*CORRECTION:* Nick actually belongs to *Sun Music Productions* , not Yoshimoto Kogyo!! Not sure how I managed to mess that up! Really sorry!! Skip to 24:14 for an explanation of what Manzai actually is! You can watch some of Nick’s Japanese comedy by searching “タイムボム”, which is the of the Manzai duo that he’s in! Just caught an error in the English subs at the beginning of the video. At 00:38, the subtitle should say “And the good thing about Japanese language schools is”. Sorry, I had been up for over 24 hours when I made the intro for this video; maybe you can tell I don’t look so great in the clip lol 😅

33? the guy looks like a teenager dude

part way through I noticed his hat looked like a mini pope hat and I couldn't unsee it.

Matt has a really good ability for interviewing people. Can't wait for more.

This is my favorite interview on your channel so far, Matt. I love the riffing on cultural differences with comedy in Japan vs the west.

Dude sick interview! Keep up the great content

This was my favorite interview yet, can't wait for pt 2!

This is awesome Matt. Looking forward for Part 2.

Wow. This was great. I will absolutely watch pt2. Thanks to you both.

This was such an insightful interview! Thanks for doing this

These are my favorite videos. Super relaxed podcast vibes

Awesome video! I’ve been watching nick for a while so this is amazing to see.

This is the best interview so far on this channel! So interesting and would love a part 2 to hear more about the 芸能界

This was a really good interview. Thank you nick. I learned a lot from him and I think he has a super interesting perspective. I'd definitively want to see a part 2.

As usual, Matt hits the nail with his questions. I found this interview, as the one you made with the Shakuhachi player, to be profoundly interesting despite having no significant interest in both their areas of expertise. Good job and please keep these coming 👍

By far my favorite interview so far. Very interesting topics and insight on the entertainment industry. Can't wait for more like these.

Thanks for this interview! As someone living here in his first year, it's just very encouraging to hear someone else's experience. Especially outside of the English teacher bubble.

Do a part 2! I really enjoyed learning about his experience and the Japanese comedy world

Really interesting talk, especially the part about well known and famous people. Thanks!

This was such a great video! Great perspectives and insights from both sides - thanks for making this video!

Great insights from this guest. You can really tell that he's really passionate and has thought a lot about what he does from the interesting points he makes.

Insightful questions and a great guest. Thanks for the content. Also, yeah, a part two with Nick would be great

Such a great interview!! Well done Matt!

This interview is amazing!

Couldn't stop listening to this interview. Super interesting guest. Nick seems to be very down to earth.

Thanks for this interview!

Super interesting and insightful interview. Great job and thank you for doing this!

50:50 からの話、ベッキーと川谷絵音だな笑

Wow. I never comment on things on KZfaq, but this was a phenomenal interview. Well done, Matt, and your guest was extremely engaging in his own right. Would definitely watch a part 2.

Amazing interview! Thanks

"I would definitely recommend to people who wanna learn the language, to think about how they wanna use that in the future." I don't think anyone really considers this starting out, for me anyway I just ended up learning Japanese and now I have to figure out how to make the most of it.

Looking forward to seeing this Part 2 with Nick!

Loved this interview and enjoy all your content, Matt!!

One of the best videos on your channel for sure - such an interesting story and personality!

Thank you for content, Matt

I'm really loving your recent interviews. You have interesting guests and you are a great interviewer.

英語の勉強になります！ アメリカ人カッコいい🇺🇸

Awesome interview, I saw Nick on the youtube video that was included as a clip here as well, seems like a really nice dude. Getting a unique look into the 芸能界 is really special, would happily see a part 2!

Such a great conversation. Both intelligent and insightful individuals!

Great interview!

You two talk really well together… was really cool to watch this. Learned a lot.

That was a great interview! What an interesting guy with some unique experiences and insight.

Great interview! Very interesting!

Great interview

nice video Matt, its these types of videos that keep me motivated with my studies

Hits the nail with questions on all topics relevant to language learning.. thanks..

You ask great questions. Thanks for this insight interview.

Wow. this is so amazing. Both of you!

This is such good content, love it. So interesting.

This is awesome, Matt!

Very enjoyable interview with a very interesting guest.

Very interesting watch I'd love to read the dissertation Hoping for another episode

Really nice interview, and really cool guy! Would definitely enjoy a part 2.

最高の組み合わせです♡

ニックやーん！！笑 I’m Japanese and learning English but your videos and tips are so helpful!:) and I completely agree with your ways of learning foreign languages! I wasn’t able to verbalize my thoughts on language learning, but your amazing videos did exactly what I was thinking! I wasn’t sure about my way of learning English and I was worried if I’m learning English in the right direction, but you gave me confidence! I wasn’t wrong!:) Actually I just found your KZfaq channel a few days ago but I’ve binge watched lol Thank you so much Matt! Keep up the great work😆✨ 応援してますがんばってください♪

really enjoyed this the whole way through. i've enjoyed watching nick on atsueigo's channel before but i had no idea nick was a comedian. hearing him talk about it has got me really interested in japanese comedy now. i hope you guys get to talk again soon I just went back to watch nick on atsu's channel and on a vid called 使うだけで頭が良く聞こえる英単語３つ, his third english word is ostentatious, really funny to me that he uses it in this video 36:06

Thanks for this

This was super interesting, Thx

Good interview!

this interviewee seems to be very humble, glad to listen to him

Very deep and rich conversation for personal Growth. I really like how you go deeper in the topics and not stay only in the shallow

This is great. I think a lot of people learning Japanese would've loved to see this interview in Japanese with some subtitles.

Part 2 would be awesome

really great stuff

Great questions!

Two intelligent bilingual people talking about comedy. Epic!!! I was a huge fan of manzai in 80s and now standup after I left Japan. Right up my alley. Thank you so much.

Once you hit play on a Matt video, there's no going back. Amazing content.

This is such a great video. I've seen clips of Nick's performance online when I was a college student, like 4 years ago, and at that moment I thought he was like half-Japanese and half-American... I didn't know he's an American until today so it's a little bit shocking to me. But as a Chinese person who's interested in Japanese culture and went to college in the States, I can understand a lot of things Nick said in this interview. Being a foreigner in Japan is difficult. Respect.

Great interview, also big fan of Bilingual News, I would recommend it to anyone who is studying Japanese. I actually started reading 革命のファンファーレ recently based on Nick's recommendation on the podcast a few weeks back. Pretty interesting read.

Timeless commune. I became a big fan of you both with this 🤗

This guy is the fucking GOAT dude. He's the epitome my dreams, fucking got his own band in Japan, he's broken the barrier and became a comedian making people laugh in a totally different culture, just wow man. I'd kill to have a beer with this dude. If he's ever on again ask him about his band life and how that whole experience is!!

Really interesting how everyone you interview have a completely different perspective of Japan. In Justin's interview, he said that you can "become" Japanese if you wanted to, and how everyone should try to reach that level of cultural understanding. In this one Nick says that Japanese people can't really ever get past your "gaijinness". I wonder how much of that is a difference in the different industries that they are in. Looking forward to part 2!

Thanks!

He made a point that I really want to emphasize. Build a skill stack. If you have a strong skill alone, that's not spectacular, but if you have a bunch of complimentary peripheral and parallel skills, you create a skill stack, which essentially makes you someone that people can't ignore. You can fill positions that nobody else is uniquely qualified for.

The Sci Fi channel was my first ever exposure to anime. I remember seeing the last 30 minutes or so of Akira and a few other really "adult" anime and I was pretty blown away. Also got into Akira Kurosawa movies through my high school friends so this guy's introduction to Japanese culture sounds really similar to my own ^__^

Really interesting. A little insight into Japanese comedy. Nick is inspiring!

Oh my god he's the guy from Nogizaka Eigo!!! Great interview omg

Can we still get part 2? Please? 😀 I really like your interviews, in fact this channel for me is all about the interviews and semi-interview collabs, like the one with Dogen or the debate with George Trombley; I'm not even sure I want to learn Japanese (in fact I have a dumber issue: I'm suffering from analysis paralysis about which Asian language to learn). But anyways, I think this guy has a lot to say and your questions are really good. I've learned quite a lot from all the content on this channel already. You're like a Zach Sang for interesting gaijin. So, in short, I hope you make a part 2. And just a lot more interviews. With any kinda people.

Enjoyed.

すごかった ありがとう!

Is that a cheeky anki reference I see on 39:50, even if it wasn't it would fit pretty good. Good vid as always!

no way! nick was the guy who did the vice mini-documentary on the Japanese dance dance revolution scene! cool to see him here!

おもしろかったです！

what a humble guy.

hes got an awesome voice

27:10 Arrested development is one of my favourite shows.

Holy shit!!! As another big japanese TV fan I will be watching the hell out of this haha. So excited!

This was a really fascinating and deep discussion. Great interview! One thing I've long thought is that the rise of reality shows also coincides with the rise of more realistic acting across all genres. If you watch movies, it feels more like they recorded a play, and the actors seem to be putting on a production. The older the movie, the more obvious it is. Of course there is still the occasional sort of slapstick physical comedy here and there that kind of hearken back to the style popular 80's and 90's, but they're widely panned by critics now. Nowadays it's more about the witty banter and clever wordplay delivered (mostly) realistically, as if recorded from a hidden camera. I'm sure I'm not the only one that thought that, but it occurred to me when you were talking about western comedy. It's kinda like this shift toward realism just hasn't happened in Japan. Ironically, these days, reality TV shows are more apparently fake than fiction shows.

I don't know any word to describe Nick's personality other than beautiful. Totally impressed.

ＮICK, YOU REALLY PUT YOUR SOUL IN THIS INTERVIEW. THANKYOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR OPINION

I’ve been using MIA Anki for one week now. The progress is amazing.

Terrific interview guys. I live in Tokyo myself for 3 years, kind of jealous of your level of understanding language 😁 But true is I didn’t have any prior knowledge of Japanese behind こんにちは😃 I am big fan of US stand up so great to hear opinion from professional 👍

I feel like I’ve looked 30 since I was 15 - this man looks 22 at the oldest 😭

Hey Matt how are u doing?, this has nothing to do with the video but I'd like to ask a few things about MIA especially when it comes to Anki, how I'm supposed to use it? For instance I'm going to get new vocabulary and do sentences with it? Or I'm going to use some vocab list to start? I also wanted to mention that you literally Changed the entire way that I think about language learning, I was extremely frustrated because I've been studying japanese for a few months and I wasn't having a lot of progress ( because I was studying too much grammar and not immersing myself at the language) and you method seems to be awesome !

this interview was seriously god tier

Fascinating interview! "Slow learner?" Really? He became highly fluent in Japanese in his early 20's! I would really like to know more about how many years he actively spent learning before he became fluent enough to attend comedy school. It's totally amazing.

I have a question about MIA... I'm learning Japanese and I've start MIA for 4 days now and it's been going really well. I'm currently doing immersion and RRTK. What I am wondering is that on the website (Japanese quick start guide) it says the it'll take about 3 months to do RRTK and that you should continue practicing RRTK for another few months. And then it also says that you shouldn't start grammar and vocab untill you've completed RRTK. After completing grammar and vocab (from what I understand) I've completed stage one. This seems like it'd take like minimum 1 year, maybe even longer for stage 1. In your MIA introduction video you said that if you practiced diligently it'd take 3 months in the first stage and if you practiced less then it'd take 6 months to a year. So far I've been going *ham* with immersion and I've been doing the daily reviews aswell. It seems like I can't complete any faster then in 3 months and only after completing that will I start grammar and vocab. So in total it'll take 1 year which is way more the 3 months. Is there something I misunderstood or can I somehow complete course 1 faster then 1 year. Ps. I didn't matter if it takes 1 year or 3 months, I just want to know if I'm doing things properly. Thank you very much.

At 48:25, or around there, Nick says people aren't watching this interview for him, and I have to say I actually am watching this video because of you. I saw your interview with Takashii from Japan, and I really dug your vibe and when I found out you were a celebrity I figured I'd check you out. You're cool man.

Enjoyed this interview and would love to see a part 2. Any more info on what school Nick went to?

I wish I could go back in time and change my major to Japanese. Being able to dedicate that time purely to language study would have been invaluable. Trying to balance study with a job and girlfriend isn't easy. I really wonder if it would be worth leaving work for a year and studying all out.