Atsuko Okatsuka: The Intruder – Venue 33: Pleasance Courtyard – Bunker Three – 6pm
I DON’T know if it’s the American-style confidence or experience (or maybe accent), but Atsuko Okatsuka’s stand-up just felt more professional than other acts – but maybe that’s what the American media has brainwashed me to think.
Atsuko draws her audience in with a warm approachable, easy-going, and conversational manner to relay her experience with an intruder at her Los Angeles home. She laughs exasperatedly at her and her husband’s different methods of dealing with the trespasser – her, avoidant and ready to abandon everything, her husband, confrontational.
As she tells this story, she weaves in and out of interconnecting pieces of her history, including bonding with her future husband over their schizophrenic mothers, living as an undocumented immigrant in her relative’s garage, being completely stumped when her teenage cousin asks if she skates, being raised by her grandmother – which in turn meant a struggle to relate to people her own age as a child – and the drawbacks of treating your spouse like a parent.
Each anecdote had audience members in stiches, either laughing at the absurd situations or from second-hand embarrassment. Her eyes often met those in the crowd for confirmation on whether they had similar experiences and ideas, or it if it was just her.
A delightfully funny show from a gifted storyteller and one of my favourite stand-ups of the Fringe, definitely worth a see – if you can get a ticket!
Do you skate?
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Get the full details about the show here.
Plus, read more reviews on Scottish Field’s Fringe pages.
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