Comedy Trio “Monkey Base” Won Two Consecutive “Moon Laughs” Live Performances

The journey of becoming a trio.

–What was the process of becoming a trio after your time at the training school?

Tomo：First of all, the results of our duo were not good after we left the training school. We were stuck at the bottom (G5) of our office’s live show “Geksho”. Potent Hits, on the other hand, was in the top G1 after about three years, and had a chance to appear on TV. It’s like the hare and the tortoise, but the tables have completely turned.

 

Orita: However, we also lost steam around the beginning of our fourth year and dropped down to G5 in “Geksho”. Just then, Tomoyappu’s duo broke up.

Tomo: On September 8, in our fourth year. My partner quit being a comedian, saying, “I’m going to go back to college and become a dentist.” After that, I participated in “R-1 Guranpuri” (now R-1 Grand Prix) and even though I made it through to the first round, I thought “I’m not getting anywhere,” but somehow I continued on by myself.

Matsuyama: It was right after the new year when Orita asked Tomoyappu out. It was right around the time that Orita was dumped by his girlfriend of three years, and he said, “I’m screwed. Let’s bring in Tomoyappu instead.

Tomo：This is really strange, but Orita’s girlfriend, who had been working in Kagoshima, was coming to Tokyo on December 29. So he was spending time with his long-distance girlfriend, and she dumped him on New Year’s Day. The next day, on the 2nd, Orita called me and said, “Let’s get together at Saizeriya to talk about something.”

Orita: I just told Matsuyama, “I’m meeting with Tomoyappu today, so come on over.” When the three of us actually met, we officially talked about doing it as a trio. I was too sad that she dumped me, so I thought it would be fun to be surrounded by two guys.

Matsuyama: I agreed with the idea of becoming a trio. Before that, Orita and I had talked several times that if we were going to have a trio, it would be Tomoyappu, and that we wanted a powerful and funny person.

Tomo: I had two choices: I could do manzai with Nobu (Nobuhiro Sakai, a member of the manzai unit “Bakusan Machine” ), with whom I now live, or I could ask the two members of Potent HIt to join. Orita called me at the right time, so I guess I was in the right place at the right time.

Orita: I wanted to be a part of it, and Tomoyappu wanted to be a part of it, too, so it was like we became a trio without a hitch. Tomoyappu is the type who expresses his own opinions. Once we realized that it would be popular at live performances, the three of us spent a lot of time talking about it. In that sense, I am glad we became a trio.

 

Monkey Base is a comedy trio consisting of Tomohisa Orita, Hiroki Matsuyama, and Tomoyappu, all from Kagoshima Prefecture. Orita and Matsuyama formed the duo “Potential Hit” and Tomoyappu formed the duo “Old Par” (formerly “Methane Hydrate”) with a friend from college before forming the trio in January 2020. Currently, they are energetically performing mainly at live concerts. This year, they and Dacho Club collaborated for the first time on a YouTube project for pachinko and amusement facility “Quattro Boom” in Hokuriku, where they were formally taught the art of reaction. They belong to Ota Production.