Olga Koch is a master storyteller and an exceptional stand-up. Parading the cracks in her personality through a rapid-fire barrage of jokes, insights, and personal truths that certainly made me — and I’m pretty certain everyone else in that packed-out room — want to befriend her.

Within the first ninety seconds, she had the entire audience in the palm of her hand. Roughhousing us with a rumble of jokes to our bellies — a pace she kept up for the entire show. During her opening, delayed by technical difficulties, she joshed with us all about the potential content of folders on her desktop – acceding gleefully to our suggestions as if we were genuine tech support.

Warmth, pizzazz, and relatability in abundance. Before long, we were all popped onto her knee, taken deep into her life and into the heart of America

Koch wove together strands from her high school first crush. Her university life crashing into the world of an older graduate. All of it bookended by her relationship with her best friend. The story jumped across time — which, during this work-in-progress, was adorably clunky. Framed through witty bite-sized explanations of landmark American feminist cases.

At times, it felt like hearing spilled tea. Others like watching a particularly scintillating documentary. Koch bounces between hilarious and enlightening. She unpacked the clever strategy behind these cases with a playful, stupid-on-purpose voice — part unreliable narrator. Pausing to poke fun at the music and fashion of the time.

The climax caught me completely off guard. I did not expect such an emotional gut punch. I could see tears in her eyes, and must admit – I felt them in my own. Koch pulled apart her own earlier bits as part of the problem – the very jokes we had gladly laughed along with her at.

Framing that guilt as her own. That guilt, I found myself happy to share. Credit to the rapport she built in an hour. Mocking herself gently with us as she pulled the trigger on a true flaw of a world of the past (I hope), and the painful cost of it.

The finale was brave, kind and truly genuine. Damn… she’s really funny.

*****
Reviewed by Stephen Sharp