Olga Koch’s special Just Friends opens with a great hook: Koch was broken up with by a Disney adult and decided she wanted to have a threesome. Instead, what the audience has the pleasure of hearing, is the story of how she found love with Sam, a would-be threesome partner. There are jokes a plenty, but the joy of the hour also includes the opportunity to spend time with Koch, who is as charismatic and engaging a performer as any in recent memory. There are taped hours of shows with themes that payoff, but it’s still terrific to see them be able to get as many eyeballs on them as more straightforward stand-up sets, and Koch is more than worthy of your attention and jealousy.
Olga Koch is funny in a way that also remembers comedy can be fun.
After coming out in a romper and cowboy hat to a soundalike version of a Shania Twain classic, Koch lets us know that she was broken up with on a recent September 11th, and in a throaty, knowing voice, tags the joke with “And that 9/11 was my…Vietnam.” From there, she delivers a gleefully fun set that manages to make the humor buoyant, even when sharing truly personal information:
“What I don’t enjoy about Disney adults, is that Disney adults appropriate virgin culture without doing the work of not having sex. That’s not fair, you don’t get both. And some of you are like, ‘Olga, what’s it like to long-term date a Disney adult?’ Well it’s when you’re performing oral sex at the Toy Story Hotel in Disneyland Paris, making direct eye contact with Woody on the wallpaper, that you think to yourself this is exactly what I had in mind when you said you were whisking me away to Paris.”
Here, Koch isn’t going for a shock value with the (possible) overshare, but instead is matter-of-fact in presenting the details, but manages to lock into Toy Story as a silly, funny thing that balances the joke from tipping its hand too much one way or another. She is sly, almost incredulous in her delivery of the punchline, which hits hard because of the thought that went into how to max it out in terms of tone and the larger show. It plays as fun and inclusive, conversational even, and decisions like this one made over and over help make the hour feel like something special and intimate captured in a bottle.
Koch knows how to be confident and embrace herself without fear.
Outside of Kenice Mobely and Joel Kim Booster, there is no one who can make discussions of sex and confidence about sex truly sing. This being said, in the framework of her show, Koch manages to create a space where she can be confident, honest, and celebrated for who she is, whether that’s being called “mommy” or embracing ho culture after breakups. If you don’t know what ho culture is, Koch explains that it’s not just about sex, and includes everything from “not bringing camping equipment to a camping trip you organized,” to wearing cowboy hats indoors. She clarifies further, saying:
“I came of age in the late 90s, early 2000s at the peak of ho culture. I was raised by women like Samantha Jones from Sex in the City, like Nessa from Gavin & Stacy. When I was a little girl, I wanted to grow up to become Stiffler’s mom. And that is why I never get sad when I’m single.”
Throughout the hour, Koch engages with the audience by being honest and silly with them, and that includes taking on sex. When discussing why she doesn’t want to have a threesome with two straight men, she quips, “Straight men one-on-one, there are some good eggs. Straight men in a group, that’s how we get Imagine Dragons.” As she runs through the different iterations of threesomes to land on her ideal one (two bisexual men), Koch utilizes a tone that never lets anyone think she’ll shrink or pander to them, and this creates a sense of play and exuberance in Koch’s story, since she makes it clear the audience is there for her, not the other way around.
Koch is a hilarious bisexual advocate.
Ultimately a celebration of bisexual love between two people, Koch isn’t afraid to make jokes about her community in the space she’s created, getting off jokes like this one:
“I don’t want to give bisexuals a bad wrap, but I truly believe any interaction between two bisexual people is simultaneously the most innocent and chaste interaction, and the most horny and depraved interaction. Okay? The only way I can explain this to straight people is imagine running into a distant cousin at a wedding. It can truly go either way.”
Here, the joke doesn’t have a harmful or hateful angle, and instead brings everyone in on the joke. The punchline is so good because it’s obvious in hindsight, but no one has bothered to pick up on it until now. In celebrating herself and her story, Koch shows that there’s a way to be yourself on stage, be funny, and make sure the room is with you, even if they have negative opinions outside of that context. If honesty is the key to comedy, Koch has really unlocked a brilliant way forward.
Olga Koch's new special Just Friends is available to watch for free on YouTube. The new special & album is also available for purchase on 800 Pound Gorilla!
