TED Community » Mike Staffa

About Me

Director - Attention-Starved Children improv group in Minneapolis, USA. Performer with the Big HOO-HAA in Fremantle, Australia. Founder and Director of the Pirates of the Dotombori in Osaka, Japan. Founder and Director of the Pirates of Tokyo Bay in Tokyo, Japan.

Location:: Japan, Tokyo (Currently Us Resident)
Current organization:: Pirates of Tokyo Bay
Current role:: Owner
Gender:: Male
Areas of expertise:: Comedy Peformance, Improvisation Comedy, Event Planning & Marketing

I am:: Connector, Entrepreneur, Event planner, Global soul, Social entrepreneur
Languages:: English, Chinese, Japanese
My website links:: Pirates of Tokyo Bay - Facebook
Universities:: Saint John's University (Collegeville, MN), University of Notre Dame Australia

More About Me

I'm passionate about

I am passionate about bringing smiles to people's faces. Life is hard enough, so why not pause for a bit to smile and laugh with the people around you.

An idea worth spreading

I believe that the world and it's cultures can be connected via comedy. We all want to laugh and smile and comedy can help us do that, regardless of the language it is in. Comedy can be non-verbal, multilingual and physical and that is what my comedy groups in Japan focus on to connect with a cross-cultural audience.

People don't know that I'm good at

I really love to cook. When I travel, I like to take cooking lessons in the region I visit. Recent cooking classes were in Tuscany in Italy and Budapest, Hungary.

My TED Story

The group I founded was selected for the 2012 TED@Tokyo global talent search and we gave a talk entitled "Why you won't die on stage". Also, in 2013 I was invited to perform at the TEDxTokyoTeachers event.