NEW YORK — The gestures were subtle, the words controlled and the comedian delivered his punch lines while seated on a cushion. But Katsura Kaishi, the traditional "rakugo" performer from Osaka, had New Yorkers laughing like any standup comic as he finished off his six-month U.S. tour in mid-September.
For Kaishi, it was mission accomplished: to introduce the hilarity and enjoyment of Japan's traditional comic storytelling while dispelling the myth of Japanese sternness.
"Americans do not know that in Japan we have a sense of humor," Kaishi said prior to his final performance at the Merkin Concert Hall in New York on Sept. 17. "They think we are serious salarymen with neckties-only business. But actually, rakugo portrays a very animated sense of humor that has been alive in Japanese culture for 450 years."