People love to laugh all over the world, and people in Japan are no different, whether they’re locals, resident expats or visitors from overseas. For that reason there’s a steadily growing English-language live comedy scene that’s truly international; as well as people from English-speaking countries, audiences have seen comics from as far afield as Sweden, Chile and Kenya take to the stage, as well as a good number of Japanese natives.The comedy you’ll find in Japan comes in two basic styles: stand-up and improv. Stand-up means there’s one person on stage talking: think Louis CK, Richard Pryor, Jimmy Carr, Russell Peters, Chris Rock and the like. Improv is a team effort, with two or three or more people on stage together, taking suggestions from the audience then creating something on the fly; if you’ve seen the TV show Whose Line Is It Anyway? you’ll have some idea of what to expect.