November 20, 2009

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The Real Yakov Smirnoff

Spend a day in the life of Branson's funny, yet surprisingly serious, Soviet-turned-proud American.

(page 2 of 3)

See the show You can watch Yakov Smirnoff’s signature performance at his theatre in Branson. Where: 470 State Highway 248, Branson When: Currently, Christmas shows are Dec. 1, 5, 7 and 8 at 9:30 a.m. and Dec. 2, 4 and 6 at 9:30 a.m. and 3 p.m. Tickets: Reserve tickets online at yakov.com or by calling 800-728-4546. Tickets are $30–$35 depending on seating and show type. Children 12 and younger are free except for in the elite seating areas. News: Yakov annouced Nov. 6 that he is bringing country star Joe Diffie from Nashville to his theatre in Sept. 2008. More info: Visit yakov.com or call 800-728-4546.

When I meet Yakov backstage immediately following the show, he shakes hands and smiles a tired smile, one of a man who does 200 shows a year, paints and still finds time to get a master’s degree in psychology from the University of Pennsylvania. I assume he’s got an awful lot of things on his mind, like possibly a nap. Turns out there’s no time: They’ll be editing the pilot from now until the night gig. He turns to an assistant and discusses the pilot he is working on. This particular show concluded with a rough cut of the pilot, and utilizing a free test audience, he is putting the responses to work. “It’s good, but everything that wasn’t funny? Cut it,” he says. The funny business is still business, after all. He loosens his tie and looks resigned. “How do you want to do this, Jacob? Do you want funny? Do you want deep?” he asks. It’s an odd way to start an interview, but then again, Yakov is an idiosyncratic subject.

In his office, Yakov kicks off his shoes and curls up on the couch. We discuss his work leading up to his show right now: his rise, fall and rise.

In the long annals of typecast one-joke wonders, Yakov has often been thrown in, a little unfairly, with the likes of Pauly Shore and Carrot Top: one joke comedians whose fleeting fancy had long lost favor with America at large. In Yakov’s case, his original claim to fame is the Russian Reversal: for example, “In America, you catch a cold, but in Russia, cold catches you!” It’s what made him a moderate star in the ’80s, and it is how a lot of people liked to think he was still operating.

“My comedy normally reflects what I’m going through in my normal life,” Yakov says. “At first, I talked about moving to America, then getting married, then having kids. A logical part of the American dream. Then two people who had no major vices just kind of drifted apart. It was very disturbing to me because I believed that once I had committed to marriage it would be forever.” (Yakov told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch in 2006 that he’s on good terms with his ex-wife, Linda, and their two children, Natasha and Alexander.)

Yakov has performed a one-man show on Broadway similar to the new direction he’s taking. Called As Long as We Both Shall Laugh, the show tackled Yakov’s divorce and his bewilderment as to what went wrong. He has expanded it greatly in light of his growth from that.

“It’s not just ‘why did this happen to me;’ it is ‘why does this happen to so many people?’ I feel like I did everything by-the-book, and the book said you would live happily ever after, the end. But then I said, where’s the next page?”

It’s a question that he never fully answers, but perhaps that’s the point. “I like to be an entertainer, but I’m also a messenger,” he says. “So those things are difficult to face, but they have to be a part of the show. But not all the time—not at the Skinny Improv.” He’s referring to the Springfield improv comedy club where he went on stage that night. “I try to be balanced, and I think that’s what separates me from a lot of people here [in Branson],” he says. “I also try to bring a message in.”

That message is how we keep ourselves happy, and how we stay together. Yakov’s master’s degree is in a new branch of the field called positive psychology that focuses on mental well-being. A common criticism of psychology is that it focuses so much on mental illness that there is very little discussion of mental well-being. “When I went into school, I looked to see what studies had been done on the effects of laughter and happiness,” he says. “And there were none.”

This concerned Yakov greatly, and through mediums like his act and his pilot, he is exploring how couples work. When I point out that his test audience was largely composed of people who are old enough to be the grandparents of the pilot’s subjects, he is unfazed. “There is a lot of wisdom that can be gained from them,” he says. “And this is a rough cut. Maybe one day you can say, ‘I saw the pilot for America’s No. 1 show!’”