Unpredictability is funny” Canning Takeyama…20 years after his breakthrough, “life has become more enjoyable” after graduating from “sharp-edged tricks

Canning Takeyama (52), who made his big break with his “snappy performance” on the comedy show “God of Entertainment” (Nippon Television), where he bites anyone who gets in his way, had an unbeknownst problem.

When I was about 40 years old, I started suffering from benign paroxysmal positional vertigo, a disease that causes the stones in my ears to shift and make me dizzy when I get busy with work. At the end of the year, I had to work through the dizziness almost every year because I was on a tight schedule with more TV taping.”

Around 2004, when his exposure on national television began to increase, Takeyama recalls, “I was desperate to get results.

I told Kazuo Gomi, the producer of Enter, ‘I want to cause problems on TV. I went directly to him and said, ‘I’m a newcomer anyway, so I don’t care if I disappear. Gomi, his partner Tadayuki Nakajima (35 years old), and I worked out the “snappy performance” that he had shown on “Entourage,” in which he shouted at his partner, the staff, and even the audience.

After his partner Nakajima, with whom they had worked together to create the “snappy moves” that became synonymous with the show, died of leukemia in 2006, they spent their days working even harder.

I was desperate not to let the laughter that Canning had created come to an end. I had no choice but to do it,” he said. It was normal to have four to five recordings a day, and when I think about it now, it was an extraordinary amount of work. On the other hand, every year new popular figures in various genres appeared on TV, and I wondered if I could keep going.

Learning from a “Master of Fun

Takeyama was driven to the edge both physically and mentally, and vertigo struck him. However, in his mid-40s, Masaaki Sakai (76), with whom Takeyama was working on a TV program, said something to him that became a turning point.

He said, “Takeyama-kun, how are you doing these days? He said, “How are you doing, Takeyama? Is it the night side? He said, ‘No, silly, I’m not. He laughed and said, ‘People who have worked hard are in their mid-40s, and they feel like they are being pushed into a corner. At that time, you should play anyway,’ he advised me. After that, I changed my way of life from ‘work always comes first’ and started to think about doing what I love.

Nearly five years had passed since he had suffered from vertigo. Fortunately for Takeyama, a senior comedian he was close to was a “master of fun.

He said, “Ever since we appeared together on a TV show, I was often invited out for drinks by Kinashi Noritake (61) of Tunnels fame. When we talked, I got the impression that, as with his painting and music, Noritake was making a career out of what he loved to do, and there was no boundary between play and work.

In 2003, I opened a shaved ice store in Hawaii called “Takeyama Shave Ice,” which I owned, as part of a project for “Tunnels no Minasan no Okagedeshita” on Fuji Television. I was in charge of everything from purchasing to customer service, and I really enjoyed thinking about how to serve customers. I really enjoyed thinking about how to serve customers and other things. It was like an extension of my hobby or something I could play with, even though it was my job.

It was a moment when Kinashi understood the feeling of “turning a hobby into a job. At the same time, Takeyama also relaxed his shoulders, saying, “I am not forced to be a comedian.

He said, “A comedian’s popularity is a barometer, but you can’t control it. I can now afford to be unpredictable and interesting. Since then, even when I get busy, the stones in my ears don’t shift, and I’m free from vertigo, which was a big thing for me to realize in my mid-40s.

Since then, he has been a multi-talented commentator and actor, putting his mild-mannered face forward, and his sharp-as-a-whip act has faded away. Instead, he has been spending more time on his hobbies, such as horse racing, professional baseball, and motorcycles, which he has always loved. His love of hobbies led him to publish “KANNING Takeyama no 50-sai Kara no Hitori Hobby Nyumon” (Poplar Publishing Co., Ltd.) on July 11.

He says, “Now that I am over 50 years old, I can see the end of my life. So I just have to enjoy it. That’s what I think.

The comedian, who has been angry at everything in the world, has arrived at the opposite new frontier: “Enjoyment is the only way to win.

From the August 18 and 25, 2023 issues of FRIDAY