About Comedy Corner

A community platform for international English comedy in Shanghai — and the people who make it happen.

What We Believe

Living abroad is hard. Working across cultures is harder. Doing either of them while pretending to be someone you're not is exhausting.

Comedy Corner exists because laughter solves problems that nothing else does. It builds rooms full of strangers into rooms full of friends. It teaches people that their accent isn't a flaw, their story isn't boring, and the version of themselves they're trying to hide is usually the version other people actually want to meet.

We run live shows because the international community in China deserves a Friday night that feels like home. We run training programs because the same skills that make a comedian great on stage make a professional great in a meeting. And we run both with the same belief underneath: people are more interesting when they sound like themselves.

The Founder — Ian Badenhorst

Ian Badenhorst is the founder of Comedy Corner. South African by birth, Chinese by residency, and a stand-up comedian by trade, Ian has been producing live comedy for 15 years and performing for 10.

Before 2020, he toured with and opened for international headliners across the global comedy circuit. When China's borders reopened in 2022, he joined Spicy Comedy Club as China's first full-time foreign English-language stand-up comedian, and in 2024 he was named That's Shanghai People's Choice Comedian of the Year.

After his contract with Spicy Comedy ended, Ian returned to Cages Bar & Sports to bring back their signature international comedy nights — the same room where many of the city's English-language comedians first found a stage. Today, those Friday nights are Comedy Corner's flagship event.

By day, Ian and a roster of fellow professional comedians deliver corporate training and confidence coaching for professionals working across cultures. He also mentors emerging comedians and takes on comedy writing assignments — speech punch-ups, sketch work, and the occasional script doctor's note.

Our Mission

To make international life in China feel a little easier — and a lot funnier.

We do this three ways:

By producing live international English comedy nights every Friday, so the city's international community has a reliable, recurring place to gather, laugh, and meet each other.

By offering confidence and communication training for the professionals, teams, and students who need to speak with authority across cultures — using the techniques that working comedians rely on every night.

By acting as a community hub, pointing people toward the comedy, events, and experiences happening across Shanghai and, increasingly, the rest of China.