Cheng Lang stood onstage and looked around. Everyone was staring at him in unison.
Cheng Lang's face reddened. "I never expected they'd arrange for me to perform crosstalk after Masters Yao and Xu."
The crowd watched Cheng Lang with great interest. They had assumed he would modestly offer a few conventional remarks about showing off before experts. Instead, Cheng Lang sighed and said wistfully, "I actually really envy the two masters. When I watched them perform crosstalk onstage, I reflected deeply on myself down below."
Yao Qixian and Xu Rujun exchanged a glance, keenly sensing that this kid was about to use them as material for a joke.
Sure enough, Cheng Lang pitifully touched his own face. "I thought to myself, those two old gentlemen are already so advanced in years, yet they still appear onstage as a pair. Meanwhile, I'm so young, yet I've fallen to such a lonely state. I want to perform crosstalk, but I don't even have a partner to play straight man."
"Ooh!" The audience below instinctively heckled at that.
Yao Qixian and Xu Rujun's eyes both lit up. That opening was quite good. There was no particularly brilliant punchline in it, but it fit the occasion. It subtly defused the awkwardness created by Qin Mi comparing the two performances.
With crosstalk, whether it was good or not was one matter; the key was presence. If Cheng Lang had started by humbly admitting that he was inferior, it would have made sense, but his momentum would have weakened. If he could not seize the initiative from the outset, then no matter how well he performed afterward, the audience would struggle to get excited.
After all, people who enjoyed crosstalk tended to have a somewhat argumentative streak. If you surrendered before they had even started arguing