This weekend, British-Russian comedian Olga Koch will debut her schadenfreude humour in India. We speak to the techie-turned-Edinburgh award-nominee about her comedy, origins and Indian summer
Koch performs on stage during a show. Pics Courtesy/Soho Theatre
What makes comedians tick? Inspired thinking, courage or a funny perspective of the world? Olga Koch says all of the above. An Edinburgh Fringe Festival breakthrough as Best Newcomer nominee in 2018 followed by her show, Homecoming, long-listed as Best Stand-Up Show for UK’s National Comedy Awards in 2021, has marked Koch as one of the rising talents on the international stage.
This weekend, the 30-year-old arrives in town as part of Soho Theatre’s efforts to bring the best of international comedy to India. “I am so excited. I want to eat street food,” she says. Also on her itinerary is a visit to a Bollywood set. “If you have any recommendations, I am happy to note them down,” she jokes. While others might choose touristy sites, Koch has her eyes on the buildings. “I love architecture. I want to visit temples, check out new places and buildings,” she reveals. Mumbai, we suggest, might be a good place to start.
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This wanderlust has been a part of her life, it seems. Born in Russia, her parents migrated to the UK while Koch was in her teens. “I started performing in the UK with an American accent,” she points out. That sense of an outsider has never really left her. “I am never at home wherever I perform. All of my material is a bit schadenfreude-ish. The audience looks at me saying, ‘This foreign woman is making observations about us’,” she says.
Another divergence is her education in the field of computer science. Having done her masters in computer programming, and worked in the industry, comedy was a part-time gig till she signed up for Soho Theatre’s artist and talent development programme — Stand-Up Lab in 2015. “This is where I learnt comedy and I am not even using it as a figure of speech. I genuinely took a class on how to hold a microphone,” she says, laughing.
How did that shift happen? “It took me 10 years to be brave enough to disappoint my parents,” the London-based comedian laughs, “There was a big shift in my mind about what I was doing versus what I should be doing.”
Since then, from appearances on QI, a Best Radio Comedy award for her BBC 4 show, Olga Koch:Fight to a new show, Just Friends, Koch is diversifying.
“I don’t think comedians focus on a form. No person is all about political comedy, or interpersonal comedy. My comedy comes from a space of personal experience and observation,” she explains.
Her shows in India will include some of the best bits that source from her computer science course to her Russian origins and the awkward world of sex and dating. “It is important for me to come out and say everything on my mind. I suppose the audience responds because we are thinking about the same things,” she remarks.
In this age of cancel-culture, that is a risk. Koch says that’s where empathy comes in, adding, “You use your own moral barometer. Comedy is never about a person, but experiences that we have.” The Mumbai shows will also feature comedians Urooj Ashfaq, Sapan Varma and Aditi Mittal. Koch admits she has been following them on Instagram. “I want to be friends with all of them so badly,” she reveals.
But the comedian understands the absurdity as well. “I am speaking to you from Tokyo, and will soon fly to Mumbai to perform. If you had said this to me two years ago, I would have shut the door on your face,” she says, before adding, “Of course, two years ago, we could never be visiting.”
This weekend though, she is welcoming everyone in the city over to the show.
ON April 15 and 16, 8.30 pm; April 20, 9 pm
AT Above The Habitat, Khar; G5A Warehouse, Mahalaxmi.
LOG ON TO in.bookmyshow.com; insider.in
COST Rs 499
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