Wakabayashi remembers Bito Takeshi’s guest partner
At the impersonation club where Wakabayashi used to warm up the crowd, a familiar face joined Bito Takeshi onstage.
Before the story
Japanese comedian Wakabayashi, a member of the duo Audrey, recalls his time at an impersonation club. Three names to keep straight: Bito Takeshi is the Beat Takeshi impersonator in this story; Beat Kiyoshi performed with the real Beat Takeshi as the comedy duo Two Beat. In this story, “-san” added to a name is a respectful form of address.
At Kisara
Wakabayashi from Audrey here. I used to warm up the audience at an impersonation club called Sokkuri-kan Kisara.
There were all sorts of impersonators there. One of them was Bito Takeshi, who did Beat Takeshi.
Then the real Beat Kiyoshi came in, and he and Bito did a manzai act—a two-person comedy routine—as “C Beat.”
Bito was a huge fan of Beat Takeshi and Two Beat. And now he was performing with the real Kiyoshi. He was incredibly nervous.
They came out with “We’re C Beat!” The audience went wild: it was the actual Beat Kiyoshi!
The real Takeshi would be pretty sharp with Kiyoshi. But Bito—I suppose it was out of respect for him—kept coming out with things like:
“Kiyoshi-san, you idiot!”
“Kiyoshi-san, you jerk!”
And to finish the act:
“Please, that’s enough.”
Back in the dressing room, Kiyoshi told him off:
“You’re not supposed to add ‘-san’!”
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