Studied for entrance examinations for comedy”…Winner of “R-1”! Ole Tomoda’s confession: “I admired Mr. Carlsmokey Ishii.
An emergency interview with the "R-1 Grand Prix 2025" champion, a new star in his third year of performing who just graduated from Waseda University last year and has a lot of mysteries.
Why he did not choose Yoshimoto
This video was the impetus for him to be scouted by his current agency by DM. Yoshimoto Kogyo is the biggest company in the industry, but did he have any choice but to choose Yoshimoto if he wanted to enter the world of comedy?
I didn’t want to work for a major comedy company if I was going to do comedy. If there are too many people, you get buried in the crowd. I wanted to do it at my own pace.
Even so, I wasn’t sure if I really wanted to be a comedian. Then, out of curiosity, I was selected for an internship as an announcer at TBS. When I appealed my comedian activities, the interviewer asked me, “Why don’t you become a comedian? I was asked a perfectly legitimate question. Thinking about it again, I realized that the only thing I have chosen to do on my own volition has always been comedy, even though I am easily swayed by my surroundings, so I accepted the offer from my current firm.
Tomoda, who was determined, joined his current firm in 2011. The results were immediate. In July 2011, he made it to the final of the “ABC Comedy Grand Prix. He continued to hone his skills, and this year, in the third year of his career, he has reached the pinnacle of pin comedians.
As for his ambitions for the future, he said, “There are so many things I want to do,” but then he mentioned one thing as if it had just occurred to him.
I’ve said many things, but the person I admire is Karl Smokey Ishii, 65, of Yone Yone Club. I like him partly because of my parents’ influence, but I don’t think there is anyone else who can start a movement like that. I want to work with Mr. Ishii someday. That is my clear goal.”
Any last words to the readers? When I asked him to write about his “aspirations” to enrich the lives of those who watch his work, he wrote, “I want to be closer to the people I admire. His “romantic flight” to become the man of his dreams has just begun.
From the March 28, 2025 issue of FRIDAY
PHOTO： Hiroyuki Komatsu
