美国国家公共电台 NPR She Watched Bootleg Episodes Of Seinfeld, Now The Indonesian Comic Performs Stand-Up

 

MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:

So how about a news quiz now? What is the world's third-largest democracy, the fourth-most-populous country in the world, a country with more Muslims than the entire Arab world combined? We are talking about Indonesia. And yet, what happens in Indonesia rarely makes headlines here in the U.S. That's one reason my colleague Ari Shapiro, host of All Things Considered on weekdays, recently spent some time reporting in Indonesia. His stories will air all this week. Today, Ari brings us a chat with a standup comedian¹ who lives in Jakarta. Her name is Sakdiyah Ma'ruf.

ARI SHAPIRO, BYLINE²: She was raised in a conservative³ Muslim family. She wears a headscarf. And she told me that she became interested in standup comedy by watching bootleg DVDs of, like, Roseanne Barr, Jerry Seinfeld, Bob Saget. And like so many of those comedians⁴, her jokes are often about her own life.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

SAKDIYAH MA'RUF: And now, I'm 34 - way past expiration⁵ date for men in my community. So I guess I'm stuck with continuing my education and having a career.

SHAPIRO: This is very unusual for Indonesia, and so I wanted to know how she found a career as a standup comedian. Here's our conversation.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED BROADCAST)

MA'RUF: I discovered standup comedy, like, for real in 2009.

SHAPIRO: What happened in 2009?

MA'RUF: I discovered this "Robin⁶ Williams: Live On Broadway" DVD. When I watched him do this live, it started to make sense.

SHAPIRO: And when you started to do it yourself, was there anyone in your life who said, this is not Halal, this is not appropriate?

MA'RUF: Well, you know, it's not that direct, but there are concerns. Many members of my extended family sort of state their concerns.

SHAPIRO: How do they express it?

MA'RUF: They said something like, are you speaking in public? And that's not appropriate. Isn't that a path that should not be taken by a Muslim woman? And my parents, of course, worry about the content.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

MA'RUF: I'm very fortunate that my parents supported my education with so many condition that I wish I had a lawyer to help me negotiate⁷.

(LAUGHTER)

MA'RUF: Most importantly, I am not supposed to know anyone from the opposite sex, let alone date them. In the past, I thought, wow, I didn't that my dad was such a great supporter of lesbianism.

(LAUGHTER)

SHAPIRO: What's your process for coming up with and trying out new material and seeing if it works?

MA'RUF: I do not have a luxury to go out every night at open mics events and testing materials. I'm struggling with curfew, of course. And, yes, I have to hide the fact that I appear on national television.

SHAPIRO: How did you hide from them the fact that you were on national TV?

MA'RUF: Well, it was new television station, and no one actually watched that television stations. But then, I appeared on a front page of Sunday paper a couple of days after that performance.

SHAPIRO: And how did you hide that from parents?

MA'RUF: Well, basically, buying all of the newspaper in the neighborhood.

SHAPIRO: Really?

MA'RUF: Yes.

SHAPIRO: You just, like, went from newsstand to newsstand buying every copy of the Sunday papers?

MA'RUF: Yes. Yes, I still have lots at my home if you want to have...

SHAPIRO: Did you eventually show your parents?

MA'RUF: Well, I took advantage because it's an English newspaper. And so I took advantage of just - what did it say? And then, I can say whatever it is that I'm feeling to say - something that is...

SHAPIRO: Just make it up.

MA'RUF: ...Safe. Yeah, something that is safe. And, of course, the jokes that they quote, I'm not...

SHAPIRO: Yeah.

MA'RUF: Yeah.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

MA'RUF: The wait is finally over. Nike will launch Nike pro-hijab, proven to be super comfortable for Muslim female athletes and those running away from oppressive regime⁸ and/or husband.

(LAUGHTER)

SHAPIRO: Do you think there's anybody in your mother's or your grandmother's generation who sees what you're doing and says, I wish I could have done that?

MA'RUF: Well, my mom used to be an actress before she got married to my dad. And I'm feeling very fortunate to be able to reconnect this missing link in the family - something that my mom would have done better or more professionally if context⁹, culture, situations allowed. But something that she stopped doing, and I somehow got the opportunity to pick it up, connecting the missing links of this artistic¹⁰ talent and passion and this spirit to speak up in my family.

SHAPIRO: Well, Sakdiyah, it's been great talking with you. Thank you so much for joining us.

MA'RUF: Thank you so much.

SHAPIRO: That was my colleague Ari Shapiro, host of All Things Considered weekdays, interviewing comedian Sakdiyah Ma'ruf, a standup comedian who lives in Jakarta.

(SOUNDBITE OF LYN TAITT AND ROLAND ALPHONSO'S "STREAM OF LIFE")

1 comedian   

n.喜剧演员；滑稽演员

参考例句：

• The comedian tickled the crowd with his jokes.喜剧演员的笑话把人们逗乐了。
• The comedian enjoyed great popularity during the 30's.那位喜剧演员在三十年代非常走红。

2 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

3 conservative   

adj.保守的，守旧的；n.保守的人，保守派

参考例句：

• He is a conservative member of the church.他是一个守旧教会教友。
• The young man is very conservative.这个年轻人很守旧。

4 comedians   

n.喜剧演员，丑角( comedian的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The voice was rich, lordly, Harvardish, like all the boring radio comedians'imitations. 声音浑厚、威严，俨然是哈佛出身的气派，就跟无线电里所有的滑稽演员叫人已经听腻的模仿完全一样。 来自辞典例句
• He distracted them by joking and imitating movie and radio comedians. 他用开玩笑的方法或者模仿电影及广播中的滑稽演员来对付他们。 来自辞典例句

5 expiration   

n.终结，期满，呼气，呼出物

参考例句：

• Can I have your credit card number followed by the expiration date?能告诉我你的信用卡号码和它的到期日吗?
• This contract shall be terminated on the expiration date.劳动合同期满，即行终止。

6 robin   

n.知更鸟，红襟鸟

参考例句：

• The robin is the messenger of spring.知更鸟是报春的使者。
• We knew spring was coming as we had seen a robin.我们看见了一只知更鸟，知道春天要到了。

7 negotiate   

v.洽谈，协商，谈判，顺利通过，成功越过

参考例句：

• I'll negotiate with their coach on the date of the match.我将与他们的教练磋商比赛的日期问题。
• I managed to negotiate successfully with the authorities.我设法同当局进行了成功的协商。

8 regime   

n.政体，政权，制度

参考例句：

• Under the new regime in our office,no one is allowed to leave early.在新的办公制度下，谁也不能早退。
• The people finally rose up and overthrew the reactionary regime.人们终于起来把反动的政权推翻了。

9 context   

n.背景，环境，上下文，语境

参考例句：

• You can always tell the meaning of a word from its context.你常可以从上下文中猜出词义来。
• This sentence does not seem to connect with the context.这个句子似乎与上下文脱节。

10 artistic   

adj.艺术(家)的，美术(家)的；善于艺术创作的

参考例句：

• The picture on this screen is a good artistic work.这屏风上的画是件很好的艺术品。
• These artistic handicrafts are very popular with foreign friends.外国朋友很喜欢这些美术工艺品。