Comic Atsuko Okatsuka Kicks Off Her First Excursion — And Her Taste 3.0

Atsuko Okatsuka’s enthusiasts love attending her stand-up displays in probably the most complimentary approach conceivable — by way of emulating the comic’s uniform of colourful number one colours, noisy patterns, and powerful, sculptural silhouettes.

“They even wear wigs of my bowl-cut to come to my shows now,” says Okatsuka, relating to her exactingly playful coif, with fun. “I’m not saying, ‘Dress just like me.’”

Smartly, we will be able to’t blame society for in need of to be just like the perfomer, whom Selection anointed as probably the most supremacy 10 comics to look at utmost era. With 2022’s The Intruder, she changed into the second one Asian standup to host an HBO particular (later Margaret Cho in… 1994). Okatsuka may be a burgeoning style icon. Coming complete circle this age April, she posed for a T Album cover feature — with Cho.

Okatsuka turns out moderately happy along with her rising band of doppelgängers, however now not as a result of imitation is the best mode of flattery. She unearths success in motivating alternative society to project out in their condolense zone and into unutilized reviews.

“My friend Trixie Mattel said, ‘You encourage people to maybe wear bright colorful clothing, or a bright colored lip,’” says Okatsuka, relating to the RuPaul’s Drag Race vet and fellow standup acknowledging that Okatsuka’s daring taste encourages her enthusiasts to jerk a cue from her. “So I’m giving you permission to also try that. If you want.”

Inspiring pleasure, condolense, and self-acceptance, Okatsuka elicits laughs thru her endearingly truthful and offbeat humor. Her comedy regularly tackles and normalizes difficult portions of her personal hour, together with her mom’s schizophrenia. Okatsuka was once born in Taiwan, the place her mom and grandmother are from, and spent her formative years in her father’s house nation, Japan. When Okatsuka was once 10, she got here to the U.S. along with her mom and grandmother underneath the guise of a two-month discuss with. Okatsuka has mentioned in her units and on podcasts, like a up to date This American Past episode, that she concept her grandmother “kidnapped” her from her father all through the “jarring and confusing” pace. She spent the after seven adolescence undocumented.

On a July episode of the {Couples} Treatment podcast, hosted by way of Mythic Quest’s Naomi Ekperigin and husband Andy Beckerman, Okatsuka shared that receiving her inexperienced card, at while 17, allowed her the dimension to after all “dream big.” The milestone additionally driven her to to experiment with self-expression thru cloth cabinet. “Once you have more self-esteem, and you feel the ground isn’t so faulty, then you can really start embracing even more about yourself, so that’s where style also comes in,” says Okatsuka.

“If you feel like you need to hide — or like an outsider — then, style wise, you’re afraid to stand out. You feel like maybe you don’t deserve to stand out,” she continues. “So all of that came together, same with my comedy, after that.”

Okatsuka may be very alike along with her grandmother, who’s additionally turn out to be a social media famous person with 17K fans on X/Twitter, as Grandma Li (@atsukosgrandma). She regularly seems in her granddaughter’s usual YouTube and TikTok movies, with clips that come with offering comedic additional with form and a poker face to Okatsuka’s dance strikes within the delightfully titled, “Grandma’s My Best Friend.” On a quest to create Grandma snicker, Okatsuka got here up along with her Beyoncé-inspired #DropChallenge, which right away went viral. However lengthy earlier than turning into an integral a part of Okatsuka’s unique comedy, the society matriarch, thru style, was once encouraging the now-comedian to claim her authentic self.

“[My grandma has] always worn night market clothes, and just kept the perm for convenience, because she’s so true to herself and what works for her,” says Okatsuka, referencing Grandma’s easy “cute and fun” pattern-mixing oft-embraced by Chinese elders. “Because if you’re comfortable in what you wear, then people notice. It just shines off of you. It’s that authenticity that I took from her.”

Now, Okatsuka conveys her true self by way of reclaiming her early life spent in hesitancy. “I’m embracing the inner child in me by dressing the way I would have liked to dress as a kid. I was maybe too embarrassed to wear bold, bright colors or prints because I wanted to fit in and look like the cool kid — and that’s not what they were wearing,” says Okatsuka. “So it’s about just being my authentic self now: Atsuko 2.0.”

Additional shooting her formative years essence, Okatsuka chopped her lob-length curls into her now-signature bowl-cut in 2018. “I love bold shapes and bluntness, so it’s like an adult version of the haircut that I had when I was two years old,” she says. “Then it’s just revamping it as an adult.”

The symmetrically razor-sharp taste would possibly faucet into a child’s free-spirited environment of thoughts, nevertheless it — mockingly — is adult-level towering upkeep. Okatsuka’s retired hairstylist-turned-social workman, and now buddy, Corrine Furman, makes a area name each and every 3 weeks. “She comes and hangs out and we drink a kombucha or ice tea,” says Okatsuka, who additionally makes a habitual aim to reach the bouncy, gleaming round ‘do.

“It’s like my daily vitamin. I take my probiotics and then I do this with my hair,” Okatsuka says, describing how she blows out her hair with a spherical brush each and every morning. “For me, it’s self-care because I’ve come to like routine. So, it’s like a calming moment where, yes, this thing is the constant in my life.”

However, alternate is inevitable. Next expertly threading in combination hilarious bits of a trespassing interloper, the relatable (however unnecessary) impulse to provoke imperious Zoomers and her personal “Art Gallery Owner” aesthetic in The Intruder, Okatsuka will embark on her first-ever theater circuit ntour. And, she’s getting her outfits able.

“I’m trying to do an ‘Atsuko 3.0’ in my new tour with my look,” says Okatsuka, concerning the aptly-named “Full Grown Tour,” which kicked off in Honolulu on September 29.

“I’m trying to push how much more I can go for an avant garde look: bigger shoulders, more shapes. Stuff that still allows me to move around a lot,” she says. Okatsuka teased some Batsheva, which she not too long ago wore in silver to see Beyoncé, for exaggerated shoulders and Marni for high-waisted flowy trousers: “Almost like raver pants — super wide and really flared — then platforms to give it almost a Bratz doll look, like even more cartoony.”

Then again, infrequently Okatsuka must rein in her motivated visual for practicality’s sake. “If I could, I would wear clothes that are not easy to move in because it looks so fun. I want even bigger shapes, and maybe something dragging on the floor. But I have to tone it down so that I don’t fall and trip, and have to stop the show, because I’m going to the emergency room,” says Okatsuka, who’s additionally partnering with Confidential Medical antiperspirant to prep for her cross-country excursion. (“When I perform over an hour a night, it has been a blessing,” she says.)

Okatsuka all the time practices her regimen at house in her deliberate outfit — that is to appropriately manufacture the bodily comedy, trouble-shoot any hazards, and keep comfy. One such merchandise she needed to take a look at pressure was once her Melissa latest jelly sneakers with the emblem’s well-known bubblegum scent. “I made sure I wouldn’t slip out of them,” says Okatsuka. “It smells like perfect cherries, so my suitcase also smells good when I pack them.”

Previous in her occupation, Okatsuka controlled her personal level cloth cabinet. However for her debut are living display excursion, she’s, smartly, grown right into a unutilized level to paintings with a stylist: Val Klarich, who gown designed A24’s after Dicks: The Musical, co-starring Bowen Yang and a power-pantsuited Megan Thee Stallion, and assisted at the very elegant The Other Two and Saturday Evening Reside.

“[Klarich has] worked with comedians, which really helps because she thinks about movement and serving the comedy, but also fashion at the same time,” says Okatsuka. “Which is rare in a stylist: to have expertise in both.”

With the 3rd iteration of her sartorial true self, Okatsuka takes her no-bullshit observations, gleeful childlike surprise and spontaneous bursts of dance to unutilized ranges — and motivated audiences around the nation. Perhaps they’ll display up dressed similar to her, however extra importantly, she hopes in addition they keep true to themselves.

“In my messaging with comedy, and also the way I dress, it’s all spreading joy, and a sense of embracing who you are,” says Okatsuka. “Being your weird self.”