“My name is Yoko Yamada and I come from Venice. However, as you can guess from my name, or even just from my almond-shaped eyes, my real country of origin is… Brescia.” Thus begins the monologue with which Yoko Yamada, comedian and competitor of The Traitors, the highly acclaimed Prime Video reality show, recounted the moment of her coming out. The story, which became a successful sketch on Disney+, had already brought her the approval of Mara Maionchi, Elettra Lamborghini, Frank Matano and Khaby Lame during the Italia’s Got Talent auditions.
Mother from Brescia and father from Japan, Yamada, 34 years old and one of the most loved contestants on the Prime show, has chosen to speak openly about her identity. “You know that super racist stereotype that says Asians can’t handle alcohol because they lack the enzyme? It’s all true,” she said on stage, introducing the moment in which she declared she was a lesbian in front of her family.
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“I would like to tell you about an important day: the day I came out to my family,” he explains in the monologue. “You should know that my father is Japanese and my mother is from Brescia. Every year in Japan we celebrate Children’s Day. And even at my house, in Brescia, we celebrate it. All the relatives from Japan and Italy are there. A beautiful day, in which I am surrounded by people who shout in Brescia and Japanese all the time. A surreal situation.”
The moment of revelation came in that familiar setting. “We were all in the garden, in this beautiful atmosphere. There was my father who had the microphone in his hand. He had drunk some sake… ‘Do you know why I came to Italy forty years ago? Because I love Italy. ‘O sun, ‘o sea’. And did you move to Brescia?”.
“I understood that the right time had come for me,” continues Yamada. “So I take the microphone from my father and say: ‘I have an important announcement to make.’ And my aunt: ‘Oh God, are you a teetotaler?’. ‘Yes, aunt, but that’s not the point. I wanted to tell you that I’m a lesbian.’
Then the father’s joke, in perfect balance between irony and affection: “When you and your girlfriend have your period on the same day, big mess!”.
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