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Olga Koch Comes From Money at the Soho Theatre review: honesty, charm and punchy wit
Dec 6, 2024
Critics often talk about comedy being relatable. Michael McIntyre and his man drawers. Micky Flanagan going out-out. We love to laugh at our universal foibles reflected back at us. Olga Koch’s show Olga Koch Comes From Money is different. It is about growing up rich. Maybe not so relatable, unless you’ve spent your youth lounging on yachts.
But in tackling a subject rarely dealt with in stand-up the Russia-born, US-educated, London-based comedian unearths a rich (excuse the pun) seam of humour. What does being affluent really mean? Can you ever shake off privilege? How does the British class system allow people to be church mouse poor yet posh?
Koch also reveals a compelling origin story. When the Soviet Union broke up her father worked in the government. He did not become an oligarch, but he was, let’s say, oligarch-adjacent. Almost overnight her parents became wealthy. Maybe not ‘let’s buy a golden toilet wealthy’ – but not far off.
As Koch recalls with a rapid-fire powerhouse delivery and a self-aware glint in her eye, life was not always easy. At state school she was bullied for being rich, at private school she was bullied for not being rich enough. In her 20s she had had enough. She decided to carve out her own path as a tech nerd and rejected her father’s financial support. Up to a point anyway.
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