Fact: The comedian who became president
Volodymyr Zelenskyy is the President of Ukraine since 2019.
He has two children with his wife Olena Zelenska.
When he took office as president after winning the election with 73 percent of the vote, he was politically completely inexperienced.
Zelenskyy is a trained lawyer but has not worked as one. Instead, he has a background as a comedian, actor, director and producer.
With his own production company Kvartal 95, he has, among other things, made the comedy series “People’s servant”, which was broadcast between 2015 and 2019. In “People’s servant”, he played a high school history teacher who unexpectedly becomes president.
In 2018, he formed a party with the same name together with colleagues from Kvartal 95.
The young man tears off his clothes and throws himself over a portrait of the Russian writer Mikhail Bulgakov.
It is still early Saturday evening and down in the basement room in central Kyiv, the laughter replaces each other. The tables are crowded with foaming beer and steaming hot pizza – just hours before the curfew comes into effect again.
Audience at the Underground Standup Club one night in January.”Need to laugh”
26-year-old Serhii Chyrkov, one of the evening’s four comedians, is a success with his stripped-down number. Nowadays, some topics come up more often than others at Underground Stand Up Club, he tells TT’s broadcaster before the show starts.
— The fact is that the war helps a little. You have materials and topics that are easy for people to understand, he says and continues:
— For example shelters and the lack of electricity. All Ukrainians live in the same context, so it’s easier to make things up that everyone understands. People say: “Oh, did you hear the rockets today…?”
— And everyone has done that.
A few hours before tonight’s show, the alarm has sounded over Kyiv. For the first time since New Year’s Eve, the city is once again attacked by robots. Serhii Chyrkov, comedian for seven years, does not hesitate. He still stands on stage.
And the crowd finds its way to the club even on a day like this.
— People need to laugh and relax, and I help them.
Russian vs. Ukrainian
It is difficult to remain unmoved by Serhii Chyrkov’s lively stage expression. His facial expressions and body language prove entertaining even without translation. However, translating the jokes into Swedish is a bit more difficult.
Serhii Chyrkov performs on stage and jokes about the writer Michail Bulgakov.
For example, why does he undress on stage?
Some jokes concern differences between Ukrainian and Russian, explains Serhii Chyrkov, who himself was born in Russia.
Differences have become a topical issue in today’s Ukraine. One of the jokes of the evening touches on one of the great cultural figures born in Ukraine: Mikhail Bulgakov, famous for the novel “The Master and Margarita” written in the 1930s. He was born in Kyiv – but the author himself saw himself as Russian, and the idea of an independent Ukraine is not something he would have given much thought to.
According to Serhii Chyrkov, some Ukrainian admirers are still of the opinion that the great writer actually loved the country, which was then part of the Soviet Union.
— But he hated Ukraine and Ukrainian culture – a Russian imperialist and chauvinist. And in my act I give expression to those people who admire Bulgakov – in the end I undress and have sex with the portrait. It will be quite fun.
TT: Is there anything you can’t joke about now that it’s war?
— I can write jokes about everything – but the question is why? There is no need to joke about the truly horrific events of this war. It doesn’t help anyone.
“It’s very ironic”
Is there a typical Ukrainian humor? If you ask the audience, the answer is a resounding yes.
— It’s very ironic, we laugh at ourselves, especially now in the war, explains Aztem Rozhko, who is sitting at a table a little further into the room.
— In these difficult times, you feel upset and can become depressed. Humor helps us live.
Aztem Rozhko and girlfriend Lilia Bondarnko visit the Underground Standup Club.
Girlfriend Lilia Bondarnko nods in agreement.
— When you laugh, you feel alive.
According to Serhii Chyrkov, Ukrainians generally laugh at the same things as everyone else.
“Thanks to the internet, we live in the same context, and we laugh about mobile phones, the subway and the differences between men and women with us,” he says and continues:
“The political humor, on the other hand, is quite special, because we have our political situation,” he says, adding that President Volodymyr Zelenskyi has a past as a comedian.
When it comes to jokes, Serhii Chyrkov isn’t into shelters, rocket attacks and power cuts anymore.
— It’s too simple. Instead, I try to find the interesting in our situation – like cultural differences or the life changes we are experiencing now because of the war.