I understand it myself!

I continue to report the results of observations of shagreen skin.

I just found out about the cancellation of my New Year's concert at the Central House of Writers.

It was called “Olivier with Shenderovich” and had been going on for several years; in the last two years there have been two full halls, at 14-00 and 18-00. At the same time, the Central House Administration carefully received a hefty rent and did not risk anything at all (financially, of course).

Well, here we go.

Not to say that the cancellation came as a complete surprise: the Central House of Writers held on longer than anyone else; however, they had an excuse: this is, after all, the House of Writers, and I am, like, a writer... well, like a club, for our own people... But last year, the management was obviously hesitant, giving consent, and in a week before the New Year, someone majestic drove along Bolshaya Nikitskaya, saw my face on a poster at the entrance, called - and a cow licked the poster with its tongue. Before concerts, on the most important days for advertising...

True, the Central House of Writers did not cancel the concerts themselves, so the incident can also be interpreted as civic heroism.

In general, given the totality of the circumstances of the place and time, I would rather be surprised if “Olivier with Shenderovich-2015” took place at the Central House of Writers. But there was no need to be surprised.

The wording of the refusal was not surprising either - because I have been hearing it for many years, and I just heard it, word for word, in five large Russian cities, for whose concert venues I made, as part of another experiment, a win-win financial offer: guaranteed rent.

The cities were different, and even in different time zones, but the wording of the refusal was the same, it was even funny.

- WELL, YOU UNDERSTAND...

Of course, I understand, I'm not stupid. But this does not prevent me, however, from recalling, on occasion, the scene of undressing in a compartment from Ryazanov’s “Station for Two”:

— Alone, alone, alone...

And it should be noted that, unlike Gurchenko’s heroine, Russian officials react to this boorish whisper from the Administration with amazing readiness.


Photo TASS/Sergey Fadeichev