Spicy Garlic: Tomokatsu Katayama, John

Episodes where they are called "eccentrics," their interactions with senior comedians The Mummy, and behind-the-scenes stories of forming their duo!
We delve into the true nature and charm of Spicy Garlic, who continues to steadily gain fans with their unique sense of humor and witty character.

● A hit skit featuring a pantomime called "Zombie"

ZAIKO: Spicy Garlic is now in their fifth year since formation, but three years ago, they had already won titles at "Ala-Biki-Dan" and the "NHK Newcomer Comedy Awards." Have things gone smoothly since the duo was formed?

Katayama: No, we didn't achieve any results in the first year of being a duo. We were eliminated in the first round of the King of Conte. Both John and I had better results when we were with previous partners, but once we became Spicy Garlic, we dropped out in the first round, which made us very anxious. Despite only doing sketches, we hastily entered M-1 and did stand-up, and we lost in the first round again.

John: Exactly.

Katayama: Thinking that this was bad, we started creating new material and presenting it in shows. By the second year, we somehow received a response at "Ala-Biki-Dan."

ZAIKO: The late-night show "Ala-Biki-Dan" and the formal "NHK Newcomer Comedy Awards" have contrasting images; did you differentiate your material for each show?

Katayama: Actually, it was the same material.

John: It was a skit called "Zombie" involving escalator pantomime.

Katayama: "Zombie" was well-received at both venues, and it felt like... we might have made a remarkable invention.

ZAIKO: You are in charge of material creation, Katayama, right? What are the characteristics of Spicy Garlic's material?

Katayama: There are three important things I focus on in material creation. The first is that John's facial expressions are my absolute favorite. Therefore, we create material that brings out his facial expressions.

John: There's a chance that it only appeals to one person in the world.

Katayama: Sometimes, while the audience isn’t laughing, I find myself laughing at John's face. It's just such a funny face! The second is that the material involves big movements. The third is that the punchlines and retorts are not clearly separated. We have a lot of that kind of material.

● The friendly duo of “researcher” Katayama and “liked” John

ZAIKO: I would like to hear about each of your personalities.

Katayama: John is... quite ordinary.

John: That's weird.

Katayama: John doesn’t have an educational background, hobbies, or any particularly strong sports skills; he lacks anything specific. But he has an outstanding ability to be liked by others. That’s who he is. To be honest, when we’re talking like this, you think "he seems like a nice guy" about John, right?

ZAIKO: ...That does seem true.

Katayama: During program meetings, the staff talks with John. Even though I am the one creating the material and have the leading role, everyone avoids eye contact with me and only talks to John. I think that’s his talent.

John: That makes it sound like I’m liked… Katayama doesn’t get liked enough.

Katayama: That’s not true!

John: Katayama is an incredibly nice person. However, in terms of first impressions, he's genuinely unfortunate.

Katayama: Hey.

John: So, I thought if I didn’t get close to him, he might end up alone, ever since we met.

Katayama: Is that so? That’s the first time I’ve heard that.

John: I want to convey that Katayama is someone who is okay through me to the world. It’s not that I’m exceptionally liked; it’s that his likability is just too low.

ZAIKO: From your perspective, John, what kind of person is Katayama?

John: Katayama is someone who researches a lot. Like which train car is closest to the exit.

Katayama: Well, that's true. I want you to say, "He's someone who properly researches things so that contradictions don’t arise when creating sketches." Otherwise, it just sounds like he’s an impatient guy.

John: I only look at the finished sketches.

Katayama: You say things like, "This sport has these rules, so let's change this part of the sketch," and you have a clear sense of having done your research.

John: Oh, I haven't heard any of that.

Katayama: It seems like it didn’t get through.

John: You’re the kind of person who says, "This car is no good," or, "The door of the fourth car is closest to the exit" when changing trains. You are quite smooth.

Katayama: You think that being quick with transfers is cool.

ZAIKO: So, how would you describe Spicy Garlic in one word?

Katayama: We’re friendly.

John: That’s right!

Katayama: It's been nearly ten years since we met as classmates at the training school (School JCA), but we still go out to eat together.

ZAIKO: Do you discuss material and work during those meals?

Katayama: We talk about work, but we also talk about love.

John: That’s embarrassing (laughs). I’ll say, "I was turned down the first time I asked a girl out, when should I ask her again?" and Katayama gives advice like, "You don’t understand anything!" like a love master.

Katayama: John has a narrow view, so I tell him, "Don’t be timid. Go for it; if it doesn’t work out, move on to the next one.”

ZAIKO: Katayama, you seem to have quite the romantic experience.

Katayama: That’s right (decisively).

John: I don’t think that’s true...

Purchase tickets for the Spicy Garlic's solo live-streaming show, where they are close enough to talk about love!

● Surprise comments from the senior duo, The Mummy

ZAIKO: Do you have any comedians you are close to?

Katayama: I get along well with The Mummy, who are one year ahead of me in the same agency (Production Jinrikisha). We often work together in live shows and sales, and in private, John is a member of the Sakai Corps.

John: The biggest force in the entertainment world, the Sakai Corps.

Katayama: The leader is Takashi Sakai from The Mummy, right? Who are the other members?

John: First, there’s me, John from "Spicy Garlic." Then there’s Shimizu from "Asobi," Sakamoto from "Machonez," and Tenkomori from "Oshidori Daimyou."

Katayama: Who are they?

John: We travel together every year, and Takashi Sakai is my closest senior. He got married two years ago, but since I often stay at his home five days a week, I’m very disliked by his wife.

Katayama: I’m a catch-ball friend of Youhei Hayashida from The Mummy.

ZAIKO: What does being a catch-ball friend mean?

Katayama: We gather in the park at 9 AM and play catch with Hayashida. He has no prior experience with baseball, but he was born with a strong shoulder. He wants to increase his throwing speed now at the age of 32, so he practices catch with me, someone with baseball experience, every morning.

ZAIKO: Actually, today we received special comments from the two members of The Mummy.

Katayama & John: Huh? Really!?

----------

《Comments from The Mummy》

Katayama is so eccentric that he is deeply in love with sushi to the point of getting into debt, so I have a good impression of him! I hope he keeps it up! John’s name sounds like a dog.

----------

Katayama: ...Hey, hey, hey.

John: That’s super arbitrary, isn’t it?

Katayama: I had a bit of hope, you know. Hayashida is usually quite funny when he talks to me. He’s not the type to talk sincerely, so I thought he might show some warmth at times like this, but what is this...?

ZAIKO: So, Katayama, you went into debt because you love sushi too much?

Katayama: I’d prefer not to discuss that.

John: That’s true.

Katayama: ...It was a long time ago.

John: Katayama likes sushi, but he doesn’t have money, so he plays pachinko. One day, a Sushi-go round opened on the upper floor of the pachinko parlor, and since there was also an ATM in the same building, Katayama couldn’t leave that building. In the morning, he’d withdraw money from the ATM, play pachinko, eat sushi for breakfast, play pachinko again for lunch, and dine on sushi again. It created a perpetual motion machine. Then he found his money disappearing...

Katayama: Within ten months, he accumulated a debt of 2 million yen.

John: Eccentric indeed. It’s strange.

Katayama: But I realized it was serious and consulted a legal consultation office. This is a story from before I partnered with John, and I've already repaid that debt! Now I’m just a person who writes sketches seriously!

Purchase tickets for the solo live stream of Spicy Garlic, who loves sushi!

● The moment of forming the duo, the premonition of being the King of Conte Champion!?

ZAIKO: Please tell us why you both aimed to become comedians and how you formed your duo.

John: I originally liked making people laugh. My real name is Muraki, but in my second year of high school, I was given the title "Legend Muraki" because I was too funny. It would be a loss to the world if I didn’t become a comedian. A vanished genius. It felt wrong to let such a treasure go to waste, so I decided to become a comedian.

Katayama: I was also the type to fool around in school since I was small. I loved Ken Shimura's "Baka Tonosama" and eventually started thinking, "The funniest guy is the coolest." However, when I told my family during my final year of college while looking for a job that I wanted to become a comedian, my mother opposed it.

ZAIKO: She wanted you to have a stable job, right?

Katayama: Since I was receiving support for college tuition from relatives, it was because I felt bad saying I wanted to become a comedian right after graduating. However, she also said, "If you can’t give up after working for three years, then go for it," so I became a real estate agent with a high turnover rate with the assumption that I would quit after three years.

ZAIKO: Your sales performance was apparently very good.

Katayama: Yes (with confidence). In my first year, I ranked third in contract numbers among 300 salespeople nationwide.

John: So you weren’t first.

Katayama: It was third among all the great salespeople. I was then transferred to the Bangkok branch overseas, where I achieved the highest sales in the store's history. By then, my parents also agreed, and I finally aimed to become a comedian.

ZAIKO: After that, you both entered School JCA, right? Did you form a duo immediately after getting to know each other there?

Katayama: No, that’s not true. I think there were about 50 people in one class; JCA was filled with gloomy people...

John: This is serious. It’s a gathering of extremely dull people, and it makes you question whether they are aiming to be comedians.

Katayama: Among them, John caught my eye. He has stylish curls now, but back then, he had blonde afro hair.

John: I thought, "Impact is important!"

Katayama: On the first day, I thought, "That guy has a funny face." However, since I’d never teamed up with anyone before, I couldn’t approach him. Meanwhile, John was invited by someone else the same day and formed a trio.

John: I was in a trio called "Amakara Hiyashi" and stayed active for four years.

Katayama: Meanwhile, I went through several duos, debuted with a duo called "Nejimaki Theater," but after about a year, we disbanded, and my next duo "Pippo" also didn’t work out.

John: In 2020, "Amakara Hiyashi" was set to disband, and at that time, the COVID-19 pandemic hit. Because of that, I thought about quitting being a comedian. During that time, I had a Zoom drinking session with four classmates from the training school including Katayama.

Katayama: When I heard John say he was thinking of quitting comedy, I lost it.

John: I was really hit hard (laughs).

Katayama: John was saying that if he became an office worker, he could easily earn money, so I felt he was underestimating the life of a working person. But deep down, I thought, "It’s bad if he quits." I thought I needed to hold him back somehow, so I tried to be forceful...

John: It didn’t resonate with me much (laughs). But I thought, "Okay." So I decided that after the COVID-19 pandemic is over, I would play a lot with the seniors from Jinrikisha for a year, make memories, and then quit. Then, Katayama ended up disbanding his duo at that time.

Katayama: I wanted to team up with him, so I disbanded. I thought this was the chance I couldn’t miss. So we formed Spicy Garlic on October 7, 2020.

John: That day, I was working a cleaning part-time job at Lumine the Yoshimoto in Shinjuku. During a break at night shift, I suddenly got a call from Katayama saying, "Let’s team up."

Katayama: Yeah.

John: I still remember when I got the call and said okay. There was a poster of the king of conte champions right in front of me, and I thought, "Maybe... we can win this!"

● Their solo live is "So dynamic it might jump off the screen!"

ZAIKO: Please tell us about the second solo live show taking place on July 21. What does the title "Seido" mean?

Katayama: "Seido" means "to move lively." In the last solo live, we just packed in everything we thought was funny without any cohesion, but this time we will focus on the movement-based material that Spicy Garlic excels at. We will present seven new skits featuring dynamic movements using the entire stage.

John: It’s a straightforward live show where you can laugh without thinking.

Katayama: We’re going to move so much that we might jump off the screen!

John: I don’t know if the camera can keep up!

Katayama: Even those who are seeing a comedy live for the first time, children, and elderly people can enjoy it, so I hope everyone feels free to come. We still have tickets available!

John: You can buy streaming tickets on ZAIKO! If you watch the stream in places where you can’t make noise, like on the train, you can still laugh even without sound.

Purchase streaming tickets for "Spicy Garlic's 2nd solo performance 'Seido'" on 7/21 (Mon, Holiday) here!

ZAIKO: Those who want to see the live show now can make it in time. Finally, please share your enthusiasm for the solo live.

Katayama: When the performance ends, I’ll be gasping for air!

John: ...Are we?

Katayama: Yes. We will prepare oxygen spray to cope with moving too much. That’s how much we plan to move around. Our goal is to move to the limit and make the audience laugh until both we and the audience are gasping for air.

John: The day I sweat the most in my life will be that day! I’ll turn my sweat into a sea on Ocean Day! It will be Sweat Day~~~! (leans toward the camera)

Katayama: Just so you know, this will be published in writing.

John: Yes.

Katayama: With this solo live, I want to gain momentum, win the King of Conte, and go on plenty of overseas shoots together!

John: I want to go on an adventurous survival shoot in a dangerous jungle~~!!

Here’s the archive streaming tickets for “Spicy Garlic’s 2nd solo performance 'Seido'” on
July 21 (Mon, Holiday)👇

Purchase archive streaming tickets!

Venue tickets and event details

Check out the latest comedy events

Spicy Garlic

Tomokatsu Katayama (left in the photo) and John (right in the photo) form a duo. They are in the 25th graduating class of School JCA and formed in October 2020. In 2022, they won "Ala-Biki-Dan 2-night consecutive! Midsummer's Strongest Performer Deciding Battle" (TBS) and reached the semifinals of "King of Conte 2022." They won the "2022 NHK Newcomer Comedy Award" as well. In January 2023, Muraki changed his name to John. They will also appear in "Gurunai New Year’s Eve Comedy Show! Please make someone famous this year SP" (Nippon TV) in 2024 and "Wednesday Downtown 'Next Generation Reaction King Discovery Tournament'" (TBS) in 2025, attracting attention.

About ZAIKO

"ZAIKO" has developed services that prioritize artists and event organizers, allowing artists and fans to connect directly through electronic tickets. Since March 2020, they were the first to introduce electronic ticket services with live streaming and have contributed to the hosting of over 40,000 events, including venue events.