Childhood and adolescence
Timur was born in the capital of North Ossetia into a traditional Caucasian family. His parents are scientists, and the last thing they expected was that their son would become a comedian. However, from an early age the boy was distinguished by a great sense of humor and endless charm, which invariably attracted the attention of others to him.
Young Timur Karginov
At school, Timur immediately became a favorite among teachers and classmates. He was not shy about appearing in public, and was a regular participant in school events. Each of his performances caused homeric laughter and was accompanied by stormy applause.
After receiving secondary education, Timur entered Vladikavkaz University to master the profession of a commodity expert. In his first year, he became interested in KVN and became a member of the student team “Disaster of the Week.” The jokes of the talented comedian did not go unnoticed, and soon he was already conquering the Premier League as part of the Ossetian national team “Pyramid”. Timur took on the role of entertainer and practically did not act out jokes.
Dance of the KVN team “Pyramid” The team twice reached the finals of the Major League, but never became a champion. In 2009 it ceased to exist. But Timur was not going to give up and give up - he already clearly understood that he wanted to connect his future life with humor and the stage, and with his friend from “Pyramid” David Tsallaev he decided to move to Moscow. As it turned out a little later, this spontaneous act radically changed his future fate.
Rare photo: Timur Karginov without a beard
Popularity
In 2009, after the collapse of Pyramid, Karginov decided to devote himself entirely to the humorous genre. Together with his friend and colleague David Tsallaev, he decided to conquer Moscow. It was the right thing to do; it was in those years that his fate was determined.
But the guys didn’t appear on TV right away. TNT television producer Slava Dusmukhametov invited them to write texts for the new show Comedy woman. Timur worked as a screenwriter for a long time. But it did him good. He began to understand more the difference between women's and men's humor. Many jokes did not “go”: for women they were too rude, chauvinistic, and only men could joke with them.
After this, Karginov decided to try to participate in the Stand up show. He became interested in this genre when he was working in KVN. Timur watched a lot of performances by Russian comedians. But, as he himself admits, few people influenced him. His style was so different from others that he quickly won the love of the public. He was unofficially given the title "the country's first black comedian."
Timur Karginov jokes not only about everyday topics. He talks about the national characteristics of the inhabitants of the Caucasus and about football. He talks about problems in Russia, incidents from the lives of friends, his loved ones and, of course, himself. Timur’s performances can be watched on YouTube and Instagram.
Timur Karginov and Stand Up
In Moscow, the friends met with producer Slava Dusmukhametov, who invited them to write texts for the TNT entertainment project Comedy woman. Having become a screenwriter, Timur felt the difference between male and female humor: “Girls somehow feel differently. Some of the jokes weren't right for the show: too crude, too masculine, too chauvinistic." Having mastered television and gained experience, Timur decided to try himself in the humorous project “Stand up”. He became interested in this genre, which at that time was just gaining popularity in Russia, when he was a KVN player. I have watched many foreign stand-up comedians, but Timur cannot say that someone specific influenced his established style. The style of his performances was so original that Timur very soon became a permanent resident of the project and even earned the honorary title of “the first black comedian in the country,” as Ruslan Bely dubbed him. Timur Karginov - “This Day” Karginov takes themes for his numbers from ordinary everyday life, but, passing through the prism of his unique sense of humor, simple everyday situations become incredibly funny and amusing. He also joked a lot about the national characteristics of Caucasians and Russian football. In 2016, Timur became a member of the jury and mentor of the “daughter” show “Stand up” - the Open Microphone project, designed to identify new talents among aspiring comedians. The first season went off with a bang and aroused great interest among viewers.
In 2020, Timur Karginov became the jury of the “Open Microphone”
Biography
Timur Karginov was born in 1983 in Vladikavkaz and is of North Ossetian origin.
His childhood was quite ordinary, except that the boy never lost his sense of humor, and he had his own joke prepared for any situation. It is not surprising that during his student years he began to devote a lot of time to performing in the university KVN team. Having received his education and entered adulthood, Karginov became a member of the Pyramid team, with which he repeatedly performed in the KVN Premier League on central television. Gradually, Timur Karginov was noticed by the producers of the TNT channel and invited him to take part in the filming of the Comedy Women show, and then become a resident of the new comedy show Stand Up. Its essence was that the artists went on stage one by one with a monologue of their own composition and joked on a variety of topics. Karginov has developed his own style of performances: in almost every one of them he touches on his Caucasian origin and the attitude of the people around him. The artist’s statements about Russian singers, cars and other objects from the point of view of a person from the Middle East sound no less funny.
The Stand Up show became incredibly popular, and as a result, the producers decided to send the residents on a tour around the country. The concerts attracted full houses, so the tours became annual. Each of the residents has their own army of fans, and it is not surprising that Timur Karginov has become one of the most popular and sought-after comedians in Russia. Thanks to this, the artist began performing solo: his first full-fledged benefit concert, “Ambiguous,” took place at the end of 2017 and was broadcast on the TNT channel.
In the same year, Timur Karginov became one of the mentors in a new show from Comedy Club Production called “Open Microphone”. In it, mentors examine the performances of amateur comedians and select those they like into their teams, so that they can later compete for the title of the best. The project gained high popularity and was extended for several more seasons. In addition, the stand-up comedian took part in the filming of such shows as “SOYUZ Studio” and “Where is the Logic?”
Personal life of Timur Karginov
Little is known about Timur's personal life. He is still not officially married and has no children. Despite the popular belief that Caucasians are loving and frivolous, he has been living with his girlfriend for many years. He hides her name from the public, but there is information on the Internet that Timur lives with his fellow countrywoman Lola, whom he transported to Moscow from Vladikavkaz.
Timur Karginov has a strong and warm relationship with his girlfriend
The artist often mentions her in his performances, each time noting how different their sense of humor is. Nevertheless, he is going to live with this woman until old age in order to “teach her to joke like Kargin.”
Personal life of a comedian
A tall and charming Ossetian guy attracts many girls with his appearance. His face has already been remembered by connoisseurs of humor, and more and more often female fans are showing interest in his marital status.
Today Timur Karginov is not married, but he has a girlfriend with whom he has been living together for several years. In his interviews, the young man does not reveal the name of his beloved, wanting to keep her identity secret. Sometimes it happens that his bride ends up in the sights of paparazzi cameras, and from these pictures we can only say one thing - the girl has a wonderful and sweet Slavic appearance.
Timur Karginov's Instagram account
Timur is a hot guy from Vladikavkaz and this is noticeable in everything.
Bright Caucasian appearance, strict style of clothing, subtle humor and purely masculine hobbies. On the young man’s page there are photos from his concerts and performances by his colleagues in the “Stand Up” workshop. Next is a huge number of publications from the magnificent Paris-Dakar rally, where hundreds of bright, large and small racing cars storm the dunes along the “Silk Road”. Timur Karginov's Instagram screams about how much he loves speed and admires strong, tough guys in racing suits. Hundreds of photographs of powerful trucks with numbers and symbols of clubs, with huge advertising stickers, aggressively shouting about the power of the engines and the drive of the athletes.
Timur Karginov does not sign photos from Instagram; his loving colleagues and friends do this for him. The guy is only at the beginning of his stellar career and all his best publications are still ahead.
Humor and creativity
Timur Karginov gained first popularity nationwide thanks to his performance in the KVN team “Pyramid”. The guys attracted attention with the topical themes of their performances: the skits raised social, and even more often, national issues. A special feature of “Pyramid” was the presence of a permanent entertainer, whose role was played by Timur, and soon the public recognized Karginov’s right to be called the “brain center” of the team.
Timur Karginov in KVN
The comedian was not going to stay long in KVN, where you need to be team-oriented. Timur wanted to work alone, so he first moved to the TV show “Comedy Women”, and then the Ossetian comedian carved out his own niche in the alternative program of the “Comedy Club” - the comedy project “Stand Up”. Karginov takes almost all his jokes from life, but in a funny way he exaggerates real life situations, turning them into grotesqueries.
Timur's monologues are dedicated to Caucasian relatives and their ability to joke; he also discusses current social and world problems.
Timur’s memorable speeches were “About Timati,” regarding the rapper’s video “Lada sedan, eggplant,” and “About realtors,” whom Karginov does not like and considers useless people. It is also worth paying attention to the monologues “About the elevator in the new house, neighbors and politeness”, “About buying wine, a spa and gays”, “About the bicycle and how they wanted to take it away” and others.
The beginning of creativity
After graduating from school, Timur Karginov entered a university and immediately became a member of the local KVN team. When the team took part in the Student Spring festival, Timur decided that he wanted to connect his life with the stage and continue to develop in the direction of humor, as he received great pleasure from this activity and felt an irresistible desire to become the best. Subsequently, Timur's hobby nevertheless grew into a real professional occupation, but at the same time it prevented Timur from graduating from his university.
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Timur Karginov: I don’t want to be intelligent, I want to be intellectual
Popular Ossetian comedian Timur Karginov has been performing on Russian television for several years, becoming one of the stars of the show on TNT StandUp. In an interview with Sputnik, he talked about the beginning of his career, shared his experience of living as an Ossetian in Moscow, touched on taboo topics in humor and revealed the formula for success of an aspiring comedian.
— Timur, tell us how you got into the KVN team “Pyramid”. There is a version that you gave a notebook with jokes through a friend and they told you: “Come.”
— At one time, I liked the Vladikavkaz KVN team, it was called “Disasters of the Week.” My friend and a lot of cool guys played there. I wasn't particularly interested in KVN, but I liked television. Sometimes I came to their rehearsals.
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I liked spending time in their company, it was fun, you were charged with a different energy. At some point, I realized that I would really like to play with these guys, spend time, share impressions and spend my youth in general.
I don’t remember the details with the notebook, but I know that our leader Rodion Bigulaev had the following idea: every team member should be able to write jokes. He advised everyone to come up with jokes and develop authorial qualities. Rodion gave us time to bring a notebook with the material. The jokes didn’t have to be funny, the main thing was that you wrote them and spent time. This was not an exceptional case.
Subsequently, all the guys wrote jokes at Pyramid. Anyone could come up with a funny joke.
— Is this some kind of uniqueness or feature of the “Pyramid”?
- No, we had such a team - a group of people who really liked to be together and joke. We didn't think about it. We wanted to achieve something without thinking about popularity.
— Your life has changed quite a lot. Now you are an actor, comedian, author. Are you happy that one day KVN appeared in your life and everything turned out exactly like that?
- Yes, definitely. This changed my life. I like the way this time has passed. I was 18-19 years old when this story began.
I remember the moment well - I’m 25 years old, Pyramid and I are giving a concert in New York, and I felt great about it. I felt pleasant sensations.
— In “Pyramid” you were an entertainer, you practically did not act out jokes. Was this your choice? Didn’t want to play and try on different images?
- No, I couldn’t make funny jokes. We had a very funny frontman David Tsallaev, a very funny Zaur Baytsaev (Varabey). They were really very funny people in the rank of comedy, real comedians, comedians. David and Zaur could make you laugh both in life and on stage. They always give off a very positive energy that you can feel.
It was difficult to compete with them, almost impossible. Somehow it happened that I started announcing the numbers, and then David and Rodion suggested inserting text jokes into them. There was no emphasis on this. We had an unspoken philosophy within the team that every part of the game had to be funny.
— They say that you were even expelled from the university because of KVN. This is true?
- No, there was no deduction. I am a candidate of sciences.
— Do you think that having a higher education, or better yet two or three, as is customary here in Ossetia, somehow helps you get settled in life?
Photo: Konstantin Farniev
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— In Russia, higher education has depreciated. Almost everyone of us has a higher education diploma, which should be an indicator of the highest degree of knowledge. But even so, I believe that studying at university develops a person. You carry out mental actions, you analyze, strategically calculate, you come to classes, you are forced to think in order to pass a test, you think, you think and reflect all the time, honing some subconscious skills that will be useful to you in life, and so on and so on. so on and so forth.
I advise everyone not to quit studying, even if you think it’s not for you, but at the same time you need to do what you consider to be yours.
— How important is it to make the right choice of profession? How do you know if it's yours?
- Choose your most important thing, right? There are many factors here. Some are lucky, some are not. I managed to find my favorite thing during the 15-year period of my life, but others did not.
— Tell us how you moved to the capital?
© Sputnik / Katya Valieva
David Tsallaev: our humor has become international, we began to laugh together
— David Tsallaev and I moved on the same day. I didn't intend to move. We performed at festivals in Sochi in 2009. This was the post-final performance. We arrived home, I didn’t know what I was going to do and didn’t even think about it. You never know what will happen. David said: “Let’s go write “Comedy woman.” We bought tickets and a couple of days later we were in the capital, and on the same day we arrived, we went to the office and started working. And, of course, thanks to Slava Dusmukhametov (Russian producer and screenwriter), who created the context for moving to Moscow.
Everything happened quite spontaneously. But recently at some point I realized that I live closely in Moscow.
— What has changed in you and in Moscow itself since moving?
— I like Moscow. I like the world, I like to travel to big cities. I can say for sure that this city is changing. I can’t say what exactly, but I feel every new wave of the capital.
— You worked for Comedy Woman. Was it difficult to write jokes for a female audience? Are there any specifics?
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— We worked on a women's show. It was a team effort. We had an excellent writing staff. I was simply the screenwriter of this show, we created it all together with the girls, with Comedy Club Production, TNT channel.
I don't know if there is a difference between male and female humor. There are men and there are girls. Girls feel differently somehow. While working on the show, I began to realize that some of the jokes weren't appropriate, they were too crude, too masculine, too chauvinistic.
A women's show, specifically "Comedy woman", it should relax the viewer. Each show has its own characteristics, its own philosophy.
— In your monologues on stage, you often talk about Caucasians and our characteristics, is no one offended?
- No, they don’t seem to be offended. These are just jokes, they mean nothing, this is not a call to action. I told a joke, people laughed or didn’t laugh. Why get angry or offended by a joke? It's strange, isn't it?
— How do you feel about swearing on stage?
- I like to swear. I don't know how readers will react to this. I really like what Tatyana Tolstaya said about this: “Banning swearing is the same as banning salt and pepper.” I always see boundaries. StandUp is a conversational genre, swearing is my emotions, which sometimes escape.
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Of course, I understand that there is a limit to swearing. Mat can be different. Sometimes these are cool swear words: they sound cool from a phonetic point of view, but there is a dirty swear word. I understand that they react poorly to this. But this is life, everyone swears, everyone has said a swear word at least once.
We have StandUp, we are a little different, we have life. This is how we feel it. I don't do anything on purpose. If a joke is not funny without swearing, I remove it. It’s not the swear word that owns the joke, it’s the joke that uses the swear word.
I don't want to be intelligent, I want to be intelligent. An intellectual is not always an intellectual, and an intellectual is not always an intellectual.
— It turns out that you live out every monologue on stage?
- Yes, I live. I want people to laugh.
— How do you deal with criticism? And whose opinion is important to you?
“I don’t have the creativity to react to criticism in any way.” Sometimes they say something. Sometimes it's unpleasant to listen to. Much depends on who is speaking. There are people who don't understand anything, they just scratch the surface. The opinion of people whom I consider smart is important.
I make jokes, they are not criticized. They criticize me rather than my work.
— I read that you have no image on stage and you are the same as in life.
- There is no image.
— What inspires you to write monologues? How easy or tedious is this process?
— I know that I need to produce a certain amount of material in a certain time. If we take, say, six months, then it’s about 40 minutes—that’s five monologues.
I always know what tasks are ahead of me, so I need a plan. Sometimes inspiration comes, sometimes you can ignore it and force yourself to work. I love it when all the ideas are formed in your head first, while you are doing everyday things.
I don't know if it's easy or not, but it's fun. It makes life more interesting.
— It turns out that the thought process and the search for topics for jokes does not stop?
- Yes, you constantly think about everything. A couple of years before moving to Moscow, I began to be interested in absolutely everything. When I started doing StandUp seriously, I realized that you need to know everything, even if you can’t apply it to jokes. You need to be fresh all the time.
— I saw somewhere on the Internet that there are no forbidden topics for jokes for you, is that true?
- Maybe there is.
— What won't Timur Karginov make fun of?
- I can not say anything. There are probably some taboo topics. We were at the big Fringe comedy festival in Edinburgh. You know, the English-language StandUp is quite tough, sometimes cruel. And it seems to me that the audience there is very free, and they have no taboo topics.
But one day we went to a show, stood at the entrance and saw a security guard taking a man out of another show, the man was crying and screaming about the performance of one of the comedians. By the way the man shouted, we understood that he did not like that the comedian touched on the topic of cancer in his performance. It turns out that everywhere there are taboo topics for jokes.
— Are there any jokes that are embarrassing?
- There are a couple.
— Who do you practice and practice jokes on?
- We have no such concept. The point of StandUp is to perform a lot. Our jokes are appreciated by people, by viewers. We perform 5-6 times a week.
— In Russian StandUp people rarely joke about politics. Is this some kind of taboo?
— No, there is no ban, but you need to joke about politics with an attitude. Our Ruslan Bely loves to joke about this topic.
— Do you watch your performances?
- Yes, it happens sometimes. I love watching my performances in clubs when I'm in regular clothes without makeup. I always film such performances so that I can do some work on mistakes later. And I don’t like the performances that go on air. For me, it’s like a passed stage.
— I read somewhere on the Internet that a cool comedian is a mature person with a lot of life experience.
— It is very important that a comedian always remains fresh. It’s hard for me to name such a comedian in Russia, I’m far from that. Now some comedians who started their careers in the early 2000s are approaching this age of 40-50 years. Let's see if they stay fresh.
— How have the topics for jokes changed since you've been performing at StandUp?
“Sometimes it can be a bit harsh and not everyone wants to hear about death from drugs or rape. This is where we differ from others, we don’t have our heads in the clouds, we are here. We are not preachers, we say what is, maybe not very funny.
We recently performed in Jurmala. StandUp was shown for the first time in the Dzintari Concert Hall and I think people were a little shocked. They were given humor on a different level, they were not ready for it.
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KVN team from Vladikavkaz: we managed to win “on character”
We always warn that we call a spade a spade. Most people judge by the first releases, when we simply showed what this genre was all about. We are already four years old. We will be making the eighth season. Everyone has growth. Things are not so simple now.
People often tell me that I joke about Caucasians. I don’t joke about Caucasians, because it’s no longer interesting to joke. Four years ago it was a different time, and Caucasians had problems in Moscow. I don’t think these problems exist now. Let's say I really couldn't rent an apartment. This outraged me. It’s hard to imagine that they won’t rent an apartment to me now. It's strange to joke about this.
Now the creative producers of StandUp, Yulia Akhmetova and Ruslan Bely, are working to ensure that each comedian has his own concerts on TNT, like Ruslan himself or Stas Starovoitov.
I'm already ten minutes away. It's hard for me to come up with jokes where every word is funny. Nowadays, sometimes some of the backstories to jokes last two or three minutes. I would like to tell some stories from life, this takes time.
— A successful StandUp comedian in Russia is...
- You must have a career behind you. This is a person who will come to any city and fill the hall, with millions of views on YouTube. I think we will all understand what a successful stand-up comedian is when this happens.
— They say that people who joke on stage are very serious and sad in life. What are you like in life? In communication with your friends and loved ones?
— I don’t know, but I like to joke. We like to joke. I really love humor, comedy, I love everything that has to do with laughter. We are StandUp comedians, we are a little different. We don't have to wear a bright green jacket or have a funny hairstyle to be funny.
Serious? I just take myself and what I do seriously. I know for sure that David Tsallaev and Taimuraz Badziev are the same. We all do comedy one way or another, we love to joke in life. We're not serious, but we take what we do seriously.
— Modern Ossetians in Moscow are...
- I don’t measure things in such terms. I don't know. The main thing is that a person is honest, decent, enlightened and developed. Modern man is a man living in this time.
— Are they asking you for help?
- No, it seems to me that these are ethnic fairy tales and fables: “I moved to Moscow and immediately received calls and requests.” Everyone has some small requests, not only Ossetians.
— While searching for information about you, I came across a lot of links where I could invite you to speak at some event? Are you often invited?
- Don't know. I think this is natural for any artist. Sometimes called.
— Do you consider yourself popular?
- No.
— Are you recognized on the streets?
- I do not think about it. It doesn't matter to me. A popular person is someone who comes to a city and gathers a full house for his performances.
— What is star fever?
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- I don't know. I'm always with my friends. I'm not going anywhere, I'm working. I don't understand where it could appear. I'm always with the same people.
When we come somewhere for concerts, everything is arranged so that we do not come into contact with the outside world, not because we don’t want it, but because that’s how business works. You arrive, do your job and fly away.
— What does Ossetia mean to you now?
— I consider Ossetia my homeland, of course. All my closest friends are from there. My parents are there. Ossetia shaped us. This is a huge part of life. This is part of me.
— Do you often visit Ossetia?
- Not lately. I try to come, but it doesn’t always work out.
— Imagine who you would have become if KVN had not happened in your life?
- Don't know. The fact of the matter is that there were no plans. It was the 2000s. The 90s just ended. I was 18, I wanted to live a fun and cool life and have fun, I didn’t want to be negative.
— Have your plans changed?
- No, I want to continue to be happy. I want to focus on comedy, creativity and everything that comes with it.
— What advice would you give to a young person who is looking for himself?
- Don't be stupid. It seems to me that there is still no shame in being stupid, and sometimes it’s even funny. And that's not very good.
Timur Karginov now
In 2020, the Open Microphone show started, where Timur became a mentor along with Ruslan Bely, Yulia Akhmedova and Slava Komissarenko. He calls Karginov's team a party. Timur trusts the guys and leaves the last word to the participants. As of today, the 3rd season of “Microphone” has already been released. Two more are planned, in 2020 and 2020.
Then Timur was invited as a participant in the comedy and music show “SOYUZ Studio”. He fought in a musical duel with his stand-up colleague Ivan Abramov. As a result, Ivan beat Timur by one point.
Timur also took part in the third season of the show “Where is the Logic?” together with comedian Stas Starovoytov. The rules of the game are to connect things, phenomena and characters into a logical chain. However, at first glance, the pictures are not related to each other. The “Stand Up” team fought against “Univer” actresses Yulia Frants and Ekaterina Shumakova. As a result, the boys beat the girls by two points.
Also in 2020, Timur performed a solo concert entitled “Ambiguous”.
At the beginning of 2020, Karginov appeared in the comedy “Zomboyashchik” directed by Konstantin Smirnov. He played a minor role and acted as the film's creative producer.
