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Other CIF Interviews:

Susan Gaspar of The Free Associates

Don Hall of WNEP

Stan Morse of Liquid Radio Players

Dan O'Connor of TNN's Lifegame

Mick Napier of Annoyance Productions

Joey Slotnik, Lauren Katz & John Lehr of Slotnik, Katz & Lehr

Yuri Kinugawa of Yellow Man Group

Interview by Jeff Catanese

I have long contended in reviews that there is a lot to be learned by watching Yellow Man Group perform.  I now know that there's a lot to be learned by sitting down for a beer with Yellow Man's director, Yuri Kinugawa.  With a perpetual smile on her face, one gets the sense that Ms. Kinugawa would be incapable of guile or malice, and that openness, more then anything, perhaps, is the key to her improvisation.   -JC

[Click here for a review of Yellow Man Group.]

Improv Review:  Your improv is more grounded in the physical than most groups here in the United States.  Is that because of the influence of Japanese theater, or is it something that Yellow Man Group works on specifically?

Yuri Kinugawa:  Two reasons.  Japanese theater style is very physical.  Not the traditional theater like Kabuki or Noh, but the young theater companies have a style that is very physical.  I was in a theater company for six or seven years, and they were very physical, so that’s why I am very physical.  Also, Masa [Masahiko Iino, also of the group] loves the physical.  So, two reasons: the Japanese theater style, and we love to do it.

Improv Review:  Yellow Man also uses a lot of cartoon imagery, and personifying of objects.  Are you influenced by cartoons or does that spring from your natural physicality?

Yuri Kinugawa:  I think that is just our natural physicality.  I don’t like cartoons.  But I saw a lot of longform in Chicago, and I saw this kind of physicality, and I thought it was a good idea.  So I brought it back to Japan, but it’s from Chicago.

Improv Review:  Yellow Man has a great relationship with your audiences.  Is that something that the group concentrates on as well?

Yuri Kinugawa:  Yeah, I think so.  I think we’re lucky that we have a talent that makes it easy to get a relationship with the audience.

Improv Review:  You think it’s something you naturally do?

Yuri Kinugawa:  Yes.

Improv Review:  Yellow Man performs a lot of formats that are known in America.  Who were your influences?

Yuri Kinugawa:  Ages ago, Lyn Pierse was living in Sydney [, Australia], and she is a teacher of TheatreSports.  She wrote a book called “TheatreSports Down Under” which we read.  She is a very good teacher.  And me, Masa, Naomi [Ikegami] and Iri [Masato Irioka, all of Yellow Man] were there, and we were very interested in improv because there is no improv in Japan.  None at all.  No ideas.  So after Lyn Pierse was gone, we continued, but we didn’t have a teacher.  So Naomi and I went to see [author of “Impro” and inventor of TheatreSports] Keith Johnstone in Calgary.  Then I came back to Japan and started to teach.  So our biggest influences were Lyn Pierse and Keith Johnstone.

Improv Review:  What do you get from coming to festivals like this one in Chicago?

Yuri Kinugawa:  Everything.  We have no teachers in Japan, so everything interests us.  We are like sponges.  After Calgary, I came to Chicago when Del Close was still alive.  I saw longform for the first time and was shocked.  Gosh.  We know TheatreSports, but longform is quite different and we really liked it.  I liked longform better than TheatreSports.

Improv Review:  Would you like to start performing longform in Japan?

Yuri Kinugawa:  Yes.

Improv Review:  Do you think Japan is ready for that?

Yuri Kinugawa:  It’s difficult because there is no teacher or anything.  Naomi and I know about longform, but nobody else.  So we tried to teach, because we need players.  We taught some students about longform, but nobody has experience, and the theory is very new to the Japanese, because Japanese comedy theory is all about blocking.  Block, block, block.  And the audience laughs.

Improv Review:  You mean denying each other?

Yuri Kinugawa:  Yes, saying “no.”  But improv has no blocking.  It is all “yes, and…”  So it is very, very new for Japanese people and Japanese students try too hard, so still it’s difficult.

Improv Review:  Do audiences like you in Japan?

Yuri Kinugawa:  Yes.  We don’t play to very big audiences, but twice a month we have a show.  But they laugh.

Improv Review:  How is it for you to come to America and perform in English?

Yuri Kinugawa:  Fun.

Improv Review:  Fun?

Yuri Kinugawa:  Fun!  I like to perform in English more than in Japanese, because I can speak Japanese very well, it’s easy, but then there is too much talking.  Too much information, too many offers.  Performing in English let’s us use our bodies more.  It is more physical.

Improv Review:  What is the biggest difference between Japan and America?

Yuri Kinugawa:  The people are different.  I have a different point of view, but…  Americans like to laugh.  Americans enjoy laughing, but the Japanese feel ashamed to laugh.  They don’t like to show their laughter.

Improv Review:  Do the Japanese exhibit other emotions?

Yuri Kinugawa:  No, I don’t think so.

Improv Review:  Wow.  Is it hard for you to get used to when you’re here?

Yuri Kinugawa:  No.  America is better for me.  Because I like to laugh, and I’m a quite emotional person, so I’m very comfortable to be in America.  Also, English, because it is noun and verb and blah, blah, blah…  But Japanese is noun and blah, blah, blah and verb, so the Japanese language is kind of vague.  So your mind is kind of vague.  Yes or no is vague.  But when you speak English you have to decide before you speak: yes or no.  So when I use English, before I speak I have to decide something, clearly.

Improv Review:  Do you feel that helps your improv?

Yuri Kinugawa:  Yes.

Improv Review:  How do you like working together?

Yuri Kinugawa:  We have very different characters and senses of humor, which is good.  I like the more serious scene and don’t like gags, but Masa likes gags, and it’s good that we are different.  We accept each other.

Improv Review:  Many people who see you comment on how brave you are to perform in English.  Do you think it’s brave?

Yuri Kinugawa:  Yes.

Improv Review:  Do you want to continue to tour the U.S?

Yuri Kinugawa:  We want to tour in America, but we have to think about it.  We’d like to go to New York, Boston, Chicago, (where else) and Los Angeles.  To me it seems very possible.