Tom Clayton
A dancing and welcoming Olga Koch greets us on our way into Fat Tom Cruise. It puts us at ease as we enter, needed for the fun yet heavy topics it discusses.
As the show begins, we’re played the end of a conversation where Koch has just told her friend her best story. We see it projected onto the two white walls and white box on the stage. It’s this story that the show then centres itself around, one of frat parties, strange coincidences and realising it’s not all about you.
Koch gets going in her usual style of being incredibly sex positive and ensuring that she always gets her way. Fat Tom Cruise is incredibly funny throughout, never shying away from a joke, with everything designed to feel awkward yet comical, as goes her previous work.
She begins talking about a boy who, while away on a Model UN trip at school, only got with her because the girl he actually fancied wasn’t there. Feeling wronged by this boy, Koch goes to get her revenge which eventually winds up years later with her and her friend laughing at his penis, which she says is the single most empowering thing a woman can do.
As the story progresses away from this man and onto Koch’s years at university, the narrative is broken up using a number of civil law cases in 1970s America, covering how men feel they have been wronged, protesting against things such as the age of buying beer. These are interjected at various points of the hour, with not a huge deal of connection to Koch’s central thread.
Once Koch nears the end of her set (and we’re asking ourselves where this is all going…), she beings to pluck one thread at time, bringing them all together into a neat commentary on men’s mental health, how we as a society fail to provide spaces for them to feel safe enough to express their emotions. Koch hints that, if we start to build these infrastructures for men, the world will slowly become safer for the people around them.
Fat Tom Cruise is a brilliantly funny and thought-provoking show, displaying a strong follow-up to Koch’s Comes From Money. It’s clear she has a considered understanding of how she can use her platform. Even if this impacts one other persons’ life, this show will be a success.
Recommended Drink: Your favourite WKD or VK to take you back to your university days.
Catch Fat Tom Cruise at Pleasance Courtyard until 30th August (not the 29th) at 17:30 (60mins). Tickets are available through the EdFringe Box Office.
Freddie Haberfellner
Issy Cory
