Mike Birbiglia's Working It Out - 56. Atsuko Okatsuka: Her Life Should Be a Movie

Episode Date: October 4, 2021

Atsuko Okatsuka makes comedy videos featuring her grandmother & her husband, which Mike is convinced should be a feature film. The two comedians discuss Atsuko’s move from Japan at age 10, her grandmother’s run-in with a praying mantis, and why Mike might end up making a cameo in Atsuko’s feature film singing “Amazing Grace.” Earnestly. https://downtownwomenscenter.org/

Hey, everybody. We are back with a new episode of Working It Out. We're still going. We're going strong. Now I'm doing the podcast, and I'm on tour at the same time. A lot of people have been asking on Instagram and Twitter and TikTok whether or not I will still continue to do the podcast. And I love the podcast.

I got to say, I love doing the podcast for reasons like meeting my guests today. But I'm on tour. Be aware, I'll be in Boston, my hometown. Chicago, Madison, Milwaukee, Denver. My guest today will be in a lot of those cities as well. This is someone. It's a very unique guest. It's a comedian who I literally came across on Instagram

because she makes these really funny and original videos with excellent dancing choreography and absurdism. She makes them with her grandmother and her husband. And I went down this sort of Otsuko Akatsuka rabbit hole of her career

and realized, oh, she does stand-up at Largo in Los Angeles. That's one of my favorite places to do stand-up, and she's on tour right now. She's wildly popular, and I commented on one of her videos that it should be a movie, like it should be expanded out into a feature film. And then I just asked her to come on the podcast,

and then here we are. We talk about her tour. We talk about the idea of what a movie scenario of one of these shorts could be if it was blown out. And we have a great slow round. So enjoy my conversation with the great Atsuko Akatsuka. I think one of my favorite videos of yours is when it's like you're dancing in the kitchen to an Ariana Grande song and then next to you is your grandmother, maybe on a stool or like a bucket or something low, and she's playing like drums, sticks of some kind on your husband's shoulder slash head, and he's holding a watermelon for no reason.

That's my favorite one. Oh, my goodness. Yeah, that stick is actually like to get knots out of your back. Oh. Yeah, and that's kind of a ritual, like a thing my grandma does for my husband. She loves caretaking, and, you know, she introduced that stick to my husband and he loved it. And so I guess a lot of our videos is like, if you just walked in on us, that would be what we were up to. That's really funny.

Yeah. So, yeah. No, thank you. Thank you for the kind words. Oh, yeah. It's interesting because, like, I saw you announced your tour. You're going to, like, a ton of cities. I'm going to. I'm going to Chicago and Boston., thank you. Thank you for the kind words. Oh, yeah. It's interesting because, like, I saw you announce your tour. You're going to, like, a ton of cities I'm going to. I'm going to Chicago and Boston, so are you.

But then I saw that your grandmother and your husband are in the artwork, and then I was like, wait, are they on the tour? Oh, you know, Mike, there's— Well, so husband is coming with. Grandma is 86. Yeah, yeah, she's 86 you know so she's we all had to be real about it she she is a part of the show yeah um but my 86 year old grandma will not be in providence or columbus ohio yeah yeah does your husband perform in the show? Does he appear in show?

He initially, you know, there was a point, Mike, I don't know how your pandemic has been where, like, for a second there, I thought maybe I could try being a singer. I don't know. Did you have moments like that? Oh, that's exactly like my pandemic. That's exactly like my pandemic. Well, I mean, you have a great mic set up and, like, headphones.

Nice headphones. You know, I don't know. And you have a nice voice. Well, thanks. It wouldn't be so wild if you told me that, like, you did write a song or two. I've written songs before, but I've never been able to sing them sincerely. It's hard, right? They're always humorous songs.

I wrote a song for my first comedy album called Guitar Guy at the Party, which is like a silly song on a two-drink mic. But no, I've never sung earnestly. What would it take? What would it take? Honestly, it would take... I was talking with Rachel Bloom on this podcast about how,

for the last few years, I've been writing a musical off and on called Please Stop the Ride. And I feel like if I wrote that, I think then I would be forced to sing. Sometimes when I make movies and things, I get boxed into situations where it's like, well, the character I wrote takes his shirt off. So guess who's taking his shirt off? You know what I mean?

Yeah, of course, of course, yeah. And that's what I meant too. Like, what would it take for you to sing earnestly, to sing a dramatic song perhaps, you know, where you're vulnerable, you know, a best friend's wedding, you know, someone's funeral where they say, you know, this person really want Mike Birbiglia to sing Amazing Grace.

Oh, wow. Yeah. If I were asked to sing Amazing Grace at a close friend's funeral, I would do it, of course. I think that's that. Yeah, no, I would do that. You, like, when I watch your videos, I'm just like, and I very rarely have this thought when I watch, you know, videos that people put on YouTube or Instagram. But I think, like, oh, this should be a movie. Like, have you considered writing these characters of yourself and your grandmother and your husband as a feature film? Because I feel like it's, like, already, it feels like halfway there. I know. I would like to think that too and I've tried for sure for sure I started in independent

filmmaking actually yeah and so I saw your comment about particularly the watermelon Ariana Grande on it being a feature film and I wondered I wondered what that story would be besides three people hanging out in a kitchen.

Yeah. Well, I think it would be, honestly, it would be what occurred to me when I was looking at your tour schedule was some kind of a road movie with the three of you sharing a car across the country. Because there is some kind of scenario where, you know, maybe the three of you are a family of sorts and you're sort of having to figure out how to bring in a financial revenue and

the only way to do it is to tour and so you hit the road together. And I feel like that's the beginning of something. For sure. And I feel like that's the beginning of something. For sure. You know, you see a lot of families on TV, and not that our family is that much more unconventional, but kind of, yeah, it's, you know, a woman two generations older than us, you know, and then my white husband and me, you know.

It's, what are we doing together? What is this trio? I think that what you'd have to figure out is sort of like what what is the what is sort of the main event where is it where is it going and then you build backwards but i think like in terms of like you're the three of you are so charming on camera and and there's the musical component which is you're a great dancer and uh and you have a great eye for the absurd. And so I feel like a lot of the staging and shots could be really interesting. And I don't know.

I just sort of feel like you could write from that point of view. Oh, yeah, for sure. I mean, well, my grandma recently just revealed to us that she had bought the plot of land she wants to be buried at. Oh, my gosh. my gosh wow and you know i would i just thought i would be a part of it so i was you know she's my best friend and she had gone and did this without me wow and uh so i said okay where where are you getting buried and i i'd never heard of the place i mean i, it's Agoura Hills. It's somewhere we never go.

My grandma's never been there. So it's just this place. She said it was a discount. It was cheap. And that's why she chose it. But something like that where it's like maybe she just bought a plot of land in like Hamden, Connecticut. Sure. And then you're driving there together.

Yeah, just to see it. To be like, well, we want to be a part of the decision. Right. Who's Hamden to us, you know? Absolutely. And also maybe she won't reveal to you why she chose that place. And along the way, you sort of like are learning more and more about her.

And then it leads to something that is sort of like a zoom out reveal about your grandmother. You don't know. You thought you knew everything. And when we do show up to the place, right, there's a funeral going on. And comedian Mike Birbiglia is indeed singing Amazing Grace. Earnestly. Earnestly. Well, no, of course. If you'd asked me to, I would. Yeah, yeah.

What happened here? Well, his best friend passed, and that was his favorite song. Why do I feel like this is going to come back to haunt me? Roll the tape. Yeah. What was your day job before you became a comedian that you missed most? I don't know. We were supposed to miss them.

I didn't know we were supposed to miss them. I didn't know. Yeah, well, I did teach cinema at a community college. Wow. That was kind of fun. I did that. Mostly it was just showing movies and talking about them. And then I would have them write a paper on it. What would you assign as a film to watch? What would you teach? Which films?

Yeah. I showed like, oh, The Great Dictator. Oh, that's a good one. I showed, I just caught it kind of like the act of killing oh the act of killing is amazing oh my gosh yeah yeah i i yeah those those were some of the movies i showed and then i think i showed this like czech movie called daisies one time and um it's it's like supposed to be to be like a modernist film, right? And it's kind of hard to...

It's wild. It's kind of like all over the place, very experimental. I had three kids come to my office during it, begging me to stop it. Really? Please stop this movie. Please, I can't take it anymore. How did you, did you start in Los Angeles as a comic?

Yeah, yeah. I've really only lived here besides Japan, so it just kind of was perfect that stand-up comedy existed heavily here in L.A. When did you move? When did you move from Japan? I moved here when I was 10, and then I just did the whole school thing. And then when I wanted to try doing stand-up, it was just cool that, you know,

hey, L.A., that's a good place to start comedy. Yeah. And what did you—is your stand-up now similar to what it was when you started? No, not at all. Oh, yeah, yeah. I wonder if anyone's is. I bet some people know themselves so well that it's always been the same. But I used to do this super deadpan, like a character almost.

Yeah, same, same. I was a very two-dimensional version of myself early on yeah yeah were you like um so okay so what like how did you talk so mine would be like i would be like definitely a less intelligent version of myself a more sort of wide-eyed and kind of like oh oh, like looking at the world. Oh my God, what is happening? You know, whereas I found over the years, I found that to just be a little disingenuous

compared to how I feel. It's like there's a rule in improv, which is like play to the height of your intelligence. And I think that that's like, I think it's wise. In general, it's just a good rule of thumb in comedy. Yeah, wow. What was your what was your

i've never heard that what was your early version of yourself um i would talk very like me and just economy of words yeah and like that just kind of a whisper yeah i would let the silence just kind of exists more. Yeah. But it was hard to talk about bigger things that mattered to me in that style. Yeah. You know, because then five minutes is up after you've spoken only 20 words. This is a thing we do called the slow round, which is just questions about memories. And like, do you have a memory from childhood where you think about it sometimes, but it's not a story you tell? It's just sort of a thing that's on a loop sometimes in your brain. There is this, when I was a kid in Japan, I remember pretending to fall asleep when there were a bunch of adults

around me and they were all chatting and ignoring me and they were having a great time. And there was a futon because we slept on the floor, a blanket on the ground. So I decided to crawl in it and then just pretend to fall asleep. And the whole room went quiet. The whole room went silent because they were watching me. And I could feel it and they were started talking about me oh look she fell asleep oh my god she's so tired oh look at her and i i loved that attention and so i just kept pretending to be asleep um until they started just talking

about whatever again and then i just got up because I was like, okay, it's not about me anymore. I remember that and I kind of think about it a lot because I was like, wow, maybe that was the first time I acted, you know? Do you think of yourself as like an extrovert and an introvert? I think I'm an extrovert in that like I really like people, even if it's sounds of people. Yeah. in that like I really like people even if it's sounds of people yeah I never want to live somewhere where I can't hear sounds of humans like I know living I know you mean I feel like that's actually one of the things I really miss in in you know in the lockdown of the last you

know two years it's like it's like I like just going to cafes and writing and just being around folks yeah for sure yeah yeah yeah I thought you were gonna say something I don't know why I had put it in my head that I thought you're gonna be like that's something I miss ever since I've made so much money I live in like the hills and I can't hear city life well you know some people do right like as they get richer and richer they live in the mountains right um i was talking to randall park and he was asking me what like hobbies or anything new i picked up during the pandemic and i said oh trying to plant lettuce and he was like yeah yeah me too it's like figuring out and he talked about having to fix like his jacuzzi or something. And it was just different where I was like, I can't relate to that.

How many people does it fit? He's like, oh, like 40. And I was like, anyway, not to make fun of rich people. I'm just going back to, you know, living in the hills, you can't hear people either. But yes, during the pandemic, we also didn't hear people. It was funny because my wife and I saw the American premiere, I think, at Lincoln Center of Parasite.

With the director. Yeah, Bong Joon-ho. Bong Joon-ho, yeah. And he said, in the Q&A at the end of it, they said, where did you write the movie? And he said, I wrote it in cafes. You know, because I like writing in multiple cafes per day. And my wife and I felt so vindicated by that because we were like, here's this major movie.

It's like a huge budget movie. And he just wrote it in cafes like us. You know what I mean? There's something about just the simplicity of just like writing in cafes. I just really adore it. Yeah, yeah. And I guess we can't super quite do that yet. I mean, it depends on where you are, I guess.

But in L.A., yeah, it's, yeah, I think people haven't been able to do that yet. That's why, you know, we're not churning out scripts, Mike, as, you know, like we used to. Not in this town. Oh, no. Yeah. Do you have a smell from childhood that you remember, like, really good or really bad? I do. I do have a smell that I remember. My grandma went through a phase where she would bring home wounded animals oh my gosh a phase a phase it was wild it was a weird time in japan where one time it was a sick bird and another time it was a praying mantis oh my gosh my gosh. No. That she had battled.

No. Trying to bring it home. And so I hear banging on the door kind of like you did with your parents. Wait, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. We're going to break this apart because was the praying mantis wounded like the bird or no? No, no.

So the praying mantis was fine until my grandma decided it's coming home with me. And so, of course, the praying mantis fought for its life. Oh, my gosh. Because he belongs outside, not wherever she was going to take it, which was our place. He's praying. Leave him be. Yes. That's what I said. So, you know, I'm just at home after school and I hear the door banging. Open the door, open the door, I'm hurt. And so I open the door. My grandma's like panting, sweating in a panic. And there's this smell.

There's a smell from her hands. And well, she's bleeding. But also, I guess like praying mantises have this like oily secretion, I think, when it's fighting a predator. Yeah, sure. Which was a grandma at that time. A whole grandma. And so that smell was really intense. I'd never smelled anything like it before.

Oh, my gosh. It was like a mix of blood and praying mantis secretion. I remember seeing a praying mantis when I went to college in Washington, D.C., and it was like in our windowsill one day. And it's a sight to behold, the praying mantis, because it's so precarious, but it's also so strong. They are so strong. Oh, my God.

And they, I think most praying mantises you see are female ones. Oh, okay. Because the female ones eat the male one. Right, right, right. That's the famous thing about them. Yes. Yeah, yeah. That's their move.

Yeah, I mean, but that's. Their move is they eat the men. Yes. And then, which is a strong move because you're eating your body size pretty much. Oh, my God. In one sitting as a new mother. It's like if my wife ate me. Yes.

Which, by the way, I don't think is out of the question. I think there's a universe where my wife decides to eat me at a certain point and we call it a day and everyone goes, where'd Mike go? And it's like, he had a good run.

He made a couple movies and then his wife ate him. And it's a crazy story. Well, the wildest part is for then, for your wife to not even have, like feel a thing about it

after that. No remorse. Yes. That's how a praying mantis is. There's a lot. I bet your wife would think like a few times about it at least like, cause yeah. Yeah. She'll be like, oh wait, oh, he's not here anymore. Right. Right. He did used to make some of those jokes. Right. He did used to make some of those jokes. Right, right. Oh, Mike.

Oh, wait. I ate him. Yeah, like, I bet she'll have a few moments like that for a while. And I also feel like it would be hard for her to get a new spouse because they would go, what happened to your last spouse? Right. And she would have to be honest and say, well, I ate him. Right. And like, not to mention, she probably won't be hungry for what, a month? I don't know. I think that sounds about right. Yeah. So there's a lot of, you know, anyway. You have a great, I feel like I'm going to botch the line, but I think it's in your stand-up where you said,

my parents met on a game show, which is why I was raised by my grandmother. Yeah, yeah. They did meet on one. Are they still together? No, they got divorced like a year in. Oh, okay. Do you still see both of them i do my mom my so my grandma takes

care of my mom my mom has schizophrenia oh wow um uh it's just less funny to say that's why my grandma raised me uh yeah yeah i do i do talk about. Yeah. I've started to. In my tour, I talk about it for the first time, really. But, and then my dad lives in Bali. So when I get a chance, you know. Right. After this. When you're on your way to. Yeah, when I'm casually.

When you're on your way to the Maldives. Uh-huh, uh-huh. The equator or, you know, Australia. Green lands. Maldives. I don't even actually know where Maldives is. I was just throwing out really far destinations. I feel like I've only seen like Maroon 5 go to the Maldives.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. But yeah, so your dad's in Bali. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But yeah, so your dad's in Bali. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He's there. So I try to see him whenever I can. Did you, when you were growing up, was there a group that excluded you in school that it drove you crazy? It did.

Yes, that did happen. Yeah, right? Didn't it happen to all of us? You're like, no. Some people say no. Some people, no. Some people say no. Some people say no. Some people say no. It definitely happened to me for sure.

Yeah. For sure. Yeah. Strangely enough, at first it was, and this is complex, but at first it was the Asian Americans that didn't want to hang out with me. And I think it's because I was very immigrant. hang out with me and I think it's because I was very immigrant and so I I came on campus like I was like Hello Kitty top Hello Kitty bottom I was just matching Hello Kitty stuff everywhere you know and they were like no no no please don't like we just stopped getting bullied oh my god that's so funny we just just stopped getting bullied. Oh my gosh.

Yeah, because they were like wearing cool clothes. You know what I'm saying? Like, whatever was trendy at that time, not, you know, Tokyo airport clothes or whatever. And then learning about what happened way later, right? Like, oh, yeah, they were getting picked on. And, you know, that's why racism sucks is because they wanted to fit in. So they didn't, they were getting picked on and, you know, that's why racism sucks. It's because they wanted to fit in so they excluded me. But it's not their fault, it's the people that picked on them, you know? Working It Out today is sponsored by Spindrift. You know sponsored by Spindrift. You know I love Spindrift. I got some good Spindrift berbiglia news. The makers of Spindrift Sparkling Water are holding a sweepstakes in support of my upcoming shows in Boston at the Wilbur Theater. October 17th through 21st.

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off all mattress orders and two free pillows for our working out listeners at helixsleep.com slash Burbigs. So I have material I'm working on, and you're welcome to share material you're working on as well. Tell me

what you're drawn to, because I have a bunch of stuff written down. I have stuff about swimming. I have stuff about sleepwalking. I have stuff about protein shakes, and I have stuff about coffee and stuff about sharks. What appeals to you? Oh, my gosh. And cats.

I have something about cats, too. Yeah, I'm kind of curious about swimming. Okay. So there's a lot of swimming in the new show and because it was this thing where as a child I went to the YMCA pool

a lot and I never want to go back and I was just like I'm never going back but then a few years ago I was diagnosed with a few things and the doctor said hey you should go back and swim at the YMCA pool. And so I was swimming about one or two days a week, and I started to enjoy it. And my favorite part about swimming is that it feels a little bit like magic,

like your body floats in the water, like sort of. Like the human body has neutral buoyancy, which is the name of my band. There's 30 of us, and we make dolphin sounds for stress relief. We also play parties where people want to celebrate medium-sized holidays. And my second favorite part about swimming is that no one can talk to you and you can't talk to anyone. There's no phones or emails or calendars. In some ways, there's no time until you get out of the water

and your family says, where were you? And you say on a very important phone call. Wow. So poetic. So beautiful. Oh, thanks. Oh, it's so funny. Thanks. It's getting there. It's so visual too. And like I was physically there. So, you know, the way you described it is like, I think I really liked it, too, because it's what I want swimming to be when I'm able to swim peacefully. Yeah.

It should be that way, not just frantic the way I do it right now, which is dog pedaling and getting really tired. Completely. Yeah, I describe it in the show as like when I started swimming, it looked like if you dropped a blender in a swimming pool. Like I'm blending the water. It's like a shark attack with no shark. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. So then I have this, which is I like to kick off the wall and then swim underwater because I can pretend I'm deep sea diving or swimming fast or even just swimming.

And then I go, this is sort of like in a different direction, but it's like I go one day I'm swimming at the Y and there weren't enough lanes for everyone to have their own. Someone crashed into me and I say she crashed into me because I think in order to crash, you need to be moving. And I was sort of idling. And then she crashed into me

and then I apologized profusely to her for existing, I guess. I was like, I'm so sorry I'm alive. I wish I could just be a beam of light so I could be present but take up no space. But I always apologize profusely. That way there's no ambiguity as to whether or not I apologize. No one can be like, you didn't apologize. I'd be like, you didn't hear that?

It was profusely. That's sort of a zoom out about my sort of like thing about apologizing which is that do you apologize a lot i read up on this online i was like oh this is a whole thing people who apologize people apologize a lot it shows weakness it shows you know insecurity all these things it's a big tell on my part that i apologize profusely. For sure. Well, and then that's a great way to acknowledge it without it being like, you know, this thing that makes, I guess some of us, I think, feel guilty about doing that, you know, apologizing a lot. And so that was so great that it was just a play on just like, I did it profusely. Do you have any material you're working on? Well, I've been prepping for this hour show, this tour.

And so, you know, I haven't super like, yeah. You know, there's of course new bits, but then it's a lot of like, oh, I think I'm going to cut that out. You know, I cut out this thing about I cut out this thing because I wanted it to be a little more evergreen than just like Delta Times. Sure. Yeah, of course. Yeah. But yeah, it was just about going to this young hip bar slash club thinking they would be more forgiving because after all a lot of people have died and uh but there was still a dress code that's funny you know there's still a dress code and the dress code is you just have to look cold and i somehow i somehow slid in and you know i'm not I'm not that old, but for this bar, right,

it was just everyone in there was like young, hot, horny, fresh vibes. And I was just there, you know, giving off UTI vibes. The point is, like a dress code during Delta, you know, how about just anyone who's made it? So there's this, there's this part where I talk about like, you know, um, like, well, I say I almost lost myself during the pandemic. You know, I really almost did. Um, like I really thought I was going to start planting lettuce.

So it's about that, right? And how my husband had to remind me that that's not my personality. He stopped me and was like, hey, I think that's someone else's interest. Yeah, yeah. It was so deep, you know? Because you just think you should do whatever you saw other people doing, like on Instagram. Right. You think, oh, maybe that's my personality, too.

And it doesn't have to be. Right. In fact, maybe it's you really don't like doing that. Right. You know, yeah. Save yourself the time and try to know your like it's okay to know your interests yeah and then realizing that like i like what are my interests and it's like i don't think i particularly have any yes you know but that's also a personality too yeah yeah yeah and so that's

Yeah, yeah, yeah. and this guy, Jeffrey Wheeler, was going to do a samurai kendo swordsmanship demonstration. Okay. And it's just like about how like when I was bringing him up, I mispronounced a Japanese word in his bio. So he corrected me and like I got like pretty sour about it. Okay. Because I was like, well, like, who are you? Like, who's this white guy, you know, like doing like samurai kendo?

I got really defensive. Yeah. And I watched him do his thing. And he was incredible. And he like even like intimidated me. He made me a part of his act. And so it was like a lot of like up and down emotions about like feeling embarrassed and yeah being impressed by him at the same time to even feeling sorry for him at one point because his his demonstration was insane and he was like he would blindfold himself and like take out bamboo

trees and like cut them straight in half. He would do like cartwheels. He was going wild, you know. He was going wild. He had like so much to prove. And then I found out he owns a dojo even, a kendo dojo. Oh, wow. In Little Tokyo. And I just joke that like I picture him waking up every morning,

looking himself in the mirror, and he has to convince himself, yes, I'm Jeffrey Wheeler, the Kendo Dojo owner of Little Tokyo, you know, I'm Jeffrey Wheeler, Kendo Dojo owner of Little Tokyo, you know, ever since I was a little kid, I wanted to be a samurai, like, I didn't let my race stop me, you know, and then, you know, I just say, like, I wake up in the morning, I look in the mirror, you know, and I'm already halfway where he wants to be, you know, just Japanese, whatever. It's very like, maybe it's a lot about race. But the whole point is I realized, like, why was I so mad? Like, why am I so mad?

I have no interest in Kendo. Yeah. I have no, he has more than an interest in Kendo. He's dedicated his life to it. Yeah. I have no, he has more than an interest in kendo. He's dedicated his life to it. Yeah. You know, and like, here's this white guy carrying on an 800 year old tradition. Wow. So that I don't have to, you know, so that I don't have to, that's great. So I don't, but that's something that I don't, I don't know. Do you think it's like too long-winded to go in after a silly thing like lettuce? Oh, I think it's really funny.

I think it's like, yeah, it's examining like, why am I so mad about this thing? Right. I guess my question would just be like, what were the, was there like a point, a dialogue point between you where he said like, hey, I really wish that you had said this correctly. Right. Well, he just kind of, like, screamed it. He just went, it's Iaido. It might be funny if you're, like, if you're in the bit, you're imagining, like,

and I was tempted to be like, by the way, he's not Japanese. Like, you could really sell him out, like, hard at the front if you wanted to right right right right right by the way his name is jeffrey wheeler this guy's name is jeffrey wheeler that i had every right to do that to him and i didn't i could i could have stuck a samurai sword straight through his act right Right, right, right. That's so funny.

So in some ways, you're like the virtuous person in the story because you meant well and you didn't take him down. Yeah. I'm very nice until someone's like, what the fuck are you doing? And then I'm like,

oh, well, you know, like, honestly, like, you're not even supposed to be here. Like, I'm that kind of person. Yes, yes. Yeah, it's like, it's your breaking point. Yeah, we're going, oh, well, you know what? This isn't even, like, your culture stuff. Like, stuff I didn't even care about. I didn't care it was a white guy.

I did not. It was when he guy I did not it was when he embarrassed me and I was like oh shit he's right like I mispronounced a Japanese word and I know Japanese like I felt so embarrassed that's why I got mad yeah yeah honestly it's kind of not his fault either. I like that, though. I think that's a fun story. Yeah, yeah. And I say, like, you know, I acknowledge way in the end that what he did, like, what I witnessed wasn't racism. And I say what would have been racist is if Jeffrey Wheeler during his Kendo swordsmanship demonstration, like messed up and fell to the ground and couldn't go on anymore. And the entire crowd looked to me to see if I would just pick up where he left off. Right, right, right. That's very funny. pick up where he left off.

Right, right, right, right. That's very funny. That's when it would be wrong. But him just taking interest in something, that's not wrong. You could also point out that, that's very funny. You could also point out that if you were, because you're Japanese and he's not,

even if you were a quarter as good as he is with the sword stuff, people would be like, she's better, actually. No, exactly. Exactly. And that's wrong. Yeah, yeah, exactly. And that's also wrong. And that's also wrong. That might be fun.

That might be fun that every twist and turn is like, and that's also wrong. Right, right, right. Exactly. The only right answer here is like, yeah, that I shouldn't even be near a sword. I think there's a joke to be had about, like, in this moment where we're breaking apart cultural appropriation, like, this guy has a lot of gall.

It's like, his name is Jeffrey Wheeler, and he's on stage with samurai swords like i just gotta take my hat off to this guy it's like you do you if that's you that's you because like you know people are gonna come after that so hard right no i know i know it's true that's why i want to be kind of gentle with him. Yeah, yeah. You know? Because I'm like, he had to get really good. Because he had those haters. Yes.

You know he had haters growing up. Being like, you're Jeffrey Wheeler. What are you going to do? He opened a dojo. That's how much he wanted it. Right. Maybe it's like, he loves Japanese culture more than me. Who am I to say he can't honor Japanese culture?

Mm-hmm. Yeah. We need to support cultural appropriation. We're not protecting it enough. Yes. Yes. Yes. Why?

Because I'm, you know, because I look like this, I have to do kendo. Yeah. Why I got to do kendo. Yeah. Why I gotta drink green tea? I like that. I think it's funny to turn on itself that you've become the protector of cultural appropriation. Because he's so good at it. You're like, well, credit where it's due.

Working It Out is brought to you by bombas socks oh i love my bombas socks so comfy so charitable that's i don't know if they're looking for slogans but i just i i give i i worked out a slogan for them. So comfy, so charitable. They're so comfy, I wear, they're the only socks I wear. And then for every pair of Bombas socks you buy, they donate a pair to someone in need. They donated, I did an episode about this last year, but they've donated over 45 million pairs so far. I love this company. They're stitched with special moisture-wicking yarn, which of course I know all about. Temperature-regulating vents. Oh yeah, I got them all over my house. And if you want your own Bombas socks, which you should, go to bombas.com slash for bigs today and get 20% off your first order. That's B-O-M-B-A-S dot com slash burbigs for 20% off.

Working It Out is also sponsored by Rothy's Shoes. I'm really excited about this because I got, they sent me some. They sent me the, you'll see on the website if you go on their site. I got the white ones with the red stripe on the side. And I'll be honest, I've gotten a lot more sneaker compliments than I have in the last decade. It has really changed my sneaker game. They got sneakers.

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Are you a coffee drinker? I'm not, but my husband is. I want to hear coffee. All right. Coffee is, you know, I drink a lot of coffee, and I know you're not supposed to, but caffeine can have positive medical effects as well. Like if you dip your toe in some coffee studies, you see there's evidence that coffee could possibly help you live longer and be less likely to develop Parkinson's disease. And that study was conducted by the Starbucks

Foundation for Find Me, some goddamn statistics that say coffee's good for you. The negative effects of coffee are that it can cause insomnia, nervousness, restlessness, nausea, increased heart rate, anxiety, and irregular heartbeats. That study was done by me reading my journal. That's what I'm working on. I want to throw that on stage and see if it does anything. Because if it does, I think it definitely ties into the sort of like the health element of the show I'm working on. Yes.

How like, I mean, either of those sources are so questionable. Yes, exactly. Yeah, that's a great point. Both of the sources are very questionable, very biased. I want to, okay, I want to hear Shark. Okay, I'll tell you Shark. I don't think I'm suicidal, but every now and then I imagine myself walking into the ocean and getting eaten by a shark. I'm thinking, like, it's not the worst way to go. But then I was like, no, no, I'm actually not right

because it actually is one of the worst ways to go. Just, like, bleeding out from your neck while your guts get eaten by a fish that didn't have you as its first choice. It's not even enjoying you. A shark eating a human is like a human being eating a bologna sandwich. I forget that we're not the preferred food, for sure.

It's like something we did wrong, like we startled it, and that's why it's like, oh, I'm going to eat it gonna eat it now oh yeah yeah the only reason like people even get eaten by sharks because they like stepped on the shark yeah but then i also like that they also have to complete the act like they have to say oh great now i have to eat this thing that i'm not i don't even like that much like you don't have to eat it though you know as the shark right you can you can be pissed and just bite it and be like get off me like you scared me right but like to have to then now like okay now i have to eat you right it's like you don't have to shark maybe that's the turn from where sharks become malicious where they eat they eat you and they don't even like you.

Right, right. They're like, well, it's part of my monster personality. Yes, exactly. Like I have to also do this. It's my persona. It's my persona, right. It's like Otsuko's early stage persona.

It's deadpan. Right. Yeah, as the person, it's extra shitty where it's like, oh, fuck. Like, I don't even have a chance and then he's not even enjoying me. That's a funny thing about sharks, too, is that sharks are sort of deadpan in a way.

They are. They kill you and they're not that animated about it. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, exactly. Which is how your wife has to act when she eats you. When she eats me. If she doesn't want to get caught easily. You and I are going to be in a race to take that joke.

No, you take that. I don't even know what it was about. I think you should do that. No, I think... Oh, the praying mantis. I think you should do the praying mantis. I think you should put that on stage. But what if all my examples include, like, you in it now?

You in the scenario? That's like if Mike Birbiglia's wife ate Mike Birbiglia. I'm like, what? I thought it came in an Otsuko show. That would be fun. What about this? Oh, yeah, I'm going to do that. Okay, keep going.

Do you have anything else? Or I can do more bits, or what else do you got? No, you do, no, I'm going to do that. Okay, keep going. Do you have anything else? Or I can do more bits. Or what else do you got? No, you do. No, do cat. Okay, so cat is a little bit visual. But I'll try to give this to you a little bit visually. My eyes are here. I feel like cats must be very judgmental when they see human beings taking showers.

They're like, you're going to do it like that? You're going to use that much water? No, that's fine. You could do it like that. Or going to do it like that? You're going to use that much water? No, that's fine. You could do it like that, or you could do it like this. Done. It's just me licking all my whole body. For the listeners at home. And only Otsuko knows about it.

It's so good. My producers were like, I don't know if you should do that. It's too visual. But I'm like, no, no. It's an audio joke. Yeah, you just picture. Exactly. It's a lot of licking and

licking. Well, and that's why they get the furball thing, right? The hairball. That's why they choke so much. Yes, that's correct. That's correct. They get hairballs. They spit up. If you have a cat, which I do, I have a cat, Mazzy. Yeah, every now and then she spits up like a big ball. And it looks like throw up, but it's actually like condensed fur.

Yeah. And who's laughing now? Exactly. Who's laughing now? Yeah. If you really wanted to get wild or ruin the joke, you could come back to the... Now it's the human watching the cat you know choking on the hairball and it's uh it's like oh you're really gonna

is that how you're gonna do it is that how you're gonna shower i don't have oh i like that oh that's great oh that's nice i see what you're saying. So you go like, you know, done. And then, you know, a few days later, my cat's like throwing up this hairball. And I'm like, oh, is that how you do it? You just throw up every now and then? Yeah, yeah, yeah. What I do is I shut the water off. So the final thing, Atsuko, that we do is the guest chooses a nonprofit that I will contribute to and encourage the listeners to, and I will link to in the show notes.

That's right. I really love, this is LA if that's okay. Please. Downtown Women's Center. It's downtownwomenscenter. that's okay. Please. Downtown Women's Center. It's downtownwomenscenter.org. Yes. Yes. Envisions a Los Angeles with every woman housed and on a path to personal stability.

Yeah. I'm going to contribute to them, and I will encourage listeners to do it in the link in the show notes as well. Thank you so much. Thanks, Otsuko. Thanks for doing this, and good luck on your tour. I want to send a lot of people to see your tour, and I'll try to come when you're in Brooklyn at Bell House. Yes, yes. That would be amazing, yeah.

We'll keep in touch. Thank you so much for having me, Mike. That was so fun. Working it out, because it's not done. having Mike. That was so fun. That's going to do it for another episode of Working It Out with Atsuko Akatsuka. You know, you can follow her on Instagram. That's where I found her. It's at Atsuko

Comedy, which is A-T-S-U-K-O Comedy. If you don't know how to spell comedy, I don't know if you're right for this podcast. You can follow her on tour. She has all of her updates on there. I would see her live. I know I'm going to see her live when she comes to Brooklyn.

Thanks for joining us for another episode of Working It Out. If you're liking the show, give us some stars. Give us a little comment. Give us a little hello. Don't just make it about one single joke that you didn't like from six months ago. Say how your experience of the show is in

general. Our producers of Working It Out are myself, along with Peter Salamone and Joseph Birbiglia, consulting producer Seth Barish. Sound mix by Kate Balinski. Sound recordist Cynthia Daniels, associate producer Mabel Lewis. Thanks to my consigliere Mike Berkowitz as well as

Marissa Hurwitz and Josh Upfall. Special thanks to Jack Andenoff and Bleachers for their music. They're another one. Follow their Instagram. They have photos of them on tour right now that are bananas. They're in a completely extensive bleachers tour that is off the hook. It looks awesome. As always, a special thanks to my wife, Jay Holstein.

Our book, the new one, is in paperback, which is, you know, if you haven't read it, it's a real labor of love. We love it. We get it at your local bookstore. As always, a special thanks to my daughter, Una, who created a radio board of pillows. Thanks most of all to you. You, wherever you are, who are listening. Tell your friends.

Tell your enemies. Working it out. Got some big episodes coming up. I'm very excited. See you next time.