Olga Koch Comes From Money at the Soho Theatre review: honesty, charm and punchy wit

Critics often talk about comedy being relatable. Michael McIntyre and his man drawers. Micky Flanagan going out-out. We love to laugh at our universal foibles reflected back at us. Olga Koch’s show Olga Koch Comes From Money is different. It is about growing up rich. Maybe not so relatable, unless you’ve spent your youth lounging on yachts.

But in tackling a subject rarely dealt with in stand-up the Russia-born, US-educated, London-based comedian unearths a rich (excuse the pun) seam of humour. What does being affluent really mean? Can you ever shake off privilege? How does the British class system allow people to be church mouse poor yet posh?

Koch also reveals a compelling origin story. When the Soviet Union broke up her father worked in the government. He did not become an oligarch, but he was, let’s say, oligarch-adjacent. Almost overnight her parents became wealthy. Maybe not ‘let’s buy a golden toilet wealthy’ – but not far off.

As Koch recalls with a rapid-fire powerhouse delivery and a self-aware glint in her eye, life was not always easy. At state school she was bullied for being rich, at private school she was bullied for not being rich enough. In her 20s she had had enough. She decided to carve out her own path as a tech nerd and rejected her father’s financial support. Up to a point anyway.

(Rachel Sherlock)

The ever-present cushion of background luxury is addressed elegantly onstage. Once you have it you can’t escape it. Even if you spurn your family's money there is always that safety net thrumming away in the distance like an ever-present bass line. It means you can quit working in computers and, say, try your hand at stand-up.

Her special pleading could be a cue to produce the world’s tiniest violin, but Koch is far too skillful to succumb to poor-little-rich-girl clichés. Even while celebrating her life of private jet luxury she has perspective. She knows that she’s had advantages and cannot alter that. So maybe she can use those advantages to do some good.

All of this is delivered with absolute “bad bitch” confidence, swaggering around the stage, cracking jokes about Jeffrey Epstein and Winston Churchill and recalling her time in New York living the full Carrie Bradshaw party-hard life. Crafted call backs and running gags pepper her sublimely winning set.

This could so easily come across as arrogant, particularly in the midst of a cost-of-living crisis. But Koch pulls off a neat trick. She may never need to be rummaging down the back of the sofa to find spare change and yet she still wins our sympathy through brazen honesty, charm and punchy wit.

Soho Theatre, until December 21, tickets and information here.