I went to the CALL ME THE GOAT show by Daisuke Muramoto (20th December 2024), at Tokyo's Nissho hall, a prestigious venue which has been used for recordings of NHK programs in the past. I have been following his act over the last decade, as he made efforts to change the comedy culture in Japan, which rarely provides critical views on politics and social issues. I am a friend of his, and have expressed sympathy with his struggles to establish the standup comedy culture here in this country.
At the beginning of the show, Daisuke explained that GOAT, which is an acronym for Greatest OF All Time, meant that somebody was really good at something, arguably the no.1 in the genre (he actually did not explain the acronym explicitly). It was with this bold self-assertion, entirely justified in my view, that he set the stage for his highly anticipated comeback to the Japanese stage. Daisuke now lives in New York, appearing in Comedy Clubs throughout the city.
The topics covered were wide-ranging. The aftermath of earthquakes, peer pressure, street culture in New York, learning English, the not-so-smooth relationships between Japan, Korea, and China, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Donald Trump, Dragon Ball, communication and miscommunication, tattoos, nuclear power plants, love life, and, needless to say, Japanese politics. The climax of the act was when Daisuke described, with awe and joy but not forgetting his comedy, a chance encounter with his comic hero, Chris Rock, in a New York ramen restaurant.
Through the act, Daisuke clearly showed that he is indeed GOAT, at least in Japan, and as far as standup comedy is concerned. It now remains for him to show that he is GOAT in the United States of America as well. That would surely be an uphill climb, but it would be exciting to watch the process, even if he ends up being a Don Quixote.
Through coverages such as the documentary film I AM A COMEDIAN following his life, Daisuke's journey as an evangelist of standup comedy came to be widely known in Japan. Now that Daisuke has moved to New York, with the aim of making it in the United States, his dream of becoming a Shohei Ohtani of comedy has found resonance in the hearts of many people dissatisfied by the status quo of Japanese laughter. Mainstream Japanese media do not broadcast critical comedy. Japanese laughter tends to be focused on physical acts, simplistic slapsticks, or observation of personal relationships under the assumption of peer pressure, and the tv producers, including those from the public broadcaster NHK, are notoriously shy of putting something equivalent to The Daily Show or Saturday Night Live on air.
But perhaps the times are changing. The stagnation of Japanese economy for three decades has raised the awareness of a need for a change in its culture, including that of comedy. Japanese people are now exposed to American and British comic acts through the internet in general and streaming platforms such as Netflix. The disappearance (which may be temporary) of Hitoshi Matsumoto from Japanese tv has put a huge question mark on the mainstream comedy culture here.
I hugely enjoyed Daisuke's CALL ME THE GOAT show, and I wish him well. I sincerely hope that he will be successful in New York and elsewhere. I am looking forward to his appearance in SNL!
At the least, on this December evening, Daisuke Muramoto's earnest efforts to make people laugh in the Nissho Hall, while facing the realities of Japanese society, have moved the hearts of people, including my own.
