Atsuko Okatsuka

Episode notes

(Photo: Disney/Temma Hankin)

Atsuko Okatsuka, has dreamed of being a standup comic since she saw her first performance on video. It was a Margaret Cho DVD. She worked at it for a long time and now has several standup specials of her own. But she got her big break not by doing standup but by dancing with her grandma.

It was 2020 and Atsuko, like the rest of us, was stuck at home. TikTok was the hot new thing. And the more little videos she made of her and her grandma dancing… the more people learned about Atsuko Okatsuka.

When she joined us back in 2023, she’d just released her debut comedy special on HBO. It’s called The Intruder. As the name of the title suggests, it’s about the time someone tried breaking into her house. She’s since followed up The Intruder with another special called Father. It recently hit Hulu just this past month.

Atsuko chatted with us about how recording videos on social media with her family brought them closer together, what it was like bringing her grandma on her honeymoon and much more!

A version of this interview originally aired in April of 2023

In this episode...

Jesse Thorn

Host

Kevin Ferguson

Senior Producer

Jesus Ambrosio

Producer

Richard Robey

Maximum Fun Producer

Daniel Arón Speer

Video Editor

Hannah Moroz

Maximum Fun Production Fellow

Guests

Atsuko Okatsuka

About the show

Bullseye is a celebration of the best of arts and culture in public radio form. Host Jesse Thorn sifts the wheat from the chaff to bring you in-depth interviews with the most revered and revolutionary minds in our culture.

Bullseye has been featured in Time, The New York Times, GQ and McSweeney’s, which called it “the kind of show people listen to in a more perfect world.” Since April 2013, the show has been distributed by NPR.

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