Sandwichman (owarai)

Sandwichman (サンドウィッチマン) is a Japanese comedy duo (owarai kombi) and host consisting of Mikio Date and Takeshi Tomizawa from Grape Company. They are from Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture, Tōhoku region of Japan, and the duo was formed in September 1998. They were the champions of M-1 Grand Prix 2007 and the runners-up of King of Conte 2009.

Member
Depending on the material they perform, Date sometimes ad-libs “bokeh” into the performance.

Meeting and forming a duo
They met at the rugby football club of Sendai Commercial High School in Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture. It was a boys' school and a club with a strict hierarchical relationship. Although it was not a strong team, they worked out physically together with the rugby football team members and were always thinking of ways to make the “very scary but funny seniors” laugh in the club room.

After graduating from high school, Date went to work for a manufacturer of nursing care products, such as wheelchairs. Tomizawa, on the other hand, dreamed of becoming a comedian and formed a comedy duo with another person while working part-time. However, Tomizawa continued to solicit Date to become a comedian with him for five years, and they finally formed a duo and moved to Tokyo for dream in 1998.

M-1 Grand Prix
After moving to Tokyo, they named their duo name to "Oyafuko" and "Money and Fist" for a while, but the public did not recognize them, and they formed the trio "Sandwich Man" with Tsutomu Hamada, a colleague from their first agency, Horipro. The reason for the name was that the slender Hamada sandwiched between the larger Date and Tomizawa looked like a sandwich. After only one year, Hamada left the group, but they did not return to their original name and have been active together ever since.

For years, the two did not receive much recognition and continued to smolder with few jobs. With little money to spare, they lived together in a small apartment, managed to support themselves with part-time jobs. After a long period of underachievement, they began appearing on the Nippon TV popular comedy program “The God of Entertainment” around 2005. Then, on December 23, 2007, they won the M-1 Grand Prix and quickly became one of the most successful comedians.

Even after they became successful comedians, they continued to cherish their hometown of Sendai and Tōhoku region. Their first regular radio program was FM Izumi's Sandwichman's Radio Let Me Do It! broadcasting in Izumi Ward, Sendai City since July 2007. They have appeared on the show with no pay since that time, and they say that they still does so even today, after winning M-1 Grand Prix and other breakthroughs. they also say that even though they receive many offers for work in Tokyo, they give priority to work in Sendai.

Since 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami
When the March 11, 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami occurred, they were at a fishing port in Kesennuma, Miyagi Prefecture, filming a TV program. After the biggest tremor they had ever experienced, the local TV crew urged them to climb a nearby mountain, and they narrowly escaped tsunami.

Thinking of what they could do to help Tōhoku region, they opened a “Tōhoku Spirit Donation Account” soon after the quake to help the affected areas. Then, in a short period of about a month and a half, they collected donations amounting to about 300 million yen, which they were able to distribute and deliver to the six prefectures affected by the disaster by the end of May 2011. Since then, they have continued to actively engage in support activities, such as visiting evacuation centers with relief supplies, selling charity T-shirts, and holding charity live concerts. Sandwichman and his agency, Grape Company, Inc. are responsible for delivering donations directly to the prefectural governments of Miyagi Prefecture, Fukushima Prefecture, and Iwate Prefecture each year to support orphans and orphans of the disaster. They continued to provide ongoing support, and by March 2022, the cumulative donations collected totaled over 500 million yen.

10 years after the earthquake, They began to think of “something tangible to support with the relief money,” and in 2022, at the suggestion of Kesennuma, donated a Portable Restroom Trailers to the city of Kesennuma. This Portable Restroom Trailers was dispatched to Wajima, Ishikawa on the Noto Peninsula in January 2024 in the wake of the 2024 Noto earthquake, and was put to good use.

Style of performance
Sandwichman were popular for their high quality manzai and comedy, and the standard phrase “I don't know what you're talking about" by Tomizawa became their staple. Their well-written scripts are their charm, but sometimes Date in particular makes Tomizawa laugh by ad-libbing something that is not in the script. This is made possible by their close rapport and deep trust, and the audience enjoys watching Tomizawa's reactions. Comedy critic Larry Toda says that their manzai and comedy acts seem to play on the so-called “beta” or predictable, but they exquisitely shift it a bit, and that is what makes them so interesting. He attributes this to the fact that they have been honing their manzai skills day in and day out with the M-1 Grand Prix competition as their goal.

Although they look a little scary, they are actually good friends, and their manzai and skits, the content is often humorous, such as their conversational misunderstandings, and their style is characterized by never hurting people. In traditional Japanese manzai, the style is often simply to hurt someone to get a laugh, and it was said that it is traditional for "tsukkomi" actor to hit "boke" actor on the head to get a laugh. Even for TV personalities, those who spoke out unreservedly with venomous tongue against the world gained popularity. In recent years, however, this style has come to be shunned.

Toyo Keizai Online wrote of them, “Sometimes comedians intentionally make fun of others to get a laugh, but the two Sandwichmen seldom do so. The fact that they are clean and do not do anything to hurt others is one of the reasons why they are loved by everyone.”

Favorability
They are very popular among the public in Japan not only because of their manzai and comedy, but also because of their good friendship and their continuous support for the disaster-stricken areas in Tōhoku region since immediately after the disaster in 2011. In 2018, they were ranked first in the annual “Nikkei Entertainment” ranking of “Favorite Comedian”, beating Sanma Akashiya who had been number one for the previous 14 years. Since then, they have become regulars at the top of the favorability rankings and have been ranked number one in the “Talent Power Rankings” in 2019, 2020 and 2023. In the “Talent Image Survey” conducted twice a year by Video Research in January 2024, Sandwich Man ranked first for the 11th consecutive time.

On the other hand, however, they themselves sometimes find their high likability hard to deal with, and Date once expressed his worries on a talk show, saying, “People say it's a laugh that doesn't hurt people, but I've never made it with that in mind."

Other (Awards)

 * 2009 Tokyo Sports 9th Beat Takeshi Entertainment Award Japan Entertainment Grand Prize
 * 2009 King of Conte 2nd place in the final
 * 2020 58th Galaxy Award (Japan) Individual Award, Television Category.
 * Talent Power Ranking 1st place 2019, 2020 (Nikkei Entertainment!)

Ambassadorial career

 * Miyagi Bond Ambassadors
 * Honorary Member of Vegalta Sendai Citizens' Supporters' Association
 * Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles Cheering Ambassador
 * Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles 20th Anniversary Ambassador
 * Kikufuku Goodwill Ambassador (Daifuku with fresh cream)
 * Miyagi Rugby football Friendship Ambassador
 * Matsushima, Miyagi Tourism Goodwill Ambassador
 * Sendai Tourism Ambassador
 * Date Uma PR Ambassador
 * Date Hometown Ambassador

Current Programs

 * Regular and semi-regular
 * Sando no Bonnyanu TV (April 22, 2008 - Tohoku Broadcasting Company) - MC
 * Kaere Monday Mekke-tai! (October 2, 2016 -, TV Asahi) - MC
 * Can you do it for 100,000 Yen? (100,000 yen de Dekirukana) (October 3, 2017 -, TV Asahi) - Host
 * Sakagami Animal Kingdom (October 12, 2018 -, Fuji TV)
 * The Breakthrough File (October 25, 2018 -, Nippon TV)
 * Sandwichman and Ashida Mana's little Doctor (October 12, 2019 -, TV Asahi) - MC
 * Rumor of a customer (October 25, 2019 -, Fuji TV) - MC
 * Banana Sando (April 4, 2019, October 9, 2020, January 8, 2020, February 11, March 31, April 7, May 5, Regular: July 1 -, TBS Television (Japan)) - MC
 * Comedy ability blade / Witness Variety Anta Watchman! (April 21, 2021 -, TV Asahi)


 * Irregular appearances
 * Shōten (November 11, 2007 - Nippon TV) - Appears about once a year
 * Ametalk! (TV Asahi)


 * Special Programs
 * New Year! Comedy Meijin Show (2011 - (every January 2), TV Tokyo) - MC
 * This is the Spirit of Tohoku / Sando's This is the Spirit of Tohoku (January 29, 2012 -, Tohoku Broadcasting Company)
 * God of Entourage|God of Entourage: The Greatest Laughs of All Time SP (April 7, 2012 -, Nippon TV) - catchphrase: “The pincer of volume” → “The outrage of the comedy world”.
 * Hospital Radio (August 9, 2018 -, NHK General)
 * Tsurubi x Sando series (Kansai TV, Fuji TV) - MC
 * Hello! Tsurube x Sando - Nippon no gaikokujin ga kitaeru (March 22, 2020)
 * Tsurube x Sando: Graph de Jinsei - Honto no You from my relatives' point of view - (August 30, 2020)
 * Tsurube x Sando, Tsurubei x Sando no tteokokuoki machinin (August 29, 2021)
 * Tsurube x Sando Happy News at the End of Summer (August 21, 2022)
 * Tsurube x Sand Summer Trip (August 20, 2023)
 * Now in Contrast... (August 29, 2020 -, Fuji TV)
 * Launch! Mirai Creator (January 16, 2021 -, TV Asahi) - MC
 * Sandwichman's Aspiring Gachiman (December 24, 2022 and April 11, 2023, TBS Television (Japan)) - MC
 * Sakaue Sand's Tohoku Gyakari Battabattaben - Let's see what the locals can do SP - (March 8, 2024, Fuji TV)

Streaming Programs

 * When Sando Laughs, Japan Laughs! (June 2016, hulu)
 * Sandwichman's Journey of Improvised Comedy DX (March 31, 2017 - 2018, dTV (Lemino))
 * Sandwichman Nagano's No. 1 Decision (December 3, 2018 - Fuji TV On Demand)

TV Drama

 * Hachi One Diver (Fuji TV) - First drama appearance
 * Special drama Katsuo (December 18, 2013, NHK Sendai) - as Officer
 * Dokuganryu Bride Road (July 29, 2015, NHK Sendai)
 * Sando Knights ha Izakaya ha Hajimetamashita (January 6, 2023 - March 23, 2023, TV Tokyo, etc.) - Playing the role of the actor himself “Sando Knights” (January 6, 2023 - March 23, 2023, TV Tokyo, etc.)
 * Sunday Prime “Kyotaro Nishimura Travel Mystery 71” (2020) - Mikio Tatsukawa (Date), Takeshi Tomiyama (Tomizawa)
 * Serial TV Novel Welcome Back Monet (October 11, 2021, NHK Sogo) - as Fisherman A (Date), Fisherman B (Tomizawa)

Animation

 * Gon (April 2, 2012 - March 25, 2013, TV Tokyo) - as Nu, Eagle, Wild Boar (only in episode 36) (Date), Leader (Tomizawa), live action in the mini program aired in part A from episode 37 to episode 40

Movies

 * Silver Rain (2009) - played the roles of Electrician (Date) and Kojima (Tomizawa)
 * Musicthon The Movie - Audrey's Bakuho 24 Hour Manifesto (2012) - Voice Support
 * Uchimura Sammers The Movie Angel (2015)
 * Eine Kleine Nachtmusik (September 20, 2019) - Second role for Winston Ono
 * Manzai Kyokai The Movie: Onstage Discipline (March 1, 2024, Kadokawa/Mixed Zone/Chukyo Television Broadcasting/Miracle Voice) - friendship role

Animated feature film

 * Soreike! Anpanman: Tobase! Handkerchief of Hope (2013) - played Sugoizou (Date), Zazizouzou (Tomizawa)
 * Chieri to Cherry (2016) - played the role of a priest (Date), Daikoku-sama (Tomizawa)

Current Programs

 * Sandwichman's Radio Let Me Do It! (July 2007 -, fm Izumi)
 * Sandwichman The Radio Show Saturday (October 2, 2021 -, Nippon Broadcasting System)

Commercials and advertisements (current)

 * KY Corporation “Yamanakaya” (2013 - )
 * Japan Agricultural Cooperatives Miyagi “Date Masamune” and “Miyagi Rice” (2016 - )
 * Maruka Foods “Peyoung Sauce Yakisoba”, “Peyoung Noodle” (2017 - )
 * Art Moving Center (2020 - )
 * Takeda Juku (2020 - )
 * Tama Home (2020 - )
 * Recruit (company) “Car Sensor” (2021 - )
 * TBC Group “MEN'S TBC” (November 3, 2021 - )[109]
 * Hot Stuff (2022 - )
 * JFE Holdings “Sasutetsu Nable! Series” (December 2022 - )
 * The 77 Bank (May 12, 2023 - )