Sasha Nezlobin: ‘I’m Fine’: Putin’s the problem in this stand-up comic’s musings on life in exile
Putin isn’t someone who is likely to have a great sense of humour. Which is unfortunate, as maybe if he could take a joke, plus some criticism of the Russian government, Sasha Nezlobin wouldn’t have been designated a ‘foreign agent’ and exiled from his homeland.
The comedian’s first full-length show in English, ‘I’m Fine’, is a dizzying dive into predominantly the last four years of Sasha’s life, as a newly impoverished exile making a life with his family in LA. He also talks about the previously less impoverished bit of his life, as a hugely successful stand-up comedian, writer and director in Russia. A starry career was cut short when he had to hurriedly board a plane, having signed an anti-war letter addressed to Putin and shared an Instagram post criticising the recent invasion of Ukraine.
Putin’s regime is rich fodder for Sasha, who both despairs and still finds humour in its desperately tragic absurdities. He jokes about the fact that posting ‘Stop the War’ on Instagram gets you seven years in prison, whilst rape is only five years; or the fact that the LGBTQ+ movement is on Russia’s list of terrorist organisations whilst the Taliban was removed from it last year. Russian art and performance has a strong tradition of transmuting darkness and moral disarray into absurdism, to make sense of the incomprehensible. Sasha is no exception.
The show interweaves the political and personal, which are so inextricably linked in his life. He talks about his family, and the consequences for them (his daughter is less than impressed by the downgrade of life in the US). There is a joke about his dog, and the dog being more pleased to see him than his wife after their flights to LA – not material that is startling fresh, and one of a couple of moments that felt a little hackneyed, but nevertheless delivered with aplomb.
Throughout the show, he is a commanding figure on stage, dressed in a black t-shirt with ‘I’m фine’ emblazoned on it (swapping out the English ‘f’), with budget flames in the background. His manner is dry and self-deprecating (he is very deprecating about the budget flames). He is also deprecating about his efforts to make it in Hollywood, including nearly making a film with Kevin Spacey.
Throughout the show you could feel his comedic skill. He smoothly skated through subjects, each joke like wafer-thin ice, with complex problems and issues dark-depths beneath. Even the lack of first-language command over English becomes a tool at his disposal, using it to lead the audience onwards and then April fools them. At one great moment he muses convincingly on the definition of a word before wrong-footing us with a replacement word that hilariously turns the whole sentence on its head. As he rebuilds his career in an unfamiliar tongue, it is moments like these that show his calibre. The evening concluded with Sasha bursting out into some motivational Eminem – and if given a microphone and free reign of a stage, who can blame him?
Sasha was at the Plesance Theatre on the 27th of October and a UK-wide 20-date tour (dates to be announced), is planned for February onwards.