My Comedy Hero: Olga Koch
The comedian celebrates the comic genius of a performer who has mastered every kind of funny
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My name is Olga Koch and my comedy hero is Julia Louis-Dreyfus. From the day I was born, I have never lived in a world where a groundbreaking and era-defining comedy television show starring Louis-Dreyfus wasn’t on TV. From marathoning the entirety of Seinfeld when I was at university, to absorbing old Saturday Night Live clips on YouTube, to being aware of and respecting the existence of The New Adventures Of Old Christine, Julia Louis-Dreyfus has been the comedy soundtrack to my life. Once I even dressed up as Elaine for Halloween, loudly judging whether the superheroes and pirates around me on the dancefloor were or were not, in fact, ‘sponge-worthy’.
Despite my clear adoration, I don’t think I truly appreciated her generational impact until I saw Veep. Selina Meyer is so masterfully written, so astoundingly styled and so freaking impeccably performed. She’s all of my favourite things: hot, mature, evil and horny. Louis-Dreyfus brought Selina to life with such colossal precision that a mere look or arch of the eyebrow could send me into a shrieking cackle (and, oftentimes, a not unpleasant full-body cringe). As a comedian, what I admire most about Julia Louis-Dreyfus is that she has been every kind of funny. She’s been goofy and relatable, she’s been sharp and political, she’s been fragile and grounded. She does it all, she does it with ease, and she makes it look like so much fun. I don’t want to speak about her legacy just yet because I simply cannot wait to see what she does next.
Olga Koch: Fat Tom Cruise, The Stand, Glasgow, Monday 12 October; Monkey Barrel, Edinburgh, Friday 16 October; main picture: Andrew Kimber.