It all started with a broken toilet seat.
¡°The Benza¡± is an Amazon Prime Video series about Chris (Christopher McCombs) and Kyle (Kyle Card), two Tokyo-based, Bill-and-Ted-type friends who go on an epic quest to replace their busted benza (toilet seat). Along the way, they encounter lascivious Japanese teachers, Swedish treasure hunters, deadpan ghosts and the ¡°final benza,¡± a toilet seat with the power to destroy the world.
This literal toilet humor comes courtesy of McCombs, an American actor who has been a fixture on educational and variety television since he arrived in Japan in 2010. Frustrated with the lack of substantial roles for non-Japanese actors, he decided to create his own content. ¡°The Benza,¡± which started out as a 14-minute short film shot in 2017, was inspired by McCombs¡¯ real-life travails in Tokyo: getting lost in the labyrinthine Shinjuku Station, dealing with coffee shop clerks who refused to believe he could communicate in Japanese, and being clueless as to where to buy a replacement toilet seat.
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