Read about the world of showbiz and Japanese tarento with Charles St. Anthony!
Welcome to the Senpai Success Story, where you can read about others who have walked a unique career path using their Japanese language/cultural skills. (Psst: Senpai means “mentor” or “teacher,” and the concept is important to understand for anyone wishing to work in a Japanese business setting.)
Showbiz Chose Me
I didn’t choose showbiz, showbiz chose me. Growing up I was excited about two things: Japanese language and drama. A theater kid at heart, I performed on the professional stage by age 12, appearing in local productions. This was around the time I started learning Japanese at a Saturday Japanese language class for kids. I followed both pursuits through college, which led me to the Japanese radio industry. The early 2000’s found me getting my master’s degree in Tokyo, which was when I worked part-time as an assistant director for Tokyo’s FM stations. From there, I started doing promo spot voiceovers for Japanese radio.
This led to joining talent agencies and getting headshots. These activities snowballed into appearances on shows such as Waratte ii Tomo, Goji ni Muchu, and a voiceover career doing commercial work for clients such as Shiseido Cosmetics, Sony PlayStation, and Kewpie Mayonnaise (which you can check out here).
Going with the Flow
I’ve learned to go with the flow of life rather than resist it. Being my own worst critic, I had long pressured myself to follow a more “normal” path. What I discovered was that normal for me might look perilous and outrageous to just about everybody else. Even though this is entitled a “Senpai Success Story,” some of my attempts at the 9-to-5 life ended horribly. I was miserable being a salaryman and worked some prestigious-sounding jobs in Silicon Valley which turned out to be full of unpleasant politics. I even hesitated before writing this piece, because I was unsure if you could quantify what I’ve accomplished as a “Success.” But then again I’ve graced the cover of Metropolis magazine, appeared in a couple Japanese movies, partied with Japanese celebrities, and hosted a drag show in Shibuya. I have at least accomplished a few interesting feats in creative fields, so hopefully you will find something interesting in that.
One exciting part of working in showbiz is that you can’t always predict what type of project you’ll be working on. If you have the voice of Mariah Carey or the acting skills of Meryl Streep, then of course you have an idea of what career you’ll have. Those with such exceptional once-in-a-generation abilities aside, the rest of us have to rely on a bit of hustle and game. If it were easy to predict what will resonate with the public, then we wouldn’t have any Razzie Awards and every pop star would have a Grammy. It’s more often that you’ll find someone that came to Hollywood to be a writer and wound up an actor. Or that you spend years working on your magnum opus in rock music, but actually found success as a stand-up comic. That’s why failure is important―most will have to go through one (or multiple) failures before you reach any objective measure of success.
Which is why I say at this point that I show up to a gig with my bag of tricks, but stay open to possibilities as they present themselves. For example, I marched around Tokyo with a stack of résumés looking for a corporate job after finishing my master’s, and I was soundly rejected in all 23 Wards and some far flung parts of Nagoya as well. Then I went on 1 solitary audition for a commercial (my first in Japan) and nailed a huge commercial campaign that put my face on posters in trains and stations across Japan. It’s funny to think that all the HR staff that rejected me for normal jobs all thought they’d never see me again, and then they got on the train one day and saw me staring back on them in a poster. In the print ad that was on trains, I was decked out in a banana yellow bodysuit while getting in a bathtub with a comedian named Kinashi (from comedy duo Tonneruzu). Karma can be such a cruel mistress.
Do “Tarento” Have “Talent”?
People snicker “Tarento” really don’t have any discernible “Talent”―that Tarento are simpering moppets that mug for the camera and rattle off a lot of prewritten jokes. I will mention here I suspect this bit of Japanese English comes from the showbiz term “the talent” meaning “the people appearing on a show” rather the meaning of “a talent” as in “ability.” For example, in Hollywood they’ll often say, “Talent needs to show up for hair and makeup at 6AM” or some such. Going back to Japan, Tarento enhance the proceedings of low-budget “variety shows” and babble on about their favorite type of natto or mother’s trip to Italy, but don’t necessarily have any mastery of any classic performing arts such as singing, dancing, or acting. I suppose this is a little like criticizing Kim Kardashian (or Paris Hilton before her) as being famous for being famous. I will play the devil’s advocate and say that there is an art to looking camera-ready, being composed on a live broadcast, having your ear to the zeitgeist, and being able to charm an audience. Add these together with the mojo needed to find and maintain a relationship with a reputable agency, then you have a person with a skill-set that is unique and not easily replicated. I personally don’t see myself as a “tarento,” since I’ve had enough skill in the realm of voice acting to land actual clients, but I didn’t think I could write about Japanese showbiz without touching on the subject.
After I had worked as a radio voiceover artist for some time, a friend suggested that I join a talent agency. If another foreigner were looking to join the quasi-glamorous world of Japanese showbiz, I would tell them to truly suss out how they intend to make money. The streets of Tokyo are lined with agencies ready to help the fresh-off-the-plane foreigner dazzle the audiences of Japan. Just be aware these smiling agents will be pocketing 50% (or more) of your “Gyara” (showbiz slang for payment). To put this in perspective, a commercial agent in Hollywood probably takes a cut that hovers around 20%. For a real A-List client―say a Leonardo DiCaprio or Charlize Theron―that number is probably closer to 10%. They take a smaller percentage, because Leo and Charlize get paid so much per project their agent would only need to book one movie to buy a house.
Since the system in place in Japan is skewed more towards milking the clueless gaijin who comes to Japan for a couple years rather than nurturing talent, finding a path forward sometimes takes some improvisation. I have heard of foreign “talent” that finally had to establish their own companies to become solvent. Other long-term foreigners working in Japanese showbiz search high and low for a Japanese talent agency that wasn’t just out to bilk the foreign rubes for as much money as possible. The foreign talents in Japan I know that have successfully made turned their aspirations into a long-term profitable business I can count on one hand.
The DIY Era
It’s 2020: cast yourself. Casting agents aren’t necessarily there to make great art. They are normal people who probably have mortgages to pay, and they are hired to make a studio more money. And how do studios make more money? By casting the same people that have a proven track record or people with names the public has heard of before.
That might sound entirely discouraging, but the good news is that technology and the Internet have had an equalizing effect. Everyone can be their own celebrity. Anybody can build their own platform. But you have to move quickly, because the TikTok of today is the MySpace of tomorrow. Create your own content―and once that gains traction―branch out. Create content that is enticing enough to build a large following, then the person that the casting agents will be looking for is you!
Charles St. Anthony (government name: Charles Ayres) is a podcast host, author, and personality based in Los Angeles. Check out his books here and listen to his podcast here.
Website: https://dtlahustler.com/
Instagram: @kingcharles0921/
