芸人

1. Origins, structure, and basic meaning

• Structure: 芸人, read げいにん, means someone who entertains an audience through a skill or performance.
• Basic usage: It includes people who entertain through impersonations or witty talk, as in the examples.

2. Common pitfalls and similar expressions

• When it means comedian
  • お笑い芸人 explicitly means a comedian. 芸人 alone can have that meaning in context, but is not always limited to comedy.
• A broader category
  • 芸能人 can more broadly include people in entertainment, such as actors and singers, so the terms are not always interchangeable.