Tokyo Shock Boys

Before any members of “stupid human tricks” group Tokyo Shock Boys even appeared on stage, the sound of whizzing power tools from behind the curtains set the mood for their Red Marquee appearance. Fans quickly found out the source of the whirring sound when six red-jumpsuit-clad men with grinders and rotary tools threw sparks high into the air and into the crowd while another man swallowed lumps of dry ice, blowing flumes of smog out his nose.

An hour-long circus of sheer stupidity, this is essentially “Japanese Jackass”, with members taking turns playing pranks or inflicting bodily harm on themselves and their friends for fun. Not three minutes into the performance, one member pulled a scorpion from a small box and at least seven girls in the front row turned and left the tent immediately without speaking a word. The scorpion was of course swallowed and regurgitated to great applause from the crowd.

What followed were a series of glorified party tricks without much connection to each other and basically just what you would expect from a group of slapstick comedians with high thresholds for pain; Tazer to the tongue, chopsticks snapped in two with asscheeks, and elastic band stretched across the stage and snapped straight into one members face.

These stunts really brought nothing new to the table, their shock value already exhausted by acts in a similar vein like Jackass and Dirty Sanchez, but were none the less a humorous break for the crowd from long line of musical acts appearing at the Red Marquee.

The stunts which focused less on self-inflicted pain and more on humor were most entertaining. One member made a cola-mentos rocket which shot a stream two meters into the air where he was waiting atop a ladder with an umbrella to drink it. Where things fell short were when they resorted to gags and cheap jokes to try and keep the crowds attention between stunts, with one member hitting fruits with a sledgehammer and later slinging fake urine onto the crowd.

Taken as a sideshow, Tokyo Shock Boys’ act was a mildly entertaining success with crowds but never really gathered enough steam or laughs to warrant a 50 minute primetime slot on the Red Marquee.