Would You Enroll in Japan’s Comedy School?

Back in March, Laura Turner Garrison told us all about the giant content production company Yoshimoto and its firm grip on the Japanese comedy industry. Here’s a piece from the Japan Times featuring the place where many of Yoshimoto’s employees get their start: a comedy school called New Star Creation (NSC). Students are taught everything from basic skills, like projecting their voices, to more nuanced aspects of an act, such as finding their comedic character. According to instructor Taiki Momino, the school “forces the students to create their own material and then gives them a place in which to present it to an audience of their peers.” Who, by the way, happen to all be “people who are used to thinking they are the funniest folk in the world.” As cool as it would be to have a structured entryway into the world of performing comedy, it also sounds pretty intense. Would you go to comedy grad school?

Would You Enroll in Japan’s Comedy School?