Olga Koch: Fat Tom Cruise

Olga Koch brings her show Fat Tom Cruise to the Norwich Theatre Playhouse on Saturday 14 November, part of her 2026 tour. It's a stand-up comedy show, but it doesn't quite fit the usual mould: Koch tells a story that isn't really her own, combing through recent history in a way she describes as immersive and genre-defying. It's directed by Jet Vevers, who's worked on it from the start.

Critics have called it a densely packed, joke-heavy Fringe show with a high joke rate and smart, dynamic staging. That Fringe pedigree explains a lot of what it is — a show that keeps its pace up and doesn't shy away from a high volume of jokes, but with a bit more going on around the edges than a standard stand-up set. The staging is a big part of that, so it's the kind of thing that works better in a theatre than in a club.

Koch is a Melbourne and Edinburgh Comedy Award nominee, and Fat Tom Cruise is the show she's been taking around the country this year. It opened with a residency at London's Soho Theatre in February 2026 before hitting the road, so by the time it reaches Norwich it'll have had plenty of time to settle in. If you've seen her work before, this is the one she's been touring throughout the year.

The show runs for an hour and 40 minutes, with an interval in the middle, so it's a full evening rather than a quick stop. It starts at 7:30 pm at the Norwich Theatre Playhouse on Saint Georges Street, and tickets start from £19.61.