Essay Go and enjoy manzai By 桂三輝	フレームで見る  英文をプリントする  脚注をプリントする
ライブで漫才を観に行こう ここ数十年の間に、年末恒例の人気イベントとなったＭ-１グランプリを頂点として、コンビの数だけさまざまなタイプの芸が存在するといえるほど、日本の漫才は著しい発展を遂げてきた。その多くはテレビで観ることができるものの、もともと舞台で生まれた芸を楽しむなら、やはりライブに勝るものはないのでなかろうか。

Beginning last month, I have had the opportunity to partake in what for several decades has been the most popular Japanese traditional comic performing art: manzai. It is the season of the M-1 Grand Prix, the biggest manzai contest in Japan (and thus, the world). The contest begins with over 4,000 teams, from which nine teams will emerge to compete on national television.

Manzai is traditionally two-person comedy. The pair is usually comprised of a boke, the clown, and a tsukkomi, the straight man. Originally, in the Heian period, manzai started out as more of a musical performance of song and dance to celebrate the New Year. Eventually, the art evolved into a rapid-fire conversational performance, where the boke says silly or foolish things, and the tsukkomi upbraids him, to great hilarity.

You might think that the manzai style is peculiar to Japanese comedic performing arts, but this is not so. Until recently, America had its own manzai tradition. This was two-person comedy that stemmed from the American vaudeville stage. The format also featured a boke and tsukkomi who were called the "clown" and the "straight man." Arguably the most famous American manzai team was Abbott and Costello. There are probably few Americans who do not know their routine Who's on First? This is about a baseball team where the player's names are "Who," "What" and "I Don't Know." Costello wants to join the team, so he asks Abbott the players' names.When he asks, "Who's on first?" Abbot answers "Yes." The resulting conversation is hilariously confusing. Even today, when two people are having a conversation in which neither seems to be able to understand the other person, they will often say, "Who's on first!" This has come to mean, "We are having a confusing conversation!"

Unfortunately, American manzai slowly died off. Nowadays, there don't seem to be any performers doing two-person comedy anymore. On the other hand, Japanese manzai has continually evolved over the decades. There are types of manzai, such as meoto manzai, (husband and wife manzai), and onkyoku manzai (musical manzai). You also have variations on the patterns of comic speech, such as double boke, in which both partners play the clown, or nori tsukkomi, in which the straight man pretends to go along with the clown's idiotic statement for a few moments, and then rips into him.

These days there seem to be as many variations on the manzai style as there are manzai teams. If you haven't enjoyed manzai live before, I highly recommend it. It's fine to watch on TV, but like any art that originated on stage, it's much better live. If the manzai team's conversation gets confusing, you might try shouting out, "Who's on first!" Then again, maybe you'd better not. You might find yourself the victim of a vicious tsukkomi!

Shukan ST: NOVEMBER 26, 2010

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