This Was Funnier in China | Laszlo and Jesse Appell

The China History Podcast

Laszlo Montgomery

History, Society & Culture

4.8 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 4 February 2026

⏱️ 71 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

I drove downtown not too long ago to meet with Jesse Appell to talk about his first book, "This was funnier in China" https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/This-Was-Funnier-in-China/Jesse-Appell/9781668087565

Jesse's been performing stand-up comedy and Xiangsheng 相声 for years now. When he isn't engaging in this profession, he's managing and promoting his global tea company, Jesse's Teahouse https://jessesteahouse.com/en-us.

This book tells the story of Jesse's experiences engaging with the PRC and building a nice, comfortable, and exciting life for himself. You'll learn about what it was like living there, about his apprenticeship under Xiangsheng Master Ding Guangquan 丁广泉, his performances, the comedy club he created in Beijing, a whole bunch of interesting characters, and a whole lot more. You may want to slow the audio down to half or quarter speed to take in everything Jesse has to say.

This is all raw and unedited from the Livestream he ran on his various platforms. We clipped on a couple of Bluetooth mics and hit Play on my iPhone to record. The video of this recording can be found at Jesse's TikTok, YouTube, and IG. Thanks, everyone!

Video of the interview: https://www.youtube.com/live/QqSNje4fRzg?si=YzMhQx_ohFt6exR4

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hey, all CHP listeners all over the galaxy.
0:02.9	Laszla Montgomery here.
0:05.2	Last week, I braved the drive downtown to meet with Jesse Appel.
0:09.1	He's a thousand times more famous than your humble narrator, so no need for an intro.
0:14.0	I read his new book, and we enjoyed a nice 30-year-old white tea and discuss some stories taken from the book.
0:22.1	The conversation is unedited and contains one hour of raw conversation.
0:27.2	97.6% of Jesse speaking and 2.4% of me.
0:32.1	Therefore, you're in for a treat.
0:33.8	There's only one F-bomb in there and it wasn't uttered by me.
0:37.5	Don't be alarmed that there's only been six episodes released since last summer.
0:41.9	Actually, I have never been more productive.
0:44.8	Patreon and CHP premium subscribers are begging me not to be so prolific with all the hours and hours of new shows that they're getting to try on first.
0:55.4	This has been the best stuff that's ever come out of the CHP, in my utterly worthless opinion. Details are in the show notes,
1:02.1	accompanying this interview with Jesse, and I've also included links where you can check out
1:06.4	Jesse's book. This was funnier in China, along with links to Jesse's Tea House, where many CHP listeners
1:13.2	get all their tea and tea accoutreement.
1:16.7	The book is This Was Funnier in China.
1:20.3	I hope you enjoy the program.
1:23.4	How is everybody doing?
1:25.7	Welcome, welcome, welcome to a very special live stream we have here at Laslo Montgomery of the China History Podcast fame.
1:34.6	You want to give a little quick introduction? Who are you?
1:37.7	Lawful Montgomery, the China History Podcast fame?
	...

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