A circle of friends connected by gut touch! The “FIST BUMP” corner of the radio program “GRAND MARQUEE” features people who live and enjoy Tokyo in a relay format.
On November 28, Kazuki Takeuchi and Eima Tanaka of the comedy duo Manju Daiteikoku appeared on the show, introduced by Kina Kojima of K-PRO, which organizes and hosts live comedy performances. We asked them about episodes from their Ochiken days and the events that led them to become comedians.
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How two guys who used to do only rakugo came to do manzai
Takano (MC): This is the “FIST BUMP” corner.
Celeina (MC): I am pleased to welcome Kazuki Takeuchi and Eima Tanaka of the comedy duo Manju Daiteikoku, introduced by Kina Kojima of K-PRO, which organizes and hosts the comedy live show we welcomed yesterday. Please give them my best regards.
Tanaka: I am Eima Tanaka from Manju Daiteikoku.
Takeuchi: I am Kazuki Takeuchi. Best regards.
Takano: I really like the mid-tempo style of the manzai. I don’t know if “mid-tempo” is right.
Tanaka: I have heard of high-tempo and low-tempo, but I have never heard of mid-tempo.
Takano: It has a middle feel to it.
Tanaka: That’s what I’m going to say from now on.
Takano: Mr. Tanaka doesn’t deny it, but accepts it while performing the manzai. I like that.
Celeina: I feel love there. Sorry, I have a unique sensibility.
Tanaka: Mid-tempo and love.
Takeuchi: I’m glad.
Celeina: I would like to ask you about the roots of the two of you. I understand that you two met in a university rakugo research group, the so-called “Ochiken”.
Takeuchi：Yes, that’s right.
Celeina: Did you perform rakugo?
Tanaka: When I was a student, I only did rakugo for four years with gusto.
Takeuchi：I did nothing but rakugo. So I rarely did comic monologue.
Tanaka: We occasionally performed at school festivals, but we were never involved in the kind of student comedian activities that are common these days.
Takeuchi: We both went to different universities, but we had some interaction with each other. We performed rakugo together at Yose and went out for drinks afterwards.
Tanaka: So you hold rakugo gatherings in order to go drinking.
Takano: That was your main focus. (haha)
Takeuchi: I was more junior than you, but I was included in the group.
Celeina: How did you get into comedy from there?
Tanaka: By coincidence. I had a dream of becoming a comedian for some reason, but Takeuchi was in his fourth year of college and hadn’t even started job hunting, so I thought, “Here’s a guy who thinks life is just fine. We were good friends, and as a last memory of our school days, we decided to do manzai just for fun, and we were participating in live performances that were open to anyone who entered the competition.
Takeuchi: That was K-PRO’s show.
Tanaka: We went to that concert and said, “That was fun”. A few months later, there was a qualifying round for the 2016 M-1 competition, so I said in the same vein, “Why don’t you try out for the M-1 next time?” And we did.
Celeina: Yes.
Tanaka: Everyone doesn’t get a lot of traction in the first round, but we just happened to get a lot of traction. Alco & Peace, who was on the stage behind us, talked about us on the radio. He said, “I saw an amateur called Manju Daieikoku who I don’t know, and he was really laughing right in front of us.” Then they started wondering who those people were.
Takeuchi: It became a topic of conversation in the comedy community.
Tanaka: From there, K-PRO invited us to their live performances, and we thought we were no longer amateurs, so we decided to go for it.
Takeuchi: I just went with the flow.
Celeina: That’s amazing!
Takano: I didn’t know that was possible.
Takeuchi: I started without making any kind of decision.
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A miracle happened just as we were starting to become a comedian.
Celeina: And from there, you joined Titan, an entertainment agency to which Bakusho Mondai also belongs.
Takeuchi：Another miracle followed.
Celeina: Yes.
Takeuchi：At the time when we were talking about doing this, I was in my fourth year of college, and the alumni meeting of the rakugo club of Nihon University’s College of Art was held for the first time in decades. At the alumni meeting, there was a broadcaster, Mr. Fumio Takada, who was there as an alumnus. Since we went to the same high school, I used that as an excuse to go and say hello to him. He asked me about my career path, and when I replied, “I am not job hunting in any way,” he complimented me, saying, “That’s great!”.
Tanaka: A strange school. (haha)
Takeuchi: He said, “That’s the way it has to be at the Nichigei Ochiken,”. When I told him ” I wanted to be a comedian”, he said, “That’s good! Who is your favorite comedian?” .When I answered, “I like Bakusho Mondai,” he said, “Leave it to me! I’m like a master of them. I’ll send a letter to them.” Mr. Takada sent the letter to Titan, and voila, we were accepted into Titan.
Celeina: What a miracle story! (haha)
Tanaka: This is the same story in 2016.
Takeuchi: I joined Titan in April of the following year.
Tanaka: So I thought it would be a quick sale and be over in no time.
Takano: It was really a rage.
Takeuchi: I was really lucky and had a chance to meet them.
Takano: I could go on for hours or so about the roots of the two of you, but I’d like to interrupt the song here for a moment. I asked the two members of Manju Daiteikoku to choose a song that they would like to listen to together on the radio at this time.
Tanaka: This is a song that I use as a musical accompaniment when I perform at live performances hosted by K-PRO’s Kojima-san. It is “ame” in South Penguin.
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Two man live performance at a live house in connection with “debayashi”
Celeina: You have done a two-man show with South Penguin, haven’t you?
Tanaka: That’s right. When I didn’t even know them, I received an offer from Akatsuka of South Penguin to do a two-man show with them through their office. I had no idea what a two-man show between a comedian and a band member would mean, but he made a solid offer, so I decided to give it a try.
Takeuchi：It was interesting so we wanted to try it.(haha)
Celeina: That’s great. How was the live performance?
Tanaka: It was really weird.
Takano: How is it going to be?
Takeuchi: We played at a live house, but we had to go through South Penguin’s instruments, avoiding the chords and equipment that we weren’t supposed to step on.
Tanaka: We said, “If we step on this, the next song will be a disaster.
Takeuchi: It was a close call, wasn’t it?
Takano: It was an interesting combination.
