I guess it’s time to share my Stand-UP experience as both a performer and a part of the audience.
In June I had a chance to take part in an amazing educational event – Rozetka in Saint-Pete. It was great to see so many like-minded and enthusiastic teachers! I was chuffed to bits to make acquaintance with a lot of them.
What’s more, there was an open-mic evening for those who consider themselves relatively funny. Relatively is very relative, I was in stitches half the time as the people performing hit home. I also took part and was really excited, but petrified at the same time. People actually laughed at my jokes!
Can you imagine that? - Personally, I still can’t.
Will I do it again? – If the chance arises, that’s a loud, resonating YES.
Yesterday I went to a Vika Skladchikova’s concert (If you don’t know her, there is a link in the comments). The decision to get tickets was a spur of the moment thing – my colleague and I are travelling around the south of Russia at the moment, and, incidentally, there was a concert on the day we arrived to Novorossiysk.
It was entertaining, but my expectations were probably too high – I reckoned I would be literally rolling on the floor laughing (as much as leg room allowed, of course). I wasn’t. The performance did strike a chord, it was amusing, it was fun.
However, I left the concert hall with mixed feelings, because what Victoria joked about is not actually very laughable. Alcohol addiction is not funny, for instance, neither is domestic abuse. The core of her humor is self-deprecation, and it resonates with the audience. But this response tells a lot about our traumas and deeply (or not so deeply) rooted issues.
To sum up, in both cases (when I tried to be a stand-up comic, when I was in the audience) the jokes were about what brings us problems, and laughter made them seem relatively small. But again, relative is very relative.
❓Do you laugh at or about your issues? Does it help in any way? ❓
P.S. Once in a meeting with the Elegant speaking club (by Natalia Egorova), we discussed humour and decided that the funniest comedians are those who have had a lot of problems in life. What’s your take on that? ❓
I guess it’s time to share my Stand-UP experience as both a performer and a part of the audience.
In June I had a chance to take part in an amazing educational event – Rozetka in Saint-Pete. It was great to see so many like-minded and enthusiastic teachers! I was chuffed to bits to make acquaintance with a lot of them.
What’s more, there was an open-mic evening for those who consider themselves relatively funny. Relatively is very relative, I was in stitches half the time as the people performing hit home. I also took part and was really excited, but petrified at the same time. People actually laughed at my jokes!
Can you imagine that? - Personally, I still can’t.
Will I do it again? – If the chance arises, that’s a loud, resonating YES.
Yesterday I went to a Vika Skladchikova’s concert (If you don’t know her, there is a link in the comments). The decision to get tickets was a spur of the moment thing – my colleague and I are travelling around the south of Russia at the moment, and, incidentally, there was a concert on the day we arrived to Novorossiysk.
It was entertaining, but my expectations were probably too high – I reckoned I would be literally rolling on the floor laughing (as much as leg room allowed, of course). I wasn’t. The performance did strike a chord, it was amusing, it was fun.
However, I left the concert hall with mixed feelings, because what Victoria joked about is not actually very laughable. Alcohol addiction is not funny, for instance, neither is domestic abuse. The core of her humor is self-deprecation, and it resonates with the audience. But this response tells a lot about our traumas and deeply (or not so deeply) rooted issues.
To sum up, in both cases (when I tried to be a stand-up comic, when I was in the audience) the jokes were about what brings us problems, and laughter made them seem relatively small. But again, relative is very relative.
❓Do you laugh at or about your issues? Does it help in any way? ❓
P.S. Once in a meeting with the Elegant speaking club (by Natalia Egorova), we discussed humour and decided that the funniest comedians are those who have had a lot of problems in life. What’s your take on that? ❓
Artem Kliuchnikov and his family fled Ukraine just days before the Russian invasion. The next bit isn’t clear, but Durov reportedly claimed that his resignation, dated March 21st, was an April Fools’ prank. TechCrunch implies that it was a matter of principle, but it’s hard to be clear on the wheres, whos and whys. Similarly, on April 17th, the Moscow Times quoted Durov as saying that he quit the company after being pressured to reveal account details about Ukrainians protesting the then-president Viktor Yanukovych. What distinguishes the app from competitors is its use of what's known as channels: Public or private feeds of photos and videos that can be set up by one person or an organization. The channels have become popular with on-the-ground journalists, aid workers and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who broadcasts on a Telegram channel. The channels can be followed by an unlimited number of people. Unlike Facebook, Twitter and other popular social networks, there is no advertising on Telegram and the flow of information is not driven by an algorithm. The fake Zelenskiy account reached 20,000 followers on Telegram before it was shut down, a remedial action that experts say is all too rare. Given the pro-privacy stance of the platform, it’s taken as a given that it’ll be used for a number of reasons, not all of them good. And Telegram has been attached to a fair few scandals related to terrorism, sexual exploitation and crime. Back in 2015, Vox described Telegram as “ISIS’ app of choice,” saying that the platform’s real use is the ability to use channels to distribute material to large groups at once. Telegram has acted to remove public channels affiliated with terrorism, but Pavel Durov reiterated that he had no business snooping on private conversations.
from ca
