On the eve of the New Year’s, a performance was held at the Stand Up Cafe in the center of Moscow from the first year of the ICU School of Design stand-up. Their mentor was Elena Novikova, winner of the Open Microphone project, permanent resident of the Stand Up show on TNT, professional actress, screenwriter, television host. And Novikova herself had an important event in February-- a big solo concert on the stage of the Pushkin Theatre. Immediately afterwards, Marina Andreikin’s theatre manager and teacher spoke to Elena about stand-up and theatre, teaching and teaching, life-changing, and career design.
Graduates of the Elena Novikova stand-up course at the School of Design. December, 2025.
Stendap comedian at the drama show, returning to the home stage.
Photos: Xenia Conditierova
Marina Andreikina: You just had a big solo concert called «Chachiki» at the Pushkin Theatre, where you’ve been an actress for years. Was it a long-term plan to return on a white horse to a downtown or a cold professional curiosity? Elena Novikova: neither. And it’s definitely not going back to a vandalized town, because Pushkin’s theater is now in perfect shape in every sense — it’s restored, and today, I think, is the best company in Moscow. It has been joined by three generations of Eugenia Pisarev graduates from the MHAT School of Studio. There’s some really cool performances going on there. It wasn’t my return, it was the closure of the gestalt. I used to be an actress on the stage of this theater, and now I’m a comedian on the stage of this theater. I’ve been doing comedy for 10 years, but it wasn’t until February 16, 2026 that a comedian was born. As long as you don’t have a solo concert, unless you’re scaling up your thoughts and telling all your concerts one, one story, you’re not a stand-up comedian. When you go out on such big scenes with such big projects, you kind of take professional responsibility for what you do and what you say. And it’s all very much like a play. It was important to me that the theater and the stand-up meet in the same field, so the Chasicks have a «theatrical father» — it’s director Yuri Muraviansky. My classmate at the School of Theatrical Leadership, a southern man like me, and I love his performances, and I want to live after them. To me, his aesthetics are like chasing someone in a corn field in the summer under a funny spirit band. We didn’t have the usual process for a tandema: director actress. Jura «scaled» all my thoughts, didn’t miss any. You know what he was doing? He kept raising my self-esteem. He gave every caller a chance to show up on stage. I’m already dreaming about our next performance-concert-performance. And there are ideas.
Photos: Xenia Conditierova
Photos from the website of the Pushkin Theatre. == sync, corrected by elderman == @elder_man
What kind of audience was a drama theatre or stand-up? And how did she react? E: There were definitely people in the room who saw me as an artist on this stage — my relatives and close friends — they came all the way with me. They know how I walked out of Titania in «Sleep on Summer Night.» They saw me on different sites. And for them, too, there’s been some really cool connection between that time and this. The concert was called The Clocks, and in this sense the clocks also met here. Time has become the main hero. The people who bought the tickets weren’t the theater audience. We’ve been selling, and we’ve seen the audience come from social media, stand-up communities. But there were also a lot of theatrical students who came with the theater moms. There were members of the theater itself, actors of the Pushkin Theatre who used to be my colleagues. In that sense, there was a mixed audience, and she reacted like she was at a stand-up concert. The theater doesn’t express its feelings openly because they’re afraid to scare off the action. In the theater, an actor doesn’t give a person a moment to react and laugh. And in the stand-up comedy, it’s written: when I send a rep, some thought, I give the public an opportunity to react in some way. I’m talking to the public, and I’m not just dropping stuff. I’m on the same page with the audience. And it relaxes them, too. They’re starting to realize it’s also a story about them. This story is being created for them today. They’re important here.
Photos: Xenia Conditierova
Was the excitement different when you stood behind the scenes as a dramatic actress, and now that you were standing on your comic solo? E: Yes, it was different. When you’re a comedian, it’s much scarier. Much. I still can’t handle this excitement. I have a ritual — I breathe, I talk places that are difficult to formulate in the text. Let’s say some jokes have to be spoken very quickly, and there’s dream sounds too close and some letters start falling. And you have to open your mouth in time, you have to do the right sarticing to get through all the keys, you know? I’m starting to say words, and then I’m talking about these exact places to connect all the bugs. And it’s really distracting me from fear, introducing me into the design. And when I was an artist, God, what have we ever done backstage? There wasn’t much excitement — partners everywhere, you’re wearing a suit, you’ve got light here, and you can always turn your back! And it’s like you’re responsible for everything. That’s why we laughed, sang, made fun of each other.
Photos from the website of the Pushkin Theatre. «TRYCACEMERCATUS»
Stendap’s like a theater rescue project, or «I’m gonna die, but I’m gonna have to try it!»
Why did you go to the standup? Did you miss the adrenaline? E: I haven’t worked in the theater in a long time since I went to the stand-up. I studied at the School of Theatrical Leadership, a project by the Department of Culture of Moscow and the Us Meyerhold Center in 2014-2016, when I was given the task of finding a genre that had no fourth wall and that would attract a public from other communities to the theatre. Not «violet» grandmothers. There was a crisis in the theaters, and people stopped going there. I think we were told that out of 88 theatres in Moscow, only three had full halls. And I found this genre right across from the Meyerhold Center-- came to the TNT guys who were checking out their jokes. And I realized that for an actor, it’s so scary, it’s just unbelievable! It’s such a challenge, it’s a hair test, and that’s where we have to go! And I saw that even when the comedian was silent, people were sitting there like, «Come on, come on, come on, we’re gonna jump into whatever energy you have.» That was so great! I thought I’d probably die if I did it! My heart’s gonna stop! But it’s definitely worth a try!
First I pushed other people out there, and then they put me in a situation where I, as a supervisor, had to go through it myself. It was said to me, «That’s it, you come there tomorrow in so much.» I remember this way through the Garden Ring, going to the TNT office, repeating a text that I know perfectly. I don’t believe in myself at all. I’m thinking, «Okay, I’m gonna go, I’m gonna say I didn’t make it. Children, family, everything.» I got a call tonight: «Where are you? We’re waiting for you! We’ve been sitting for two hours!» I think, «Oh, man, people are waiting for me for two hours!» I came there. They’re playing tennis there, laughing about something. I started joking, they’re laughing! I was surprised they were laughing, and I thought, «Where did they find the funny stuff?» And then they told me that you were 47 years old at all, that’s so cool, that’s what you need, and that’s how you fix it, that’s how you fix it. And it became an instrument, a designer, not a fear. It’s not even adrenaline. I’ve been shown there’s another profession, and it’s very interesting, too. And she’s a better actor’s muscle than any theatrical training. So I was very interested in learning that. I also felt bad that everyone could, and I couldn’t. That’s how you get out and just start talking about yourself. Didn’t you really do sports and swimming during your school years? That must have been your sports background. E: Yes, yes, yes.
Some people think the standup is a low genre. Are you flattered or pissed off? E: Who thinks that? I’ve never had that feeling. If that’s what the theater community thinks, it’s a bet. You can say that theatrical art is in many ways a museum, a non-living art. I watch a lot of play, a lot of play. And I see lost communication from the public and actors on stage. The stories that come out are archaic. Thoughts that have been missing for a long time are being broadcast. It’s an absolute life in the past. In the age of iPhones, social media, and zoomers, talking about a world where very long exhibits, very long, unnatural communications are also wrong. But I have actors and directors who work in an up-to-date theater, and they love stand-up. And the others don’t seem to be coming at him. 'Cause I’ve never heard any criticism from a professional that there’s something wrong with a stand-up. Right now, there’s a stand-up, a music stand, a jazz stand-up, a baby stand, a stand-up in English, a theater stand-up. This adjective is attached to any public display. And can you bet, for example, Griskovec is a stand-up or not a stand-up? I don’t think so, because a standup is just a joke. It’s a joke, it’s a design, it’s a humorous foundation based on some original mind of the performing man. For me, a stand-up is one man or one woman show. Stendap is when I go out and talk about my life, and I’ve been away from my life for a long time, so my life is becoming an art. And I’m watching him. I mean, I’m not just talking about some little stuff.
Photos: Xenia Conditierova
Stendap is everything. But is it available to all?
You said the standup is now adding to everything. People in business now often ask, «I want to learn how to speak freely. I need a stand-up course.» Do you think that’s gonna help? I don’t know, it depends on the person. This genre is out of everyone’s reach. It’s true. Just like any genre. For example, not everyone can handle the opera, nor can the theater. Today, success and income depend to a large extent on the ability of a person to broadcast his thoughts out loud. That’s true. 100%! As a person with a business, I can tell you that the amount of money flows depends on how much you show up in the world, including by verbal means. I’ve been approached by a lot of people with this kind of request, and not everyone’s been able to do it. Someone just had to give me the tool, and it went. It was enough to pull off some crust so that a person could afford to speak in public. When I was working at school with children, it was an open mind; but when they first read the poem and first dealt with what Mom, Grandpa, and Grandma would say, and what so many people would look at me and what they would think of me, those kids felt much more freer, more creative, more critical thinking. Emotional intelligence depends directly on it. And someone is so introverted that they don’t let other people into their space, even though you’re gonna die here. It’s such a property of personality. So, they’re not gonna have their manifestations in word form, they’re gonna have them in a drawing, in sports, in something else. Stendap isn’t really for everyone. You have to have a certain muscle to do that.
Photos: Xenia Conditierova
Where do they learn to punch through the walls of the forehead?
Photos: Xenia Conditierova
I only got into the MHAT School for the fourth year. It’s training, too, when you’re kicking through your forehead. When a major boy gets into the MHAT School for money, he leaves in two courses because it’s hard, because «I’d rather cut it open, sit it down, sleep it off.» This is not an acceptable moment for me at all. One-year-olds who were five minutes late for rehearsal were just flying out of the studio school. And we had such a fear to get out of this beautiful place! I have 18 years of continuous experience in the theater, when I overplayed everything in the world, it’s also training. And then I got over-saturated. I’ve been learning from different craftsmen, climbing into all kinds of adventures-- theatrical experimentals, Theater.doc, some endless readings. We’ve been doing performances on the river, on the sea, in some private homes. I’ve dated very different people. It was all about learning, looking at the world through different prisms, through different optics. Studio school taught me how to look for this. This stream, where you’ll be wondering where you can go to some other area. It’s training, too. I don’t know where they teach that now.
Photos: Xenia Conditierova
I didn’t go to Theatrical Leadership School by accident either. It wouldn’t have happened if it hadn’t been so pissed off at Theater.doc and I hadn’t brought in two cool, in the opinion of critics, a play if the theater community in Moscow hadn’t paid attention to it. It’s a community gathering, too! And after the School of Theatrical Leadership, there was a community of Zimmerman’s stand-up — we’re not lost, by the way, we’re gonna have a new project with them. It’s all training, you know? I don’t know where they’re teaching me how to break through the wall with my forehead, get things done. I don’t know. I go to the theatre students and I see that the toothfish are completely different people. They’re 20, 19, 18, but they’re consciously closer to 12-year-olds. They’re perfect Mowgli in society. For them, you can’t get there without the navigator, you can’t know things without the Internet. It’s really hard for them. Their masters, my generation, don’t know what to do with them. You’re gonna put pressure on a man like you put pressure on us, and a man’s temperature is rising, and he’s got some kind of a pain. There’s a different way to deal with them, you know? All these dead ends don’t work with them. Because a person can really die of stress. We were asked, «Are you going to kiss the MHAT steps?» And we said, «Of course! Yes! Yes!» And the Zoomers have a different story at all. If you pay! For money, yes. There’s a different motivation. So now we need to rebuild the acting institute and the whole training. We need to figure out what kind of generation we’re learning. It’s very good to study their mental health, their motivation. It’s almost impossible for my generation to do that. They must be the leaders among them. They have to open up somehow. And they’re coming out quietly.
Elena Novikova. «Pedagogue of Standup» version
What do you teach in stand-up courses yourself? E: I don’t really work in a stand-up with young people. I want to learn the methodology I’ve developed, my tools, and learn to expose my thoughts, my pain. I think it’s very important for a standup. To open up some of your pains, necessarily reflexed. That’ll be 100% in the audience. Because what gets into the audience is what’s sincere, what’s really been with a person that’s trusted. And all the people in the stand-up room always want to get rid of that fear, become a loser, can’t build a relationship, and so on. And when a man on stage says he’s been through it, too, and he’s talking about it funny, as if it were rusty, he puts himself up as an object of attack and shows him the person who’s handled such a difficult problem, that’s what a stand-up is for me, that’s art. Thought may be small, thought may be great, but the most important thing is that a person should be able to deal with it by now.
Photos: Xenia Conditierova
Do you like this design version of Elena Novikovy’s, the stand-up teacher? Are you comfortable in it? E: No. Not right now. Now I’m at some other stage of development. I used to love it. I was wondering when Zimmerman’s stand was being built. I guess I’ve got the talent for a crisis manager: when no one can, I can, I will, I will, I will, to the end, what no one now understands what it is. The question is, have I been taught directly by someone in the standup? Yes, I was taught by Vitya Komarov, Julia Ahmedov, Ruslan White. These are the guys who created the stand-up on TNT. And when I got into Open Microphone, those were my direct teachers, my editors who told me about me gave me a constant feedback. Julia Ahmedova is actually my mother in a stand-up, she’s still holding her hand on her pulse, watching what’s happening to me. It’s a unique person. I love her. About me as a teacher. I liked it when it had a massive request from my community of actors, directors, writers and dramatists when the Meyerhold Center was first created when Comedy Club first appeared. I was wondering what it was, and when I figured it out, I would tell everyone about the tool. And right now, if I see that it’s not a matter of priority for people, I’m not interested.
Photos: Xenia Conditierova
What else is interesting? Interesting for money, not just for money. A businessman wanted to make his speech funny for a TED conference of the Russian spill. We dealt with him. It was interesting to find a simple language for his complicated visits so that they could be understood by everyone, even a 12-year-old child. It was interesting to make a pedagogy stand for the educators of our private network Smart School, where I am the director. We have gathered all the teachers, psychologists, truants, cooks, even made New Year’s standup with them. It was really fun. That’s a lot of reflexion! So many painful things! And we laughed so much! Teachers really need a splash, a break from this clamp. Understand your importance, exhale. Oh, how happy they were! It’s expensive. And it was a big request from the community. You see, everyone needed it. I was wondering at that time. To put their teaching activities on the stream, perhaps not yet. Not yet. In the meantime, I need to establish my role in the stand-up. I need to understand what I’m doing now, what I’m doing next.
Photos: Xenia Conditierova
Is it possible to design a career with leechs, business, and a change of decorations?
It’s from «I’m not joking.»
It’s from «I’m not joking.»
Photos: Xenia Conditierova
If you also want to try yourself in a stand-up, note Nargisa Abdullaheva course, launched on 6 April at the ICU School of Design. The course «From self-presentation to stand-up» will help break loose, overcome the fear of public speaking, find its unique language style and its audience. The result of the course will be your performance on the stage of the famous Moscow Club!
Photos: Xenia Conditierova
