Olga Koch Comes From Money

The title of Olga Koch’s show is a provocation. The words “Olga Koch Comes From Money” are daring you not to like them. They radiate the same standoffishness as Koch does herself on the show’s poster – shades on, smoking a cigar. 

But once you’re through Koch’s doors, she is anything but standoffish. From the moment she enters the room, trampling on empty seats in order to shake as many hands in the audience as possible, she does her due diligence to connect with the people she’s about to share the next hour with, eliminating any possibility that her show be read as a lecture or, worse, a boast.  

Koch is a born storyteller whose tales are inflected with the political and historical knowledge her wealthy upbringing afforded her. The way she reckons with her privilege is never self-congratulatory but neither – as she well knows – is it relatable. She never misses an opportunity to ridicule herself for having a lived experience that resonates with no one and it’s this self-awareness that makes Koch’s show brilliantly funny. 

Koch demonstrates the greatest care for the audience’s experience of any comedian I’ve seen at this year’s festival. Those with their hackles up will have them firmly brought down by Koch’s hilarious, introspective and evocative storytelling.