Quang Teo and Chien Thang strongly responded to Thanh Trung's statement.

Many veteran comedians such as Duc Hai and Quang Teo have spoken out against MC Thanh Trung's comments when comparing audiences in the North and the South.

In the live show The Clown of Quang Nam 2 - Returning to the Hometown which took place on the evening of December 1 in Ho Chi Minh City, MC Thanh Trung caused controversy when he compared the audience reception of performances in the North and the South.

"It was really surprising that even though it was raining, the audience still came in large numbers to support the artists. Meanwhile, in the North, people watch comedy at the theater, there is air conditioning but the audience only has 3 rows of seats," said the male MC.

Meritorious Artist Duc Hai, who has performed comedy for many years in the North and for the past 16 years has been performing comedy regularly in the South, artists Tra My and Quang Teo have expressed their opinions on Thanh Trung's opinion.

Meritorious Artist Duc Hai: Thanh Trung is too young

Thanh Trung is too young to know how popular Northern comedy used to be. There was a time when the Duc Hai - Minh Vuong group, and the comedy skits staged by the Youth Theater were all warmly welcomed by the audience. I must say that they were packed with people. So why do people say that Northern audiences are cold to comedy? That is not true.

Thanh Trung only said what he could see. In the North now, sometimes the theaters are empty because there are too many entertainment programs and if the weather is not favorable, people are willing to stay home and watch TV. Meanwhile, why do audiences in the South go to the theaters in large numbers? Because the weather in the South is good, the entertainment habits of the Southern people, the population density in the South is also high. Out of 13 million people, only 1 million people going to the theaters would fill up the theaters.

In fact, at different times, the audience's demands are different, so how can artists not cater to the audience's tastes? In the past, Southern comedy was considered easygoing and not academic, but that's people's preferences, so why force them to watch something they don't like? If Northern comedies were brought to the South, very few people would buy tickets to see them, and vice versa, if Southern comedies were brought to the North, they would 'die immediately'. Now, the way Southern plays are staged has also changed, becoming more and more meticulous, both in content and form. Therefore, all comparisons are lame.

Comedian Chien Thang: I've been running shows all year and still haven't finished my work.

I don't know what time Thanh Trung based his comment on? I remember that Thanh Trung also started out as a comedian performing in the North. He performed all the time here and only moved to the South a few years ago, so maybe he doesn't have the experience performing here.

I perform all the time, running to many places during the day, also refusing many times because of conflicting schedules, sometimes flying to Saigon in the morning, performing in Hanoi at night. The audience is always crowded, I have never seen the audience only sitting in the first 3 rows. Thanks to the love of the audience, I was able to build a quite spacious house in Vinh Phuc. It is not correct to say that the Northern audience is indifferent to comedy. They only choose what they like, what suits them, then go see it. If they don't like it, how can you force them to buy tickets?

Artist Quang Teo: Thanh Trung should re-learn the tastes of Northern audiences

Quang Teo - Giang Coi is a couple that performs on stage forever but the audience never gets bored.

Everyone has the right to express their opinion, however, that opinion must be based on reality, and cannot speak carelessly and affect the Northern artists and the audiences who love them. Thanh Trung said that because he has not performed comedy in the North for many years. I have performed in many places, in remote provinces, but the audience has never been indifferent to comedy. My friends and colleagues are the same, when they perform, there are many audiences.

The tastes of the audiences in the two regions are different, so any comparison is lame. For example, in 2015, Minh Beo and the whole group of artists performed at the Youth Theater, scheduled for 3 consecutive nights, but after the first night, the whole group had to stop performing. The reason was that there was no audience. Meanwhile, the name Minh Beo is very popular in the South. It's just that the tastes of the art are different, but I don't criticize whether the play is good or bad. Each artist has a certain amount of audience that suits their taste, so comparing one person's program with many audiences and another person's program with fewer is not appropriate at all.

According to VNN