March 28-30, 2025
Québec City Convention Centre
Martin Savard is passionate about Rakugo.
What is Rakugo?
Rakugo is a form of traditional Japanese comedy theater. It is characterized by a narrator (the Rakugoka) who tells a humorous story using only a fan and a small cushion as props, seated on a tatami in front of an audience seated in a circle.
The story told by the Rakugoka is often a short story, based on a main character who finds himself in an absurd or comical situation. Stories usually have an unexpected ending that makes the audience laugh.
Although Rakugo is traditionally told in Japanese, it has also been adapted into other languages, including English and French. It is also a wish of Martin Savard to interpret the tales and legends of Quebec in the Japanese way.

Come meet him at his panel on the art of Kamishibai, or traveling paper theater.

It is a precursor of manga and anime. We will see the first modern superhero who flies in tights (8 years before Superman who arrived in 1938). DDeveloped at a time when television did not exist, Kamishibai has nevertheless found its niche in our modern world and is practiced on all continents.