New SILENT COMEDY Sensation

GAMARJOBAT

Audiences worldwide agree, GAMARJOBAT's performances are fascinating and unique. The duo are Ketch! and Hiropon, two street performers who have turned pantomimes into incredible silent comedies. Their unusual shows are getting laughs from audiences around the world, as they use body performance to break down language and cultural barriers.

In literature, movies and traditional theatre spoken language is essential, and so the performance is only understood by the native speaker. But pictures and music are borderless, and the pair use these media touch to audiences directly. With silent comedy not one word is spoken, so gestures become the universal language. It isn't easy, the pair require a high level of skill to grab their audience and, more importantly, to make them laugh.

Performances highly regarded in foreign countries
GAMARJOBAT took part in the world's biggest theatrical art festival, "Edinburgh Festival Fringe," for two consecutive years. In 2004 they received the "Double Act Award" which is given to the best comedy duo, and in 2005 the "Tapwater Award," again in the comedy field. Local newspapers rated them highly and gave them five stars. "Wonderful performances with talent that one can't stop laughing at" (ThreeWeeks), "GAMARJOBAT is a shining gem of the festival" (Herald Sun) and "This is the performance one would fall in love with at first sight! I have never seen such a performance that I would like to recommend from the bottom of my heart regardless of age, sex, race and tendency of thought" (The Scotsman). Five thousand people attended the duo's performance in 2005.

The stage name "GAMARJOBAT" came from the Kartuli language and it means "Good day." Ketch! explains how it came to be their name. "In 1999, there was a pantomime festival in Germany and many Katuli children were there and addressed us as 'Gamarjobat.' It sounded nice and so we adopted it as our stage name."

At first both members participated in the festival as individuals, but after the festival ended they became a duo. Hiropon explains how they got together: "Up to that time I had performed as a part of other duos, but we were both entertainment oriented and had common values and goals."

It was when Ketch! was a junior high school student that he decided to take this path. His pantomimes were very popular when he performed them at his school. He also attended a pantomime school in the evenings while going to university. After graduation he got involved in street performances and teaching Japanese. Hiropon leant pantomime from his teacher and has never belonged to a company. Both have about 15 years career experience in pantomime.

Both men say "We were both lured into the pantomime world because we could feel the hearts of our audience, beyond borders and race, without using language." They have had their present mohican hairstyles for four years now. "We badly wanted to attract attention, and we have also been influenced by punk music," explains Hiropon. Ketch! has a red mohican while Hiropon's yellow.

We want to change the concept of pantomime
At present there are approximately only 30 professional pantomime performers in Japan, and GAMARJOBAT is the most well-known. Even within the global pantomime scene, there are hardly any professionals. Widely known entertainers such as Marcel Marceau are rare. Because of this, the duo have a strong passion to elevate their art to higher levels.

"Generally, people still have an image that pantomime performers paint their faces white and make actions like dolls. We want to get rid of that image," they both emphasized. As they say, their performances go beyond the old concept of pantomime and their style could reasonably be called "silent comedy." Each of their programs is 10 to 50 minutes long and a fully planned idea is portrayed in each.

Their audiences are usually big on laughter, but those who go to see the duos' performance for the first time often do not see where they should laugh and applaud. Acknowledging this, the pair sometimes ask the audience for applause during their performances, which makes the audience laugh. "Foreign audiences show their enjoyment straight away. Sometimes their reaction lasts for so long that we have to change our pace," Ketch! says. "Japanese applaud or laugh while looking around. In this regard, it may be more difficult to perform in front of Japanese audiences," says Hiropon.

Demand from overseas is greater than it is from Japan. They have been invited to more than 100 festivals in 18 countries. Sometimes it is difficult for them to adjust their schedules to fit everything in. Recently, on the last day of a 2-month Australia and New Zealand tour, they returned to Japan and transferred to Korea at midnight to catch up with their performance schedule. On the other hand, they once had to go on stage by themselves when they found that the organizers had failed to prepare the stage properly, despite the fact that GAMARJOBAT had contacted them 6 months before. "Each country has a different concept of work. In this regard, we feel secure performing in Japan as things are prepared perfectly."

Although they have a very high reputation overseas, they are not widely recognized in the Japanese entertainment world. However, when you see their talent, you will agree that it will only be a matter of time before they break out in Japan.

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