Comedy Boom Spreading among Foreigners

Tokyo Comedy Store

Japan is just now in the middle of a comedy boom. You can see comedy shows on any TV station almost every day. At the end of the year a grand comedian contest, the M1-Grand Prix, is aired and gains high viewing ratings. Every year new comedians burst onto the scene bringing with them new vogue words. Last year, “Oubei ka!” (Are you a westerner?) was in fashion. Recently, the number of foreign comedians has been increasing, too.

Tokyo Comedy Store, supported by foreigners living in Japan including Michael NAISHTUT and Chris WELLS, is leading the foreign comedy boom. Since its establishment in 1994, the group has been entertaining English speakers in Japan by performing standup comedy, improvised performances, and sometimes magic and street performances.

At the same time in 1994, IMAI Jun, a friend of Michel and Chris, started to instruct improvised performance to Japanese. Ten years later, in 2004, he joined Tokyo Comedy Store with other professionally qualified Japanese improvisation performers.

Up to now, many foreign personalities have been on the stage of Tokyo Comedy Store including Patrick HARLAN of Pack’n Mack’n, Lenne HARDT, who is a PRIDE ring announcer, and Cyril, a magician. At present, a Japanese show is held on the first Friday and the third Thursday of every month, and an English show on the fourth Friday, at Crocodile in Shibuya.

In addition to each performer having unique charms, no one knows how the performance will unfold, and with no prepared story or dialogue (lines), the players have to work together and rely on each other to create a rewarding performance. This kind of improvised performance is just what they want to give to their audience while they are enjoying something to eat and drink. Satisfaction comes from a sense of unity between the audience and performers.

The audience for the Japanese shows is mostly Japanese, but Japanese make up only 20 to 30 % of the audience at the English shows. Lots of foreigners living in Japan look forward to seeing high level comedy performed in English. The shows usually attracts 60 to 80 people, about half men and half women who are mostly between 20 and 40. While many men and women come individually, there is a corner where people can celebrate someone’s birthday together, so some groups come to celebrate a party.

Michael Naishtut told Hiragana Times, “Japanese audiences are very quiet and humble, however, it doesn’t mean they don’t like comedy shows. They are just too shy. On the contrary, American audiences are extraordinary and react in loud voices to our silly jokes.” Laughing points differ depending on nationalities.

Tokyo Comedy Store
www.tokyocomedy.com

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