Witty Look bring their clowning/circus show from Japan, Cartoooon!, to the Edinburgh Fringe.
“With the rare combination of world champion-level skills, unprecedented showmanship and a truly original style, the duo fuse circus with manga-like characters to deliver a masterclass in the universal language of laughter.
Follow the journey of the mischievous Cheeky and her journey into the magical world of The Big Top.’
Where: Assembly – George Square Gardens
When: 1-11, 13-18, 20-26 Aug
Ticket link: https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/cartoooon
Daiki Izumida of Cheeky & Daiki answered some questions about this family show.
What are you looking forward to the most at Fringe?
New encounters. We will meet many audiences, performers from other productions and promoters who will be coming from all over the world,
We would not be able to meet them if I were performing only in Japan.
In addition, we will overcome cultural differences, race, age and gender in these encounters and create new relationships while performing the work, so we are looking forward to what kind of encounters await us.
Your show, Cartoooon! is a circus/clown show for children, showcasing unicycle acrobatics. What might audiences expect?
Cartoooon! is a title that may conjure up images of Japanese anime and “aOtaku” culture, and many people may expect this.
For those of us who grew up in countries where clowning and circus culture was scarce, Cartoon was a great way to learn about clowning. From there, we developed our own idea of clowning by imagining various images.
This work is therefore a return to our roots.
Unicycles are very popular in Japan. Almost every primary school in Japan has a unicycle and most Japanese people have been exposed to them.
Conversely, people in other countries, including the UK, have probably never touched a unicycle.
It takes months of practice just to ride a unicycle, and it takes a very long time to be able to do various tricks on it, but unicycling is very simple and is not often used in the circus.
We keep pushing the boundaries, using all possible patterns of technique to create work that only we can do in the world.
We hope audiences will enjoy seeing how we connect technique and story.
How does the clown in Japanese circus differ from that in Europe or the Western circus?
This is a very difficult question.
There are many theories about the differences.
It’s a very long story.
First of all, Japan has a very poor circus and clown culture.
There are clownish roles in traditional Japanese theatre and Kyogen, which some people call Japanese clowning, but I think this is not exactly the same as clowning in the circus.
The Japanese have always loved the poetic and have been strongly influenced by clowns, such as Puck in A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Baptiste in the film The People of the Ceiling Pier.
The clown is an unhappy being who is always making everyone laugh, but behind the scenes he is sad and puts his own happiness on the back burner to make others happy. This is the kind of image that I have.
And this is also influenced by the film, the white clown is a scary being who kills people.
About 30 years ago, a clown training school for the Ringling Circus in the USA was established for Japan three years only.
Around that time, the idea of what an American circus clown was like spread a little in Japan.
However, the clowns in the film still have a big influence, and there are no people who aspire to be clowns, so there may not be more than 20 people working as professional clowns in Japan at present.
There are currently only four traditional circuses in Japan and most Japanese have never seen them live.
For modern Japanese people, circus and clowning is something they have seen in illustrations, on TV or on the internet, and to be honest, it is not very familiar to them.
Conversely, Cirque du Soleil has had many opportunities to perform over the past 20 years, and everyone loves it, so I think quite a few people have been to see it.
It was very difficult for us to learn circus and clowning in such a context.
We learned clowning from Chaplin, Harold Lloyd, Buster Keaton, Tom and Jerry, etc., and we also came up with our own unicycle tricks, resulting in a mix of clowns with strong characterisation, advanced unicycle tricks and stories that you won’t find in other countries.
The result is a work that mixes a story with a clown with a strong character, advanced unicycling skills, and a story like no other.
Are you looking forward to any other shows in Edinburgh?
Yes. We are very much looking forward to it.
There are very few circuses and physical theatre in Japan, and there are very few opportunities to come into contact with them. For us, it is a great opportunity to be exposed to different styles of circus and expression.
We would like to be influenced by many influences and become more powerful.
What’s next after this run?
During September, we will be based in Newcastle for a while, doing small circus performances with UK circus artists at events, festivals, etc.
In October we will go back to Japan to do performances and workshops.
Next summer we will perform in Europe again and there will be opportunities to see you all again.