More Multi-Lingual Comedy with Swedish Rakugoka Sanyūtei Kōseinen

Well, it was quite the weekend for seeing comedy in Japanese and English as just a couple days after catching Japanese comedians Muramoto Daisuke and Seyarogaiojisan perform in English and Japanese, I was treated to seeing Swedish rakugoka Sanyūtei Kōseinen take the stage at the Swedish Embassy as part of their celebration of Swedish Day. For an audience made up of Swedes, Japanese and people who were neither like myself, Kōseinen was tasked with entertaining an audience that seemed to be made up of half of those who did not understand English, half that did not understand Japanese and many that had never heard of the traditional sit-up comedy performing style of rakugo.

Sanyūtei Kōseinen, Swedish rakugo performer, on stage at the Swedish Embassy in Tokyo on Swedish Day.

Showing his professional prowess, he found a balance, alternating between the two languages with even some Swedish mixed in. After giving the audience a basic explanation of what rakugo is, demonstrating with some very short comical tales, he launched into the traditional rakugo story of “the Zoo.” To my pleasant surprise, he passed perhaps the most difficult test of all, making my children laugh. (He was even unflustered when the car alarm of a Volvo on display near the stage went off mid-story!) It’s great to see the continued development of the first Swede to work as a professional rakugoka.

(For more background on Kōseinen, please read an interview I conducted with him a few years ago)

My daughter looks on, laughing, as Sanyūtei Kōseinen imitates a tiger in the story “the Zoo.”