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Fringe review: Vasily Djokavich: Russia’s #1 State Approved Comedian

VASILY DJOKAVITCH: RUSSIAS #1 STATE APPROVED COMEDIAN by Morgan Cranny and Mike Delamont. At Factory Mainspace. July 8 at 11 pm, July 9 at 4:45 pm, July 10 at 5:30 pm, July 12 at 1:45 pm, July 14 at 9:15 pm, July 15 at 7:30 pm. See listing. Rating: NNN

Weve heard of anti-jokes, but Russian stand-up Vasily Djokavitch is an anti-comedian.

Standing beside a giant portrait of glorious, democratically-elected-leader-for-life Vladimir Putin gazing out at the audience, Djokavitch (performed by co-writer Morgan Cranny) is an awkward, portly caricature of a low-level Party bureaucrat who, through the wisdom of Soviet technocracy, was assigned the job of comedian despite having none of the charisma, timing or jokes that’s the overarching anti-joke.

Under the direction of co-writer Mike Delamont, Cranny spins yarns about his hardscrabble upbringing, scoring laughs off the old stereotype of Russia as a poor, corrupt, brutal, authoritarian, backward country, with more than a few laugh-out-loud moments (especially a bit about Soviet comedy training, which is clearly a description of cosmonaut training).

Sections where he plays up his tourist-in-Toronto status drift into Borat territory, and his Russian accent isnt always as solid as it should be, but Crannys a skilled improviser riffing some of his best moments off audience interactions.

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