by ⭐⭐⭐⭐½
Olga Koch presented a thoroughly enjoyable hour about relationships and turning 30 last year in Edinburgh, but this year’s hour is next level.
Koch, a Best Newcomer nominee in 2018, has allowed herself to become at once more vulnerable onstage whilst also coming across both more posh and polished in telling us how she has grown up rich. She says it’s the hardest thing she’s ever done onstage, and has the self-awareness to know that that’s also a sign of her extreme privilege.
You may quite well be asking yourself from where and whence did her Koch family money come? (Americans: Not the Kochs you’ve heard about in politics) Olga Koch’s father worked in the USSR government when the Soviet Republic crumbled and the oil industry fell into the hands of six oligarchs. Her dad may not be one of them, but is it funny ha-ha or funny weird that Olga could also be interpreted as shorthand for oligarch?!? Anyhow. No matter.
What matters is that Olga went to NYC for her university studies, where she not only learned about the American dream, but also began to learn about how much of the world is divided by money, class, and power. She’ll tell you about the lengths she went to before comedy to chart her own path through computer science and tech, although you may question as she did whether working for Google/YouTube and teaching Russian kids how to upload videos was making the world better or worse. And whether her current job as a stand-up comedian when everyone expects comedians to upload videos on the regular is any better.
None of what I typed really does her show justice, though.
This is a top-notch hour that should be filmed and broadcast around the world.
“Is this relatable?” she asks, almost as a catchphrase. It’s something Koch pulls off in a way Ellen DeGeneres could never.
“Olga Koch Comes From Money” plays at Monkey Barrel during the 2024 Edinburgh Fringe
