![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() When I received a standing ovation at Sonar Comedy Club in Prince George. What was the greatest moment you've experienced on stage? How about the worst? When I performed at the Winnipeg Comedy Festival for the first time in April 2018. The energy was highly interactive and playful. When I played my first lead role for the comedy play "How much are those feelings in the window?" at Havana theatre in Vancouver in December 2015. When did you first know you wanted to do comedy? When did you decide it was a career? What kind of first impression do you hope to make on audiences when you step on stage?Ī non-threatening sweet Japanese lady in da haus!ģ. I was shy, innocent and didn't have boundaries yet. Where do you come from, and what were you like growing up? We invited Nagashima to take our questionnaire, and here's what she had to say!ġ. Nagashima is one of the featured comedians in the CBC Gem special The New Wave of Standup and is available to watch online here. However, Nagashima isn't limited to the stage she also creates content for her own Youtube channel, which has 236,000 subscribers and growing! For now, I’ll just have to settle for her promising performance last Saturday.Originally from Tokyo, Japan, Yumi Nagashima calls Vancouver home and has Canadian audiences rolling with laughter. Time permitting, in the future I would love to interview her for her views on performing as a Japanese woman in the world of English-language stand-up. Her dry and somewhat black humor was right up my alley so when I heard she would be performing in Tokyo I decided to see her for myself. It would seem that English language and the world of stand-up has freed Yumi up to speak her mind and allowed her to get away with a kind of humor that just doesn’t happen in Japanese.Īctually, Yumi was first brought to my attention by a Japanese comedian who sent me a link to one of her YOUTUBE clips that recently has helped greatly to boost her notoriety in past year or so. In general, in Japanese comedy most comedians shy away from sexual humor or shimoneta and women certainly do not address sexual acts with the glee that Yumi does on stage. The tone of the material, while in the realm of current stand-up in the West, is completely different than what one might see of female Japanese comedians when performing domestically. In fact, Yumi uses the gap between her small stature, unmistakable Japanese accent and her fowl mouthed material to her advantage comedically, consistently eliciting laughter from her audiences. Certainly, no one watching her somewhat raunchy set on Saturday would confuse her the (often mistaken) image of the subservient Japanese woman. After describing her mother’s advice for her to settle down and have kids, in a sweet tone she replies with, “Fuck that shit”. On Saturday night, Yumi certainly made it clear that she would not play the role/stereotype of the traditional, demure Japanese woman. Again, for more background info on her read this excellent article. ![]() She struck out on her own and was eventually introduced to stand-up comedy through her now partner, Byron Bertram (who also headlined on Saturday and brought the house down with a great 30 minute set himself). According to a very informative article in the Georgia Straight, Yumi moved to Canada with her English teacher husband only to find married life a poor fit. Yumi is an interesting case of a Japanese comedian who found her creative voice abroad before returning to Japan. This last Saturday () I had the pleasure of seeing the stand-up of Yumi Nagashima in a sold-out performance at the Millennials in Shibuya. ![]()
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