At the end of last year, Nam interpreted in Bangkok for a famous Yoshimoto comedienne, High Heel Momoko. They ended up hitting it off, and Momoko invited us to dinner this past weekend. This is how I, the guy who basically holds Japanese TV responsible for the heinous dumbing-down of the past few generations, found himself in a room full of famous people and their agents on Saturday night. It was thoroughly enjoyable.
Momoko and her entourage are a close-knit group and at first there was of course a lot of industry talk going on, which was interesting in the sense that people who work in television are always viewing the world around them through a virtual camera lens. “Wouldn’t this make an excellent filming location,” and, “isn’t so-and-so getting their own series this year.” That kinda stuff. Later, though, we chatted with Momoko and I did the inevitable by asking why she originally took on the High Heel moniker.
The main reason was very simple, that girls like high heels and she wanted to appeal heavily to females in the audience during her standup routines. She then went on to explain that you need two shoes to have a complete pair and manzai is also like this because there are two parts to the act (the tukkomi and the boke). Also, comedians often employ contradictions (two contrating points) to make people laugh. Her point was later illustrated when Kuro-chan, from a comedy troupe called Yasuda Dai Circus walked through the door. He’s a big fellow who looks like a mean skinhead until he opens his mouth and his tickle-me-Elmo voice bursts forth – “Kuro-chan deeeeesu!” That guy had me laughing all night, because I just couldn’t bring myself to believe that that was his real voice – of course everyone asked him if it was, but you can never tell what people will do to make it in television, right? I wanted to hold him down and tickle him to see if his voice would shift to a baritone, that’s how ridiculously high his voice is.
All in all, it was a fun dinner.
Raising a family in Thailand // Documenting Issan food, culture, music, and people
I would have loved to have been there for that. Even inthe same restaurant would have been nice. What did you have? With all the $$ they have, I assume it was nice. And thanks for the cell phone info. I will get a SIM card when I get there. C ya there!
We went to this $$ beef and seafood place in Namba called Oxen. They grilled all the seafood live in front of us – I’ve never seen an abalone cooked live. It was the most inhumane thing I’ve ever seen in person. It writher around in its shell like a long black tongue and spun around on the grill, sputtering as its shell cracked and it got cooked alive. Whoever thought of cooking it like that was not a good Buddhist. It was the best damn awabi I’ve ever had, but I felt like an asshole for having watched it die like that. Same for the prawns and lobster-sized ise-ebi, but those dodn’t writhe around like the abalone – they die fairly fast from the heat.
The saikoro steak was a beautiful sirloin cut of organically raised Kobe boeuf, but in all honesty I could have cooked it better.
The dessert cakes and yuzu sherbet were all hand made on the premises, and were pretty damn yummy. All in all, a damn fine meal, but unfortunately I can never take you there unless one of us wins the lottery.
Then I suggest you get started on winning the Thai lottery! Do you know when & what channel the Peach-ko program is going to be?
She had a program on yesterday at 9AM where she talked about the trip to Thailand. However, the trip at the end of the year wasn’t for TV, it was just a family trip sorta thing.