In 2019, almost a decade into her stand-up comedy career, Atsuko Okatsuko was filmed performing during a Californian earthquake.
Her calmness and quips went viral, and her professional world began to shake. She went viral again, originating the Drop Challenge with her grandma on TikTok. After five years of award wins, late-night show appearances, an HBO special and sold-out (and encore) shows across the globe, Atsuko is coming to Australia for the first time with her new show, 'Full Grown'.
Atsuko Okatsuko’s public persona exudes joy: the eccentric array of earrings, the laser-sharp bowl cut, the colourful wardrobe, the spontaneous dance bursts. It’s a representation of the rediscovery of childlike joy; a return to an identity that was forced to hide away during a traumatic childhood, where she lived in an uncle’s Californian garage with her grandmother and her mother, who has schizophrenia, as undocumented immigrants. By sharing her story, her joy, and her observations, she hopes to reach everyone who, for whatever reason, began in childhood hiding away who they are inside.
“Telling jokes, observations, experiences, stories in comedy form – to the point that audiences audibly and physically laugh; they laugh not just because it’s funny but because they go 'oh my god, that’s so true. I feel seen. I thought I was the only one, the only weird one' – it builds a community. You no longer feel alone,” Atsuko says. “Whether it be school or just the pressure to feel like you have to fit into society. Act accordingly, follow the rules, be a grown up, act mature. So you hide your true joys, right, or maybe you hide yourself because you don’t want to stand out, you want to be accepted. That’s who I speak for and that’s who I want to connect with; those are the people.”
Through the power of social media’s instantaneous feedback, its global reach, and its capacity for virality, Atsuko has connected with every corner of the planet, circumventing establishment industry roadblocks. “Social media is a true reaching of the people. The people speak on social media”, Atsuko says. “[It’s] not television executives, who there are so few of, telling you, you are legit.”
When Atsuko shares on stage her childhood stories about life as an undocumented immigrant, she does not seek to politicise; she seeks to humanise.
“I speak from a joyous place, and silliness. For me, that is my calling or my movement. My personal stories, my personal experience.”
“A lot of times, when things are talked about in politics, it just becomes numbers and statistics. That’s just numbers. You feel nothing in your heart when you hear that. When you are in an audience hearing one person tell a joke, like, my teacher used to call me Stacey or whatever, personal stories like that are what make people connect. I’ll let the politicians spew out the numbers and statistics and I’ll be the one telling the jokes and stories within those numbers.”
With her shows quickly selling out everywhere she tours, if you want to see Atsuko somewhere other than on a screen, you better drop everything now and get a move on.
Atsuko Okatsuka 2024 Australia Tour Dates
29-30 July – Astor Theatre (Perth)31 July – The Palms At Crown (Melbourne)
2 August – Norwood Concert Hall (Adelaide)
3 August – Enmore Theatre (Sydney)
4 August – The Tivoli (Brisbane)
