"We were already a grassroots organization and being asked by so many Asian American groups to perform for them at their conferences, at their benefits."īy 1990, Cold Tofu was on the road, traveling to San Francisco, Seattle, Minnesota and Arizona. "Even though we didn't know what we were doing, we were already booking colleges and JACL conferences," Kumagai recalls. Tokuda also credits Gary Austin, founder of The Groundlings, for deepening their understanding of character work as many of the characters they created under his tutelage ended up on stage. He saw us and said, 'Oh man, there are some other Asians that are interested in comedy,' " says Tokuda. "He was kind of lonely being one of the only Asian American comedians too. Later, Pat Morita helped Cold Tofu with money for grants, specifically for instructors. There was also Steve Book, who taught at the University of Southern California and was an instrumental early mentor, teaching them the fundamentals of improvisation and the respect for creating scenes using nothing but imagination and space props. “We didn't know who he was," Kumagai says. Her husband, Roger Bowen, starred in the TV sitcom MASH and was a founding member of Second City, a Chicago-based improv enterprise – but the Cold Tofu actors didn’t know that. Escamilla produced at East West Players and introduced the ladies to their earliest mentor, Ann Bowen. He noted that all Asian cultures eat tofu, albeit in different ways, and ‘cold’ connotes improv.Īnd their startup was not without resources or networking. The group’s name, Cold Tofu, came from Michael Paul Chan. "We decided to do it on our own so we could show our experience," Tokuda says. No one else was going to tell their stories of being Asian American-and make it funny. I want to find out about our own experiences, Asian Americans and what we found funny.' I don't want anyone telling us what they think is funny because we'll end up being a big fat stereotype on stage." "I had considered going to The Groundlings, but then I thought, 'No, I don't want to learn that kind of white comedy. When in reality, we didn't know what we were doing, really," Tokuda remembers. We just kind of winged it and thought we knew what we were doing. Come on.' We didn't have any instructors. We said, 'We can figure out the formula for these. With a space to gather and members who were interested, they educated themselves by going to clubs and watching others at The Groundlings, one of the two major improv theaters in the nation at the time, along with Upright Citizens Brigade, that fostered up-and-coming talents.
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