|
Q1. What is your name?
A. My name's Andrew Lister.
I'm also known as The Pie Master.
Q2. Where are you originally from?
A. I grew up near Toronto,
Canada, in a city named Burlington. I also lived in Vancouver
from age 19 to 30.
Q3. How long have you been in Japan?
A. Over 7 years; 5 and a
half in Saitama, then I moved to Osaka.
Q4. What are you into at the moment?
A. Well, for the
last year or more, all I've been into are the 3 big ongoing
projects in front of me. The first is a screenplay; I've just
finished my first full-length movie script and hope to sell
it. It's a comedy, which seems to be my thing.
The second thing - keeping with the theme - is standup comedy.
I did it for a few years in Vancouver and then took a break
for about 12 years before finally picking it up again here.
What a way to blow the dust off of your standup skills: do
it in two languages! It's definitely been harder the second
time around, due mostly to the language barrier, but I've
had some nice opportunities here that I might not have gotten
in Canada, such as being an MC at WhyNot's Charity Seaside
Live. (No, that wasn't a plug, because it already happened...)
The third part of my ''comic trilogy'' is: I've been producing
short videos and selling them online for a year now, and the
main theme of my videos is… pie-in-the-face! (Or in Japanese,
「パイ投げ」/''pai nage.''
|
|
|
| A lot of people
simply don't believe me, but there really is a market out
there, mostly in English-speaking countries, for videos of
cute girls having pie fights with each other. Actually, the
other things on my plate are in danger of being pushed off
because this one job is taking up so much time. Shooting a
pie fight in your apartment and then cleaning up after takes
longer than you think!!!
Q5. What do you
do in Japan?
A. Obviously none of my ''hobbies'' is supporting
me (yet!) so the readers might not be too shocked to learn
that I've been teaching English to pay the rent. Like most
fat white boys, I started as a full-time English teacher when
I arrived in Saitama in 2000, but when I moved to Osaka in
2005, I only took on part-time teaching jobs so I'd have more
time to focus on writing. If my writing pays off in the form
of a sold script, I'm pretty sure I won't be teaching English
next year.
Recently, though, I've had to cut down my teaching hours even
more because of the pie video business. The business is still
only a year old, and I'm not yet making the same financial return
on my time as I would teaching English, but it's a labour of
love (it's OK, you can all laugh here!) and I would happily
work twice as long for half the pay making pie videos! But the
business is picking up steadily, thanks to the help I've received
from all my amazing friends here. Q6.
Did you start your online business here? How did you manage
to do that?
A. Yes, I started it here.
It wasn't very hard to get the website started, because I
simply let an associate in the USA take care of all things
net-related. I simply had to start coming up with ''product''
to sell. Almost anybody can start an online business selling
video downloads; you just need a camera, a computer and someone
to host your site & collect your money.
Q7. How do you find models for your
videos?
A. I've been very, very
lucky in that a LOT of my female friends were more than willing
to be in videos. On one hand, it's not so surprising because
it is pretty damn fun, and who doesn't want a chance to throw
a pie at their friend?! On the other hand, it does take some
courage to be in a video which is going to be sold on the
net, so I really appreciate what they've done for me. I've
also met some great women on Mixi who wanted to try the pie
thing. Word-of-mouth has been important, too; models who had
a great time come back to make more videos, and they bring
their friends.
I'm always looking for fresh faces, though, so if any interested
women are reading this, please visit www.myspace.com/pai_nage_yaritai
or if you're on Mixi, please search for ''Pie Master'' living
in Osaka (I'm pretty sure I'm the only one…) E-mail's OK too:
pai_nage_yaritai@hotmail.co.uk
Q8. What are your goals for future?
A. Well, even for all of
the time I devote to pies, my biggest dream is to see one
of my scripts made into a movie. So, while I'm spending most
of my time on the video business right now, I'm planning to
switch the focus back to writing soon. But whatever happens,
between those two pursuits I hope to be fully self-employed
within a couple of years. Another goal is to accumulate a
half-hour of GOOD Japanese standup material, and be able to
deliver it smoothly. I did 10 minutes in Japanese at the WhyNot
event at ATC hall, but it was far from smooth. Another goal
of mine is that damn Japanese Language Proficiency Test, level
1. I've failed it about 63 times. Maybe I should buy a book
on kanji or something.
Q9. What is your favorite Japanese
words?
A. ''Karaoke'' because I'm
the Karaoke King, baby. Don't pretend you haven't heard the
legend...
Q10. Message to WhyNot!? users!
A. If there are things you
want to do, just start telling people, because this country
(and especially the WhyNot community) is FULL of people who
want to help you. And to anybody interested in ''pai nage'',
visit my Myspace or Mixi pages, or just send me an e-mail!
URL: www.myspace.com/pai_nage_yaritai
E-mail: pai_nage_yaritai@hotmail.co.uk |
