Yume, On Location: The Night the Opening Remarks Were the Real Show

Never been to Fukagawa Suehirotei before, so this was a first. My editor told me, "You don't need to cover it, just go as a regular audience member" — meaning I paid for my own ticket (sob). But it turned out great, so I feel like I got my money's worth back in a different currency.

Honestly I went in thinking rakugo was one of those sit-quietly-and-listen things, but even before the show started, the aunties in the seats were already buzzing — "is he doing Window Art today?" "no, I just saw a sign, not today" — and that atmosphere alone was already funny.

The main show was two pieces from Kishihachi Ryutei's "Kishi Rakugo" repertoire. Good, obviously. But if I'm honest, what got the biggest laugh out of me was during the opening remarks (the small-talk part before the real pieces start), when he said the encore for Window Art had just been confirmed and he was still genuinely wrestling with how it'd play out indoors. The whole room went "ohh," and the auntie next to me muttered, "it's rare to hear him admit he's still worried," which also cracked me up.

Until last year I basically thought of Kishihachi as "some distinguished older storyteller guy," but today I found out he's someone who can steal the whole room with small talk before the real show even starts, and it kind of changed how I see him. I think I finally get, a little, what the senior staff at the paper mean when they say he's got serious range.

After the show, in the lobby, I overheard some guy who looked like an office worker telling his friend the opening remarks stuck with him more than the main pieces, and I quietly thought, yeah, exactly, I'm putting that in the column. Wasn't supposed to be a work trip, but it kind of turned into one anyway.

Honestly, what I'm most looking forward to right now is seeing how Window Art turns out at the November encore. Already plotting how to convince the desk to let me go "on assignment" for that one.