Tallinn Fringe Festival proudly presents!
www.fringe.ee
Performer: Aleksandr Popov
Genre: Stand-up comedy
Language: English
Duration: 60min
Tickets: from 7€
(On the door: 15€)
"Why I stayed ...? A Gothic Review of Life"
12.07.2023 - a date that was supposed to be my last encounter with this world of misery and dark shenanigans played by life on a "talking ape". Funny thing - I experienced the "outer body" experience - I had the presence of mind to write the farewell note and absorb the decadence of it all at the same time. Yet, after the note was done I couldn't really figure out where to go next ...
This show is based on my own drastic decision to bid farewell to the life that at one point seemed insurmountably difficult to keep holding on to. I was on the verge of losing my home, my physical health was in shambles and my mind was a pandemonium of visions from mistakes of "future past". I wanted to go, but seeing myself taking the steps to do it as an "uninvited guest" at the battle between my body and mind, I stayed ... I guess I wanted to see the alternative ending after all!
My goal is to talk to my "self" and tell it the story of insecurities and prejudices I had before my life turned to shambles. I tried so hard to spiral down into the abyss that I completely forgot to take a moment and live. It was finding myself staring down the abyss that I suddenly got reminded of all the idiotic happenings and circumstances that led me to this moment - inability to grieve properly for my father, first serious relationship that ended in a heartbreak, bad financial decisions made on the spur of the moment desperation, etc.
My show is about a series of mishaps and attempts at getting help way too late. And then finding oneself at the precipice of a final decision thinking "why can't I ..." and realizing that I have been making a joke out of myself since day one!
It's a "retrospective on life not fully lived". After a restart of sorts I am focusing on advancing myself through my comedy. This show is the most personal I've done so far - it is not just about having a laugh at my expense. I want the people to see that it's really about laughing at me while thinking about themselves and their vulnerabilities.
This show is based on my own drastic decision to bid farewell to the life that at one point seemed insurmountably difficult to keep holding on to. I was on the verge of losing my home, my physical health was in shambles and my mind was a pandemonium of visions from mistakes of "future past". I wanted to go, but seeing myself taking the steps to do it as an "uninvited guest" at the battle between my body and mind, I stayed ... I guess I wanted to see the alternative ending after all!
My goal is to talk to my "self" and tell it the story of insecurities and prejudices I had before my life turned to shambles. I tried so hard to spiral down into the abyss that I completely forgot to take a moment and live. It was finding myself staring down the abyss that I suddenly got reminded of all the idiotic happenings and circumstances that led me to this moment - inability to grieve properly for my father, first serious relationship that ended in a heartbreak, bad financial decisions made on the spur of the moment desperation, etc.
My show is about a series of mishaps and attempts at getting help way too late. And then finding oneself at the precipice of a final decision thinking "why can't I ..." and realizing that I have been making a joke out of myself since day one!
It's a "retrospective on life not fully lived". After a restart of sorts I am focusing on advancing myself through my comedy. This show is the most personal I've done so far - it is not just about having a laugh at my expense. I want the people to see that it's really about laughing at me while thinking about themselves and their vulnerabilities.
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Tallinn Fringe Festival proudly presents!
www.fringe.ee
Performer: Aleksandr Popov
Genre: Stand-up comedy
Language: English
Duration: 60min
Tickets: from 7€
(On the door: 15€)
"Post-Soviet Upbringing"
13th day of independence from dreadful occupation by USSR. Little boy arrives to his first day of school to find out that he is anything but ordinary – he is part of a problem. And seems that this problem is never going away – no matte how hard he tries, he will forever be seen as “the other amongst his own and one of their own amongst the others”. And so the tale of “post-soviet” upbringing begins!
“Dorky and chubby "half-blood" kid born out of the Cold War era “darkness” of the USSR goes on to witness the rebirth of his homeland through the edgy yet sheepishly silly 90s to become a trinity of degrees sporting college professor and school teacher who moonlights as a bouncer and comedian. Welcome to the rocky road of an Eastern-European youth on his way to greatness. What you will hear is silly, shocking and sugar-coat free. In one way or another, everything in this tale of two clans has happened to the narrator. And somehow he’s still standing!”
**Post-Soviet Upbringing** is the tale of two clans that affects the the life of the storyteller. Estonian on his mothers side, Russian on his fathers side he becomes a “smoothy” of tumultuous 90's! Whatever he does is never good enough for one or the other of his “families”. And in the end he finds himself joyfully lost in the “otherness” of his cultural roots.
“Dorky and chubby "half-blood" kid born out of the Cold War era “darkness” of the USSR goes on to witness the rebirth of his homeland through the edgy yet sheepishly silly 90s to become a trinity of degrees sporting college professor and school teacher who moonlights as a bouncer and comedian. Welcome to the rocky road of an Eastern-European youth on his way to greatness. What you will hear is silly, shocking and sugar-coat free. In one way or another, everything in this tale of two clans has happened to the narrator. And somehow he’s still standing!”
**Post-Soviet Upbringing** is the tale of two clans that affects the the life of the storyteller. Estonian on his mothers side, Russian on his fathers side he becomes a “smoothy” of tumultuous 90's! Whatever he does is never good enough for one or the other of his “families”. And in the end he finds himself joyfully lost in the “otherness” of his cultural roots.
_block.webp)
Tallinn Fringe Festival proudly presents!
www.fringe.ee
Performer: Aleksandr Popov
Genre: Stand-up comedy
Language: English
Duration: 60min
Tickets: from 7€
(On the door: 15€)
"50 Shades of Bouncer"
After more than two decades in the buzzing night life of his home town of Tallinn, Aleksandr Popov takes his place in the spotlight and lets the inner demons loose through the cracks in his life-long molded armor of wit and sarcasm.
“A long time has passed since I first stepped on the door. But one thing I still remember like it was yesterday – cold was the night when it all started. During the days that followed that night, I became many things... I graduated four colleges in three different countries earning degrees in law, politics and pedagogy. I worked manual labor, trained in a public sector, was an in-house lawyer, became a teacher and somehow even a college professor. I even ran for parliament! For I am the legion of 50 Shades of Bouncer.”
50 Shades of Bouncer is an origin story of a boy who dreamed, despite the viral antagonizing hatred towards his differences, and grew up to be a man of many facets. Come night he can still hold the fort at the door, but during the day he is so much more than what they expected him to ever be!
“A long time has passed since I first stepped on the door. But one thing I still remember like it was yesterday – cold was the night when it all started. During the days that followed that night, I became many things... I graduated four colleges in three different countries earning degrees in law, politics and pedagogy. I worked manual labor, trained in a public sector, was an in-house lawyer, became a teacher and somehow even a college professor. I even ran for parliament! For I am the legion of 50 Shades of Bouncer.”
50 Shades of Bouncer is an origin story of a boy who dreamed, despite the viral antagonizing hatred towards his differences, and grew up to be a man of many facets. Come night he can still hold the fort at the door, but during the day he is so much more than what they expected him to ever be!