Edinburgh Fringe comedy review
The set for Olga Koch’s Fat Tom Cruise is clinical – almost sterile. Two brilliant white monoliths frame a horizontal one, like an altar, onto which extra information, chapter headings or jokes are projected in stark monochrome.
The design reflects a storytelling stand-up show that has been buffed to precision, with each routine having a very specific role in building her case. The full nature of the argument is not fully obvious until she reveals it, despite many clues, because we have been conditioned not to think that way.
She romps through various coming-of-age stories from her peripatetic past – born in Russia, educated at an American school in Surrey before studying computing in New York.
The bullet points of this have been covered in previous shows, but here we get specific recollections, scheming to get her first French kiss at prom, parties at frat houses and the ‘hazing’ routines freshers had to endure to fit in, taking part in the model UN, the sensitive classmate teased for his poetry, and a wedding encounter with a crass Wall Street slicker. Each chapter is introduced with a recap of the fashions of the day, and divided by details of US legal cases that overturned gender discrimination, hinting at the show’s greater cause.
Koch has a sharp way of writing detail – summing up almost the entire student body of NYU with one pithily amusing image – or adding on silly asides, from puns to a takedown of David Guetta lyrics.
She’s seen so many problematic men that she describes herself as the Jane Goodall of this particular primate species. ‘It’s sad when girls have body issues but funny when men do,’ she observes at the start… a gender inequality that many a comedian has merrily exploited.
As always, Koch delivers with oodles of dynamic main character energy, a lively presentation full of swagger-filled phrases like, ‘Clean up on aisle this bitch!’ But it’s not always the main characters we should be looking at.
This is less directly personal than its hugely impressive taboo-confronting predecessor Olga Koch Comes From Money, but nonetheless has something significant to say, and a deceptively entertaining way of saying it.
Published: 25 Aug 2026
Is being rich the last taboo on a comedy circuit that…
5/08/2024
Olga Koch seems to get more confident, more raunchy…
4/08/2023
Olga Koch claims to have only been recognised in…
22/08/2022
Picnic At The Castle with Phil Wang and others
Goodness knows that there aren’t exactly many…
21/09/2020
Arbitrary gender roles are at the heart of Olga…
17/02/2020
Olga Koch: If/Then (Edinburgh Fringe)
Olga Koch was once the most important female computer…
14/08/2019
The Big Funny Festival is the latest attempt to convert…
17/06/2019
Olga Koch has a fantastic story to tell, rooted in…
12/08/2018
99 Club Female Comedy Bursary showcase
It’s not a new act competition, but it has all…
30/05/2018
Amused Moose National New Comic Award
And so to the final of a national newish act competition,…
14/08/2017
We do not currently hold contact details for Olga Koch's agent. If you are a comic or agent wanting your details to appear here, for a one-off fee of £59, email steve@chortle.co.uk.
We see you are using AdBlocker software. Chortle relies on advertisers to fund this website so it’s free for you, so we would ask that you disable it for this site. Our ads are non-intrusive and relevant. Help keep Chortle viable.
