Latest / POST-WHATEVER with Ken Nishikawa
The First Blue-Eyed Comedian in Japan — the Tragicomical Story of the Original Kairakutei Black
Long before Pakkun, before Katsura Sunshine took rakugo to West End and Broadway, there was an Australian who beat them all to it by about 130 years — and did it while being heckled mid-performance by his own brother.
This episode tells the genuinely unbelievable life of Henry James Black: Meiji-era magician, English teacher turned stage comedian, the first Westerner officially recognised as a professional rakugo storyteller, and — somehow, also — a kabuki actor tutored by one of the biggest names in the form's history. He adapted Dickens and Shakespeare for 1890s Tokyo audiences, changed his…
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