Just For Laughs Vancouver: L.A.-based comedian Atsuko Okatsuka says Hi
The Japanese-born stand-up artist was inspired by Margaret Cho
Atsuko Okatsuka.
Just For Laughs Vancouver (May 25 to 29) presents Atsuko Okatsuka in Atsuko Presents: hi at the Biltmore Cabaret on May 27 at 7 pm
ATSUKO OKATSUKA HAD a childhood that she describes as unconventional. The American stand-up comedian, writer, and podcaster moved to Los Angeles from Japan when she was 10 years old with her mother and grandmother, who told her they were going on a two-month vacation. They lived in a garage, her grandma taking care of her mom, who has schizophrenia, while Okatsuka entered public school in a new language while struggling with an eating disorder. At church one day, someone gave her a Margaret Cho DVD. It changed her life.
“I didn't even know it [comedy] was an art form,” Okatsuka tells Stir via Zoom from the L.A. home she shares with her husband, actor-artist Ryan Harper Gray, not far from her mom and grandma’s place. “It was the first time I saw the art form: one person with a microphone talking funny for an hour, the whole audience being captivated, learning, laughing, and sharing this experience together. Even though it’s one person, I thought, ‘This is a whole job, it’s a whole career. And it’s someone that looks like me. Huh.’ It was really special.
“I started watching a little more comedy—Robin Williams, and downloading comedy shows illegally; those were the Napster and LimeWire days,” she says. “As I saw a little more, it became ingrained in me. I loved making people laugh. When I got a reaction out of people in a humourous way, I always would remember that feeling. So when I had the chance to start out myself, it was an easy choice.”
Okatsuka has gone on to blow up on the comedy scene, having recently wrapped up a series of shows in L.A. and tours with Mike Birbiglia. An ever-increasing social-media following landed her guest spots on numerous comedy podcasts, while she also hosts her own, called Let's Go, Atsuko!. Late last year she appeared on The Late Late Show With James Corden, winning people over with her set about how marriage is completely childlike and none of us ever asked to be born. Okatsuka performs at Just For Laughs Vancouver as part of her first solo tour, Atsuko Presents: hi.
It took some time for Okatsuka to be comfortable in her own voice, she says, but she really started hitting her stride once she began revealing more of her true self with audiences. The COVID era helped her finetune ways to connect with fans, like the one who sent in a coloured portrait of her with a ginormous smile and signature large, colourful earrings. She has it tacked onto her wall alongside some of her husband’s drawings, next to a golden Maneki Neko, a waving-, or “beckoning”-cat figurine ubiquitous in Japanese culture also known as Fortune Cat.
“If you don’t know yourself and your voice yet, it can take you in wild directions on-stage, or you might quit or realize 20 years later ‘I’ve been telling jokes from a perspective that’s not mine.’ That’s very important—to be able to start being more myself,” says Okatsuka, who’s often seen with each of her fingernails painted a different bright colour. “I talk to my fans over social media and just be myself. Even if I’ve had a hard day, I’ll end with a punchline, and seeing how people reacted to that in real time, in the pandemic especially when you didn’t have stages… It clicked. When the audience knows you’re being authentic, they can just tell, and that’s when you can soar.
“Comedy is one of the few places you can be your authentic self and people will embrace it and maybe even relate to it,” she adds. “Inherently, you can build a community….With comedy, you are the rulemaker. You just have to be yourself, get people to laugh, and hopefully learn some new things. That’s why I love comedy. Comedy is great for weirdos.”
Related Articles
