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Local comedian Nariko Ott has died at age 46. Ott had been working on Portland comedy stages for years and was named one of Willamette Week’s Funniest Five in 2014. As the news broke this weekend, tributes poured out on social media and Kickstand Comedy postponed an event in order to give the comedy community time and space to grieve. Kickstand’s Comedy in the Park wrap party will now be held Sept. 26. Ott had just performed at Comedy in the Park on Aug. 21.
“Portland is deeply mourning the loss of Nariko Ott,” Paul Stein, executive director of Kickstand Comedy tells WW on behalf of the comedy club. “A singular talent who was a constant source of kindness, joy and encouragement to the comedy community and simply put one of the smartest and funniest voices in Portland for over 15 years. Nariko will always be a part of PDX comedy. We are completely heartbroken.”
In the 2014 Funniest Five profile of Ott, Matthew Singer wrote:
“For Nariko Ott, being funny isn’t a personality trait, it’s a survival instinct. As the second of four children raised by a single mother, he knew from a young age that if he didn’t stand out in some way, he could easily be forgotten at a rest stop on a family vacation. That’s not to mention that, until he left home at age 16, he moved practically every year from the time he was born, requiring him to make new friends fast and often. Growing up, he didn’t just want to make people laugh, he needed to.”
Ott spent most of his young adulthood in Tempe, Ariz. He was in bands as a teenager and pivoted to standup comedy in his late 20s. Ott moved to Portland from Phoenix in 2011 and, in 2014, was “working to develop more substantive dick jokes.” (In 2011, one very successful dick joke was made into a Funny or Die video called “Bong of Duty,” where two friends skip school to smoke weed and play Call of Duty.)
“His role in the scene cannot but understated,” says comedian Ben Harkins, who first performed with Ott at Funhouse Lounge in 2013. “Unpretentious and hardworking, he was the best of us, but he was one of us.”
Comedian Andie Main started in the Portland scene about a year after Ott. She looked up to Ott’s work ethic, going to tons of mics to work out subtle nuances of joke timing and delivery.
“He was hilarious right away,” Main says. “And he always, always said that he bombed after any set. Even if he got applause breaks, he would hyperfocus on the one moment that wasn’t perfect. That perfectionism is what led to his genius and also his despair.”
In a 2015 interview with WW—the first half done sober, the second half done high, in honor of the then-recent legalization of cannabis—Ott reflected on placing in the Funniest Five and also taking third in the Portland’s Funniest Person competition (he went on to win the title outright the next year).
“When you start out, you think, ‘Crowds are loving me. I’m great!’” Ott said. “Then about a year later, you write your first good joke and realize you’ve been bothering people for a year. At the same time, contests are bullshit. The real battle is with yourself.”
