What does 本番 mean here?


> ラナ「だってIT社長って、女優と付き合ってからが **本番** でしょ？」

Hi. What does 本番 mean or refer to here? I know 本番 literally means “the real
thing”. Thank you.




本番 is a little difficult to translate, but it refers to an "actual", "real",
"live" or "production" part of something, as opposed to rehearsal, testing or
preparatory parts.

Thus IT社長は女優と付き合ってからが本番だ (lit. "For IT presidents, 本番 comes after he dates an
actress") means the presidents of IT companies are not "real" (or successful)
presidents until he starts to date some actress. This joke is a reference to
the fact that many famous actresses dated or married the presidents of tech
companies ([examples](https://matome.naver.jp/odai/2154709869393842601)).

Another example would be 日本語の勉強は常用漢字を全部覚えてからが本番だ ("The main difficulty of
learning Japanese starts after you've mastered all joyo kanji.").

