{"id":24003,"date":"2016-11-08T09:00:22","date_gmt":"2016-11-08T07:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/balticguide.ee\/en\/?p=24003"},"modified":"2016-10-31T12:37:49","modified_gmt":"2016-10-31T10:37:49","slug":"comedy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/balticguide.ee\/en\/comedy\/","title":{"rendered":"Comedy Estonia: Finland and Estonia Are Funny"},"content":{"rendered":"

Stand-up comedy <\/b><\/span>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.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIf you make fun of yourself, that\u2019ll get a laugh everywhere, because the audience can see it, and can relate to it,\u201d 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\u2019s Open Mic nights.<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s a terrifying thing for anyone not imbued with huge self-confidence. \u201cI remember I was really nervous,\u201d Karl said, \u201cand I\u2019d just had a leg injury, so the injured leg kept on twitching, so much that I had to sit down. Thankfully I didn\u2019t stumble my words and it was fine.\u201d 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. \u201cPrepare 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.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Louis Zezeran, <\/b><\/span>once named by an Estonian publication in a list of the country\u2019s ten most eligible bachelors (he said, \u201cI think you\u2019ve got to ask who was at number eleven!\u201d) 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.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s 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\u2019re going to say, and – the tip that was always given to me – write it out, and then highlight where you think there\u2019s a laugh. Then, reduce the gaps between the laughing bits. That\u2019s 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.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Louis shared an interesting theory about why some audiences preferred certain jokes to others. He\u2019d taken some \u201cleft-leaning,\u201d anti-racist material to a gig in Estonia where he\u2019d been sure it would be appreciated, but he\u2019d found it didn\u2019t go down as well as he\u2019d 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.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we\u2019re all just guilty sinners in a room, we can laugh, but when there\u2019s some innocent people, it\u2019s harder,\u201d he reflected. \u201cWith any joke, the rule is, could you do this joke in front of the person it\u2019s about? With comedy, you have to punch up, not down.\u201d One of the secrets to Comedy Estonia\u2019s 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.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Stand-up comedy has grown <\/b><\/span>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. \u201cThere was always someone doing it in Estonian, but then there was a revolution amongst comedians, and more and more people did in the language.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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? \u201cThe difference I can say is that if we do an English-language show in Finland, we\u2019ll get a lot more ex-pats and native English-speakers, but in Estonia most of our audience is Estonians.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIf we get someone like Jimmy Carr or Bill Bailey, the Finnish audiences are a lot more open than the Estonian audience,\u201d said Louis, \u201cI don\u2019t know why that is, because Finns are known as reserved people. We\u2019ve got Daniel Sloss, he\u2019s going to be at the Musiikitaalo, and he\u2019s great because he really appeals to young people. Most Finnish stand-up is done by people over 40, I don\u2019t know why – maybe the younger comics have more of a problem coming through – but it\u2019s exciting to present someone like Daniel Sloss, he\u2019s got a very young fanbase, he\u2019s very energetic, and he\u2019s a bit different to what the Finnish audiences can often see. Daniel\u2019s a great example of someone who\u2019s willing to come back again and again, and grow his fanbase.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Understandably, rather than have a favourite venue or gig, Louis and Karl both try to treat every night equally. \u201cWe have to design the shows differently,\u201d said Louis. \u201cPeople going to see Daniel Sloss possibly know him – he\u2019s been on Conan O\u2019Brien\u2019s show six or seven times, he\u2019s 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\u2019t necessarily know the performer, but maybe they\u2019ve seen something from a different perspective [at the show], or they\u2019ve just had a good time.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

They\u2019re a tight-knit group, and it seems Comedy Estonia\u2019s performers like each other\u2019s company. Louis agreed. \u201cComedy 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.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Shows: <\/b><\/span>Daniel Sloss, \u201cSO?!\u201d 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<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

TEXT STUART GARLICK, PHOTOS MARION UUSP\u00d5LD, GAVIN EVANS<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Stand-up comedy has a reputation for not travelling well – perhaps an undeserved one. Comedy Estonia, a longstanding success story … Read more<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":24009,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24003","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-leisure"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/balticguide.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24003","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/balticguide.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/balticguide.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/balticguide.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/balticguide.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24003"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/balticguide.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24003\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/balticguide.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24009"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/balticguide.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24003"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/balticguide.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24003"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/balticguide.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24003"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}