Two Minutes of Fame: My Unexpected Appearance on the Popular Comedy Program Ametalk
Comedian Morimoto Shintaro talking about me on the comedy talk show Ametalk.
Sometimes life really surprises you with a truly unexpected stroke of good luck. A couple weeks ago, out of the blue, I received a direct message on Twitter from Morimoto Shintaro, a former member of the college comedy group I was part of at International Christian University that had turned professional after graduating. It turned out that Morimoto was going to appear on the comedy talk show Ametalk (アメトーーク) with a panel of other comedians that had been part of comedy groups during their college days. Morimoto’s request was so unexpected that I had to read it several times to make sure I understood it correctly. Morimoto needed permission from me to show video footage of a skit that we performed together while at ICU (I was in graduate school, he an undergrad) along with a couple pictures of myself to show on the program. Of course, I quickly gave the okay but part of me doubted that I would actually make the editors cut. I just didn’t get my hopes up, especially know how things can change when making a program.
A rough video of my appearance. This may be removed later so watch it now.
Well, the show aired this last Thursday night and not only did I make the cut, the host Hanawa Nobuyuki of the banzai duo Knights (ナイツ) recognized me from my days of researching the Manzai Kyokai (漫才協会) in Asakusa as a grad student and apologized for an incident (which the show called a “fight” between the two of us) when he lectured me backstage and essentially told me that I was not welcome. The incident deeply depressed me at the time but although he may had been rough in the way that he said it, he was basically correct that I had overstayed my welcome backstage with the insider status clouding my judgement as a researcher. After that, I made sure to only go into the field while researching for specific needs and not something too open-ended. Still, after all this time, it was nice to hear him apologize.
During the segment, Morimoto was able to show parts of the skit we did at the time, a bit called “Kyojin no Mura” or “The Giant Village” (because the skit featured myself at almost 2 meters and a Japanese student who was 185 cm tall). The edited skit was well-received by the show panelists and Hanawa revealed the “fight” that we had in Asakusa. Morimoto then surprised the show when he revealed that I have since worked with Woman Rush Hour’s Muramoto Daisuke, helping him with his English as he tries to do stand-up comedy in the U.S. (This is true but perhaps the show overstated my role a bit.)
Hanawa shocked to hear of my involvement helping comedian Muramoto Daisuke with his English comedy.
Overall, it was a fantastic and surreal experience seeing a nationally broadcast popular comedy show that I had been a fan of for years talking about me for more than two minutes, showing a bit of my comedy, and getting some closure with an apoligy from a major comedian to boot. The whole thing was an amazing, unexpected present that I will likely never forget. The reconnection with Morimoto also enabled me to get video footage of this skit and my first performance as a comedian at the ICU school festival some ten years ago. I will introduce that clip in a future article so stay tuned!
Hanawa apologizes for the “fight” he had with me many years earlier,
