| The Stand-up Comedy festival has ended The entertainment that Moscow nightclubs offer today is quite diverse, although it is mainly focused on music of various styles and trends. However, modern dance programs and performances are appearing on club venues; the only thing missing is the conversational genre of Stand-up Comedy, popular in England and America.
Last week, Afisha magazine held a Stand-up Comedy festival at the Club on Brestskaya. Nikolai Fomenko, Olga Lapshina, Andrey Lapin, Psoy Korolenko and a man named Collective Unconscious, as well as Elena Morozova and Sergey Frolov, decided to open a dialogue with the public. The specially invited guest of the festival was English comedian Ian Stone. The previously announced performances of the Presnyakov brothers and Renata Litvinova did not take place.
Neither the artists nor the audience had any direct experience of existing in this genre (although they had an idea of the classics of the genre thanks to Bob Fosse’s film “Lenny,” dedicated to the famous comedian Lenny Bruce), and as a result they had to experiment together.
Stand-up is not so much an artistic phenomenon as a sociocultural one. It is quite difficult to define the boundaries of the genre. First of all, because the ideology of Stand-up Comedy is based on the desire to break boundaries and prohibitions, to destroy conventions - be it the fourth wall, the use of taboo vocabulary or shocking behavior. (It’s no wonder that stand-up flourished in the States during the destructive conventions of the 60s). The performer on stage is not prohibited from swearing, discussing sensitive topics and showing his genitals. And there was enough of all this on stage. (Dog Korolenko told obscene jokes “with a beard”, and Andrei Lapin opened his white medical coat, with no underwear underneath). So, by the end of the festival, it was rather the absence of these components of the stage performance that might have been shocking. But the most exciting and interesting part was the other mandatory part of the program - the artist’s communication with the audience, lightning-fast reaction to this or that remark from the audience, improvisation. The public also strived to be resourceful and witty. Dog Korolenko, for example, invited the audience to sing along with him a song “about Ignat”. Slowly showed the words and motive. No reaction. Once again he asked: let's sing. And suddenly quietly from the audience - Yesterday... It turned out elegant and funny. And Ian Stone got a man who refused to answer his name, and when the artist began to insist, he stood up and quickly began to move away from the comedian, who joyfully rushed after him. Having cornered the audience, Stone mercifully retreated and returned to the stage.
Ian Stone is the only festival participant who works professionally in the Stand-up Comedy genre. He performs his programs in London and tours around the world. It was assumed that he would talk about his fresh impressions of Moscow. But he limited himself to jokes about the weather and the dangerous driving of drivers on the roads. The main part of the monologue consisted of ready-made reprises about London life, funny character displays and jokes about the size of his own nose (which is truly outstanding).
The performance did not leave a great impression, and perhaps the fact is that although in Russia artists really do not perform monologues in clubs, the genre itself exists. Not on the stage - in the kitchen. In any company there is an artistic person - a witty toastmaster and a brilliant storyteller, with well-established interludes, with tales flowing into one another, into whose monologue anyone present can easily get involved. This in no way casts a shadow on Ian Stone’s talent, but it did affect the intensity of perception of the Russian public.
The highlight of the festival were the performances of Nikolai Fomenko and Olga Lapshina.
Viewers, accustomed to the harsh television image of Nikolai Fomenko, probably left disappointed. There were no masks or rollicking jokes. And there was a well-thought-out monologue on a pre-selected topic - “bewilderment.” The artist easily and wittily decomposed the word into its components, turning it into an incompetence, and the deconstruction of the word changed the meaning and theme. Of course, there were supporting and planned episodes and reprises, but there were no comedy cliches, and the main thing was not to make the audience laugh, but to explore the possibilities of direct dialogue with the audience.
At the very beginning, saying that the artist’s work did not receive due attention and his “expressive back” was not visible to anyone, Fomenko chose a girl from the audience and asked to sit on the stage behind him. The girl became a full participant in the action. This evening the girl was quiet and shy, but another time she could be funny and loud. These reactions (embarrassment, smile...) complemented the picture from the audience and made the performance come alive.
Olga Lapshina performed “Monologue of a Non-Media Person,” written especially for her by screenwriter Rodion Beletsky. A thread emerged that connected her performance and the performance of Nikolai Fomenko. The internal dramaturgy of the festival emerged.
Olga Lapshina, an actress who plays Roshchin and Kazantsev at the Drama Center, talked about how she would like to be recognized and told her biography. In her monologue, she included funny clown acts, gymnastic exercises, built something vaguely resembling a pyramid with her assistants, and exploded her quiet monologue with powerful singing. And in the end, the eccentric action on stage was reduced to a simple lyrical statement: how important it is to recognize not faces, but people, not to turn your backs on each other, but to be face to face. This slightly sentimental note united all the performances of the festival. Olga ASTAKHOVA |
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