At Comedy Shows in Lviv, Crowds Look for Humor Amid a Deadly War

LVIV, Ukraine — Some morsels of stories are so grim and absurd that they sound like they have been conceived within the warped creativeness of bored satirists. Just like the headline from Belarus a couple of weeks in the past, reporting that tenth graders there have been being taught tips on how to intention rifles — utilizing shovels.

“What do you concentrate on that?” asks the comic Vadym Dziunko.

Dziunko is onstage with two different comedians and a well known singer. All are seated and holding microphones, gamely looking for humor in a spot and at a second when the tragic is trouncing the humorous by a spectacular margin.

It’s a current Saturday night time on the Cult Comedy Corridor, a comedy membership in downtown Lviv, close to Ukraine’s comparatively peaceable western border. Some 100 folks have spent about $13 apiece to eat, drink and hearken to comics riffing about no matter crosses their minds, which is commonly the newest information concerning the struggle with Russia. Or within the case of this shovel-as-rifle enterprise, the subject is the oddness of life in Belarus, a dictatorship a mere 150 miles to the north.

“What do you count on from a rustic the place a potato is a weapon?” says the comic Oleksandr Dmytrovych. Then he imagines an teacher, giving tricks to the children.

“‘We are able to’t provide you with rifles but — —”

“‘As a result of we solely have one,’” finishes the third comedian, Maksym Kravets.

That is Cultural Protection, a night of unscripted and free-flowing humor staged in Lviv each few nights. It started two weeks after the Russian invasion, when Kravets, a Ukrainian intelligence officer by day and a comic by night time, referred to as the co-creator of the present, Bohdan Slepkura, and identified that the Cult Comedy Corridor was in a basement.

“I mentioned, ‘You realize, the place is a bomb shelter,’” recalled Kravets, a burly and bearded 42-year-old.

Kravets, sporting a T-shirt with “Wildness” on it, and Dmytrovych have been sitting in one other room within the membership after the present just lately. Initially, they mentioned, they weren’t positive anybody within the nation was within the temper for chuckles. The shock of the invasion was then contemporary and tons of of 1000’s of residents from the japanese a part of the nation have been flowing into the town.

“Earlier than the primary present, we thought, possibly this isn’t the fitting time for comedy,” mentioned Dmytrovych, who’s 30 and bearded, too. (“With out beards we’re ugly,” he defined.)

“We have been petrified,” he went on. “However after the primary present, we got here and sat on this room and realized, folks wish to chuckle. They wish to hear jokes about our enemy. From that first night time, we understood this may be larger than we had thought.”

There was precisely one worldwide breakout star in Ukrainian comedy and he occurs to be the president of the nation, Volodymyr Zelensky. If this places strain on others within the enterprise, it wasn’t apparent onstage on this Saturday, when no person appeared particularly pressed to land on a punchline and a singer, Mykhailo Khoma, spent lots of time ruminating about his childhood.

Ukraine has lengthy had a modest live-comedy scene, although anybody accustomed to the usual setup at American golf equipment will discover novelty within the present’s format. There’s no warm-up act, and at no level is anybody standing onstage alone. There are totally different visitors each night time. The night begins with 4 males main a raucous name and response in Ukrainian, like the remainder of the present.

Hosts: “Glory to the Nation!”

Viewers: “Demise to enemies!”

Hosts: “Ukraine!”

Viewers: “Above all else.”

Hosts: “Putin!”

Viewers: Unprintable putdown!

After that, the celebrities take their seats and begin to discuss.

A few of the humor is self-deprecating. In a earlier present — they’re all out there on YouTube — Dmytrovych riffed concerning the information that Ukrainian troopers had mastered a “single use” antitank missile referred to as an NLAW. This was wonderful, he mentioned, as a result of by nature and necessity, Ukrainians are accustomed to reusing every part, again and again.

“I bought slippers in a resort in Egypt a 12 months and a half in the past and I’m nonetheless sporting them,” he mentioned. “Once they bought soiled, I washed them. Once they fell aside within the washer, I glued them collectively. Now these are slippers I provide to visitors.”

There are many jokes on the expense of President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, who’s scorned as a blustery fool who underestimated the spirit and resolve of Ukrainians. The Russian army, then again, is essentially spared. The purpose, defined Dmytrovych, isn’t to belittle the invading forces, which Ukrainians regard as formidable and horrifying. It’s to carry the spirits of people who find themselves not on the entrance strains, or who may need as soon as lived close to the entrance strains and have since relocated.

So throughout one present, Kravets extolled the surprisingly polished great thing about checkpoints in Lviv (“I might not be shocked in the event that they served lattes”), a few of which have exceptionally lengthy strains. (“I believed initially they’d take my order and on the finish I’d be handed a Huge Mac.”)

Inside politics are a recurring theme. Throughout a present a couple of weeks in the past, a ballot was cited that discovered 90 % of Ukrainians wish to be part of the European Union.

“What’s the very first thing you’ll do after we be part of the European Union?” an onstage visitor requested.

“Search for the ten % who didn’t wish to be part of the European Union,” deadpanned Dmytrovych. “Who’re these folks?”

The exhibits double as fund-raisers for Ukraine’s struggle effort. Each efficiency is live-streamed on YouTube and viewers can ship donations on-line. All through the night, a number who’s offstage shares particulars of among the bigger donations, together with messages for the performers. On this Saturday night time, one donor needled the hosts for the shortage of jokes.

The objective for the night was to boost sufficient cash to purchase a automotive for border guards, and by the point the viewers headed residence, about an hour earlier than the war-imposed 11 p.m. curfew, the objective was almost reached. Over greater than 50 exhibits, Cultural Protection has raised near $70,000.

The gang at these exhibits skews younger, with most within the 20-to-35-year-old vary. There are rows of seats packed close to the stage and tables within the rear for many who wish to pattern Cult’s menu, which, considerably incongruously, leads with a protracted record of sushi choices, together with rolls and nigiri. In short interviews earlier than the present, a couple of spectators mentioned that the onslaught of miserable information made laughter appear important.

“I feel it’s a 3 for one,” mentioned Petro Diavoliuk, who was ingesting and consuming with pals. “All the cash goes to the Military, folks calm down and it’s cheaper than a shrink.”

Even right here, although, actuality intrudes. A couple of minutes earlier than the ultimate ovation on this Saturday night time, a lot of cell phones concurrently started to emit the traditional air raid siren, that rising and falling sound that may be a staple of each World Conflict II film through which troopers scramble forward of an assault. Everybody checked their telephones, and opened an app — a number of can be found — that tracks authorities warnings about missile strikes.

“Warning! Air alarm!” learn a textual content in each Ukrainian and English on a Telegram channel referred to as Notifications CD, for civil protection.

No person appeared remotely involved, and the movement of onstage chatter didn’t pause for a second. Air alarms are fairly frequent in Lviv; there have been 10 throughout Cultural Protection exhibits. And anyway, the place is a licensed bomb shelter. If there have been real hazard, this may be a positive place to attend it out.

An hour or so later, properly after the present had ended, a second message appeared: “The air alarm is stopped.”

Throughout a post-show interview, each comedians mentioned they hoped the struggle ends earlier than the autumn, for purely careerist causes. They’ve bought some company gigs lined up in different nations and so long as hostilities rage, males are barred from leaving the nation.

This was a joke. Humor in Ukraine is each a prayer for normalcy and a type of resistance. Additionally it is, one way or the other, uniquely fortifying. As Dmytrovych put it, “For so long as we’re laughing, we’re not giving up.”