Nizhny Novgorod duet "Sofya-Alyoshka": "You need to see the faces of the audience when we go on stage! What are your plans for the near future.

If in the USA the stand-up genre exists and has been actively developing since the middle of the 20th century, then in Russia this direction has received its share of popularity over the past five years. Now in all major cities our country has an "Open Microphone", where any stand-up comedian can test himself. But is it possible for everyone to laugh, where to start and how not to screw up in the end, but to gain experience, he told Seine Guram Amaryan.

How did it happen? Yezidi by nationality, was born in Tbilisi, but moved with his family to live in Nizhny Novgorod?

My father is a drummer. We lived in Georgia, but he constantly traveled to Moscow for several months, because there were many orders for them musical group. At some point, my father realized that he spends more time on the road than with his family. Therefore, I decided that it would be easier to transport us to Russia.

And in general, it so happened in our family that we are a nomadic people, each generation lives in a new country. I think I'll go somewhere too.

You started doing KVN at school, in the 10th grade, having entered the university, you continued this business. So why didn’t he stay in KVN, but moved to Stand Up?

To achieve something in KVN, you need money, sponsors, it’s not enough just to be funny and able-bodied. Outside help is needed, and I have never had such help. Therefore, I went to the Comedy Battle casting without hoping for anything, and then I started doing stand-up and began to take part in the Open Mic.

- About "Comedy Battle". You were a member of the duet "Sofya-Alyoshka". Is it difficult to work in pairs?

I felt comfortable. But it so happened that after the first stage (and between the first and second stages we had about two months) we relaxed. Back then, education came first for us. Gayane and I rarely saw each other. I thought that once a week I would write jokes, and that's enough. But we didn't get past the second round. And now I understand that it was a logical outcome.

And if you compare participation in a team, as it was in KVN, pair performance and solo performance, then which one do you think is the best option?

I would choose a solo performance, because there are a lot of people in KVN. In any team there are those who do much less than the rest, but they have to be there. No offense to anyone, but Gayane and I wrote the material by 70-80 percent, and it was more convenient in a pair - no need to collect 8 people. When Gayane got married, she had her own worries, I decided that I could try to perform alone. Of course, writing alone is difficult. Now we come up with texts together with stand-up comedians, but still the responsibility lies only with you.

As for studying at the university. You chose the department of taxation, even sounds too far from humor. Why did you make such a decision?

When I wanted to go to university, I thought that being a tax officer is cool - I will go with epaulettes. It seemed to me that I would work for several years in the tax office, I would learn to squirm in all this. And then I'll be a tax advisor and be able to help multi-million dollar corporations save their money, which they'll pay me for. large sums. But it doesn't work. The more I studied at the university, the more I realized that I was not interested in it and that humor was much closer to me.

Seriously decided to get into humor after participating in the show "Make the Comedian Laugh", right? Why didn't you come up with this earlier? Thought that humor could only be a hobby?

It was just that at that time I was able to show my parents that I could make money on humor. When I was doing KVN, they thought that I was wasting my time. They thought that while I was young, that I would have fun, and then I would start working. But now I was able to make money on humor, and at the same time my first broadcast began on Comedy Battle. Then my parents realized that I was growing and developing, going beyond the university KVN on NNTV. It happened in the spring of 2014 - I decided that I would do humor.

- And now stand-up is your main activity?

Yes, and I don't plan to do anything else.

You take part in the Open Mic on TNT. Does the competitive environment affect the writing of texts?

I am very glad that I went to the Open Mic. Before, I just wrote less. I allocated an hour or two every day to work with jokes, sometimes even less. I performed 2-3 times a week in Nizhny Novgorod, which seemed enough. And in the "Open Microphone" there were 80 participants, and you had to go to someone's team. Each next stage passed through a short period of time, it is necessary to quickly write more jokes, so the brain began to work differently. In general, when you are on fire, you come up with more ideas. I sat and squeezed material out of myself, which turned out to be quite good.

Do more experienced stand-up comedians offer advice?

Yes, and mentors, and other stand-up comedians. I, for example, in good relations with Slava Komissarenko, who often helps me with advice. Stand-up comedians of any level give you two of the most important advice: write more and perform more. You will write jokes badly, act unfunny, screw up, understand it, but then write differently. And in the end you will come to your own style.

- Do you feel that you are becoming a more experienced stand-up comedian?

Yes, but now, perhaps, only in the fact that I feel more confident on stage. But it's still hard for me. Even now I understand a little more in what I do, in what I write. I think - a joke will come in or there will be silence. But again, there are also very strong misses.

Stand-up already has the first black comedian - Timur Karginov. You position yourself as the first Yazidi comedian. Are you afraid of comparison?

No, and I am not imitating Timur or anyone else. I'm doing my own comedy and I don't want to compete with anyone. If you look at Timur, then we have a completely different presentation, and our topics rarely intersect. I'm just doing my stand-up, and so far it's like this: not on the best level, there is room to grow. But I don't feel competition.

- Among the experienced stand-up comedians, are there those who you want to look up to?

If you take Stand Up on TNT, then each of the stand-up comedians has something to learn. I don't have favorites.

- Do you personally single out taboo topics for stand-up?

It seems to me that there are no such topics. The topic is not important, your position in the joke and the context itself are important. For example, you can't joke about cancer, but you can mention it in a joke and it will be funny. This is not humor over illness. Even racism is fun to talk about what it is, about our behavior from the outside, but at the same time use jokes in the right way. I myself joke a lot about terrorism. This does not mean that I am joking with the victims, on the contrary, I am making fun of our attitude, the wrong fight. And this is my personal position.

- And what topics always go well?

Jokes about terrorism work best for me. I write a lot on this topic, for which I am often scolded. Now I even wrote a monologue about the fact that they scold me, that I write a lot about terrorism.

Of course, vulgarity and dirt come in, if you don’t go too far with it, because here you walk on the edge. These are topics that people are afraid to talk about. But someone joked, and the reaction is always violent. "And so it was possible?!" People are a little shocked, but the stronger their reaction.

- How real are the situations that you talk about in your speeches?

By 80 percent. The beginning is usually true: what happened to me or my friends. If I write about the whiteboard, about the girls that I had, then I really had a whiteboard and I made a list of girls. But then I came up with a story, how could it be, this is fiction, but it is interesting. That is, you take a situation and paint it to make it funny.

Where should a beginner stand-up comedian start?

With the understanding that you will make a lot of mistakes, you will often think that you are not doing what you need to find a job. You have to be ready for the feeling that you will not achieve anything, and you have to be able to cope with it. Understand it, write and perform. Find an "Open Microphone" in your city, come there and show jokes until it's funny.

- Is it possible to learn stand-up, or should it be at least partly innate?

If you have never dealt with humor, then you should read foreign translated books about this genre of performances. You can even isolate the scheme of building a joke from this. But this is only for initial stage, then your understanding of how it should be is already being developed.

- But anyone can try themselves in stand-up?

Yes, absolutely. Because everyone has their own life story. If you have at least some experiences, and you talk about them, it will become funny. I need personal pain.

They say that laughter is the best cure for all ills. There is even a type of psychotherapy - helotology - treatment with laughter. Do you think humor can heal?

There are some things that laughter cannot cure. But laughter helps to distract, not to think about your illness. Maybe while you are being treated, you are distracted by humor, and at this time the disease itself is already passing.

Bright creative person. A person who gives to other people good mood. Him wonderful feeling humor, he is witty, talented and artistic. His life is invariably filled with a sea of ​​new impressions and positive emotions. He is a very dedicated, active and hardworking person. An incorrigible optimist. Understands that natural talent needs to be constantly improved in order to reach the top new way personal and creative development. Despite the fact that he chose the comic genre as his profession, he is a serious and thoughtful person at heart. He...

Bright creative personality. A person who gives other people a good mood. He has a great sense of humor, he is witty, talented and artistic. His life is invariably filled with a sea of ​​new impressions and positive emotions. He is a very dedicated, active and hardworking person. An incorrigible optimist. He understands that natural talent must be constantly improved in order to enter a new path of personal and creative development. Despite the fact that he chose the comic genre as his profession, he is a serious and thoughtful person at heart. He sincerely worries about the fate of his country and his people. A true patriot, appreciates the peaceful sky above his head, sincerely regrets those who are subjected to persecution and suffering. He does everything possible to somehow influence the situation. He is a very stubborn person, it is impossible to force him to abandon his worldview and moral principles. He deeply appreciates the culture and faith of his people, for him these concepts are not an empty phrase.

His main hobby, which has become the work of his whole life, is participation in KVN. He is a member of the Ponaehali KVN team, a regular participant in Stand-up parties in Nizhny Novgorod- "Open mic" that gives him as an artist conversational genre, a great opportunity to find out the reaction of the public to new material. His life is full vivid impressions, consists of constant performances, trips, travels, participation in various competitions and filming of television programs. However, he finds time to participate in charity events. Aware of world political events. He devotes time to sports, a football fan. He does not forget about communicating with relatives and friends, he believes that one should not forget about people dear to his heart behind numerous deeds.

He is very sociable, sociable, artistic, well kept in public. Knows how to respond correctly to the current situation, will find a worthy answer even to an unworthy question. Friendly, he has a lot of friends and just good friends. He is always glad to meet interesting and talented people willing to learn from their experience. He believes that every person has such character traits that are worth paying attention to. He is grateful to the people with whom communication contributed to his personal and creative growth. He is also sincerely grateful to veterans - people who defended the Fatherland from invaders. He believes that veterans should be remembered not only on the eve of Victory Day. One must be able to appreciate the peaceful sky above one's head and honor the people who defended the Motherland. A special place in his life is given to family and close friends. He true friend, you can always rely on him Hard time. He is enduring, not afraid of pain and difficulties, but sincerely, with all his heart, worries at the sight of other people's suffering. He will not pass by a sick, unhappy person and will try to do everything in his power to somehow improve the situation. He is one of those people who never forget their roots and do everything possible to help not only blood relatives, but everyone who is related to their people. He sincerely worries that the Yezidi genocide is currently taking place in Iraq. Participates in the collection of humanitarian aid to the people who believe in God and do not want to betray their religion.

Professional presenter, participant of "Comedy Battle. Super Season", winner of the show "Make the Comedian Laugh", resident of "Stand-up Nizhny Novgorod".

Holds holidays, corporate parties and weddings. For holding New Year corporate parties offers huge discounts. Provides the event with a DJ and equipment. He really knows how to give people a good mood, fill the event good jokes and fun!

He is not limited to the activities of the presenter, he also sells paintings and reproductions, tapestries with views of night cities, summer and winter scenery, cityscapes, still lifes, animals and flowers.

Member Name: Guram Amaryan

Age (birthday): 9.08

City: Tbilisi, Nizhny Novgorod

Education: UNN them. Lobachevsky, Faculty of Finance

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Despite the fact that Guram Amaryan is the representative ancient people Yezidis of Iraq, he was born in Tbilisi.

True, after some time, his family toured their native lands and firmly settled in Nizhny Novgorod.

As a child, Guram was very exemplary, to some extent even a sissy. He never participated in street fights, made friends with guys from the right families, in difficult situation be sure to ask your parents for help. Everything changed only in high school, when Guram realized that only he himself should be responsible for his actions and make important decisions.

Back in the 10th grade, Amaryan fell ill with KVN. He liked to invent jokes himself, organize performances. It is not surprising that such an active and talented young man was given the role of captain in the Club's school team.

True, after receiving the certificate, Guram chose not theater university And creative profession, but quite mundane Nizhny Novgorod State University named after N. I. Lobachevsky and the Department of Taxation. As he himself explains, he wanted to have a prestigious profession that would provide a solid and stable income.

At the same time, Guram did not quit KVN, he continued to perform with the university team, but he wrote jokes for her. Once, at a game in Minsk, he was noticed by the producers of the Ukrainian show Laugh the Comedian and invited him to participate in it. Guram himself was skeptical about this, but nevertheless accepted the invitation. And it turned out that not in vain!

Amaryan's performances impressed the audience and the judges of the project so much that they gave him first place. The first success inspired Guram and finally convinced that humor is what he wants to do seriously.

The next step in Amaryan's career as a stand-up comedian was performance in "Comedy Battle" on the TNT channel. True, in this project, he positioned himself not as an independent artist, but as a member of the Sofya-Alyoshka duet. The judges liked the guys, their humor quite fit into the format of the channel, but still the couple did not go beyond the second round.

And then Sophia ... got married and abandoned stand-up. Just at that moment, Guram realized that he needed to rely only on himself and began to perform on his own.

He chose the Stand-Up - Nizhny Novgorod project as a platform for presenting himself. After some time, the organizers noticed a talented guy and invited him to permanent job. So Guram Amaryan became a resident of Stand-Up - NN.

As the comedian himself notes - writing jokes is easy enough for him. The main topic for speeches this moment serves as the theme of Caucasians. Although Guram himself has already decided to leave her, the audience is still accepting everything with a bang, and given that the performances in hometown are held three times a week, there is very little time left for experiments.

Despite the fact that Guram is a famous and popular person in his city, he himself believes that he has not yet reached the ceiling and he sees new horizons.

That is why in 2017 he went to the Open Microphone show on TNT, winning which the young man will be able to become part of the troupe of one of the country's most popular humorous projects - the show. According to the results of the first performance, Guram was selected to the team. A start has been made, we look forward to continuing!

Guram Photos

The comedian constantly posts new photos on Instagram.

On May 23, Gayane Avetyan and Guram Amaryan, residents of Nizhny Novgorod, received their “minutes of fame” on the well-known TV program “Comedy Battle”. The guys successfully made it to the second round of the program, making eminent comedians laugh: Slepakov, Svetlakov and Martirosyan. Now the duet has already returned to Nizhny Novgorod and is preparing to also brilliantly pass the second round of the Comedy Battle. The Pro City journalist talked to Gayane and Guram.

About the title. Needless to say, when you hear the names of Sophia and Alyoshka, heroes appear who do not look like the duet members. Gayane and Guram themselves know about this, and Garik Martirosyan also noted this at the speech. “Gayane and I argued for a very long time about the name of the duet. There were probably more than a hundred options, but I managed to convince her that "Sofya-Alyoshka" was a funny, somewhat ironic name. I just really like to see the faces of the audience when the duet “Sofya-Alyoshka” is announced, and two dark-haired comedians enter the stage, ”Guram laughs.

About the preparation of the number.“We prepared the performance for the first stage long before filming. They wrote a huge number of numbers, sent videos to Moscow for editing, added what was left, sent them again, and so many, many times. But, oddly enough, the very number that we showed was completely and completely written already in Moscow, literally in two evenings. The idea of ​​the number was submitted by the representative of the Caucasian women - Gayane. Well, then you developed the idea together and created a number that went on the air. Rehearsals with Gayane, to be honest, a pleasure! She is as funny in life as she is on stage, ”Alyoshka admitted.

By the way, as Gayane herself admitted to the journalist, the humor in her life is not so carefree. “It is generally difficult for a woman to deal with humor. We are rarely taken seriously. In my case, everything is somewhat harder, I am still a Caucasian girl and represent Armenian people. So, I must be extremely careful so that there are no vulgarities and my relatives do not have to blush for me. My mother is generally against my humorous activities, they think it is not serious, which is logical in principle. But, after I went to the second stage, she softened a little, ”the humorist shared with the correspondent.

Recently, Guram participated in the "Make the Comedian Laugh" contest. Without any castings, the Nizhny Novgorod resident was able to stay on stage for more than five minutes, performing short songs, thanks to which he earned 200 thousand rubles.

About Martirosyan. The famous Russian comedian of Armenian origin will remain in the memory of our heroes for a long time. “He is very objective. Always after the performances, even when the participants are incredibly funny, he tells them about the mistakes made. As a result, these words are much more useful for the participants than the sea of ​​praise from the audience and other members of the jury,” says Guram.

“Garik Martirosyan is wonderful! Incredibly educated, intelligent and witty person. At the same time, there is a feeling that on the screen he is overly strict and biased, then in real life the opposite is true. He says everything to the point, clearly, nothing superfluous and subjective, ”said Sofya.

About humor in Nizhny.“In Nizhny Novgorod, in general, things are wonderful with humor! We are filming a large television project Comedy Region, in which the best residents of all regional branches of the Comedy Club perform. We, too, I think, will perform in it soon. There is one more interesting project in Nizhny - Stand-Up Antishow. Where best comedians Nizhny perform in the now popular stand-up genre. By the way, I also tried to perform there,” says Gayane.

Guram and Gayane - Good friends, they met in 2011 when they played in KVN in the "Come in large numbers" team. Unfortunately, the team ceased to exist, but the guys continued to communicate and do what they love - to produce high-quality humor.

Every Sunday, the Fabrika bar on Rozhdestvenskaya brings together a large number of people who are not without a sense of humor. The reason for this is the talented guys from Stand-up. Nizhny Novgorod comedians tell stories from their lives, turning everyday life into an original joke, and actively communicate with a lively audience. This time we attended one of these evenings, laughed heartily at the tales of stand-up comedians and asked a few questions to veteran comedian Guram Amaryan.

About his getting into Stand-up and his role in life

I've been in stand-up since October 2014. I got here because I was in KVN with these guys; we were on different teams, but in the same league. After that, I ended up in "Comedy Battle" with a duet, but, unfortunately, the duet broke up. After that, I realized that I need to start doing something myself. Thus, it turned out that I came to stand-up. Started by speaking here at open mics, and then the guys called me to the main team.
I like to do humor, and Stand-up is the genre in which you are responsible for everything yourself. If it's a joint, then you're to blame, if it's funny, then only you are done. The responsibility is only on me, there is no need to run after anyone, no need to ask anyone: "Let's write, let's get ready."

You can’t be a stand-up comedian just for fun, you need to devote a lot of time to this. You can't just take two days to write jokes, then to speak. In order to write good monologue, you need a lot of time, you need to work every day.

About preparing for the performance

I prepare jokes, but, of course, there is some small amount of improvisation. I try to do this less in the course of performances. There is material prepared, in which I am sure and I know that people will find it funny. I take something from my life, add my own attitude to it, further disperse it, exaggerate, try to look at the situation from different angles. You can’t just tell a story like that and it will immediately turn out to be funny.

The material is constantly updated, you constantly write, so you are already used to the fact that some jokes may not work. Approximately 80% of what you write during your career is not funny, and only 20% are such brilliants that you leave for yourself.

About creative crises

You have to fight them somehow, so I try to try as many new things as possible so that somewhere something hooks me, so that I can pee about something. In my case, of course, everything is simple, unlike other comedians. If I have a crisis, then I start writing about Caucasians. Every month I have to write a new monologue, and every month I face the fact that I have nothing to write. You start thinking about what worries you, what you want to talk to people about, what topics are most interesting.

It's better to write about what really worries you - this is the main conclusion that I made from almost a year and a half in stand-up. If you write about something that does not bother you, then you get it very artificially, the audience does not believe you, the emotions are fake.

About plans for the future

I want to become a famous stand-up comedian, I want to develop as a comedian so that there are more cool thoughts from me. Not just came out like a clown, amused the people, but I just want to present interesting, deep thoughts to people through a joke. IN Lately, I try to convey some idea with each of my monologues, to give people food for thought.

I want to grow up and by the age of 30-40 to be a comedian who gives out such deep thoughts one after another. Of course, this requires a wealthy life experience, it's hard at 22 to give out cool thoughts all the time. If we talk about the most immediate plans, then I'm going to take part in the Stand Up festival in Moscow, where a lot of things will be decided for all Russian comedians of my level.

Interviewed by Daria Milakova

Photos by Irina Smetanina