Sushi and Comedy: They Do Relate

You might be wondering how raw meat with rice and SNL skits are related. Jiro Ono and Tina Fey are both experts; they are bound by passion and intrinsic competitive spirits. How they achieved this success, how their stories are presented, and the cultures that formed their lives, are, of course, extremely different.

Tina Fey grew up in a typical American home. She was  always loved and supported by family. She charmed her way, humorously, through early life. Jiro Ono's background was much harsher. He left his family at around age 9 and began his sushi career then. He was motivated by survival instinct and passion.

Ono truly dedicated his entire life to sushi. He claims he "[has] never once hated this job. [He] fell in love with [his] work and gave [his] life to it." He remembers waking up at 5 am every morning throughout his son's childhoods and coming home at 10 or later. His son did not recognize him when he was home. He admits to not being much of a father then, and does not really seem to care, because it is all in the name of improving, coming closer to perfection.

Fey is more "well-rounded" than this. In Bossypants She focuses on all different parts of her life, and she  has values, goals, and aspirations beyond just her work. The end of her book was  a rant about her torn feeling between having another kid and focusing on work. When she was describing a stressful week when her daughter was having her birthday party and Oprah was coming on 30 Rock, she describes the events as equally important to her.

The thing that binds these two is their pure passion and inherent love of the subject. That is the basis of their success. Ono says he feels "ecstasy everyday" and that he "loves making sushi." He does not care about the money, and only cares about improving his sushi. Fey is the same way; she simply loves to be funny. In her novel, the one time when she completely owned her success with pride was when she was Sarah Palin on SNL. She does not care about awards, famous people, photo shoots, money, it comes down to passion.

Another binding characteristic between Fey and Ono is an intense spirit of relentless perfectionism. Both of them, despite their success, are never really satisfied, and always yearn for improvement. Ono says that "after decades of work, [he] does not think he has achieved perfection." His advice is to "always look ahead and above yourself, always try to elevate your craft." It is the same with Fey. She insults herself throughout the entire book, constantly saying that Will Ferrel and Amy Pohler are the truly talented ones. Ono and Fey are bound by humbleness and knowledge that perfection is unattainable. Yet they still fiercely fight to be the best; not in an external way, but intrinsically. They compete with the craft itself within themselves.

The presentation of these stories also effects how the reader/viewer sees Fey and Ono. Bossypants is an autobiography. It is structured in an easy-to-read way that follows various stories and blurbs about Feys life. It is speckled with hilarious pictures and jokes. Fey wants to make the reader laugh, which of course makes her seem like a funny, laid-back person. Whereas Jiro Dreams of Sushi is a documentary; with bleak gray imagery of Tokyo, intense dramatic music, and all of the manipulative nuts and bolts of cinematography. This invokes an image of Ono as focused, intense. These juxtaposing images illustrate how the medium used to display their stories effects the audience's perception.