The interview with Zenjiro, Japanese standup-comedian

 Zenjiro is a Japanese comedian who belongs to Yoshimoto Kogyo, a representative entertainment company in Japan.

He was born in Hyogo in 1968, and became a disciple of Kamioka Ryutaro, who was a popular comedian from the 1960s to 90s.

Firstly, Zenjiro had debuted on TV shows and stages in Osaka, and got many awards in comedy contests.

In 1995, he started to perform in Tokyo, but his comedy wasn’t accepted well there.

He was depressed and moved to USA and began to perform there as a stand-up comedian.

He won the International Comedy Festival in Thailand, and got 2nd place in the L.A. Comedy Store Stand Up Competition.

I had an interview with him in September 2019, and asked him about his experiences and ideas.

This is the summary of the article I wrote for Singalife, the Japanese magazine in Singapore.



— What’s the different between Japanese entertainment Owarai from the comedy in the US?

Firstly I was impressed that the audience pays attention and respects the comedy.

They like to listen to someone who stands on stage and talks.

I felt they are equal between the audience and comedians in the US.

In Japan, the audience tends to look down at comedians if they aren’t famous or popular.

That’s why Japanese comedians are eager to make the audience laugh, and they want to be famous on TV.

And, there are some rules and taboos in Japan regarding the topics that a comedian can talk about on stage.

But comedians in the US like to talk about politics or religion on stage freely.



— It seems that Mandan is similar to stand-up comedy. How is that?

It was said that the origin of Mandan was the narration for silent films by Benshi who gave explanations to the audience.

They sometimes performed as the actors and actresses in the films, and amused audiences.

As I said, stand-up comedy in the US is freestyle, comedians don’t have to make the audience laugh, they just express their thinking logically and comically.

The audiences react as they feel: laugh, applaud, boo and so on.

It’s different from Japanese comedy like Manzai, Mandan, Rakugo.

However there are some comedians who have styles like stand-up comedy, like Kitano Takeshi or my great teacher Kamioka Ryutaro.




— Why don’t Japanese comedians like to talk about politics in their performances?

Because Japanese tend to think that political issues should discussed seriously, I suppose.

That’s why so many people in Japan got angry with me on SNS.

“Don’t pretend to be a specialist, you’re just a stupid comedian!”

Many comedians are afraid of it.

But it’s changing little by little.

Some comedians begin to talk about politics not only on SNS, but also on stage or on broadcast.

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