No Edinburgh fringe is complete without a strident conversation about how much it costs artists to perform: who is excluded and who is bankrupting themselves to be there. But “it felt like the only people talking about that were the people who the system wasn’t benefiting,” says Olga Koch. “And the people who were benefiting, privileged comics like myself, stayed quiet because the system was working for us. And if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”
In an act of unabashed class treachery, then, the comedian breaks ranks at this year’s fringe with the gloriously titled Olga Koch Comes from Money – glorious because it announces the show as taboo before the 31-year-old even steps on to the stage. “It could sound like, ‘Oh my God, she’s bragging’,” says the comic. “But I don’t intend it to be morally coloured either way. I’m not saying it’s amazing I came from money; I don’t think it’s embarrassing. It’s just a fact.” But, particularly in this context, it can never be a neutral one. “Exactly.”
