Spark by Japanese author Naoki Matayoshi is both inspiring and sad. A novel about two Manzai performers who pour their souls into their art, only to find out that the audience wants something different.
Spark Synopsis
Hilarious, strange and moving in equal measure – a Japanese multi-million-copy smash hit about the struggles of a pair of young manzai stand-up comedians
Tokunaga is a young comedian struggling to make a name for himself when he is taken under the wing of Kamiya, who is either a crazy genius or perhaps just crazy. Kamiya’s indestructible confidence inspires Tokunaga, but it also makes him doubt the limits of his own talent, and dedication to Manzai comedy.
Spark is a story about art and friendship, about countless bizarre drunken conversations and how far it’s acceptable to go for a laugh. A novel about comedy that’s as moving and thoughtful as it is funny, it’s already been a sensation in Japan.
Naoki Matayoshi is a Japanese manzai comedian and author, who found fame performing as part of the popular comic duo Peace. Spark is his first novel and has been hugely successful in Japan since it was first published in 2016. It has won the Akutagawa Prize and was adapted for film, stage and TV – the hit series is available on Netflix UK.
Book review
Spark is about two struggling performers of Manzai, a Japanese style performance similar to stand-up comedy where the ‘straight man’ and the ‘funny man’ trade jokes at high speed. These jokes are not for us outsiders, but the main characters find themselves immensely funny. Tokunaga finds a mentor in Kamiya, who is his senior by four years. Individually they move from Osaka to Tokyo to make it big. Most of the story takes place near Kichijoji Station and Inokashira Park in Tokyo, Japan.
“Disrupt the colourful, beautiful world, and another unreal, more awesomely beautiful world will appear all on its own. That dude in the park had a radical instrument, but he wasn’t doing anything with it. An instrument like that has to be taken seriously. There’s no beauty in the world where it isn’t. I dunno how he got that instrument, but somehow he did, so now he owes it to the world to play the hell out of it.” And that also illustrates Kamiya’s drive. If you’re good at something, you owe it to the world to do the best you can. Be extreme in what you do. Pour your soul into it and dare to be different. Even clichés can be cool. His manzai uses the familiar – the ordinary – to wreak havoc.
“If you judge ideas by how ordinary they are, then creativity just turns into a contest of who or what’s the most unusual. On the other hand, if you reject new, unusual stuff completely from the outset, then it’s just a contest of technique. But if it’s only a combination of technique and originality that gets approved, then it turns into a contest who can be the most balanced.”
You can either get the audience’s sympathy or do something amazing. It is because of thoughts and conversations like that, that you should read this book. You might not find their jokes funny – I didn’t – but their approach to performing and creating things is really thoughtful. It’s not about what they do, but rather about the way they approach life and about their friendship. Tokunaga is a young guy who is insecure and follows someone he admires. The power that the one being admired has over the other is huge as his praise or rejection can make or break him. Until the student fails the master that is, then the situation is reversed.
Spark is both inspiring and sad. Naoki Matayoshi manages to draw your attention to two ordinary people and make them extremely important to you in such a short book. Tokunaga and Kamiya are both highly idealistic in pursuing their dreams. From their conversations you get a glimpse of how reality drowns those ideals. If your art is only for such a niche audience and you can’t make it big, what do you do?
Translated from Japanese by Alison Watts.
Interested?
Get your copy of Spark from Amazon (available 25 August 2020).
Many thanks to Pushkin Press and NetGalley for a digital ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review.
