Tokyo Shock Boys

The Tokyo Shock Boys celebrating their 20th anniversary of a very successful career together, are touring Australia.

The ‘boys’ – more like men now, so kudos to them for keeping with the program – were working as roadies on the Paul McCartney tour of Japan in 1990, when they got together and came up with an act to perform funny (and quite dangerous) stunts on Japanese TV, which then became an instant sensation and spawned the now world famous Tokyo Shock Boys.

I was familiar with ‘the boys’ from having watched a few of their antics on TV in the US, and thought then that they were ‘nuts’ for attempting them. I’m still of the same mind set, but like a moth to the fire, I am still drawn to this sort of performance. This is a whole other side of me, not often divulged to even my closest friends. Japanese stunts – I find – are always very colourful and exaggerated (this is half the fun for me). The facial expressions and vocalisation of pain is so much more animated than western versions, and overall a hoot to watch. I knew that I was going to have an ‘interesting’ experience, and with that in mind I embarked on my review with an open mind. What followed… required a very open mind.

The Tokyo Shock Boys are: Danna San, the tall one – at times nappy wearing – who prides himself in having the ‘toughest butt’; Gyuzo San wears a stick on Mohawk and uses super glue in a tea ceremony; Nambu San hates apples and onions, and Sango San is the blond MC who plays the ‘straight man’ most of the show.

The show began with loud music and an encouragement by the performers, to put our hands up in the air and ‘pump’ them left to right. I felt as though we were loosening up before a wrestling match. Then, the show took off like a rocket on a wild ride of, scorpions in the mouth, fart lighting, apple smashing, money stapling onto earlobes… and… and… so much more. The audience (myself included) were gasping in surprise and vicarious pain, with each feat. Some were silly, i.e. audience member and Nambu San were shrink wrapped in a huge bag. Other stunts were scary, and made me hope that the performer involved had had his tetanus shot recently.

Just as I thought I had seen it all, and had my fair share of chuckles and remarks to my friend like, “can you believe that?!?” the stunts were upped, not one, but several notches on the pain scale. Let’s just limit the description to this… even though I am a woman, I felt the intense pain which this Tokyo Shock Boy experienced with a huge rubber band and a certain moving vehicle.

Overall the Tokyo Shock Boy experience is fun, definitely ‘interesting’… and it should make for good conversation over a couple of beers after the show. It is probably best suited for a very young crowd, but not for children (some nudity), and a danger of them copying what they watched on stage, even though the performers do insist “children do not try this at home”.

Tokyo Shock Boys

Tickets:
Online or Ticketmaster
136100