“Dnipropetrovsk made the country laugh not once – first, it was done by Leonid Brezhnev, and then by KVN DGU Theater. However, Brezhnev did it on the amateur level, while KVN DGU Theater did it professionally.” Such reviews can be found on the Internet about one of the most talented pop bands, which appeared as a student KVN (Club of the Cheerful and Sharp-Witted) team during Mikhail Gorbachev’s perestroika. Today, the former students of Dnipropetrovsk University are over forty, but they are still young in spirit and make up their “masterpieces.” New invention of KVN DGU Theater is the project Cabaret “Funny Arctic Fox,” which often criticizes Ukrainian politicians in its performances.
The presence of healthy sense of humor in society suggests that it still retains the ability to adequately evaluate itself and things that are happening around. According to Hryhorii Helfer, art director of KVN DGU Theater, one of the authors of texts for witty miniatures, humor in Cabaret “Funny Arctic Fox” is with civic position. The Day’s reporter met with Gelfer in Dnipropetrovsk.
Why does your team perform under the new brand – Cabaret “Funny Arctic Fox”?
“Next year our band will celebrate its 25th anniversary, even though the KVN DGU Theater appeared later – in 1994. All that time we have been experimenting with different forms of pop art. Cabaret is a famous genre, it appeared in the late 19th century in Paris. It was also very popular in our country. It is a whole cultural formation and we have always gravitated to it. We mostly worked with small performances of musical character.”
“That is why we got an idea to call one of our projects Cabaret ‘Funny Arctic Fox.’ There is a tradition: there was ‘Black Cat Cabaret’ in Paris, the ‘Bat Cabaret’ in Moscow. So, why not to call one after an ‘arctic fox,’ playful and funny animal, you understand (laughs). The other part of the name ‘funny’ means that we try to treat the problems around us with humor and irony. However, sometimes our shows turn out to be not just topical, but also philosophic to some extent. Cabaret format means a small scene and a small number of spectators – average of 100 to 200 people, and also chamber, trusting environment. The show must be spectacular and show items have to be sharply performed. Therefore, we are not inventing the wheel. We are just trying to do what creative people do in other countries. This is a music hall, where there is no fourth wall and there is communication with the audience. It is possible to get the audience involved in the improvised show.”
Does cabaret genre allow political topics?
“Of course, but we try to be politically unbiased. In fact, it’s just a sharp vision of political events expressed by artistic means. Our miniatures are not political, it is simply a reaction to topical issues that affect our society. Politics is only a cause for us.”
When did the Cabaret “Funny Arctic Fox” appear?
“We began to work in this format three years ago. During this time we created three or four programs. The thing is that they are being gradually updated. We do not create everything new at once: two or three fresh program items appear and we add them, and the parts that lost their relevance get removed. Thus, within a year a program is updated fully. In the first program we had items about President Viktor Yushchenko, jokes about his ranking. There were also songs about economic crisis. In a word, there were things that troubled Ukrainian citizens and seemed relevant then. Later we added a song about communist leader Petro Symonenko, his young wife and newly born baby. This was quite a funny song. At the same time, we composed things on common life and philosophical topics, for example: ‘Fingers,’ ‘Meeting,’ and ‘Clown.’ I think that these items are still relevant and will remain relevant in the future. Beside musical items, there is a warm up for communicating with the audience, when anyone can ask a tricky guestion and we have to respond in 30 seconds. These are as if ‘birthmarks’ left from the times of students KVN.
“Besides Symonenko and Yushchenko, among our heroes there are Yulia Tymoshenko, and another fellow countryman – Serhii Tihipko. We also have a song about the Patriarch Kirill. However, we do not write only about the mighty people. In ‘Song about Grandson,’ for example, an ordinary Ukrainian man sings about how shitty it is to live in his home country. But he believes that his grandson will live in a different country. In the same country, but in a ‘different’ one.”
I have the feeling that you perceive politics as some kind of clownery, is that right?
“At least we do not have the attitude of sacralization or awe towards high standing personalities. Why should it be so that if someone’s a president then God forbid writing about him, not to mention making jokes? Yes, he is the head of the country, he was elected to this post and has more rights, but we have a right to have our own opinion and make jokes, of course, without personally offending anyone. Everything should be within civilized limits, within the framework of artistic format. Still, we have the right to speak figurative language, one that we mastered very well. One of the most recent program items – ‘Toreador’s Aria’ is about how Ukrainian leaders are trying to ‘break’ into the European Union, but they are not allowed in there. In the images of the Toreador and the Bull anyone can see what he wants. We meant Toreador to be the narrator who acts on behalf of Yanukovych and then on behalf of the EU leaders. In fact, we conveyed the situation in such a funny manner.”
This is all true, but sense of humor of Ukrainian politicians, especially those at power, often fails.
“It happens. But we hope that time will come when sense of humor for a Ukrainian politician will be as obligatory as sense of responsibility, patriotism, and professionalism. It is necessary also because humor gives an opportunity to look at oneself from the outside and find out what society thinks about you. Our songs do not bring us big dividends and are more likely to bring trouble, God forbid, of course. But we as citizens want to express our opinion on a particular issue that troubles people.”
Who writes your songs?
“I do together with Yevhenii Hendin. He is also a part-time musical director of the KVN DGU Theater. The songs are performed by our colleagues in the theater: Yevhenii Chepurniak, our director, Volodymyr Koltsov, Oleksandr Serhieiev, Hennadii Kolesnik, Yurii Bohuslavsky, and Ilona Solianyk-Holubenko.”
You have mentioned that your songs do not bring you big dividends. But, as far as I understand, there is public demand on your shows. Where can one hear you performing?
“In Dnipropetrovsk on the Hopner Street there is Cabaret ‘Moulin Rouge,’ which we often call between ourselves ‘Hopner Hall.’ We regularly perform our programs there – Cabaret ‘Funny Arctic Fox.’ We do it for the audience: sell tickets, people come and watch. The hall is small, but our expenditures are quite serious. We work as a municipal theater. Besides, recently we began cooperation with the TVi channel, which offered quite appealing conditions. We try to produce program items regularly. It can be either a concert item, or an audio recording, which is then used for a video. Our shows add something to the channel and we sure benefit from it because the whole Ukraine is watching us and listening to us. Short videos get on the Internet too. Yevhenii Hendin has his own YouTube channel. When there is interest, people begin to replicate our songs, give references, especially in social networks. As I have noticed, the vast majority of the Internet users’ reviews are positive. There, of course, happen to be negative as well, but it is normal.”
At one point, there was Kukly (Puppets) Show created by Victor Shenderovich on Russian television. This show was considered to be sort of a test for democracy. Perhaps, in our case, when the government tolerates jokes in their address, there are still grounds for hope?
“Kukly is purely television project. When they were gone from the broadcast, that was it. It would be more difficult to ban us. If what we do really affects people, they would come to see us in Cabaret. Besides, today we have Internet and it is difficult to deny or limit it. It is true that it is done in China, but Ukraine hasn’t reached that point and is unlikely to do so. By law, there is no censorship in Ukraine, but we ourselves do not allow certain things. We take the whole responsibility for what we bring out onto the stage. We point out weak points by the means we have at our disposal. We are neither politicians nor political critics. We just see what is happening in the country as citizens and say: ‘Hey guys there is something wrong here! And here is something a little awkward, in our opinion!’ Those, who know how to draw conclusions, let them do it.”
