Big in Japan

Fame used to be an elite club, to which only the beautiful,

rich, or supremely talented were invited.

For us ordinary people, it was a distant fantasy,

something we could only experience in our dreams.

But times have changed.

Hi, guys.

So this is my first video blog.

- Come on, let's go. - It's going viral…

- on Facebook and Twitter. - Social media.

- I think it's an overnight celebrity.

Hi. My name's Dave, and I'm a really ordinary person.

- David. - Look at Daddy!

In my lifetime, I've experienced

this celebrity revolution first hand.

- Kelly Clarkson. - I binged on reality TV,

built my first PC in the council of amateur tech gurus,

and saw my soccer captain go viral after getting

sent off for a penis ring. - Ridiculous.

Fucking ridiculous.

Having grown up in this

strange new era of instant celebrity, I've also wondered

what it would be like to become famous.

And who could blame me?

The pursuit of fame or at least recognition

has been normalised and built into

the very architecture of our online communities.

In a world defined by likes, shares, and going viral,

fame is not only celebrated, but encouraged.

But is fame really all it's cracked up to be?

What is fame, anyway?

And is it reasonable for an ordinary person like me

to want it?

This was my home, and where it all began.

Testing.

Testing.

That's Lachy, and behind the camera there,

is Louis. They're my best mates,

and they're the ones who put me up to this.

For everyone who doesn't know who Dave is,

this is Dave.

And that's also Dave there.

He's the guinea pig in this little experiment of ours.

His name's Dave, he's 26 years old, and he's untalented.

The mission is to make this boy here famous.

It's not going to be easy.

It is really not gonna be easy.

Because this is what we've got to work with.

I think we were obsessed with filming Dave before

we even had this idea.

We've always filmed Dave.

We've been filming Dave for years.

OK, we need to find… Let's… we'll find a rank.

I don't know what it is about him.

Even other people who've never met Dave before

remember him instantly.

What's his name?

Harry Potter.

Harry Potter.

There's something about his look.

It's the big, thick glasses with the huge eyes.

It's the pale lankiness of him.

It's the otherworldly alien look.

So why this project?

Dave deserves to be out into the world,

for all to see and all to enjoy.

We were a makeshift team,

somehow committed to the absurd cause

of making me famous, but the question

that loomed over all of us,

was not so much why, but how.

We need to set up a framework,

otherwise we're just gonna be some guys trying to make

some dude famous on the internet,

and it could go on forever.

Louis and I had an idea.

That we haven't run by you yet.

OK.

But it's like a full-on commitment.

You have to push the boundaries for what

you're comfortable with doing.

I'm willing to do whatever it takes, pretty much.

Like, I'm up for doing something, anything.

Well... how about moving to Japan?

Yeah.

What do we know about Japan?

We really don't know much, considering we've booked

our flights, but nothing would make me happier

in the world than seeing Dave on a Japanese game show

doing something absurd.

For me, this is the most ridiculous thing...

I've ever done.

It's gonna take balls that I don't even know

that I have yet.

But I'm gonna do whatever it takes.

Got myself a place to live, stationed myself

in this nice little suburb called Higashi Nakano.

I've done my job training, so like most foreigners here

I'm gonna be an English teacher.

We don't know what the right way to do this is.

We're gonna have to try a whole bunch of different things.

And as far as I know, I don't think three guys

have ever sort of sat down and made it their goal

to make one of their mates famous.

Dave show us, show us one of the moves.

No.

I've got coconuts... I've got coconuts…

I've got bananas... I've got bananas…

Would you want your child coming into a classroom to this?

I've got coconuts... I've got bananas…

So this is what our life is gonna be like.

A mixture of this like teaching

little Japanese children English,

and working to get famous in Japan.

Our goal of making me famous had landed the three of us

and our girlfriends in an unlikely celebrity heartland,

where it was said that ordinary people

could achieve incredible fame.

But we had no idea if the rumours were true.

I'm trying to become famous in Japan.

I don't know what for yet.

You could be an actor or something.

- Comedian. - Comedian?

Comedian.

Comedian.

- Do you think I can do it? - Oh, yeah.

- Yeah? - Oh, yeah.

- Really? - Oh, yeah.

My first interaction with the Japanese public

had left me with few leads, but the phenomenon

of foreign celebrity, known as Big in Japan,

had existed for years.

It started with music.

American rock group, The Ventures,

weren't exactly top of the charts on home soil.

But in the '60s,

they sold more records in Japan than the Beatles.

Soon, the frenzy spread to Hollywood.

A-listers, one after the other, yielded to hefty pay checks

to appear in increasingly bizarre ad campaigns.

And finally, ordinary, unassuming foreigners

were poached by TV shows to become perhaps

the world's most unlikely celebrities.

This could be the perfect safety net for our fame experiment.

- Who's this? - Dave Spector.

Dave Spector.

Spector.

- In the Japanese showbiz ecosystem,

there are 'gaijin' or foreign 'tarentos'.

Why is he so popular?

He stay in Japan for long time.

And these guys are on TV and they're not really valued

for their insight, as much as just their novelty value.

I don't know what he does.

His wife?

Very beautiful.

Very beautiful.

These are people who are just famous for being famous.

They're like the Paris Hiltons.

They're not really an actor or actress,

they're just a character.

They're just there.

- Bobby Olugan! Bo-by-Ol-u-gan. - Dante Carver.

Where is he?

Oh.

They were names I'd never even heard of back in Australia.

But in Japan, everyone seemed to know them.

- Bob Sapp. Bob Sapp. - Bob Sapp

- I think he's a fighter. - Yeah, he's a fighter, right?

- Bob Sapp. - Bob Sapp. Bob Sapp!

I wondered if I could become

one of these so-called 'gaijin tarentos',

and I was curious about what such

an outlandish experience of celebrity might involve.

Now you're tuning into The Beast.

One, two, three.

We were due to meet American, Bob 'The Beast' Sapp.

A six foot five, 150 kilogram fighter

and 'gaijin tarento' legend.

From being a nobody back in the states,

he'd gone on to become one of the most famous

foreign celebrities in Japanese showbiz history.

But, you know, it's quite funny because growing up, I never

even knew Japan existed, never knew where any of this

country was, never knew anything!

How did I have my adult life in a different country doing

stuff I had no idea I wanted to do in the first place?

Today, Bob was launching a tell-all autobiography,

having spent 14 years in the national limelight.

So I must always have to decide

whether that girl really wants me,

or is she falling in love with the character of the Beast?

You could ask.

Ask a little bit, this is fine.

They're asking like, you know

Japan is known for all kinds of crazier sex, so they say,