Comedian Paul Ogata in his own words: why Robin Williams and Andy Bumatai were early role models, and I was named after Paul McCartney – not Richard Nixon
Ahead of an appearance at the Hong Kong International Comedy Festival, the American stand-up comic talks about growing up in Hawaii and making his mark in showbiz
I was born in Hawaii in 1968 in the early morning hours after Richard Nixon was elected president of the United States. My mother contemplated naming me Richard, but thankfully she was also a Beatles fan and ended up naming me Paul. I have one sibling, a brother who is 14 months older than me. It was just the two of us in a small Japanese family. He was the eldest son, which meant I was out of luck – he got all the love, attention and adoration because in Japanese culture the firstborn son is treated exceptionally well. It explains how I ended up in comedy – the need for attention and approval.
Moments of truth
I was never athletic and was smaller than everyone else. That informs your development and the paths you choose. As a kid I wanted to be a magician. I had all the tricks and did a show for the family, but it slowly dawned on me that magic is all about lies, nothing is real. I was on the City Championship basketball team when I was a kid but then everyone kept growing and so I stayed indoors listening to comedy albums. There’s a lot of truth in comedy. The first comedy album I listened to was Gilda Radner; she was on Saturday Night Live in the original cast. In Hawaii we only had one stand-up comedian, Andy Bumatai. I had all his albums and listened to them on repeat day in and day out. I could recite them verbatim. I wanted to be like Andy. The opportunity to elicit approval, laughter and applause with my version of the truth really spoke to me.
Major headache
I went to Pearl City High School. It wasn’t known for sports, which played to my strengths. It was known for its marching band and that’s what I was in. I played the baritone, which is a small tuba. I’m a small person, so I imagine it looked odd on the field – a big brass instrument walking around by itself. I took an aptitude test at school, which told me I should study electrical engineering. So, in 1987, that’s what I went to study at the University of Hawaii. I spent too long there trying to be what they told me I should be. If I could go back and give young me advice, it would be: no one should tell you what you should do with your life because they aren’t living it. You are really the only one who knows what you are meant to do. I switched majors to accounting to randomly taking classes. I took a couple of years off college and worked at a local comedy club, trying to do comedy at night. Then I finally, as my parents said, buckled down and got a degree in speech and communications.
