It's no joke: how Russian comedians try to stay relevant in wartime
Cracking jokes about Russia's president is a sensitive business these days in Moscow's comedy clubs, where performers say they walk a fine line in a country at war.
Fellow comedian Boris Zeliger says a politically risky joke"usually doesn’t even get a laugh, but causes a reaction like 'Wow, you daredevil!'". The contrast in their material is striking. According to one of them, Ilya Ovechkin, any reference to Putin in a joke boosts laughs by 70%. "For example, you'll be performing and there'll be some guy in the audience who's just returned and lost his marbles. And he interferes with the performance, shouts out - you often get that from those people.
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