Popular Ossetian comedian Timur Karginov has been performing at Russian television, 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.
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 in Pyramid. Anyone could come up with a funny joke.
— Is this some kind of uniqueness or feature of “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— 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 didn’t play jokes. Was this your choice? I didn’t want to play and try it 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 in Ossetia, somehow helps you get settled in life?
— In Russia, higher education has depreciated. Almost everyone of us has a diploma higher education, which should be an indicator highest degree knowledge. But even so, I believe that studying at a 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 do right choice profession? How do you know if it's yours?
- Choose your most important thing, don’t you? 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?
— 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 of 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 around major cities. I can say for sure that this city is changing. I can't say what exactly, but I feel every new wave capital Cities.
— You worked for "Comedy woman". Was it difficult to write jokes for a female audience? Are there any specifics?
- We worked for women's show. It was teamwork. We had an excellent writing staff. I was just the screenwriter of this show, we created it together with the girls, with Comedy Club Production, TNT TV 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 conversational genre, swearing is my emotions, which sometimes break out.
Of course, I understand that there is a limit to swearing. Mat can be different. Sometimes it's funny curse 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 on major festival comedies "Fringe" 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 he is a cool comedian— This 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. IN concert hall Dzintari showed StandUp for the first time and I think people were a little shocked. They were given humor on a different level, they were not ready for it.
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 person 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 many 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?
— 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's happened star fever?
- 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 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?
— Lately No. 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?
— 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.
From an early age, Timur attracted the attention of those around him with his unique humor and ability to make appropriate jokes. He always had something to answer and had a witty joke ready for every situation. He dedicated most of his speeches to the Caucasians, their difficult life in the Russian capital.
Despite the fact that the state has few reasons for fun, circumstances are often upsetting, young comedians can quickly join groups, produce individual project. This concert represents the first achievement in his career activities, no wonder that young man fills with excitement. He shows the audience his own thoughts about the gloomy prospects of society, the abundance of aggression, violence, and incorrect perception of values.
All available reflections are accompanied by unsurpassed humor, which cannot be compared with anything else. Usually a debut performance is remembered with some trepidation, which makes it unforgettable and leaves a lot of different impressions. Of course, it will bring pleasure to viewers who love to talk about life and draw conclusions. No one will remain indifferent after such a bright, extraordinary performance by a positive artist!
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 in student years he began to devote a lot of time to performing in the university KVN team. Having received an education and entered adult life, 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 participate in the filming of the show Comedy Women, and then become a resident of the new humorous show Stand Up. Its essence was that the artists went on stage one by one with a monologue own composition and joked at the most different topics. Karginov has developed own style speeches: 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.
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 the new show from Comedy Club Production called " Open mic" 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
Timur Karginov is already well over 30, but he still remains unmarried. He has a girlfriend whom the comedian has been dating for quite some time and lives with her in his Moscow apartment. However the name common-law wife Karginov keeps things strictly secret. She can be seen in several photographs published by the artist on Instagram.
There are rumors that at one time Timur Karginov was in a romantic relationship with Sasha Nekrasova, who was a member of the KVN team called “7 Hills”. But what is known for sure is the long-standing friendship of the Caucasian comedian with his TV filming partners - Ruslan Bely, Slava Komissarenko and Yulia Akhmedova. In 2017, he even starred in a movie for the first time - the comedy film “Zomboyashchik,” produced with his participation.
« Pyramid", resident of the Stand Up project.
Timur Karginov. Biography
Timur Karginov born June 6, 1984 in Vladikavkaz. Even while studying at school, he stood out for his rather unusual sense of humor; he always had witty jokes ready. After school, Timur entered Vladikavkaz University, where he became a member of the KVN team, and performed as part of the team in the “Student Spring” festival. After this, the young man finally decided to connect his life with the stage and become a professional, first as a cast member, and then as a stand-up comedian.
Popularity came to Timur Karginov thanks to his performances as part of the KVN team “ Pyramid" A special feature of the Pyramid rooms was that there was an entertainer in their rooms. This role was played by Timur, who very quickly gained the title of the team’s “think tank.”
After KVN, Karginov decided to start performing solo. First he starred in the show Comedy Women, and then firmly found a niche in the Stand Up project. Topics for everyone humorous numbers Timur Karginov takes from life, exaggerating real situations and bringing them to the grotesque.
In January 2017, the TNT channel launched the show “ Open mic", in which aspiring stand-up comedians tried to prove that they were worthy of performing in the project
Member name:
Age (birthday): 6.06.1984
Moscow city
Education: Studied at Vladikavkaz University, but did not graduate
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Read with this article:
Timur Karginov famous person among comedians - the comedian performs in the StandUp show and is the only “black guy” on the project. Timur positions himself as a native Caucasian, and indeed he is; he treats Russians’ perception of his nationality with irony.
At the age of 25 he moved to Moscow to make a career and become famous. Before this, Timur lived in North Ossetia, entered Vladikavkaz University, but was never able to complete his studies - his passion for humor interfered with his studies. So what is he really like - an unprincipled hack, as many Russians see him, or a kind Ossetian guy with great ambitions?
Timur was born into an ordinary family and since childhood he dreamed of making jokes on stage. He was never shy about public speaking; even at school he put on performances that made all his classmates laugh.
As an adult, Karginov was very handsome; in his first year at the University, all the girls went crazy about him - he was 2.01 m tall, had an amazing sense of humor, a gorgeous look, how could he resist?
And bursting onto the stage student KVN and having performed brilliantly, Karginov learned the next day that he had been expelled for “inappropriate behavior.”
Now nothing could stop him - since he can joke, people like it, then he has to move forward! With these thoughts, Timur gradually reached the Russian capital.
In the television KVN Karginov performed as part of the team" ", the guys joked about different social topics, but most of all the audience liked the questions national character and magnificent folk dances which Timur performed brilliantly.
He was also the team's entertainer. Although Timur himself never considered himself a KVN specialist, he strived more for solo performances, stand-up, which, in fact, is what he achieved.
On the stage of the Stand Up show, Karginov continues to cover topics related to Caucasians, remember his relatives and emphasize their ability to joke, as well as modern problems and current world news are assessed by the comedian as part of his performances. Timur's jokes are very self-critical and logical; no one else jokes in this style in Russia, so Karginov can easily be called a unique humorist.
The comedian's personal life is veiled- he claims that he has a girlfriend, they live together, but there is no talk of marriage yet. Many attributed to him an affair with a member of the KVN team “7 Hills” Sasha Nekrasova, but the rumors were never confirmed. Fans, of course, passionately want Timur to remain single, hoping that in the future one of them will be able to impress the comedian and become his faithful companion and inspiration.
Popular performances: about Timati’s song “Lada Sedan”, about the program “ A military secret"and Ren-TV, etc.
Timur Karginov became a mentor for the Open Microphone project on TNT.
Photo by Timur
Timur rarely appears at public events and does not maintain social networks.
