Childhood and youth
Mikhail Shats was born into the family of pediatrician Sarra Milyavskaya and Air Force officer Grigory Shats. The hero’s parents met in Kazakhstan through a coincidence of dramatic events. My father was sent there to serve; before that, he was taken out of besieged Leningrad along the “Road of Life,” and my mother was exiled to Kazakhstan in connection with the “Doctors’ Plot.” The serviceman's family often moved from one duty station to another until they finally settled in Leningrad.
Mikhail studies at school No. 185 in Leningrad. In 1982, he entered the medical faculty of the First Leningrad Medical Institute. He completed his residency there. Mikhail worked for six years as an anesthesiologist-resuscitator.
KVN and TV
Mikhail Shats, like many of his colleagues, is interested in KVN at the institute. He has been playing on the student team for eight years. He is a member of the team of the First Medical Institute (1 LMI), FINEK, then the KVN CIS team. Viewers of the “Club of the Cheerful and Resourceful” remembered Mikhail for his role as a doctor.
Having moved to Moscow in the mid-90s, Mikhail tries to get a job in a medical specialty, but in vain. At the same time, he and his KVN colleagues are coming up with a project for a new humorous program “O.S.P. - Studio". It’s difficult to find a high-quality recording of that show, so here we’ll post Mikhail’s latest stand-up. Yes, yes, today Schatz is a stand-up comedian, but more on that later.
From 1996 to 2004, with Tatyana Lazareva, Sergei Belogolovtsev and other participants, he worked on the humorous program “O.S.,” which quickly gained popularity. P.-Studio”, aired on the TV-6 Moscow and STS channels. From 2003 to 2004, Schatz led the program. The ratings of the project are so high that Mikhail decides to finally leave his medical career and devote himself to working on TV. In 2010, Schatz was appointed to the position of producer of special projects for the STS television channel.
In the late 90s and early 2000s, Shats participated in such well-known projects as “33 square meters”, “Zucchini OSB-chairs”, “O.S.Pesnya-99” and “O.S.Pesnya-2000” , “Good Jokes” (STS), a show that Mikhail hosts together with Tatyana Lazareva and Alexander Pushny - a humorous confrontation between two teams consisting of famous people, based on improvisation. From 2006 to 2010, our hero was the host of the humorous improvisational show “Thank God, you came!” on STS.
Height, weight, age. How old is Mikhail Shats
The popular TV presenter became famous in the late 90s of the last century.
He became the host of the OSP-studio. It was from this time that television viewers began to be interested in what height, weight, age, and how old Mikhail Shats was. The comedian has an average height of 172 cm. But with his wife’s height of 178 cm, he seemed somewhat shorter. The man weighs about 76 kg. He often plays sports.
Mikhail Shats, whose photo in his youth and now remains unchanged, celebrated his 53rd birthday with his family.
About civil position and dismissal from TV
Schatz was fired from the STS television channel along with his wife Tatyana Lazareva in 2012. Despite the fact that formally their departure is simply called a non-renewal of the contract, the spouses themselves have repeatedly noted that their dismissal from the TV channel is connected with their opposition speeches. In 2011, Shats and Lazareva joined the protest movement that arose after the elections to the State Duma of the sixth convocation in early December 2011 and continued during the presidential elections. Shats participated in the elections to the Coordination Council of the Russian Opposition, where he took eighth place in the general civil list.
Personal life of Mikhail Shats
Mikhail Shats’s wife is a famous TV presenter, actress and KVN performer Tatyana Lazareva. The couple met in the early 1990s in Sochi, where they took part in the KVN festival together. Then the young people often crossed paths during KVN games and numerous tours around the country. In 1998, Mikhail Shats and Lazareva got married and have been married for 20 years.
The family of Mikhail and Tatyana has three children - son Stepan, and daughters Sofia and Antonina. Stepan works in computer graphics for film and television, and Sofia studies at the university. The youngest daughter Antonina (born in 2006) still goes to school. The girl is studying in Marbella, Spain, where the couple rent a house.
Mikhail Shats today
In March of this year, news appeared that Schatz was returning to STS. He is the host of the entertainment program “It Was in the Evening” - an analogue of “Hollywood Game Night”. Here's what Mikhail Shats said to the StarHit portal about this:
“It’s difficult to come back. But, to be honest, not doing this is even more difficult. I go with an open mind and high hopes. You know, the understanding that I missed you actually came a long time ago. I devoted too much time to television, and it became firmly entrenched in my life.”
Schatz added that he agreed to work on the show “It Was in the Evening” because it was very similar to his previous program “Good Jokes.”
This spring, Mikhail took part in the “Evening Urgant” program, where he told host Ivan about how, after turning 50, he found his place in the stand-up genre among young comedians, and now not only performs in Stand-Up #1, but also tours.
Mikhail Shats: “The shooting schedules are starting to make me sick”
Sometimes it all resembles a disco where good friends have gathered. The stars invited to the filming of “It Was in the Evening” clearly do not squeeze out a smile, and the extras, who are quite dancing age, are always ready to organize a festival of disobedience thanks to the efforts of the beatboxers Juke Box Trio, acting as a studio orchestra. Sometimes it seems that in this seething cauldron, Mikhail Shats is the only person with a serious face. “It’s serious for me all the time. I didn’t do it on purpose, it just happens this way,” says the presenter already in the dressing room, after the next episode of the show has been filmed. Despite the gloomy regime of the so-called package filming, Mikhail looks very cheerful, although he admits that the new stage of his television life is not without the bustle typical of the industry. “I’m used to sybarism, to be honest, but here again these terrible graphs appear, which just start to make me sick,” notes Schatz. “But it’s better than doing nothing.”
By “do nothing,” Mikhail means a seven-year TV downtime, which happened after the channel closed the “Good Jokes” program, and then completely abandoned the services of the Shats-Lazarev family tandem as hosts of a variety of projects. Many associated this with Mikhail’s participation in the Coordination Council of the Russian Opposition, and the TV presenters themselves called the current situation “dismissal for political reasons.” There were no official comments on this matter then, but it was obvious that Mikhail would have to start some kind of new life.
“There was a certain period of adaptation,” the TV presenter recalls those times. “And I probably went through all the stages of depression that are described in psychology books.” At some point it seemed to me that I was done with television. Then it seemed to me that I was done with television, and that was the end for me. But over time, I began to realize that although I was done with television, I had other perspectives. And these are different states and emotions. But I won’t lie, it was hard.”
At first, cable-scale projects became an alternative to working on a large entertainment channel. Mikhail hosted the sports programs “Ankle Show”, “Olympic Channel”, “Games with Olympus” and even the culinary show “It’s Great to Eat!”. And when You Tube, as a way of distributing videos, began to turn from modest fun into some kind of State Television and Radio, Schatz decided to become his own comedian and joined the ranks of stand-up comedians.
A very bold step, especially for a person who began his career in the last century. Local stand-up, as you know, started at the beginning of the 2000s, and this means that the oldest participants in the movement are now not yet forty. In addition, even fifteen-year-old schoolchildren are actively involved in such a business, and such a background, at first glance, is not entirely suitable for a highly experienced uncle who will turn 55 this year. However, Mikhail is one of those who are used to treating people with humor, including to stereotypes.
“I’m even glad that I am a pioneer of age-related stand-up in Russia,” the aspiring stand-up comedian is sure. — Each generation should have its own voice, its own thoughts, its own jokes. Of course, the guys who are 20–25 years old and I have different topics and different thoughts. But lately at my performances in clubs I see completely different audiences. People of the same age began to appear.”
By the way, Mikhail is absolutely sure that stand-up is a great way to understand how children and grandchildren look at life. Of course, here we need to warn everyone who wants to understand their children and grandchildren. When stand-up comedians are in their element, they don’t choose their expressions at all, and their club performances are not intended for tender ears. Sometimes you get the feeling that stand-up is like a good ditty, that is, there is no swearing.
“Sometimes it happens,” consoles Mikhail. “I even know young comedians who deliberately do not use swear words. There is swearing in my monologues, I don’t abuse it, but I do use it. And I get a kind of buzz from it, because on television you can’t say anything at all, but sometimes you really want to.”
The change of generations in any creative environment, as a rule, is accompanied by reproaches of mediocrity, on the one hand, and discussions about the heroes of yesterday, on the other. Before Mikhail’s eyes, such generational changes occurred more than once, perhaps that’s why he treats them philosophically.
“You can’t say that everything is getting better or worse. “Everything is becoming different,” Schatz is sure. — Of course, humor changes. For my anniversary, friends gave me a cassette with the final of the Leningrad KVN league, where my team from the First Leningrad Medical Institute participated. The Youth Palace, a full hall, a huge event for those times. I watched the recording and was left with a very strange impression. It’s not even humor, but rather a delightful feeling of freedom when you suddenly began to speak, sometimes even something slogan-like, but all this was received with real applause in the audience. In the mid-nineties, not so much satire, but rather everyday humor appeared. And then the Comedy Club appeared, where they began to joke, as they would have said before, on obscene topics. In fact, everyone talks about such topics, but they are simply ashamed to speak in public. And now stand-up, the Internet... But I always find something in new humor to suit my taste, it seems to me that there are very successful, lively reprises. All times have had their successes."
One of the main successes of Mikhail Shats and his colleagues Tatyana Lazareva, Pavel Kabanov, Sergei Belogolovtsev and Andrei Bocharov was the O.S.P.-Studio project. They managed to create truly iconic humorous images of the nineties, and many fans still cannot forget Mishgan, Dr. Chance and other characters that the whole country laughed at. After the closure of the TV-6 Moscow channel, the project moved to STS, but it soon became clear that in the new century completely different jokes were required.
“We realized in time that it was time to finish, and we parted ways in time. Without squabbles, intrigues and scandals typical for such situations,” recalls Mikhail. “I think we did exactly what we could.” We were probably not very good businessmen. The guys from Comedy, who came ten years later than us, could monetize their success. We made great money, but we failed to turn our project into a corporation. So we remained the first successful romantics who came from nowhere. But the memories of this time are wonderful. “TV-6” was a wonderful island of romanticism and naivety, without bureaucratic structures or rigid production. Much was done on the knee. We decided and removed it. And no one really looked at the ratings; it didn’t take me long to find out that they even existed. At the same time, creative freedom was felt, the most exotic ideas were embodied. It was cool."
Now all the stars of O.S.P.-Studio are realizing themselves as independent figures. Sergei Belogolovtsev plays in theater and cinema, Pavel Kabanov is involved in enterprises and some television projects, Andrei Bocharov was one of the first to develop activity on the Internet and achieved success in this. For Mikhail Shats, big television is only part of his daily worries. He is no less busy with his tour as a stand-up comedian and preparing an entertainment show for the Internet. It is noteworthy that new information technologies captivate Tatyana Lazareva, Mikhail’s wife, and all their children.
“Son Stepan graduated from university and, one might say, works in a related industry. He has been doing 3D modeling and graphics for two years now,” says Mikhail. — The middle daughter is 21 years old. And with her friend she tried to open an Internet channel called “Already over 20.” Sofia has the makings of a producer and experience in creating various projects. So she's on her way somewhere. The youngest daughter, Antonina, is thirteen years old and is still at school. But everything that is happening around children now is pushing them to work in the entertainment industry. “Tik-tok”, constant filming of vines - now it’s already in the blood of children and is something like a social ladder. They see successful bloggers, and for them they are role models. You did something, a crowd of people subscribed to you, then advertisers came, and now you are a millionaire. And they don’t need any help from their parents with this.”
PS Interesting facts
Some more interesting facts about Mikhail Shats.
- Mikhail is the owner of “TEFI-2003” in the category “Best Entertainment Program” and “TEFI-2006” in the category “Best Presenter of an Entertainment Program”.
- He is a fan of the Zenit football club. Whenever possible, Mikhail attends football matches with the team; at one time he even wrote a blog for the club.
- Mikhail is fluent in English.
- Mikhail Shats has an official website - https://mihailshats.ru/, which we used when compiling this material.
