Secret, through its partnership with comedian Atsuko Okatsuka, is promoting greater openness about women’s deodorant and antiperspirant.
Secret is teaming up with comedians in their advertising of women’s products. The brand hosted a comedy show featuring appearances by Gina Brillon and Atsuko Okatsuka. Additionally, Secret’s Senior Communications Manager, Nicole Diaz, spoke briefly. The comedy lightheartedly called attention to the struggles women deal with from puberty to sweat. Okatsuka repeatedly stressed the effectiveness of Secret Clinical during her set.
Knockturnal: Hi, I’m Vivek with the Knockturnal, really nice to meet you Atsuko.
Atsuko Okatsuka: Nice to meet you too, I’m excited to talk about my partnership with Secret.
Knockturnal: I know in your special, The Intruder, you mentioned you had an aversion to talking to teenagers, so I hope I don’t scare you.
Atsuko Okatsuka: Oh my god, well, I didn’t know you were a teenager, that’s like a secret weapon that you have.
Knockturnal: I guess so, I didn’t think of it that way.
Atsuko Okatsuka Because now I’m crumbling inside, I thought maybe you were in your twenties, but you were like “No, I’ll make her falter.”
Knockturnal: Congratulations on the HBO special, it was really funny, I watched it with my family.
Atsuko Okatsuka: Oh, thank you, thanks for watching.
Knockturnal: Of course. With a special that is recorded like that, one of the great things is as viewers we can replay it as many times as we want to. How do you write jokes that have replay value? Jokes that you can watch again and again and have them still be funny.
Knockturnal: I’m sort of an international person in that I was born in Taiwan, and then grew up in Japan and then came to the States, I have family in Indonesia, you know, all over the place. So I think that makes it so that I have a universal view and perspective of things, so relativity? Is that a word? Being relatable? That is the thing I strive for. Jokes that, all across cultures and through time can be relatable, are really what I like to tell.
Knockturnal: I know that your background is important to your comedy, but along your path, did you find additional hurdles being Asian American, and also being a woman?
Atsuko Okatsuka: Yeah, you know, last night at the Secret show I talked about how I was the second Asian American female to have a stand-up special on HBO, and the first one was Margaret Cho, who still had armpit stains on her clothes in the special. It’s still there if you ever go back to watch it. I talked about how it took 22 years for the second person, me, to get a special. So you know it’s little hurdles like that aren’t blatant, in your face. You go, okay, society was still catching up. That was stuff that I had to go through. And to be funny at the same time. Like I said, you know we don’t get paid enough.
Knockturnal: More about your partnership with Secret, the event last night was amazing, but in the future, what can we expect?
Atsuko Okatsuka: Well, in the future, you can expect me not sweating and having any pit stains while I’m performing because Secret Clinical, which is what I talked about in my set a lot, it provides three-day protection, 72 hour protection from sweat and odor. So that’s something you can expect out of me, while I’m performing I won’t be tripping about that. And I am a professional in that you might not know what’s going on within me while I’m performing, but for me, that’s a big relief. Is that what you meant by what can you expect from me in the future? More stand-up shows with Secret. Is that what you’re asking for?
Knockturnal: Last night certainly wasn’t the end of anything between you and Secret, is what I’m asking about. So there will be more stand-up shows and things like that, would you expect?
Atsuko Okatsuka: Yeah, I think it was great. I think it created a sense of community because having a show like that, I even reached out to the audience and asked about people’s sweat stories. I think it’s really cool where we’re like this is why we’re here and people knew it’s okay to talk about it because these might be embarrassing stories that you hide from other people that you’ve had to go through whether you wear dark colors to cover your pit stains or you wear pads under your arms. All the things we talked about last night. That sense of community could be cool to continue doing, with comedy. Instead of having it feel like a funeral. Embarrassing stories can sometimes feel like a sad event.
Knockturnal: As a comedian, I feel like there’s no one better to address this kind of thing because this is something everyone deals with and they don’t always like to talk about it but as a comedian, you can talk about whatever you’d like to. I think it’s great and this partnership is really interesting.
Atsuko Okatsuka: Yeah, I think it makes sense instead of having, and no offense to spoken word poets or something, but you know, especially talking about like puberty and things you want to keep private, yeah I think laughter is the best medicine.
Knockturnal: Definitely. And about laughter, you’re someone who makes others laugh, but is there someone in your life who can make you laugh the hardest?
Atsuko Okatsuka: Yeah, my husband really makes me laugh. He’s very witty and we do everything together, you know we work together now too so we’re touring together. That’s someone who really makes me laugh. And other fellow comedians, like Tig Notaro, Margaret Cho, Chelsea Handler.
V: How long did it take you to come up with a set about sweat for Secret Clinical?
Atsuko Okatsuka: It took me a few days. You know, usually, you tour an hour of stand-up, I’m touring right now with an hour of stand-up, a new hour after my special. Across the country and internationally. But usually, it takes months, sometimes like a year to develop an hour. It was a 45-minute set about stories of sweat and puberty, going through changes and antiperspirant. I did that in like three days.
Knockturnal: Wow. So usually it takes a longer amount of time for a similar set, how were you able to kind of hone in and come up with an entire set in that short span of time?
Atsuko Okatsuka: I wouldn’t say it was like the best best stuff in that like I could just put it out as a special tomorrow. So ideally I would be able to work on it longer, but because I was able to be more personal about the stories like embarrassing stories of sweat, or embarrassing stories of me trying to cover up my odor when I was growing up, and the American Girl book I bought to teach me about this stuff instead of asking adults about it. Because it was a lot of personal stories that I was able to put into it, it came quicker, I think, than just talking science. And the science was really fascinating behind Secret too, so that also helped. Like I didn’t know about the milky-colored sweat, and I was like gosh the things we go through as people with bodies. So yeah, it was not too hard to come up with material for it.
Knockturnal: Yeah, that definitely makes sense. Was there anything else that has to do with “the science” that you wanted to add?
Atsuko Okatsuka: The signs?
Knockturnal: The science part of it you mentioned.
Atsuko Okatsuka: Oh, I’m like “The signs? I’m a Gemini.” I think we covered it, I want to make it conversational and natural. And I’m a comedian, not a scientist. If you want to know a tidbit, I like to sound smart a little bit. With Secret Clinical you do want to put it on at night before you go to bed. Little known fact, I think. Like before, and I don’t really play sports so that’s a nice time for me, instead of putting it on before you go and play sports or something. Because your temperature is cooler and you’re rested. Didn’t I sound so smart?
Knockturnal: That did sound smart. I didn’t know that fact either so I appreciate it.
Atsuko Okatsuka: Thanks, Vivek.
Knockturnal: You mentioned in your special that you’re husband made you realize planting lettuce was a passion of yours, I wanted to ask you how you realized comedy was a passion of yours.
Atsuko Okatsuka: Well, comedy has an immediate response from the audience and the world. Like they literally laugh. When I started making people laugh while I was talking, with thoughts, that makes you realize that. When you go on to do it as a stand-up comedian on stage and you’re like “Oh, I’m consistently funny. I’m good at this. And I love it.” Loving it is also a big part of it. You gotta love it. So, it took time. Something like lettuce planting I knew immediately. I was like “I’m having an out-of-body experience. I was cosplaying someone else’s life. When I held the lettuce in my hands I was like “This is not my interest, this is not my personality.” But it took my husband to help me figure that out.
Knockturnal: I’m glad that you did figure that out because your comedy specials have been amazing.
Atsuko Okatsuka: I’m not gonna knock it. I’m not gonna knock it forever. Like after my next show in New York, I’m coming here in the Fall to do Town Hall Theater as part of the New York comedy festival. Who knows maybe after the show I’ll also be selling lettuce. I’m not going to knock it till I try it.
Knockturnal: If you were not a comedian, is there another profession you think you’d be well suited for?
Atsuko Okatsuka: Oh, I have no other skills. I’ve been notoriously fired from every other job I’ve had. I could, what’s the closest thing to a comedian? I did study psychology a little bit too. But that’s scary, like imagine you show up to your session and the chair turns around and it’s me. “Hi! I’m your therapist.” So I’d like to think I’m doing people a favor by not having gone there with my path.
Knockturnal: Is there anything that you would like to say lastly about Secret Clinical or what you have coming up or anything like that?
Atsuko Okatsuka: It was my tour, go to atsukocomedy.com. For more info on Secret it’s secret.com.
Knockturnal: My last question would be, do you skate?
Atsuko Okatsuka: Oh Vivek, how dare you, you’re grounded. You’re grounded for five weeks.
Knockturnal: It was really nice to speak with you.
Atsuko Okatsuka: Nice talking to you too.
