Scott Shimamoto doesn’t speak or understand much Japanese but he knows his heritage and he knew that he could use his stand-up comedy to raise money for the victims of the 9.0 earthquake in Japan and the subsequent tsunami and nuclear radiation leaks.
So that’s what the Pasadena comic did last night, drawing on his comedian friends and offering a microphone to others willing and interested in helping the cause (video highlights below). With a $10 admission and an incentive for comics to qualify for the microphone if they brought five friends or donated $50, plus raffle prize offerings of Japanese tourist items like T-shirts, bandanas, etc., Scott’s fundraiser generated more than $1,200. And he is planning more such efforts.
The back room of Arcadia’s Zapata Vive restaurant on First Avenue south of Huntington Drive was as full as I’ve ever seen it, and no one left during the entire 2 1/2-hour parade of comics (well, a former business colleague of Scott’s tried to leave about 30-minutes early but Scott shamed him into going back to his seat).
After an initial moment of silence, the comics kept the audience laughing all evening and the restaurant kept the customers filled with food and drink. There were only a couple jokes about Asians until Scott re-took the stage to close the program with a couple hilarious bits comparing the approach a black pimp would take in recruiting a new client to that of a Japanese pimp (you don’t see Japanese pimps, Scott said, because they don’t have game). Even funnier was his comparison of Chinese with Japanese when it comes to handling disasters. Although it may have seemed a little insensitive when he noted how Japanese would respond to a nuclear bomb exploding in the room by getting in a single file line and then each person saying “After you…” as they got to the door, he didn’t even know how accurate that is.
My cousin Kurt was on the 9th floor of his office building in Sendai, Japan teaching English to five retirement-age women, when the 9.0 earthquake hit, and then the next two aftershocks of more than 7.0 magnitude each. As walls were cracking and bookcases were falling, Kurt helped his students down the somewhat blocked and shaking stairs to the sidewalk and street where debris was falling around them from the skyscrapers and they were hit with the freezing temperatures and snow. Rather than immediately run for shelter, the women gathered in a semi-circle around him to formally apologize for not being able to stay and finish their class.
Some of the best stand-up comedy humor comes from reality like that. And some of the best aspects of our nature come during a crisis. Scott exhibited both last night. <Click to play 3-minutes of video highlights below.>
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