Olga Koch on her Prawn Cocktail India tour (online)

Olga Koch on her Prawn Cocktail India tour

“Funny is the thing I value most in other people and funny is what I’m most proud of myself. And I think that’s why I do comedy too, because I think funny,” says Olga Koch, who was in Bengaluru recently.

Originally from Russia, the stand up comic who now lives in the United Kingdom, says, “When I was younger I didn’t know stand up could be a job. There wasn’t a natural career path to it — it’s not like you can go to university to study to be one,” she laughs.

“It is not so much that I wanted to be a comedian, but more that the family that I was raised in and my friends saw me make my way in this field.”

A look at any of her shows online is testament to what she says. Olga’s brand of humour stems from herself (her surname effortlessly lends itself to a lot of her material), her family and those around her, expanding outwards to encompass her surroundings and audience.

The artiste who first visited India in 2023, says, “I honestly enjoyed it even more the second time. I absolutely love Bengaluru — I went to CTR for dosas. I also visited a Jain temple and KR Market.” Olga was in Mumbai and Bengaluru as part of her Prawn Cocktail tour.

“For my first show in India last year, I presented some of the best jokes of my career. I also added some crowd work and off-the-cuff material. This time, I performed Prawn Cocktail, a show I debuted at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and went on to do all over Northern Europe.”

“Prawn Cocktail is based on a storytelling format which is an hour long. It has a beginning, middle and end, and follows a narrative structure that I have put a bunch of jokes into,” says the comedienne, who will shortly be taking the show to Australia and New Zealand.