Secondary jobs becoming the standard? Free the Comedian Talks about “The Comedian’s Way of Life in 2025

Now that having a side job is becoming the standard, the number of people who have jobs outside of the arts is gradually increasing in the world of comedians as well.

BANBANBANBAN Yamamoto Seigo is one such comedian who has multiple occupations.

In 2003, he formed a duo with his childhood friend from elementary school, Hiromi Sameshima, and since around 2007, he has also been active as a Dragon Ball Frieza comedian and is currently working as a house cleaner and YouTuber . Now that it is common for comedians to earn income from other sources, we asked him about the advantages and disadvantages of wearing three hobbies, as well as how comedians should live in the future.

The audience fell silent in amazement…

–What was it that led you to become a free-theater comedian?

BANBANBAN Yamamoto (Yamamoto): I had been doing a little bit of Baikin Man impersonation for a long time. One day, a Dragon Ball fan at my part-time job asked me, “Since the voice actors for Baikinman and Frieza are the same, can’t you do Frieza too?” I was told. When I performed it as a test at the end of a live performance by young performers, the resemblance was even more striking than I had imagined, and the audience fell silent in amazement. Seeing this, my partner gave me a push and we started working together as Dragon Ball comedians with R Fujimoto, a Vegeta comedian.

–I was very encouraged by my partner’s support.

Yamamoto: At that time, I was stuck in the duo’s activities. We were in the top class of young live performers and were allowed to stand at Lumine the Yoshimoto, but we weren’t caught up in TV auditions. I had no idea why, so I went to …….

To be honest, I was thinking of breaking up. It was at that time, so I said to myself, “At least get me on TV! I think that was his feeling. In the end, that is what kept the duo alive.

Thanks to becoming Freeza Geisha, I have been able to do more anime-related and voice-over work, as well as distribution-related work. Once a month, I did a live show called “Anison Disco” as BANBANBAN, and the rest of the time I was a free-theater comedian.

Overcoming Depression and Making Freeza My Own

–Have you changed in your personal life as well?

Yamamoto: My circle of actors has expanded. That is, from the youngest to the most famous. Among them, Ryusei Nakao, who voices Frieza, has been a great help to me. He has been so kind to me that he introduces me to people by saying, “There is a boy who looks like me,” or “He is my twin.

……As a matter of fact, a little after I started working as a Freeza performer, I suffered a mild depression.

One day, something suddenly burst in my head and I couldn’t go to work. I was getting more and more jobs as a Freeza comedian because of my voice resemblance, but I couldn’t control Freeza well, so I couldn’t do anything when I went to the field, but I still had to make material every week, and many other things came together. ……

Yamamoto: As I told you earlier, my partner is a very understanding guy (laughs), so he was working alone as BANBANBAN so that I could come back whenever I wanted. So it is thanks to my partner that I am able to do what I am doing now.

Mr. Nakao was just as important to me as my partner. When I was in a bad situation mentally, I sent him an e-mail right away, but he didn’t say anything at that time. When I started to recover a little, he said, “Hang in there,” and “I knew you would come back, Yamamoto-kun, so I didn’t reply to your e-mail.

I knew that there was someone out there who recognized me for who I was. Once I realized that I shouldn’t stop here, I was able to look forward. After that, I could say to anyone, “I’m going to kill you (in Frieza’s voice)! (laughs).

Started housecleaning business after the birth of his child

–How did you get started in the housecleaning business?

Yamamoto: The birth of my child in 2016. Until then, I had been working part-time at an izakaya (Japanese-style pub) and karaoke bar, but there were a lot of concerns about raising a child, so my wife and I decided that it would be better to have a job in hand. Since I have always liked to keep clean, housecleaning was recommended to me.

House cleaning is a very suitable part-time job for a comedian. Shifts are easy to adjust, and the work usually ends around 3:00 p.m. at the latest. At that time, I was earning half as much as a comedian and half as much as a housecleaner, and my wife was also working, so we were making a good living.

But when our second child was born in 2018, my wife asked me to either quit being a comedian and change careers or continue being a comedian and work as a sole proprietor, and I chose the latter.

–It was a tough choice, but I can see that your wife was very understanding.

Yamamoto: I think she probably wanted me to continue as a comedian. Well, I started the company by chance, but it is not so difficult if you know the basics of cleaning, such as how to remove two types of stains, acidic and alkaline.

My work schedule changes from month to month, so I can’t say it’s stable, but I can prioritize my work as a comedian, and it’s valuable time for me to interact with the public, so I have no complaints about it.

–What about YouTube?

Yamamoto: R Fujimoto and I were streaming Dragon Ball Geisha on Nico Live, and we started thinking that if there were other similar contents, we should do it. This also came about by chance. We upload videos of the duo once a week, and the rest of the time we upload various videos such as collaborations, Freeza stories, cleaning lectures, and so on.

In terms of distribution, I also do live distribution on 17Live and TikTok. I don’t think of it as three separate jobs, but rather as one job that combines all three. 17LIVE and TikTok are for interacting with fans, while YouTube is for stocking videos.

I have a small child, so I go to bed at 9 pm and wake up at 3 am, so I do my live streaming and other personal filming between 3 am and 7 am. People around me say, “That sounds like a lot of work,” but in reality I just make the most of my free time, so it’s not hard at all.

Three jobs keep me going as a comedian.

–Isn’t it difficult to juggle three jobs?

Yamamoto: It is not difficult. I am not conscious of which one is my main focus. I have managed to integrate all three into my life cycle, so early morning live delivery is not a hardship for me. Each of them has its own unique and interesting aspects, and each of them also serves as a promotion for my other work.

For example, people who request a housecleaning service without knowing who I am can learn about Free the Geisha and YouTube, and from the delivery work, they can learn that I’m a comedian and that I’m in the housecleaning business. I can continue to be a comedian.

Recently, each of our jobs has been growing a little bit, and people now know us even if we are “free-theater comedians who do housecleaning,” and more and more media, like FRIDAY Digital, are willing to “allow us to show our true faces. They are all endless jobs, and I want to steadily nurture them so that each of them grows bigger.