Atsuko Okatsuka: Gluten-Free Spaghetti
Your Last Meal with Rachel Belle
Rachel Belle
4.8 • 730 Ratings
🗓️ 7 November 2025
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Comedian Atsuko Okatsuka’s last meal, and the reason why she sometimes carries cooked scallops in her bag, trace back to her unstable, unpredictable childhood. She talks about being kidnapped by her grandmother and why a gluten-free spaghetti dinner brings her comfort, even as someone who doesn’t have a gluten sensitivity.
Atsuko’s first foray into entertainment was working at an ice cream chain that made employees sing and dance for tips. Atsuko loved it, but host Rachel Belle interviews two other folks who had no idea they had to perform at their restaurant jobs, until they saw it happening on their first day. One at Chicago’s famous Wiener’s Circle and another at a now-defunct steak house chain.
Atsuko is on tour now! You can also watch her standup specials on HBO and Hulu.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Alaska Airlines has teamed up with Hawaiian Airlines to create new nonstop international flights. |
| 0:05.8 | Go to Alaskaair.com or Hawaiian Airlines.com and I'll tell you more details later in the show. |
| 0:19.6 | I'm Rachel Bell and this is your last meal. |
| 0:23.1 | The show where celebrities share stories about the foods they love most, and we dig into |
| 0:27.4 | the history, culture, or science of these meals with experts from around the world. |
| 0:32.4 | Today on the program, stand-up comedian Atsko Okatska. |
| 0:37.2 | Atsko released her first comedy special in 2022, and she was only the second Asian-American |
| 0:42.8 | woman to land an HBO comedy special. |
| 0:45.3 | The first was past your lesbian guest, Margaret Cho. |
| 0:49.2 | And that was all the way back in 1994. |
| 0:52.2 | Otko's second comedy special, Father, released on Hulu this past June. |
| 0:57.4 | And she's out on the road right now touring the big bowl tour. |
| 1:02.0 | If you're trying to place Atsko, you may know her by her signature bowl cut. |
| 1:07.1 | Atsko's first job was scooping ice cream. |
| 1:09.5 | But the job also involved singing. |
| 1:12.3 | So I talked to two people who took jobs at restaurants and had no idea they had to perform |
| 1:17.6 | for customers until they saw it happening on their first day. |
| 1:21.6 | That's coming up later in the show, but before we get started, I have to sheepishly admit something to you. |
| 1:28.9 | We had a technical snafu. |
| 1:31.1 | And unfortunately, my side of the interview with Otko has gone to computer black hole heaven. |
| 1:36.6 | It no longer exists. |
| 1:38.1 | So you will only hear Otko's side of the conversation, which sounds totally normal. |
... |
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