Entertainment / Arts › Sit-down comedian knocks New Yorkers off their feet

NEW YORK — The gestures were subtle, the words controlled and the comedian delivered his punch lines sitting down on a cushion. But Katsura Kaishi, the traditional rakugo performer from Osaka, had New Yorkers laughing like any stand-up comic as he finished off his six-month American tour in mid-September. For Kaishi, it was mission accomplished: to introduce the hilarity and enjoyment of rakugo while dispelling the myth of Japanese sternness to American audiences. ‘‘Americans do not know that in Japan we have a sense of humor,’’ Kaishi told Kyodo News prior to his final performance at the Merkin Concert Hall in New York on Sept 17. ‘‘They think we are serious salarymen with neckties-only business. But actually, rakugo portrays a very animated sense of humor that has been alive in Japanese culture for 450 years.’’ Kaishi, 39,... [read full story]