From The #DropChallenge To HBO

Comedian Atsuko Okatsuka has had a fantastic last year or so, making her national late-night debut on James Corden last November, and starting the #dropchallenge on TikTok two months later. In the sign of a true trend, celebrities like Arsenio Hall, Mandy Moore, and Lily Singh along with thousands of others posted videos of themselves looking at the camera and then suddenly squatting slowly while “Yoncé” by Beyoncé plays in the background. In addition to the drop challenge she’s a ball of energy online, often doing dances while her grandma watches or bangs on a pot.

Her comedy style is a mix of joy and surprise while explaining to the audience how she sees the world in a matter of fact way that sounds a bit like an elementary school teacher talking to her class. Her first HBO special, “The Intruder” just debuted on HBO Max December 10th that mixed jokes about millenials, and awkardness, sandwiched around a story in three acts of a suspected intruder in her yard that her husband scared off by making strange waving gestures.

We spoke to her about it over the phone.

An HBO Special is a big deal. Were you nervous?

Atsuko Okatsuka: Overall, I felt so excited and ready instead of any feelings of fear. I was rehearsing the hour in Edinburgh for 26 days for not my usual audience, Scottish farmers. I had moments of fear, like why didn’t the scottish farmers understand me, but it’s easy to self doubt when in a new place.

You don’t play up being Asian or what you look like as much as a lot of other comedians.

Atsuko: I like to live in nuance, because life is so nuanced, and what I find really silly and giggle at tends to live in that gray area, and that’s what I like to comment on. Things you can see with the naked eye everyone can see it, so I usually don’t feel the need to address it. I do get the pressure to disarm by saying I look like an art gallery owner, but it isn’t the first thing I say.

You often use the phrase “I thought you would like this” for awkward situations. Do you consider that one of your greatest hits?

Atsuko: Its kind of an anthem for me that’s become my mission statement. It’s my perspective to my comedy, to everything I think. I don’t want to be here but I am. Thats how I approach different subjects in my jokes.

Margaret Cho says theres an essential comedy to every comedian and what she says about her perspective similar to mine – I didn’t want to be here, but I am.

With Seinfeld it’s “Is it me? That’s his essential comedy. That’s what goes into a comedians persona and once you know what that is it’s easy to write jokes for yourself

You were excited to be the second Asian woman after Margaret Cho to do an HBO special.

Atsuko: It wasnt even something I realized till after the taping. I’m friends with Margaret and I asked about it in a meeting with HBO. “Margaret is the first asian woman,” I said to them, “who’s the second?” They said they didn’t know, then I realized it might be me. I’m so proud that so many people felt seen from the video I made about it. Its been 22 years since her special.

Was she someone you watched growing up?

Atsuko: The first stand up I’d ever seen actually. I didnt even know what stand up was.

What joke do you remember from her act?

Atsuko: She said that Hello Kitty talks without a mouth, and she was the first person to point that out in my world. She also had a chicken salad joke set on an airplane. The stewardess would say Chinese chicken salad over and over again to everyone on the airplane until they passed her, and then they just said “chicken salad”.

Mind tricks is another of your themes. Did doing comedy for a living feel like a mind trick?

Atsuko: I don’t know because it was such a long journey to get here and I had been slowly prepping myself to feel that way. It is still wild. It’s a mind trick for my relatives because they don’t go to comedy shows. They dont even know what it is still. ‘So you mean to tell me you write jokes and you tell them? And you make a living?’ That’s wild for them.

What were some of the early jokes you told your family?

Atsuko: My family had a language barrier, and since I tell jokes in English my humor around my family was mostly physical. My grandma would give me food and I would fall over and tell her “you gave me too much food and I fell.”

Your grandma’s great.

Atsuko: You can’t stop a star from shining.

You didn’t mention the drop challenge in this special.

Atsuko: With what I was trying to do, the drop challenge didn’t fit. It has to have a through line that makes sense and I didn’t see where that would fit into the hour at all.

Do you find putting together a set is like making a puzzle?

Atsuko: Yeah it is. Thats the part I love about it . How do the jokes fit with each other and is there a greater story I can tell, which in this case happened to be the intruder story.

I’m glad youre alive.

Atsuko: You can thank my husband for that

Tig Notaro directed and there were a lot of people in the credits. How did they help?

Atsuko: Tig helped me work with the movement of the cameras on stage and the general essence and performance vibe. She reminded me of a lot of things, like about taking time when you first come out to suck it all in because that will be a shot that we will want to get. She was a great mentor. She didn’t write jokes, but her being there to be supportive because of all she’s done was a big deal.

My husband is my sounding board. He tours with me. He’s like my manager. When I was in Edinburgh, I did it differently all 26 days. He heard every version and he still gave me fresh constructive criticism. He was like my director on the road.

The way you speak about how marriage relationships start to resemble our parents and families is spot on hilarious. “Have a treat” your husband will say and you respond “thanks Dad.”

Atsuko: It’s so true isn’t it. The husband will call the wife mom or vice versa because of the kids. We take on parental roles for each other and it’s funny in that way. Incest is frowned upon, but we desperately try to make our romantic partners into our close family.

I like how you kept going back to the intruder story telling it a little bit at a time. Have you done that before?

Atsuko: I really loved that format. My friend Mike Birbiglia suggested that structure for me. I told him I was having a hard time fitting a story in about an intruder who came to our house three times in the same day. He was like “Atsuko that’s 3 acts!” I didn’t even think about that. And that’s why we ended with how we fought him off.

“The Intruder” is now streaming on HBO Max.