Ep. 138 - Guest: Yakov Smirnoff

Victoria Henley chats with world-renowned Ukrainian -American comedian, Yakov Smirnoff, about escaping the Soviet Union for a better life in America, why patriotism doesn’t have to be political, the unifying power of laughter, working in film and television alongside Meryl Streep, Robin Williams, and Jerry Seinfeld, helping bring down the Berlin Wall, and the #1 reason he will never run for President.

Episode Transcript

(00:01):
This is the FCB Podcast Network.This is Bessie's Pass with Victoria Henley.

(00:24):
Hi. Everyone, it's Victoria Henleyhere on backstage pass and I am sitting
here with the one, the only, the legendary Yakov Smirnov, Yakov,
how are you? Thank you?I don't know how to take it when
people say that I'm legendary. It'slike, do you supposed to be dead
by Dan or you're still You canbe alive and still be a legend,

(00:46):
legend, legend, absolutely legend.Gary Yeah, yeah, so but thank
you, thank you. I appreciatethat. I love it, Yakov.
I first of all, I loveyour perspective. I just watched your show
you talked about so much. We'regonna get into it out a little bit.
Take us back to the very beginning, when you were a little boy.
Did you always know that this iswhat you wanted to do? What

(01:07):
was the dream? Um? Iknew that I liked making people laugh.
I never imagined that it would getme to perform in the White House or
be in the movies. I neverI never picture dad. So the Soviet
dream was not as big as Americandreams are. Soviet dream was like survived

(01:34):
till next day, and that's theyou know. So, so I was
enjoying making people laugh, and littleby little it turned into a career there
in the Soviet Union, and thenit turned into career here, you know.
So, so I've been very blessed. So walk us through. You
came here and then you know youyou started at the comedy store. I

(01:57):
believe that was well, that wasyeah. I started up in New York,
cup in the Catskill Mountains, justa bar boy and a bartender because
I didn't speak English. So youkind of need that to be funny in
in, you know, unless youdo it from the Russian audience. So
I learned. And then I movedto Hollywood and got really lucky there because

(02:27):
the owner of the comedy store spottedme and literally sent her assistant to go
after me because I was leaving.And then and she said, no,
no, you you should see MitsyMitsy as the owner, and she really
liked you. And I'm like,who's Mitsy? Why do you know?
So that's how it all kind ofcame together. And then I was working

(02:53):
There's a carpenter for a long time, watching other entertainers comedians and learning from
them and a little by little.Got my first break was movie Moscow and
the Hots, a major motion picture, and just because Robin Williams was performing
at the Comedy Store and he's seenme and it was like, we need

(03:16):
somebody who speaks Russian. So Igot that part. And then after that
the Hollywood kind of discovered me withTom Hanks movie Richard Pryor movie Brewster's Millions,
Tom Hanks Money Pit, and MerylStreep and Jack Nichols are Heartburn.

(03:37):
So I'm really I was lucky toget into that into that part of the
business that I never imagined. It'sincredible of the legions of celebrities, top
billing names that you've worked with,Meryl Streep, Robin Williams, you know,
Jerry Seinfeld. The list goes on, what's a standout person that you

(03:57):
worked with or maybe a moment thatyou had chair probably working with Robin Williams
and Moscow and Hudson. It wasdefinitely was memorable because the Paulmosurski was what
he wrote and produced and was directingthe picture, and I wanted to make

(04:21):
it funnier than what he was doing, so I talked to Robin Williams into
using some of the jokes that Isuggested. He was very open to it
and did that, and then wewere Paul Maosurski in the morning said okay,

(04:43):
let me see what you guys rehearsed, and we did what we were
thinking, he's gonna love and hejust kind of did a double take and
says, wait, wait, letme wait, you change my script and
we were like, yeah, wedid. Yeah, isn't it great.
He goes, I'll give you fiveminutes to change the script back to what

(05:11):
I wrote, or you're both fired, and he wasn't kidding, okay,
And I didn't realize the background ofthis because Robin made a deal with him,
because Robin was very famous for kindof improvising of things. And Mazurski
said, it's in a contract thatif you improvise, you're no longer on

(05:33):
the set and literally, and Ididn't know that. Robin didn't tell me
that, and he just went,yeah, let's do it. So we
changed it in five minutes, noproblem. Oh my goodness. I love
that. Yeah, because when you'rea comedian, improv is natural to you.
It's fun, it's more fun.But when somebody writes the script,

(05:55):
it's their baby, and you're sayingyour baby is ugly and we want we
want our baby. You know,doesn't work. So yak Off. You
have your beautiful theater here in Branson, and you have some really big plans
for the future of the theater,which we're going to talk about a little
later. But first, I wouldlike to say I have never left a
stand up routine feeling it was soedifying, it was so inspiring. You

(06:19):
talk about a lot of different stufftoo, and you talk about patriotism.
So nowadays, you know, itdoesn't seem to be a cool hip thing
to be patriotic, right, Sowhat would you tell these people that are
saying, oh, this climate we'rein, we're not you know, as
an immigrant, what would you sayto them? I traveled the world and
I I can't tell you there's stilla better country than this one. I

(06:44):
mean, name one name one thatyou can go to to still be it.
Now. Yes, there's some issuesand there's challenges that I see dangerous
for America. However it's still thebest one. So I'd say just look

(07:06):
at that and say thank you Godfor letting me be here and be a
part of it. Yes, there'sa very interesting story involving you, Ronald
Reagan and the Cold War. Phillistonon that a little bit. Well,
it's interesting that Mitzy Shore, whowas the owner of the comedy store,
she told me years, you knowago, she said, you and Reagan

(07:30):
changed the world. And I go, come on, Mitsy, I just
told jokes. Now, looking back, I'm realizing that Reagan used that humor
to break the eyes and changed literallytook down the Berlin Wall with Theo's jokes
basically. And so I've been veryblast to be a part of that.

(07:57):
And I really still hope that there'ssome sense of humor that you know,
Biden has and puts him has andZelenski. Zelenski is a great comedian,
but he's not fun anymore. Soit's it's really hard to watch that we're

(08:18):
not finding a peaceful agreement. We'rejust finding the way to get more weapons
and hurt more people. Why doyou think You've done a lot of studies
to on the human mind and thattype of thing, So why do you
think laughter has such a unifying power. I think it works the same for

(08:41):
everyone. It's a it's a spontaneousreaction to something that people don't expect,
so that's the punchline. Normally issomething unexpected, and but the ingredients that
go into the setup are meeting theneeds of other people. You will not

(09:05):
hear, you know, people laughinga lot at the irs audit, you
know, because they're being they're feelingstressed, so they're not going to laugh,
or are they're going to have nervouslaughter. It's totally different. But
if it's a healthy laughter, ithappens when you meeting each other's needs,
when you're with your best friend andyou don't even have to say certain things,

(09:31):
they know what you need and thenhumor just comes right out and you
laugh a lot. And then soI think that's the universal language that intrigued
me. What is it? Whyis it triggering laughter in everybody? No

(09:52):
matter where you are in the world, absolutely, and who you are,
it doesn't matter. Well, YAKA, thank you so much for spending time
with us and for the gift oflaughter that you bring to millions of people.
It truly is such a valuable thing. And thank you as always for
listening in on backstage pass. Nowdon't go anywhere, We're going to be
right back. We're going to talkabout an upcoming cruise and how you can
book tickets to see at Yakof inBranson and beyond. We'll be right back.

(10:18):
These days, it seems like everybody'stalking, but no one is actually
listening to the things they're saying.Critical thinking isn't dead, but it's definitely
low on oxygen. Join me KiaDavis on Jeff Listen to yourself every week
as we reason through issues big andsmall, critique our own ideas, and
learn to draw our talking points allthe way out to their logical conclusions.

(10:41):
Subscribe to Just Listen to Yourself withKia Davis, an FCB radio podcast on
Apple, on Spotify, iHeart,or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome
back in everyone. It's Victoria Henleyagain and I am back with Yakof Smirnoff.
We've been talking about his show,his history and comedy, and yeah,
we are standing in front of astunning art gallery in your theater with

(11:03):
these beautiful original works. Tell usabout your history and art. Well,
I studied in the Soviet Union tobe a teacher of art, and I
taught for a while before I cameto America, So this has been kind
of my passion. But I thinkit happened more when certain important things happened

(11:30):
in my life. Nine to elevenwas a big moment, obviously in everybody's
life. My divorce gave me kindof ideas on figuring out what is the
man and the woman role in arelationship. So I painted that painting.
I mean everything kind of thematically lookslike more about patriotism, about family,

(11:58):
about God, love laughter. That'sthat's what motivates me absolutely, and I
love there's a whole segment in thesecond half of your show where you talk
about the key differences, the biological, neurological differences and of course psychological between
men and women, and I lovedyou said equal but different. Explain that

(12:20):
to us, Well, this society, unfortunately is dragging us into this sameness,
which which I'm I'm really worried aboutthat because it affects the families,
because people don't know what role toplay. I believe that there is there

(12:43):
are traditional roles for men and women. It doesn't mean that we need to
be uh, you know one underwork, they're equal. So but they
bring something to the table. Sosomebody brings meat, somebody brings potatoes.
Then you have a meal. Ifyou both people bring the same thing to

(13:07):
the table, one of you isnot necessary. So I think that's been
kind of erased by the society andthat I'm pretty passionate about this because I
think that's what makes a lot ofdivorces. If you look back at the

(13:28):
you know, fifty years ago,the divorce rate was very low. Now
you might say, well, peoplejust didn't didn't have the independence part of
it, But I also think thatthey were accepting certain things and their parents
whould teach them how to do thatwithout I'm not talking about abusive relationships.

(13:50):
Obviously anybody can have those samples inlife. But I see in a healthy
relationship there is a role for aman, there's a role for a woman,
and the gay couples is the samething. Somebody takes a masculine roles,
somebody takes faminine role and they agreeto it and then they know what

(14:11):
to do with it. Yes,I love that, And for any of
my listeners and readers, you knowthat I'm a big women's equality advocate,
but Yakoff presents all of this insuch a non polarizing and very intelligent way.
I really do encourage you to checkout his stuff. And come see
his show. So, yakof youhave such a perspective in such a way
of motivating people that a lot ofchurches are even bringing you in to do

(14:33):
marital counseling. How do you feelabout this new role? I like it.
I like it, My wife likesit. We definitely enjoy doing like
date night for couples, where yousee couples might be walking in and they're
kind of disconnected, and then littleby little you see that they're like holding

(14:56):
hands or putting their armor on theother person. And I just think that
it's very healthy. Absolutely. Soyou have a cruise coming up, Yeah,
tell us how can we join thiscruise? Well, I'm funny you
should ask. It's actually was somethinga gentleman that wrote like sixty books on

(15:18):
relationships and his name is Kevin Lehmanand you can look him up. But
he approached me because he saw myshow and he said, would you like
to consider doing a cruise together andinvite couples And that's will be kind of
a retreat at the same time ascomedy and all of that stuff. So

(15:43):
we're going out of Galveston, Texason February nineteen on the Royal Caribbean Cruise
Line and it's a beautiful ship andit starts in the nineteenth and ends in
the twenty sixth of February. Andif you are interested to join us and

(16:04):
learn about love and laughter, thebest way to do it is called Templeton
Cruises and it's one eight hundred threethree four two six three zero. Again
it's one eight hundred three three fourtwo six three zero, Or go on

(16:25):
Templeton Cruises dot com and book it. I would love to have you join
us. I think it will bea lot of fun. Absolutely it I
want to join. I mean,it sounds like so much fun. We
are going to be posting all ofthese links the phone numbers so you can
make your reservation now. Yakof youare not only a iconic performer, but

(16:45):
you are a restless entrepreneur. Youhave so much going on. You have
the book you have. I mean, we could go on and on,
but I want to talk about YakoffTowers. Walk us through that. What's
the vision. Well, the visionis I'm sitting eighteen and a half acres
of land, and I figure thatit would be nice to leave something here.

(17:08):
When you know of legacy and YakTowers. It's a retirement community which
will have a performing arts center init, and I look forward to just
doing something that would be themed withpatriotism, love, laughter, healthy living.

(17:30):
That's kind of what I would liketo do and my wife would like
to be a part of it.So we're hoping that it will happen.
The COVID kind of slowed us downa little bit, but I hope that
someday there will be an investor whowould see the same vision and we would
be able to build that. That'swonderful, What a great vision you have,

(17:52):
and I think that would just besuch an asset to the Branson community.
I'm going to leave us on this. You know, we're in a
climate now that you have a lotof immigrants coming to us and they have
a big American dream. You're theembodiment really of the American dream. What
advice do you have for them?Oh, embrace it. Embrace it and
know that sometimes it's not an easything because it gets ups and downs.

(18:17):
But this is the place where youcan pick yourself up even if you don't
have immediate results and keep going.I've been I've been doing this for all
these years because I just I'm tirelessin a way. If something doesn't work
out, I just look and go. I can come from another angle and

(18:41):
help people. Whether it's a book, whether it's podcast, whatever, I'm
inspired at that time. And believeme, there are many many times when
disappointment comes. When you have that, just remember the sun will come out
tomorrow and you can start all overagain, as opposed to in many countries

(19:07):
that they're leaving to come here,that's not an option, and they're they're
discouraged to be enterprising initiating because thegovernment wants to control everything. So in
our case, no matter how cleveryou wore, you could not be ahead

(19:32):
of anyone because they didn't want youto be ahead of anyone. So I
appreciate that about this country that wecan embrace the American dream and to enjoy
it. Of course, I haveto ask, because you know the government
of We all have our own opinionson what's going on. But I think
you would be a prime political candidate. Are there any plans ever for a

(19:53):
presidential runs whatever? They have plentyof clowns that are already Yeah, I
don't need to join the Oh well, if you do, you would have
my vote. Thank you. Icould definitely understand why you might want to
sit that one out. Well.Yes, yak Off, it has been

(20:14):
such a pleasure speaking with you,and thank you for what you do,
thank you for bringing people together throughlaughter, and thank you all for listening
to Backstage Pass. We are goingto post all of these links you can
listen in, you can join thecruise shop on his books, and better
yet, come see his show inBranson. You will be so happy that
you did. And yak Off,thank you so much. You're so welcome.
Thank you and we'll see you nexttime on Backstage Pass. This has

(20:56):
been a presentation of the FCB podcastNetwork, where real talk lifts. Visit
us online at FCB podcasts dot com.