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Article 4

LOST & FOUND COWBOY – Uplifting Cross-Cultural
Online Comedy in the Time of Pandemic (PART 2)
By Atsushi Ogata

Author Atsushi Ogata

Design: Ben Hillman

audience if they had set their “audio” to mute. That remark itself got
some unexpected laughs!
On the other hand, it suddenly became routine to participate invirtual open mics in other parts of the world. In addition to
performing with comedians in Tokyo, I now participated in open mics
in the United States without ever leaving Japan.

Conceiving Collaboration Across Borders

Our cross-cultural comedy LOST & FOUND COWBOY continues even during the pandemic© Globetrot Productions 2020

Before the Covid-19 pandemic, I had been performing stand-up
comedy live in Tokyo and Los Angeles, and preparing the release of
the first season of our cross-cultural comedy series LOST & FOUND
COWBOY through the UK comedy platform Twisted Mirror TV.
As the pandemic spread across the globe, live comedy venues
began to close, and film productions were shutting down. In March
2020 emergency “lockdown” measures were announced around theworld.

“Virtual” Stand-up in the Time of Covid
As live performance opportunities stopped, we began performing
comedy online on “virtual” open mics via Google Hangout and Zoom.
I continued to play the same YUKATA COWBOY ® character, wearing
my cowboy hat and Japanese yukata (casual summer garment), but I
had to make a number of adjustments to perform in this new
medium. While I was used to performing and acting out various
characters using my whole body, with the virtual stand-up I had toadjust my performances to confine myself to the small area that
could be seen by my laptop’s webcam.
At the same time, I developed new sets specific to the Covid
situation with guidance from my American producer Sian Evans. For
example, I would tell a story about Yukata Cowboy being stopped bya police officer during the pandemic and getting arrested for violating
the lockdown. In another set, I enacted confronting a bank robber
wearing a Covid mask.
I found it difficult to gauge reactions online – with tiny screen
visuals for audience reactions and the limitations of computer audio.
During one of my first virtual performances, as I was re-telling a set
that had gotten many laughs in live performances, I even asked thehttps://www.jef.or.jp/journal/

As time went on, it became clear that we were in for a large,
protracted lockdown – international borders were literally closing
down. I wondered how I could continue to create our globetrotting
comedy LOST & FOUND COWBOY, which centers on crossing
borders, celebrating diversity and dancing. If my character, Yukata
Cowboy, could not travel and live amongst other cultures, how could
I continue that story?
On a beautiful sunny morning in May while walking through an
empty neighborhood park in Tokyo, I thought of the perfect solution:
this was the time to pursue a collaboration with two talented andhumorous creators – Danish actress and film director LærkeCharlotte Olsvig in London and Spanish actress Xana del Mar in
Madrid.
I first met Lærke and Xana at the 2016 Bilbao Seriesland Festival in
Spain, where their comedy series “Piso” (Apartment) was awarded
Best Sit-Com. Together they had written, acted and filmed a very
comedic series about being roommates in an apartment in Madrid.
I loved their funny, on-the-mark performances and dramaticstories, and also their dance sessions, which included flamenco. We
got along well at the festival. I found them ready to react and createat all times – Xana even imitated me hilariously one evening as we
bar-hopped with the festival group. We joked about Yukata Cowboy
appearing in one of their “Piso” episodes, and I remember thinking
of a Yukata Cowboy episode where, in his usual mistaken,
happenstance way, he ends up dancing in a music video with these
two brilliant comedians. As we were all living in different countries,
those were just funny ideas to laugh about at a bar.
Now, suddenly, we had the perfect opportunity to actually work
together. If everyone around the world was under lockdown, couldn’t
I conceive a story taking place during the pandemic? The three of us
could collaborate over Zoom from our countries spanning the globe.
I had completed Season 1 of LOST & FOUND COWBOY, in which
Yukata Cowboy’s lover, Cindy, suddenly disappears from Tokyo.
Before the pandemic, our initial plan was for Yukata Cowboy toliterally travel the world to find Cindy and re-connect with her.
Because of the pandemic I realized that Yukata Cowboy couldn’t
Japan SPOTLIGHT • January / February 2021

35

Photo: Atsushi Ogata

Yukata Cowboy depressed at home under lockdown© Globetrot Productions 2020

travel anywhere. He must be alone and isolated in his flat, sinking
into a serious depression – the exact opposite of his natural bent.
Discovering his state by chance over Zoom, two overseas friends,
played by Lærke and Xana, reach out to him. Lotte, a Danish
character to be played by Lærke, encourages Yukata Cowboy to start
performing virtual stand-up comedy, just as I had actually begun
performing virtually myself during the lockdown, and Xana’s
character in turn can try to cheer him up by offering to teach him
flamenco.
A culturally iconic dance, flamenco would be a perfect expansion
on the cross-cultural dance theme of LOST & FOUND COWBOY. I
discussed the idea with my producer, Sian, and showed her Lærke
and Xana’s “Piso” series. She liked my idea. She saw sympatico
strains of extemporaneous humor and physical comedy in Lærke andXana’s work. Even more, she understood their underlying kind andopen attitude towards life as a match to the attitude of Yukata
Cowboy.

Collaborating Online with Overseas CastI quickly wrote the storyline for the new season “LOST & FOUND
COWBOY – In the Time of Covid” and proposed the idea ofcollaboration to Lærke and Xana. They were immediately interested.
Because of the lockdown, they also had more time available andwere willing to start right away.
We decided that our first step would be to film and edit a 1.5
minute clip – to test work flow, to determine technical specs, to see
how we collaborated. I wrote a short script, filmed my part andshared it with Lærke and Xana. Then they filmed their parts, edited
them together and sent the footage back to me, which I then edited.
Because Lærke and Xana had worked together extensively before
on their series “Piso”, they collaborated well remotely by phone andZoom, even though they were in separate countries. Sian and I were
impressed with how easily and how well the test came together.

Extended Online Table Read Led to More Ideas
I drafted our episode scripts and in early June we did a couple ofonline table reads with Lærke and Xana over Zoom. This was very
inspiring as it generated more new ideas for comedy and cross36 Japan SPOTLIGHT • January / February 2021

cultural intrigue. Both Lærke and Xana’s natural talents as actresses
and international performers significantly enriched the humor,
cultural observations and the narrative of our story.
In flamenco, the dancers use abanico, Spanish fans. Xana andLærke showed me the bright red wooden fans they used in “Piso”,
which would look fantastic for our flamenco dance scenes. That gaveme the idea to also incorporate sensu, traditional Japanese paperfans with bamboo frames, in our new episodes.
As we discussed fans, Xana came up with a joke about how Yukata
Cowboy and her Spanish character, Maribel, would each interpret theword “fan” differently. While Yukata Cowboy would say he needs a
new fan, referring to the Japanese fan he held in his hand, Maribel
would misunderstand, thinking Yukata Cowboy wanted more fanswatching as he performed comedy online.
For a virtual stand-up performance, we decided that it would be
more fun to have Lotte and Yukata Cowboy perform together. Lottewould play a police officer trying to arrest Yukata Cowboy, who has
violated the lockdown. Lærke made the Lotte character very funny byacting childishly ecstatic to play a “police officer”.
In “Piso” I had seen Xana successfully acting a character watching
Spanish soap opera on TV and wanted to incorporate that into our
script. Xana conceived and recorded the voices for a fictional soap
opera that her character Maribel is watching on TV, as she snacks on
Spanish olives.
We wanted to also include a Danish element as Lærke is Danish.
We were filming in June – a time in Denmark when graduating
students wear special caps for their commencement. We decided
that Lotte’s character, fixated on her graduation cap, could wear it inmany scenes – expressing the same excitement she displayed at theprospect of playing a police officer. We brought this visual statementof cultural identity further into play with maps of Denmark on thewall and flags of Denmark on Lotte’s stand-up microphone.
Because LOST & FOUND COWBOY is a cross-cultural series, Xana
and Lærke purposely cast a racially and culturally diverse group offriends as the “audience” in the Zoom stand-up scene. We wanted tovisually further emphasize the international nature of this story.
We also looked for ways to bring multiple languages into the story.
Xana, as a multilingual European actress, has experience MCing inseveral languages. Because this production is a collaboration withJapan, she wanted to include spoken Japanese in the scene where
she MCs “Ladies and Gentleman” in Japanese. Since Maribel
welcomes the audience only in Spanish, English and Japanese, we
decided that Lotte should comment on that in Danish and say that
she missed hearing it spoken in Danish. These moments allowed us
to recognize all three individual nationalities with humor.
We also played with national stereotypes. In my original script, I
had written a scene where Maribel dares Yukata Cowboy to dance byholding up a red scarf like a matador. Before the reading, Xana was
opposed to any reference to bullfighting, of which she doesn’t
approve. Through the process of development she found a way to
perform this scene comedically in an amusing and absurd way.
It was also important to us to continue the musical theme ofnational styles from Season 1. Through table reads and Zoom
discussions, and with help from Xana’s musician friend, we chose
wonderful flamenco songs that would be authentic enough forPhoto: Lærke Charlotte Olsvig

background.
Similarly, with Taka, our sound designer, we did test audio
recording of various scenes. We discovered, for example, that I
needed to walk softly even when Yukata Cowboy was upset, to keep
my footsteps from interfering with the dialogue.
For Xana, we learned we’d need to secure a different microphone.
Even then we still heard odd noises. Taka, in Tokyo, figured out thesesounds in Madrid came from interference caused by the WiFi signal
in Xana’s room. We asked her to disable her WiFi when filming.
For the opening animation shots, Ben Hillman, our animator, gave
direction on how each of us could film ourselves separately at
different locations, on our own and without crew.

Lotte performs online comedy while hula-hooping© Globetrot Productions 2020

Spanish viewers while also working for viewers outside of Spain.

Technical Tests & Pre-Production
To maintain the aesthetic and technical qualities we achieved in
Season 1, we also brought on board our director of photography
Motomu Ishigaki, our sound designer Masataka (Taka) Odaka andour animator Ben Hillman as consultants. We showed them our test
clip and script and asked for advice on how to film and record thisproduction.
Unlike normal film shoots where the camera and sound crew arephysically present in the same space as the actors, because of theCovid lockdown each performer had to learn how to properly film
and record their scenes individually and ahead of time. Over the next
10 days leading up to our actual film shoot, Laerke, Xana and I
conducted technical test shoots in different locations inside our own
homes. Then Motomu, Taka and Ben reviewed the footage and gave
us suggestions to improve, and we tried again. We repeated theprocess a few times until we were all satisfied with the production
value.
Motomu remotely advised us on camera angles, lighting and art
direction. In addition to the Zoom shots where the characters would
participate and record through computer webcams, he suggested
that we film ourselves from the front and from 45 degree angles tomaximize coverage and have more options and visual variations forediting. Motomu taught me to use and flag overhead light; how to
use a desk lamp; how to properly use a halogen film lamp with abounce. Sometimes I needed to re-shoot two or three times before
getting it all right.
The quality of my HD camera was not sufficient for this shoot, so I
purchased a new 4K camera. Although Japan did not have as strict a
lockdown policy as countries in the West, many establishments wereclosed. For the first time in two months I ventured outside of myneighborhood, taking a public train.
Lærke and Xana also conducted similar technical tests. Xana’s flatin Madrid was bright and sunny, but the weather was often more
cloudy and rainy in London, and we found Lærke needed added lightfor most of her shots.
With Motomu, we also worked together on art direction. He gavesuggestions on where, what and how to place items in theFilming
In June, we began filming with large time differences. We usually
started our sessions at 5 p.m. Tokyo time – 9 a.m. in London, 10a.m. in Madrid. Because Tokyo didn’t really get dark until 7 p.m., wefirst rehearsed and filmed the London and Madrid scenes. After 7
p.m. we filmed everyone together. The time difference gave plenty oftime to prepare each day, but it also meant I worked two shifts
back-to-back in Japanese and then in European time. That scheduletended to deprive me of sleep.
Our first day was challenging as we were still figuring out how towork together. We soon came up with efficient ways to check Xana
and Lærke’s framing, before they filmed themselves. When filming
Zoom shots with our computer webcams, we began recording
ourselves simultaneously with our video cameras from another angle– each of us was doing a multi-camera shoot in our homes at thesame time.
Every day of filming was engaging and inspiring. We laughed a lot
and enjoyed the process. However, since we didn’t have anyone
managing data, after every shooting day Lærke and Xana spentsignificant time labeling and uploading all the footage filmed with
their own cameras. To ensure a high quality sound mix, Taka also
asked us to record room-tones for every angle we filmed. Sian andTaka checked our daily “rushes” to make sure everything was inorder.
For filming our stand-up performance, first the three of us filmed
the whole scenes ourselves. On another day we had a separate Zoom
Photo: Xana del Mar

Maribel teaches flamenco online© Globetrot Productions 2020

Japan SPOTLIGHT • January / February 2021

37

Zoom: Atsushi Ogata

pandemic around us.
By the end, Xana and Lærke were joking that in future stories
Yukata Cowboy might offer a combination of stand-up comedy andflamenco as therapy for depression!

Post-Production

Dancing flamenco online© Globetrot Productions 2020

session where eight of Lærke and Xana’s actor friends played the“audience”. The actors dressed appropriately with funny hats andcolorful clothes. Each came up with great reactions­– laughing,cheering, clapping, rolling off a chair or speaking in Russian.
For the flamenco dance sequence, Xana offered to have an extra
rehearsal session with me to try out movements and designchoreography. One of the most memorable ideas we came up withwas the following: at one point, Xana would hold up the hem of her
skirt and shake it right and left. I ended up imitating her by holding
up the hem of my yukata and flipping it right and left! It was eyeopening and funny because in all my experience I had never thoughtof holding and flapping the bottom of my yukata in such a way, nor
seen anyone else do it.
The day we shot the dance episodes was one of the hottest days in
Europe – more than 31 degrees Celsius in London and higher in
Madrid. Lærke and Xana were sweating as they danced from one
sequence to the next. It wasn’t as hot in Tokyo, where it wasnighttime, but I was getting exhausted. I had to keep re-taking theshots as my hula-hoop kept falling to the floor before I could finish
my lines. We literally needed to use our fans to fan ourselves to cool
off during those scenes!
As Maribel coaches Yukata Cowboy in dancing flamenco, Maribel
tells him to “stomp harder” as if he were angry. Since I was filming
inside a Japanese house, I was dancing/stomping without shoes. I
didn’t notice until late the next day that during this jumping andstomping, I had actually broken a bone in my toe! It wasn’t painful,
but was taped for three weeks, and never healed completely. Still, we
had an amazing shoot as we danced all day/night.
After the main filming, Lærke and Xana filmed themselves dancing
so that Ben could incorporate their images into the opening
animation. We filmed exterior establishment shots in our deserted
Covid-hit neighborhoods, as Sian suggested. The contrasting lightand architecture of each cityscape was intriguing and gave a betterbalance to our film.
Although it was challenging to wear many caps, to act and film
ourselves while managing all the technical and logistic issues, thisinnovative way of filming and collaborating gave us the opportunity
to work spontaneously, intensively and creatively together acrossinternational borders even during a lockdown. Each of us became so
dedicated to the project that it kept our minds off the ensuing
38 Japan SPOTLIGHT • January / February 2021

Fortunately, in Japan, there were a number of public and private
funding sources to support and encourage artists and performers tocontinue their creative work even during the pandemic. Throughsuch initiatives, we were able to retroactively fund our production
and continue with our post-production.
To my great relief, in September, when I resumed work, I foundthat our footage cut well together. I was also happy to see how well
we performed together. The dance episode was so complicated that I
had to break it up into 10 parts and edit each part separately before
compiling.
Because the material was so successful, Sian and I decided tocreate not only our original web series version, but also linear
versions for a variety of film venues.
As we began to complete our editing and sound mix, Miki
Inagawa, our colorist, also came on board to color-correct our series
with Motomu’s supervision. As I write this article, our series is stillon its way to completion, but we plan to release it in early 2021! Our
trailer has just been selected for competition at the Asia Web Awards
2020. Hopefully, even in these challenging times, we can make you
smile and laugh again with our unique cross-cultural brand of
comedy.
For trailer and more info: https://www.lostandfoundcowboy.com
For “Piso” by Lærke Charlotte Olsvig & Xana del Mar: https://www.
youtube.com/c/WeeFeeProductions
Zoom: Atsushi Ogata

Virtual online sketch comedy© Globetrot Productions 2020Atsushi Ogata is a film director, screenwriter, video artist, actor andcomedian, and a graduate of Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute ofTechnology. Ogata’s films and videos, including his theatrically-released
Japanese comedy feature “CAST ME IF YOU CAN” (WAKIYAKU MONOGATARI),
have been screened and awarded worldwide. In recent years Ogata has
expanded into web series with TRICK OR TREAT: I LOVE AMERICA!, YUKATA
COWBOY, MONA LISA COWBOY and LOST & FOUND COWBOY. www.
atsushiogata.com