L.A.’s venues will be rife with ribbing and laugher through Sunday, May 8 as the Netflix is a Joke Festival takes over the city. More than 130 comedians — including Ali Wong, Amy Poehler, Amy Schumer, Mike Myers, John Mulaney, Margaret Cho, Maya Rudolph and Gretchen Lieberum, Pete Davidson, Tina Fey and Felipe Esparza — will be on stages each night, performing standup, music or participating in other festival programming.
One CalArtian joining in the fun is comedian Atsuko Okatsuka (Film/Video, Critical Studies MFA 15), who performs her latest hour of comedy, The Intruder, at two sold-out shows on Saturday, April 30 at Dynasty Typewriter and May 2 at The Elysian Theatre, both in Los Angeles.
Despite COVID cancellations during the past couple of years, Okatsuka’s comedy career has taken off. She made her late night television show debut in November as a performer on The Late Late Show with James Corden. Earlier this year, she went viral on TikTok and Instagram by accidentally creating the “drop challenge,” a dance move set to Beyoncé’s “Yoncé”/“Partition.” In between creating viral videos, she’s also on her first North American solo tour.
@nbcsnl did we do this right? #dropchallenge @Atsuko Okatsuka ♬ Yoncé – Atsuko Okatsuka
While her two solo shows at the Netflix is a Joke festival are sold out, Okatsuka will join Arsenio Hall during Arsenio Live! from The Roosevelt Theater at The Hollywood Roosevelt in Hollywood from May 3 to 5.
Read an interview with Okatsuka in a 2018 issue of The Pool, CalArts alumni magazine.
