In the first part of the BATSU! experience you can catch up with friends, family, and co-workers, while enjoying world class international entertainment by some of Chicago’s best dancers and performance artists. Enjoy delicious and authentic Japanese food and drinks from our all new menu created by Chicago’s famed Kamehachi.
VIP ticket holders enjoy the best seats in the house and are greeted by a hostess with a warm oshibori (towel) to freshen up before their meal. Each VIP ticket also comes with a BATSU! branded headband, or hachimaki, traditionally worn by warriors.
The world famous Sake Ninja may be short on words, but for those who wear a hachimaki headband with honor, this sneaky assassin of sobriety will pour random cups of sake. This is NOT unlimited free sake, but the Sake Ninja will be sure to list throughout the night. Hachimaki are also sold separately, and as part of the VIP experience, so everyone can join in on the fun.
The BATSU! Game
Four American comedy warriors face off in challenges to avoid painful, humiliating, and ridiculous punishments! The bravest audience members may also volunteer (upon signing a waiver) to participate in some of the challenges to win honor or suffer punishment.
The performers of BATSU! are members of the acclaimed comedy group Face Off Unlimited, dubbed “Really Funny!” by the New York Times, and also regularly appear on television, film, and stage.
Watch (and maybe even compete alongside them) as they battle for comedic glory and honor as they attempt to avoid hilariously painful and humiliating punishments. In the end, only one Warrior will emerge victorious.
To sum it all up, BATSU! is an interactive, immersive, dining and entertainment experience that fuses the Japanese comedy style of a batsu game and authentic and delicious Japanese food, with the very best improv comics in Chicago.
The BATSU! Mission
BATSU! is committed to promoting positive international fellowship through the fusion of two cultures and styles of comedy.
We are dedicated to equity, diversity, inclusion, accessibility, and belonging, specifically in providing performance opportunities for Asian/AAPI artists.
All in the name of hilarity!
The Story of BATSU!
TLDR: The BATSU! experience is an AAPI majority owned business. Started in January, 2011 in NYC; and expanded to Chicago in June of 2016. Closed by the pandemic in March of 2020, and reopened in July of 2022.
The Whole Tale: BATSU! begins on a late summer evening in 2010, when Face Off Unlimited's Jay Painter, Eric Robinson, and Joe Tex found themselves standing in front of Jebon Sushi & Noodle at 15 St. Marks Pl in New York City's famed East Village. Jay and Eric had met the owner previously having performed at the venue’s lower level lounge for a charity event. The group decided to go in and see if the owner, Joe Yip was in. He was, and the moment he saw Jay and Eric he remembered them. That evening they laughed and joked and enjoyed a lot of premium sake. A few weeks later Joe Yip went to see Joe, Jay, and Eric perform in their signature long form improv show, A Whole ‘Nother Level at The Secret Theatre in Long Island City, Queens. Joe Yip so loved the show he called a meeting for that very weekend.
The evening started with dinner and sake. Dish after dish of sushi, noodles, rice, and dumplings arrived at the table, and while copious amounts of sake and beer were gleefully consumed, the foursome of Joe, Jay, and Eric and Joe Yip laughed and laughed. The camaraderie was strong and it was clear they had become fast friends. After dinner Joe Yip got down to business and said he wanted FOU to put on a show downstairs at Jebon. They talked about what kind of show would work, but knew it needed to make sense on why the show was in the basement of a restaurant in the East Village. The guys told Joe Yip they would think on it and get back to him, undeterred, Joe Yip repeatedly raised his sake cup and toasted joyfully, “To the show!” to which Joe, Jay, and Eric protested in mock horror, “No! There is no show!” St. Marks Place is known as “Little Tokyo” in NYC and as Jay walked past izakayas and sushi restaurants, and as a group of Japanese students hurried by, the idea struck him like a paintball to the chest. He knew what the show needed to be. It needed to be a live Japanese game show.
In Japan, there is a wildly popular style of comedy known as batsu game (罰ゲーム), where comedians compete in challenges of all kinds with the losers receiving a punishment. Face Off decided to combine that genre of punishment comedy with what they were experts in, mounting theatrical style shows rooted in improvisation.
The first step was to audition and on the very first day of auditions they met actor (and former college basketball star) Noriko Sato. Noriko was hired on the spot and helped brainstorm ideas on what the show would be. They needed to figure out what punishments they would do and over the next few weeks the team experimented with many, many of them. Most hilariously resulted in various types and levels of pain.
On December 6th, 2010 BATSU! performed to a sold out house of friends, family, invited guests, and Face Off Unlimited company members and received uproarious laughs and a standing ovation. They knew they had something special and over the holidays came up with more characters, more punishments, and refined the show format slightly.
BATSU! opened to the public on Monday, January 10th, 2011 and began it’s open run. The idea was to be THE thing to do on a Monday night in NYC. The show grew and grew, got better and better, and the word of BATSU! finally reached a tipping point in 2014 with sold out crowds most nights of the week, finally giving way to the current schedule of 7 shows a week, 5 nights a week.
Early on in the first year, actor Whit Baldwin joined the cast and later that same year, Brian “Bu-Chan” Walters took over the role of Host. Brian, a TV actor from Japan, along with Noriko and Whit, worked with the FOU team to build what BATSU! is today.
In the spring of 2016, original BATSU! NYC cast original member and veteran FOU performer, Steve Grande, now living and studying improv in Chicago scouted and found the perfect venue to open the show in Chicago. To help lead the expansion, FOU brought on Broadway Producer Heather Shields as General Manager, and in June of that same year, BATSU! Chicago opened at Kamehachi in Old Town, just around the corner from famed Second City. Kamehachi is a 3rd generation, female-owned and operated Japanese restaurant.
The show in NYC moved from St. Marks Place to its current location at Kogame in January of 2019 and was enjoying a successful 2nd year when the Covid-19 pandemic shut the show down. Initially, the team expected a 2-3 shutdown. Their characteristically optimistic expectations were a bit…off the mark.
In the spring of 2021, the Yips retired. After 10 years of friendship and business partnership, the pandemic did what Mr. Chicken could not, it took out the Yips. Joe and his brother Wayne were hanging up their aprons and BATSU! was now without a restaurant partner. To complicate matters further, the Yips also held the lease for WARA and the liquor license.
It was once said of FOU that “When life gives [us] lemons, [we] don’t make lemonade, [we] make lemon souffle.”
While the team searched for a new restaurant partner, a new company was formed. BATSU! Moon, LLC is made up of FOU (Joe, Jay, Eric, and Heather) and the 3 cast members who had contributed immeasurably to the show for so many years, Noriko Sato, Brian Walters, and Whit Baldwin.
Finally, in the fall of 2021, an agreement was made and BATSU! Moon had its new restaurant partners (and its first choice!) for the NY show: Guilia Sindler and Sharon Perazzoli, the mother-daughter dynamic duo and owners and operators of Kamehachi, the home of BATSU! Chicago!
In order to best operate in NYC, Kamehachi formed a new company of its own that consists of Giulia and Sharon, Chef Young Ho Cho and Jin Kim. Kamehachi translates to “eight turtles” in Japanese and both the number 8 and turtles are considered good luck.
Kamehachi and BATSU! Moon together formed a new entity called WARA "笑".
WARA is an AAPI majority owned business.
BATSU! NYC reopened in February, 2022 and BASTU! Chicago in July 2022. Tickets on sale now! Don't forget to order the BATSU! Card Game where everyone wins, except the loser. www.getbatsu.com
All of us at WARA and Kamehachi are so thankful for your business and we look forward to entertaining & feeding you, your friends, family, and co-workers very soon.
BATSU! BATSU! BATSU!