'Ongals' leading K-comedy wave

"Let us not hurt anybody's feeling. Let us make comedies that make everybody laugh. That has been our philosophy from the beginning. Comedy should be comedy. When looking for a topic, we do not look at political, religious, racist, and gender issues."

That was what Cho Joon-woo (38), the leader of the comedian team the "Ongals," noted on the trendy comedy style, which makes people laugh by belittling someone or using provocative language. The Ongals has been performing inside and outside Korea with the same philosophy for 10 years. The Dong-A Ilbo had an interview with them in their practice room located in Seoul, where the team was preparing for a performance in Brazil at around the same time as the Rio de Janeiro Olympics, which will be held in August this year.

The Ongals was created from a KBS's Gag Concert corner with the same name in 2007. Cho Joon-woo, Cho Soo-won (37) and Chae Gyeong-seon (36) gained popularity by acting toddlers who do not speak but babble ("ongal" in Korean) and do silly things. In the following year, they decided to leave the TV station and go overseas.

"We once had a collaboration concert for a group of the mentally challenged. While other teams who performed verbal comedies failed to make them laugh, our nonverbal comedy worked successfully," said Cho Joon-woo. "We thought that we could make foreigners laugh as well."

With the new member, beatboxer Choi Ki-sup (37), the Ongals upgraded their comedy with various elements and started performing overseas.

"At first, we did not know any Korean comedian who had experiences abroad, and people around us called us fools," said Chae Gyeong-seon. "A foreigner who listens to K-pops told us, 'Korea also has comedies?' We could have been discouraged by all of that, but instead we became confident."

They were not bluffing. In 2010, after the first two years of performing abroad, the Ongals received "Five Stars," the highest score, from the international comedy festival "Edinburgh Festival" in the U.K. In 2014, they were awarded "Director's Choice" for the first time as an Asian individual/team by the Melbourne International Comedy Festival.

Building a reputation abroad and having concerts in Europe, Asia, and the U.S., they became the leader of the K-comedy wave. Later, in order to diversify entertaining elements, they scouted Ha Bak (35), Kim Guk-jin (32), Lee Gyeong-seob (28) and Choi Jin-yeong (27), who have talents at magic tricks and dancing.

What is their next goal? They mentioned two key words: "English" and "primitive tribes." "Whereas we do not have to speak on stage, we do have to speak off stage, talking business. We realized that we should learn English and stop babbling. If we truly want to be international comedians, I think that we should be able to make even primitive tribes laugh too (laugh)," Cho Joon-woo said.

김배중기자 wanted@donga.com