Latest / Drawn of History / Yakov Smirnoff on Growing Up in the Soviet Union and Leaving for America(M4A_128K)

Transcript

Yakov Smirnoff on Growing Up in the Soviet Union and Leaving for America(M4A_128K) · Drawn of History

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: The Joe Rogan experience.
• 0:02
  Speaker 2: What was it like starting out doing stand-up in the
• 0:06
  Speaker 2: Soviet Union?
• 0:07
  Speaker 3: That's where you started, right?
• 0:08
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I did.
• 0:08
  Speaker 3: How old were you?
• 0:09
  Speaker 4: I was 15.
• 0:10
  Speaker 2: And what is it like over there when you're 15?
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: Is there like a version of The Tonight Show in Russia?
• 0:17
  Speaker 4: Well, no, it's a lot. At those days, you know,
• 0:23
  Speaker 4: it was very structured, very Communist Party controlled. So there
• 0:29
  Speaker 4: was only like two comedians in the whole country that
• 0:33
  Speaker 4: were government approved. So they would be on the radio
• 0:38
  Speaker 4: and television and nobody else was really doing comedy.
• 0:44
  Speaker 3: What were the comedians like?
• 0:46
  Speaker 4: More like vaudeville.
• 0:48
  Speaker 3: What were their names?
• 0:49
  Speaker 4: Arkady Rykin. You could probably Google him, Arkady Rykin. He
• 0:55
  Speaker 4: was the... main guy that I would listen to and
• 0:59
  Speaker 4: in each apartment there would be a little speaker that
• 1:04
  Speaker 4: would be on all the time so they could brainwash you. Whoa!
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: You had a speaker in your apartment all the time.
• 1:13
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 1:16
  Speaker 3: Wow!
• 1:17
  Speaker 4: So, but then on Sunday mornings.
• 1:20
  Speaker 3: This is what, 66? Yeah, yeah.
• 1:21
  Speaker 4: 51, so yeah. Yeah, that's about that time. Yeah, that
• 1:29
  Speaker 4: was the guy. Wow.
• 1:32
  Speaker 3: That was the guy.
• 1:33
  Speaker 4: Very famous. The only people from America that we saw
• 1:38
  Speaker 4: were Charlie Chaplin, and that's it.
• 1:41
  Speaker 3: Just Charlie Chaplin?
• 1:42
  Speaker 4: Charlie Chaplin.
• 1:43
  Speaker 3: So you thought America was just silent movies?
• 1:45
  Speaker 4: Well, they portrayed it.
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: Oh, he even did a Charlie Chaplin impersonation.
• 1:51
  Speaker 4: Yeah. Wow. Yeah. So... He's got wacky wigs and shit.
• 1:58
  Speaker 4: I would listen to his. So every other Sunday or
• 2:03
  Speaker 4: every once a month, he would have a different monologue
• 2:06
  Speaker 4: that was written and approved by the Communist Party. Yeah.
• 2:11
  Speaker 4: So I was really into it. So I would record it.
• 2:16
  Speaker 4: And we had the big tape recorder like this. And
• 2:19
  Speaker 4: I would record it and I would memorize it. And
• 2:23
  Speaker 4: because there was nothing to be approved because it's already
• 2:26
  Speaker 4: been approved, then I would go to like a club
• 2:30
  Speaker 4: in my school and I would tell jokes, his jokes.
• 2:37
  Speaker 4: And people knew that it was his jokes, but they
• 2:39
  Speaker 4: would laugh. And that's how I got my understanding that
• 2:45
  Speaker 4: I really wanted to do that.
• 2:47
  Speaker 3: Wow.
• 2:48
  Speaker 4: Yeah. And little by little, then I went to the military,
• 2:54
  Speaker 4: and I did that there kind of as an amateur.
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: So you just stand up for the military?
• 3:02
  Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah. But it would be just like holidays, like
• 3:06
  Speaker 4: if it was May Day or October Revolution, they would
• 3:11
  Speaker 4: look to me to entertain. So I would do that.
• 3:14
  Speaker 4: And then I went to, came out of military, went
• 3:19
  Speaker 4: to college for art degree. My parents didn't think that
• 3:23
  Speaker 4: I could do anything. Comedy would not be like, nobody
• 3:27
  Speaker 4: even thought that that's even a possibility. And so I
• 3:34
  Speaker 4: kept doing it and then start working on the Soviet
• 3:38
  Speaker 4: cruise ships. And they had in the Black Sea, Soviet
• 3:43
  Speaker 4: cruise ships. So I went, they asked me to go
• 3:48
  Speaker 4: and perform there on the cruise ship.
• 3:51
  Speaker 3: You're like, really?
• 3:53
  Speaker 4: Yeah. How old were you at the time? I was 20, 21.
• 3:59
  Speaker 3: Okay.
• 3:59
  Speaker 4: Yeah. Now I'm getting paid and I'm getting a cabin.
• 4:07
  Speaker 4: And now prior to that, I lived in a communal
• 4:10
  Speaker 4: apartment with my parents and in the same room till
• 4:13
  Speaker 4: I was 26 years old. Whoa. So, yeah. So no phone,
• 4:19
  Speaker 4: nine families.
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: What if your parents wanted to get frisky?
• 4:21
  Speaker 3: They tell you to go for a walk?
• 4:22
  Speaker 4: They would go look out the window.
• 4:24
  Speaker 3: Go look out the window?
• 4:27
  Speaker 4: Well, I joke about this.
• 4:28
  Speaker 3: Oh, okay, okay. Yeah.
• 4:30
  Speaker 4: And then they say, what do you see? What do
• 4:32
  Speaker 4: you see in the window?
• 4:33
  Speaker 3: I might jump out that fucking window.
• 4:36
  Speaker 4: Yeah. And they say, what do you see in the window?
• 4:38
  Speaker 4: I said, our neighbors being frisky and, And they say,
• 4:42
  Speaker 4: how can you tell us? Because their son is looking
• 4:45
  Speaker 4: at me. So that's the joke I tell. But that
• 4:50
  Speaker 4: was my life. And here, all of a sudden, I'm
• 4:54
  Speaker 4: introduced to this. So tourists from other countries would take
• 5:01
  Speaker 4: those cruises around Black Sea. And all of a sudden,
• 5:05
  Speaker 4: I'm introduced to this group of people that I was
• 5:07
  Speaker 4: not allowed to talk to. We were not allowed to
• 5:12
  Speaker 4: even communicate.
• 5:12
  Speaker 3: What countries were they from?
• 5:14
  Speaker 4: Germany, Britain, some Americans, some Australians, Yugoslavians, whatever, from Soviet bloc.
• 5:27
  Speaker 3: Who was the president?
• 5:30
  Speaker 4: Brezhnev. Brezhnev was the president at that time, yeah. And
• 5:35
  Speaker 4: so I started, so I did one week of performances. And, um,
• 5:41
  Speaker 4: and then, uh, they said, would you like to stay
• 5:44
  Speaker 4: on board? And I said, um, I, I said, can,
• 5:49
  Speaker 4: can I bring my parents with me? Can, can we
• 5:53
  Speaker 4: give us another cabin for them? And they said, no,
• 5:56
  Speaker 4: you don't get any special privileges. We have hundreds of
• 5:59
  Speaker 4: people like you get out. And I, I was like, okay.
• 6:03
  Speaker 4: So I left and, um, A couple of hours later,
• 6:08
  Speaker 4: a messenger comes. We have no phones. So it's like
• 6:11
  Speaker 4: messenger comes and brings two sets of tickets for me
• 6:17
  Speaker 4: and my parents. And I never heard that it's even possible,
• 6:21
  Speaker 4: like that they would go back on their word. So
• 6:25
  Speaker 4: I go on the cruise and I go to a
• 6:30
  Speaker 4: cruise director. I said, what happened? And he said, well,
• 6:34
  Speaker 4: Here's what happened. These ships normally are rented to European
• 6:39
  Speaker 4: companies for like nine months out of the year. And
• 6:43
  Speaker 4: we learned from them that if somebody is valuable, we
• 6:47
  Speaker 4: give them more perks. The captain liked your performance, and
• 6:55
  Speaker 4: he told them, the company, that even if you have
• 6:59
  Speaker 4: to give him my own cabin, I want him on
• 7:02
  Speaker 4: the ship. And the light bulb went in my head.
• 7:06
  Speaker 4: I said, wait a minute, wait a minute. Are you
• 7:07
  Speaker 4: saying that in capitalistic world, if you're more talented, you
• 7:13
  Speaker 4: get more things? And they go, yeah. That was, it's
• 7:20
  Speaker 4: hard to imagine. It was like changed my life.
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: Well, it's hard to imagine for people that didn't grow
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: up in the environment that.
• 7:26
  Speaker 3: You grew up with a speaker in your apartment.
• 7:28
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: Like just you saying that to me, my mind is rattled.
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: I was like, oh my God. Like, they could just
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: broadcast in your apartment anytime they wanted.
• 7:36
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
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• 8:53
  Speaker 4: And they would jam, like, because we had a big radio,
• 8:59
  Speaker 4: and they would jam Voice of America. But my dad
• 9:03
  Speaker 4: would wake up, like, in the middle of the night.
• 9:06
  Speaker 4: He was wanting to know what's happening out there. And
• 9:10
  Speaker 4: he would sit there and listen. to that quietly. And
• 9:13
  Speaker 4: I remember as a kid, I asked dad, what are
• 9:16
  Speaker 4: you listening to in the middle of the night? And
• 9:19
  Speaker 4: he goes, shh, don't let neighbors hear us. This is
• 9:22
  Speaker 4: the voice of America. We're not allowed to listen to it.
• 9:25
  Speaker 3: Wow. So you had to keep it secret?
• 9:28
  Speaker 4: Yeah. But at nighttime- How.
• 9:29
  Speaker 3: Did he listen to it?
• 9:31
  Speaker 4: Just quiet, just sat there.
• 9:32
  Speaker 3: Right, but if they jammed it, how did he listen
• 9:34
  Speaker 3: to it?
• 9:34
  Speaker 4: No, they would jam it during the day. But at nighttime,
• 9:38
  Speaker 4: they didn't think anybody would wake up at 3 o'clock
• 9:40
  Speaker 4: in the morning and sit there and listen to it.
• 9:43
  Speaker 3: How do they jam it?
• 9:44
  Speaker 4: It's just, I don't know.
• 9:47
  Speaker 3: Say that again?
• 9:48
  Speaker 4: Yeah. I don't know.
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: So they had some way to jam that yeah oh
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: yeah whatever signal exactly.
• 9:55
  Speaker 4: Exactly yeah it's short wave so it goes in and
• 9:59
  Speaker 4: out anyway.
• 9:59
  Speaker 2: What did he get out of listening to voice of
• 10:01
  Speaker 2: america like what what was he does he did he
• 10:04
  Speaker 2: talk about.
• 10:04
  Speaker 4: It yeah yeah i would then start also waking up
• 10:08
  Speaker 4: and listening and and it would be just standard american
• 10:13
  Speaker 4: thing give me you're tired you're hungry you're poor something
• 10:17
  Speaker 4: like that, and that there's a Statue of Liberty waiting
• 10:24
  Speaker 4: to greet you if you come to the United States.
• 10:28
  Speaker 4: And he would always say, you know, this would be
• 10:31
  Speaker 4: something that I would love you to experience. And my mom,
• 10:38
  Speaker 4: she hated that because she was afraid that we'll get
• 10:41
  Speaker 4: in trouble And so she didn't want to even talk
• 10:45
  Speaker 4: about this. So if I drew a picture as a kid,
• 10:48
  Speaker 4: I would draw a picture of Statue of Liberty. And
• 10:52
  Speaker 4: she would like, don't do that. Don't let anybody see this.
• 10:55
  Speaker 4: We'll get in trouble. And when after I experienced the
• 11:01
  Speaker 4: cruises and got to know this different environment, I came
• 11:06
  Speaker 4: home and I go, mom, dad, I think we should
• 11:08
  Speaker 4: consider try to get out of. And mom was like,
• 11:13
  Speaker 4: mad at my dad. And my dad stood up, which
• 11:17
  Speaker 4: was good for him at that time. Normally, he would
• 11:20
  Speaker 4: just be quiet. But he said to my mom, Clara,
• 11:23
  Speaker 4: would you like your son, when he is my age,
• 11:29
  Speaker 4: sit there by the radio and listen to Voice of America, hoping,
• 11:34
  Speaker 4: wishing that he would be doing something like that? Or
• 11:38
  Speaker 4: would you like him to be in America doing this?
• 11:42
  Speaker 4: And my mom kind of went, you know what's going
• 11:47
  Speaker 4: to happen when we apply for a visa? People who
• 11:52
  Speaker 4: consider your friends, they will cross the street, and they
• 11:55
  Speaker 4: will not want to talk to you and be seen
• 11:58
  Speaker 4: with you, and you're going to go through hell. And
• 12:05
  Speaker 4: my dad said, yeah, we will. And she said, well,
• 12:10
  Speaker 4: if you're willing to do it, so am I.
• 12:13
  Speaker 3: And that's all you had to do is apply for
• 12:14
  Speaker 3: a visa?
• 12:15
  Speaker 4: Well, what was happening at that time, Jimmy Carter was
• 12:20
  Speaker 4: the president here. And he wanted to see some human
• 12:26
  Speaker 4: rights in the Soviet Union. And the Soviet leadership, they
• 12:31
  Speaker 4: were starving. They didn't have food. So they needed food
• 12:36
  Speaker 4: from America. So Jimmy Carter made a deal that we're
• 12:41
  Speaker 4: We're going to give you grain and you allow people
• 12:44
  Speaker 4: to get out. And that's how we were kind of
• 12:48
  Speaker 4: exchanged for some wheat, you know. That's how we got out. Wow.
• 12:54
  Speaker 4: Holy shit, man. Yeah.
• 12:58
  Speaker 2: Yeah. You sometimes need to be reminded how fortunate you are.
• 13:04
  Speaker 2: You know, Americans in particular, we're very fortunate.
• 13:08
  Speaker 3: You know, it's not our fault.
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: People become accustomed to where they live.
• 13:11
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: And they think this is normal, which is one of
• 13:14
  Speaker 2: the reasons why this push towards communism amongst young people
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: is so infuriating to me. It's like I understand that
• 13:23
  Speaker 2: it comes from this desire for empathy and kindness.
• 13:26
  Speaker 3: I get that.
• 13:28
  Speaker 2: The idea of socialism comes from an idea of empathy
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: and kindness that you want. You think the world would
• 13:33
  Speaker 2: be better if we all shared and that why are
• 13:35
  Speaker 2: there people that are so rich? and people that are
• 13:37
  Speaker 2: so poor.
• 13:38
  Speaker 3: And you're right.
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: But the solution is not to make the government decide
• 13:44
  Speaker 2: who gets what. Because they never decide the right way.
• 13:47
  Speaker 2: They do what people do. What people do when they
• 13:50
  Speaker 2: have power is they enact total control over the population
• 13:53
  Speaker 2: so that they can maintain power. And then they live
• 13:56
  Speaker 2: in luxury, and then you wait in line for bread.
• 13:58
  Speaker 2: And that's how it is all over the fucking world.
• 14:00
  Speaker 2: And if you step out of line, they shoot you.
• 14:02
  Speaker 2: That's where communism goes. So what we need is like
• 14:05
  Speaker 2: a more a more moral and ethical version of capitalism.
• 14:11
  Speaker 2: So we need capitalism, but with empathy, capitalism, but with philanthropy,
• 14:15
  Speaker 2: like real philanthropy, not like scams, where you find out
• 14:19
  Speaker 2: that 90% of the money is actually going to all
• 14:22
  Speaker 2: the people that work there. We need to figure out
• 14:26
  Speaker 2: a way to be more empathetic as a culture, but
• 14:28
  Speaker 2: recognize that the pursuit of freedom and the ability to
• 14:30
  Speaker 2: have freedom is so huge. And it's such a great gift.
• 14:33
  Speaker 2: We're so lucky that we have this experiment in self-government
• 14:38
  Speaker 2: that is the United States of America. And that we were,
• 14:40
  Speaker 2: that at least I was born here. We're lucky as shit,
• 14:44
  Speaker 2: you know, and you don't throw that away because it's
• 14:46
  Speaker 2: not good enough. Don't throw that away because it's not,
• 14:50
  Speaker 2: it's not perfect. You're not going to get perfect with
• 14:52
  Speaker 2: human beings, but this is the best system.
• 14:55
  Speaker 3: Is it corrupt? A hundred percent.
• 14:57
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 14:58
  Speaker 3: That should be fixed.
• 14:59
  Speaker 2: The corruption should be fixed and guardrails should be put
• 15:02
  Speaker 2: in place and maybe more in regard to some things
• 15:05
  Speaker 2: should be put in place. But the purpose of this
• 15:08
  Speaker 2: whole thing is to allow people to have freedom to
• 15:11
  Speaker 2: do whatever they want. And that's not ubiquitous in the world.
• 15:16
  Speaker 2: That's not everywhere.
• 15:17
  Speaker 4: No, no. And I've been kind of a poster boy
• 15:22
  Speaker 4: child for American dream in a way.
• 15:25
  Speaker 3: Look at your phone. Look at that phone case. If
• 15:30
  Speaker 3: I had that on, people would call me a fascist. Yeah.
• 15:34
  Speaker 3: We have an American flag.
• 15:35
  Speaker 4: In Branson, yeah. In Branson, that's not.
• 15:39
  Speaker 2: That flag to me doesn't represent whoever is– it didn't
• 15:42
  Speaker 2: represent Biden when he was in office. It didn't represent Obama.
• 15:45
  Speaker 2: It didn't represent Trump. That represents all of us, right
• 15:50
  Speaker 2: and left, independent, black, white, Asian, Russian, fill in the blanks, Filipino,
• 15:56
  Speaker 2: everybody from everywhere.
• 15:57
  Speaker 4: Who cares?
• 15:57
  Speaker 3: Who cares? It's America. It's America.
• 16:00
  Speaker 2: This is the great melting pot. And that's how we
• 16:03
  Speaker 2: really should be. And that flag shouldn't represent. Some people
• 16:05
  Speaker 2: think the flag represents racism or colonialism. Like, come on, stop.
• 16:10
  Speaker 2: That flag represents hope. And if you were a kid
• 16:13
  Speaker 2: like Yakov Smirnoff.
• 16:15
  Speaker 3: That's right. Is that your real name? No, no. What's
• 16:17
  Speaker 3: the real name?
• 16:18
  Speaker 4: Pokhys.
• 16:19
  Speaker 3: Say that again?
• 16:20
  Speaker 4: That's why. Pokhys. P-O-K-H-I-S.