An Iraqi-American comedian stands onstage in Tokyo and tells the crowd how her lack of Japanese has led her to play "pick and pray" when ordering in restaurants: pointing at the ubiquitous food photos and hoping for the best. "I'm a Muslim so I don't eat pork," says Reem Edan. "But, erm, now I do," she adds to a burst of laughter. "People are like, 'what does it taste like?' and I'm like, 'infidelicious.'"
While Edan's take on an outsider's experience in Japan has its own slant, it plays well in a small but vibrant stand-up scene that gives foreign residents a chance to share stories and laughs about life here, often alongside curious locals.
It is "a very forgiving scene" for comedians, says Hager B, who runs Stand-Up Tokyo with fellow comic Alex Camp. The duo say this is partly due to the polite and respectful local culture rubbing off on the expat community, which Hager estimates makes up at least 90 percent of their audiences. "In places like London or New York, people are like, 'I know comedy, impress me, make me laugh,'" says Camp, who is British and goes by the stage name C-Dogg. "People are more chilled out here. It's not like America where everyone is shouting and doing whatever they want."