Profile | Asian-American stand-up comedian Atsuko Okatsuka on new special and ‘representing weirdos’

Taiwan-born stand-up comic Atsuko Okatsuka did not have what many would consider a typical upbringing. Her Taiwanese mother and Japanese father divorced when she was very young. Since her father got full custody of her, she spent most of her early childhood in Japan. When she was eight, her maternal grandmother took her on a “two-month vacation” to Los Angeles that turned into a seven-year undocumented stay in the United States. Okatsuka says she was very confused. “You’re still a kid. You’re still finding your personality in general. You think you started to find it in Japan, then suddenly you’re in a new country,” she tells the Post on a video call from Los Angeles, where she is based. “[For years] I only spoke Japanese, then I moved to America. Not knowing the language, you’re shy about it at first, too. Learning English was like … What is my personality? Who are my friends? Am I a shy person? Am I excited, loud and animated?” At the time, Okatsuka also had no idea when, or if, she would see her father again. Adding to all these uncertainties was the fact that her mother suffered from schizophrenia. “Every day, my mom was a different person. At age six or seven, I had to help her by singing and dancing for her [to distract her]. ‘Mom, let’s pretend we’re in a field of flowers.’ “I think that’s where the performance [aspect of my career stemmed] from.” Okatsuka details some of her life stories in her second stand-up comedy special, Father, which was released on Hulu and Disney+ in June. “Mothers have it together. I’m more ‘father’ – thriving in [professional] life, but clueless about everyday basics like how to do laundry,” she says about where the title of the special came from. “Being an adult is hard. Nobody taught us how to file taxes or fill out paperwork. Why did we learn geometry for so long in school? I don’t ever say the word ‘rhombus’ any more. If you make mistakes as an adult, because nobody prepared us for it, it’s OK to laugh about it.” Many stand-up comedians relate to their audience by talking about things that bother them, but Okatsuka instead talks about the things she loves, because “not everybody hates things”. Before her career as a comic, she went to university to study psychology, but dropped out after a year and a half because she “wasn’t good at academics and couldn’t concentrate”. “I was running around lost, getting fired from every job I’d had,” she says. She later went to community college and took classes in filmmaking as she loved observing people and stories about humanity. But in retrospect, she thinks she has always wanted to perform. “I took dance classes as a kid, was a cheerleader in high school and found theatre in the last year of high school. I thought filmmaking was my interest, but it turns out I always liked performing – I just didn’t know how to do it. It was about finding the actual thing I was interested in,” she says. Eventually, she found an all-women comedy class outside school and learned the discipline and basics of writing stand-up, which gave her the courage to try her hand at open-mic events in small clubs around Los Angeles. This was over a decade ago, when the comedy scene in the US was even more dominated by white males than it is today. Culturally insensitive jokes made at the expense of women and people of colour were common. “The stand-up culture [at the time] made it harder to thrive and be your real self,” Okatsuka says. “Sometimes you’d get brought up on stage by a host making fun of Asians and they’d go, ‘Speaking of Asians, here’s Atsuko.’ It wasn’t a very nurturing environment.” Even though the gags were “old and hacky”, she considered making herself the butt of her own jokes at one point. But instead, she found a group of comedians like her. She helped Taiwan-born American comedian Jenny Yang produce Disoriented Comedy, which showcased Asian-American female comedians who toured around the US between the early and late 2010s. “We just created our own space. It was a way for us to find an audience without having to endure going through the ‘regular’ comedy route. It was nice. It was like a refuge until the industry and Hollywood were ready to create more space for people like us,” Okatsuka says. “More Asians and people of colour had to do it, and the internet had to start showing more [different kinds of] stand-up comedy. Then it really became more diverse.” In the late 2010s, Okatsuka gradually earned recognition in various comedy productions. In 2022, her debut stand-up special, The Intruder, was released on HBO Max. And intrude she did. Okatsuka credits part of her international success to social media and the internet, which helped stand-up fans instantly connect with comedians and their material, and helped her find a community of like-minded people faster. “I think that I always talk about what I know and my feelings about things. That’s how I connect with people, by opening up, and other people open up to me in return. It’s the most honest way I know how to be myself,” she says. In Father, Okatsuka covers deeply personal topics in a down-to-earth, relatable way – including how she is closer with her father now, after years of being separated. She also mentions her codependent relationship with her husband – who produces all her shows – and her recent realisation that she had not done the laundry in seven years, which shocked both of them. She jokingly calls this “feminism” in the stand-up special. “I’m not your typical Asian woman story,” Okatsuka says. “The stereotype that Asians are organised, smart and go to school, that they’re all doctors or want to be doctors, is not everyone’s story. I represent the weirdos, the people who feel more messy and unorganised. “We’re not all stereotypical and it’s OK to share all the stories. In fact, it’s very important that you do. “All this pressure, shame and self-judgment … I think we can all practise letting go a little bit more.” Okatsuka performed twice in Hong Kong in 2024, in March and July, and is looking forward to returning to the city in the future. “When I write new jokes, I do it closer to my home in Los Angeles, in smaller spaces, so when I go to a different country, the show is ready and more polished,” she says. “Hongkongers are so spirited. They’re true weirdos – I love that – and very enthusiastic. I loved [performing there]. I’ll definitely be back.”

Profile | Asian-American stand-up comedian Atsuko Okatsuka on new special and ‘representing weirdos’

The Taiwan-born comedian talks about finding herself as a performer and smashing stereotypes as her new special Father hits Hulu and Disney+