Cheerful and resourceful from Donbass: life after KVN Sergei Sivokho, Mikhail Agranat, Fedor Gaponenko

Alexander Pushnoy: “KVN and “What?” Where? When?" - the only thing we have left of ours"

Musician, showman, TV presenter - Alexander Pushnoy.
Photo: EG / Olga EMELYANOVA / Dmitry LIFANTSEV We called musician, actor and showman Alexander Pushnoy , who at one time also played in KVN, with a question about the role of Svetlana Maslyakova in the development of KVN, and he agreed that Alexander Vasilyevich’s wife is very important person in the Club:

“Of course, as the director of the program... When someone is congratulated, for example, on winning an Oscar, the director comes out and says: “Thank you very much.” There are the main characters who participate in this, the leading actors, the artists, but there is a director who is responsible for the product. Both for failure and for success."

Oleg Filimonov: a former “gentleman” helps the ATO and teaches Ukrainian

The first champion of the revived KVN was the Odessa State University team “Odessa Gentlemen”. One of the most prominent figures in this team was a native of Nikolaev, Oleg Filimonov .

By the beginning of his career at KVN, Filimonov had a background in the department of Romance-Germanic philology, as well as defending a Ph.D. thesis in philology on the topic “Stylistic functions of rhythmization in English-language fiction.”

Relatives did not understand Filimonov’s retreat into humor, but over time they came to terms with it. For the time being, he managed to combine teaching at a university and performing in KVN. Filimonov became a two-time KVN champion and a Doctor of Science.

Actor, comedian, member of the KVN team “Odessa Gentlemen” Oleg Filimonov (right). Photo: RIA Novosti / Valery Levitin

However, in the early nineties, against the background of the collapse of the country and chronic lack of money, Oleg Filimonov finally broke with science, going to television.

Throughout the nineties, Filimonov made two humorous programs that were extremely popular in the post-Soviet space: “Gentleman Show” and “Mask Show”. In the first of them he shone as a presenter.

But by the beginning of the 2000s, the projects lost their former popularity, first in Russia, and then in Ukraine. The new programs did not have the same success. In the mid-2000s, Filimonov became the author of the script for the Naked and Funny project. Such humor, to tell the truth, was very far from what the “Odessa Gentlemen” once demonstrated.

In 2014, Filimonov supported Euromaidan, and then the punitive operation in Donbass. For its participants, the former “gentleman” organizes charity concerts in Odessa.

In 2020, 65-year-old Oleg Filimonov said in an interview that he was going to learn the Ukrainian language. The former captain said that his second wife had achieved great success in studying Ukrainian.

Now - Zelensky. Can an actor from KVN become the President of Ukraine? More details

Sergei Pisarenko: “Svetlana is the most “central” person in the film crew”

Actor Sergei Pisarenko.
Photo: KP/Vladimir Velengurin Sergei Pisarenko , member of the KVN team “Uyezdny Gorod”, champion of the KVN Major League in 2002, also shared with us his opinion about the role of Svetlana Maslyakova:

“This is the person who gave away the whole picture. The most “central” person in the film crew. She is a very strong-willed woman, with a strong character, and powerful. It was mainly the operators and technicians who were afraid of her. The KVN participants met less with her, mostly working with Alexander Vasilyevich.

And she sometimes gave instructions on which camera to work in, gave advice, and so on. She could come up and just chat about something... Such a real Russian woman, that’s how I can describe her. Economic. Everything in her household was always perfect.”

Sergey Pisarenko now

The artist is active on social networks. He has accounts on VKontakte and Instagram, where Sergei often posts photos from performances. Now the comedian continues to collaborate with his partner Evgeny Nikishin, is open to communication with the press and gives interviews. Sergei traveled to many countries on tour, and everywhere the images he and his friend invented are in demand and loved.

Lawyer by profession, director by vocation

TV presenter Alexander Maslyakov with his wife Svetlana and director Yuliy Gusman.
Photo: KP/Vladimir Velengurin But Svetlana once came to Central Television as a very young and inexperienced girl - right after school. No, she, of course, entered the institute, choosing a serious law faculty. But I couldn’t imagine my life without television, so even though it was hard, I combined work and study.

KVN team “Seleznyovka”: We are ordinary guys from the village, our jokes are simple, lifelike

With the new academic year, a new tour of the Lugansk KVN Student League starts. It will be held on October 8 at Lugansk State University named after Taras Shevchenko. Now the teams are actively preparing and worrying about the upcoming game. How will the talented students surprise the audience this time?

The first game of the quarterfinals was remembered by many for its bright and unusual participants. One of the teams amazed everyone and hit the bull’s eye with its humor - this is the KVN team “Seleznyovka” from the village of Seleznyovka, Perevalsky district. On the eve of the game, we were able to talk with the guys and find out the details of their preparation for the semi-finals.

– Tell us about the creation of your team.

Daniil: It all started in 2011. Valdes Romanov came to our school to teach - at that time he was recruiting participants for the KVN school. After a certain time, there were 10 of us left - then we played our first game in the Bryankovo League for the first time. This was our first experience, and we took first place.

– Why did you decide to join the KVN team?

Evgeniy: At first I didn’t want to, but Daniil was interested in it, and he invited me to go to the KVN school together. I decided to try myself and I succeeded. After I got into KVN, I became more liberated, stopped being afraid of the stage, and stopped being embarrassed to express myself. He also began to participate in events and school life.

– How many people are on your team now?

Daniel: There are four of us. We all complement each other as components of one whole. Our inspiration, director and author is Valdez. Without him nothing would have happened. He is like on stage in life – he is always a cheerful person and loves to laugh. Everyone likes him, he enjoys doing humor. He went to the “Make the Comedian Laugh” project in Kyiv in 2011. There he and his friend Artyom won 20 thousand hryvnia. Under all his humor he means seriousness. This shows his attitude to the matter. Valdez is someone everyone would like to talk to at least once. He attracts people to himself - perhaps this was the main reason that we went to KVN. Evgeniy - few people know him, because he did not get into the student league. He knows how to cheer you up, you won’t get bored with him.

Evgeniy: Our “grandmother” of the team is Daniil. He is always worried and worried about us. He gives a lot of ideas and constantly comes up with jokes. Well, our fourth participant, our highlight, is Alexey. He is 13 years old. His image of a cute and pretty boy who knows how to joke in his own way is liked by the audience.

– How do you come up with jokes for games?

Daniil: The main initiator of our team is Valdez. He is a more experienced player - he has been practicing in KVN for more than 10 years. We adapt to it, try to write ourselves. All our jokes are from real life. Everything we see and hear around us, the stories of friends and acquaintances, we translate everything into humor. We can see something on TV and remake it in a funny way. For example, in a student homework league, we took the trailer for the popular movie “Fifty Shades of Gray” and remade it. In general, the idea is simple, it was not difficult to bring it to life. We were very pleased when the audience liked it and laughed heartily.

– Do you often have creative crises?

Evgeniy: I had such a moment once in four years. I lost my desire and didn’t want to go to the game. After that, I regretted that I missed the opportunity to go to Lugansk and take part in the student league. When I went through this period, I realized even more how much I want to be part of KVN.

– You took 2nd place in the student league. Was this result expected?

Daniel: Of course not. We were worried that we wouldn't make it further. Will they understand our humor? We are ordinary guys from the village, our jokes are simple, lifelike. We wanted to understand whether we were doing this in vain. Second place is excellent and unexpected for our not very experienced team. Thanks to playing KVN, we decided to enter Lugansk State University named after Taras Shevchenko. Now we are studying at the Institute of Economics and Business. After the game we moved to a new, higher level. Now we want to play even more. The most unexpected thing that happened to us was that people began to recognize us. Maybe few people remember us, but even this makes us happy. Good reviews are all very pleasant for us.

– Tell us about the KVN school that you recently initiated in Perevalsk ?

Evgeniy: The head of this school is Valdes Romanov. He gathers schoolchildren and makes KVN players out of them. Teaches them how to hold a microphone, write jokes, perform, and hold themselves on stage. We come and show that we have already learned. There are already 30-40 students at the KVN school.

– Besides seasonal games, what else do you do?

Daniil: We are making videos. The first shooting of our video was unexpected and fast - it was something new and unusual. After that, we shot videos more than once, but we didn’t always get what we wanted. Our last summer videos turned out well. This was already planned and thought out. I wanted not to be distracted from KVN, to continue doing this in the summer.

Evgeniy: We gave a concert in Perevalsk on September 4 for the opening of the KVN school. There were a lot of people then and it was interesting for us to show ourselves and attract people to KVN.

– What do you expect from the student league semi-finals?

Daniil and Evgeniy: We think it will be fun. We want to justify the hopes placed on us. We promise the audience that the semi-final will be unforgettable, as Valdez says - it will be a bomb. Of course, we want to reach the finals - this is our dream.

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TV presenter Alexander Maslyakov with his wife Svetlana.
Photo: EG/Kudryavtseva Larisa The host of KVN from the first editions was Alexander Maslyakov Svetlana Zhiltsova appeared on stage with him , and the audience immediately “married” them. When Svetlana Semenova, assistant director and later director, got married and became Maslyakova, the credits were changed. And the audience decided that this pretty, smiling woman hosting the program with Maslyakov was his wife.

Meanwhile, Svetlana Maslyakova was still not seen on stage - her work took place “behind the scenes”. The program was closed, then reopened, a lot changed in our country, but KVN continued to exist, after difficult times, reborn like a Phoenix from the ashes. And a huge credit for this goes to Svetlana.

Best Performances

“NATE” has a lot of jokes, songs and miniatures in its “chest”. Some performances were especially memorable for Channel One viewers, for example, a skit about a married couple visiting a psychologist. The spouses were played by Malofeev and Turkulets, the latter being the wife. The husband took the woman to the doctor, complaining about her disgusting behavior. Naturally, there is humor in the dialogue, and the acting talent of the guys makes the performance funny.

"NATE" - "Married couple with a psychologist"

In the same Premier League 2020, NATE showed a patient at a Bryukhovets dentist. A doctor in a provincial hospital does not want to examine a visitor’s teeth for free, but he works without gloves and is interrupted by phone calls. At the end of the skit, having received consent to the question “Shall we put a crown”, he begins to dance to Stas Mikhailov’s song “Golden Heart”, explaining that this is his “crown”.

And in the 2020 KVN Major League, introducing viewers to the life of the village they represent, the guys demonstrated a scene supposedly in a Bryukhovets apartment. While at home, Malofeev answers a phone call from an unknown person, who reports that he has arrived and is waiting at the entrance.

"NATE" - "At the Bryukhovetsky dentist"

Sergei explains that he didn’t call the car, and the driver responded: “money is tight now, I decided to take the initiative myself.” At the end of the miniature, it turns out that this is a representative of law enforcement agencies working part-time at night as a taxi driver in a police car, since they were forbidden to take bribes, but they had to live somehow.

In the “Music” competition in the same game, “NATE” decided to present a film about Russian football, calling it “Legend Up.” In their story, Russia becomes world champion. The Brazilians did not believe in the opposing team so much that they simply did not show up for the game. Moreover, one of the players, Anton, had only attended training for 5 days before. And he managed to get into the national team after a call from the coach, who explained to Stanislav Cherchesov that the guy didn’t want to play for the money. The scene is filled with dialogues, songs and dances.

No vulgarity on stage!

TV presenter Alexander Maslyakov with his wife Svetlana.
Photo: EG/Belyasov Anatoly And today she continues to be “at the helm” - together with her husband she makes sure that vulgar or dubious jokes do not appear on the screen, with a firm hand she cuts off unnecessary things that, in her opinion, are inappropriate for the best humorous program in the country.

We congratulate Svetlana Anatolyevna on her birthday and wish her to remain the soul of her favorite program for many more years, to receive joy from her work and from communicating with the players.