Over time viewers have change into accustomed to tuning into actuality exhibits that push boundaries.
Nonetheless, when the style was in its infancy, one man signed as much as star in a sequence that will see him spend a complete 12 months bare in a locked room.
In 1998 aspiring comic Tomoaki Hamatsu attended an audition for the Japanese actuality present named Susunu!Denpa Shonen or, Don’t proceed, Loopy Youth.
All he needed to do was stay in an residence, briefly reduce himself off from the surface world and spend his time getting into mail-in sweepstakes till he received ¥1 million (about £6,000).
Whereas he may go away at any time, he stayed for months and was decided to finish the duty at hand.
Though he believed his efforts had been being filmed for a present that will air at a later date, cameras had been as an alternative capturing his each transfer and broadcasting the footage stay to thousands and thousands of individuals.
He rapidly turned probably the most well-known tv character in Japan.
Beginning the problem with nothing, together with no garments and even gadgets to maintain him occupied, all of his time was spent filling out entry kinds and testing his luck.
For practically a 12 months, Hamatsu lived off winnings from journal competitions, together with meals and different necessities he wanted to outlive.
At first, he acquired no sustenance in any respect, consuming solely water and shedding weight.
His first food-based prize had been some sugary drinks.
He later managed to choose up a bag of rice in a contest however was pressured to eat it uncooked as he had no pots or containers to warmth and prepare dinner it.
After he ran out of the meals staple, Hamatsu lived off canned and kibble pet food.
At one level he received a stuffed toy, utilizing it as his sensei and turning to the inanimate object for recommendation.
All year long-long ordeal, Hamatsu by no means managed to win any clothes he may put on (one of many few clothes gadgets he received was girls’s underwear), while additionally choosing up prizes he couldn’t even use like film tickets and a bicycle.
Even after profitable a TV set, he needed to wait to look at something as there wasn’t a cable or antenna within the residence, a deliberate transfer by the producers who had been fearful he would possibly uncover he was already on TV.
His capability to take care of his well being or bodily look additionally fell by the wayside, along with his hair and nails rising lengthy and uncontrolled.
It took months earlier than he received a toothbrush and toothpaste to wash his enamel.
On the time he additionally picked up the nickname Nasubi – translating to aubergine – due to the icon used to cowl his genitals on-screen.
Viewers additionally commented that his 30-centimetre-long face regarded just like the vegetable.
After spending 335 days to achieve his goal, Hamatsu broke the Guinness World Report for the ‘longest time survived on competitors winnings’, with the present he unwittingly starred on titled Denpa Shonen: A Life in Prizes.
Regardless of having achieved the preliminary objective, a visit to South Korea extended the expertise.
After producers tricked him into travelling abroad, he was then caught in an residence for weeks till he received sufficient prizes to cowl the price of his airfare again to Japan.
Ultimately getting dwelling, he was then taken to yet one more residence.
Believing his ordeal wasn’t over simply but, he instinctively took his garments off nonetheless at that second the partitions of the residence collapsed, and he discovered himself in a studio surrounded by an viewers.
As they began clapping, he was clearly confused, believing the present had not but been broadcast and was due to this fact not sure of what was taking place.
The general public had been utterly fascinated by what he’d achieved, with Hamatsu’s diaries of his expertise turning into a best-seller in Japan, whereas the present broke quite a few data throughout its run after 17 million viewers tuned in every Sunday night time.
Unsurprisingly, his reintegration again into society was fraught, with the now public determine as soon as explaining how he struggled to put on garments for months after and located it tough to take care of conversations.
He instructed Fashion Koriyama in 2020: ‘My psychological situation was at its worst.
‘I used to be like, “Why solely me? Why do I’ve to do all this stuff? I’d moderately die than really feel like this”.
‘Day-after-day, I simply did the identical factor: writing lots of of postcards, which acquired me down extra mentally moderately than bodily.’
He added: ‘Though I regarded like I used to be having enjoyable more often than not on the edited present, to me, it was stuffed with ache.’
Though he achieved his preliminary intention of discovering fame, Hamatsu was finally unsuccessful in making a profession out of his actuality present expertise and as an alternative turned a stage actor.
His unbelievable story is the main focus of the documentary The Contestant, which was launched final 12 months.
Talking to Deadline forward of its launch, he stated nearly all of his time competing on the present concerned ‘struggling’.
‘At first, the individuals engaged on the tv present actually type of created all of the loneliness for me.
‘I actually felt cornered. After which I felt that’s actually scary, how people can try this to different individuals.’
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