined.

6. Craftsmanship, preparedness for danger, and a keen eye

After Ma Ji's death, his colleague Zhao Lianjia and his disciples remembered him most for Ma Ji's seriousness and dedication to comedy. In order to create a piece of comedy he can go down to the countryside for a few months, in order to investigate the details of a small package he did not hesitate to go to the specialized agencies to do research, this kind of meticulous attitude towards the creation of his comedy career has always insisted on the style.

And this kind of craftsmanship and another master of comedy surnamed Ma is the same lineage.

In the period when comedy was still booming, Ma Ji began to think about the future direction of comedy, for example, he always thought that the teaching mode of large classes was not a good practice, and the traditional one-on-one oral teaching also has its drawbacks. How to pass on the baton of comedy is what he always thought about, and some time before his death he started to videotape himself at home, recording his own experience and works as a resource, but unfortunately, the sky is not the limit.

In his later years, Ma Ji was even more concerned about comedy's over-reliance on television and the big stage, and although he himself was once a member of this scene, he sensed a decline in its expressive power and a growing detachment from the masses. So he strongly supported Li Jindou's Weekend Comedy Club and Guo Degang's De Yunshe, and gave De Yunshe an inscription.

Even after more than a decade, we find that the situation Ma Ji was worried about still exists and is even getting worse, and his words are worth revisiting for comics.

Six months before his death, Ma Ji acted in his first TV series, guest-starring as a wonton store owner in the Wu Ma-directed drama "Flagstaff". On the set, Ma Ji's refinement and pursuit of acting details even touched other professional TV actors.

Ma Ji's meticulous attention to creativity and excellence in acting is in his bones, something he has spent his life pursuing, and something that is worth studying and reflecting on for future generations.