Comedy Estonia: Finland and Estonia Are Funny
Stand-up comedy has a reputation for not travelling well – perhaps an undeserved one. Comedy Estonia, a longstanding success story in its country of origin, has spread its wings, and alongside its regular shows in Tallinn, Tartu and all over Estonia, they will be heading to Helsinki in November with well-known headliner Daniel Sloss after the comedian performs in Tallinn and Tartu. We caught up with Comedy Estonia co-founder Louis Zezeran and comedian Karl-Alari Varma for a chat about what makes good comedy, and why Estonia is such a fun place in which to make jokes.
“If you make fun of yourself, that’ll get a laugh everywhere, because the audience can see it, and can relate to it,” Karl said about his chosen method for getting an audience on his side. He learned that the hard way; similarly to many of the comedians Comedy Estonia runs on its gigs of all sizes of venue around the Baltics, Karl started out walking up to the microphone at one of the company’s Open Mic nights.
It’s a terrifying thing for anyone not imbued with huge self-confidence. “I remember I was really nervous,” Karl said, “and I’d just had a leg injury, so the injured leg kept on twitching, so much that I had to sit down. Thankfully I didn’t stumble my words and it was fine.” Although Karl was careful to stress that there is no right or wrong way of preparing for a gig, he believes preparation is key for everyone. “Prepare material beforehand. Make sure you have jokes. See other people doing it, because structure is very important, and if you can see others performing it really helps.”
Louis Zezeran, once named by an Estonian publication in a list of the country’s ten most eligible bachelors (he said, “I think you’ve got to ask who was at number eleven!”) comes across on stage as a happy-go-lucky kind of guy, the easy-going Australian accent and his friendly banter ensuring a gig gets off on the right foot. However he views comedy in an analytical way, perhaps not surprisingly, given that he graduated in Computer Science back at home, before moving to Estonia and discovering his comedic ability. Louis had plenty of advice for a nervous first-time stand-up.
“It’s not until you see the mechanics of stand-up and how it works that you can kind of mess with the audience, so to start with, prepare what you’re going to say, and – the tip that was always given to me – write it out, and then highlight where you think there’s a laugh. Then, reduce the gaps between the laughing bits. That’s how you see how funny your set is going to be. After a while you have some idea how things will go. And then you just… have to… do it.”
Louis shared an interesting theory about why some audiences preferred certain jokes to others. He’d taken some “left-leaning,” anti-racist material to a gig in Estonia where he’d been sure it would be appreciated, but he’d found it didn’t go down as well as he’d hoped. Louis speculated afterwards that it was because there were Estonians, but also foreigners, in the room, so rather than laugh, many Estonians had felt embarrassed about the topic.
“When we’re all just guilty sinners in a room, we can laugh, but when there’s some innocent people, it’s harder,” he reflected. “With any joke, the rule is, could you do this joke in front of the person it’s about? With comedy, you have to punch up, not down.” One of the secrets to Comedy Estonia’s success is that, in following this rule, it makes comedy gigs into a true community, a conversation of which the audience wants to be part.
Stand-up comedy has grown steadily in popularity in Estonia throughout the 2010s, to the point that Comedy Estonia now runs regular Estonian-language gigs, alongside the English-language nights that occasionally have an Estonian-speaking comic in the set. Karl said it was a natural progression. “There was always someone doing it in Estonian, but then there was a revolution amongst comedians, and more and more people did in the language.”
As mentioned, Comedy Estonia hits Finland in November, with the caustic wit of Daniel Sloss on the bill. Had Karl noticed a difference between Finnish and Estonian audience tastes? “The difference I can say is that if we do an English-language show in Finland, we’ll get a lot more ex-pats and native English-speakers, but in Estonia most of our audience is Estonians.”
“If we get someone like Jimmy Carr or Bill Bailey, the Finnish audiences are a lot more open than the Estonian audience,” said Louis, “I don’t know why that is, because Finns are known as reserved people. We’ve got Daniel Sloss, he’s going to be at the Musiikitaalo, and he’s great because he really appeals to young people. Most Finnish stand-up is done by people over 40, I don’t know why – maybe the younger comics have more of a problem coming through – but it’s exciting to present someone like Daniel Sloss, he’s got a very young fanbase, he’s very energetic, and he’s a bit different to what the Finnish audiences can often see. Daniel’s a great example of someone who’s willing to come back again and again, and grow his fanbase.”
Understandably, rather than have a favourite venue or gig, Louis and Karl both try to treat every night equally. “We have to design the shows differently,” said Louis. “People going to see Daniel Sloss possibly know him – he’s been on Conan O’Brien’s show six or seven times, he’s got a bit of a name for himself. We put on different shows at different levels. Some of the most satisfying shows have been where people don’t necessarily know the performer, but maybe they’ve seen something from a different perspective [at the show], or they’ve just had a good time.”
They’re a tight-knit group, and it seems Comedy Estonia’s performers like each other’s company. Louis agreed. “Comedy Estonia has always been about the crew working together – not just being on stage, but we function together as reasonable human beings and we get on well.”
Shows: Daniel Sloss, “SO?!” Tour – November 7th in Tallinn at Vene Teater, November 8th in Tartu at Athena Keskus, November 12th in Helsinki at Musiikitaalo, as part of a tour of Finland and the Baltics that also includes Latvia and Lithuania. Tickets and more info from: www.comedyestonia.com
TEXT STUART GARLICK, PHOTOS MARION UUSPÕLD, GAVIN EVANS
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