America loves Smirnoff

Who's the person you'd most like to have dinner with, if you had the chance? There are lots of world leaders, famous actresses and authors who'd be on the list, I'm sure. But I'd choose Yakov Smirnoff, because he'd be the most entertaining.

I did finally meet the Russian-American comedian last weekend. Well, not really; it was his double. (You will recall that I often see doubles of famous people.) But this guy, an exchange student from Michigan named Eric, is Yakov to a T. He has the same excited grin, the same ability to say funny things, and the same appreciation of the country to which he has moved.

Yakov sees a billboard ad for vodka: "New York was great. I walked out of the airplane and I saw my name written in big letters: SMIRNOFF. 'America loves Smirnoff.' I said to myself, 'What a country!'"

Yakov's story is the immigrant story that so many Americans (or their grandparents) share. He was asked to leave the Soviet Union because his satire wasn't appreciated. He arrived in the U.S. in 1977 not speaking English and with less than $100 in his pocket.

"My first stop in America was in Cleveland, Ohio," Yakov says. "They made me feel at home in Cleveland — so I had to escape again."

Yakov is one of the last family-friendly comedians. He proves that you can be funny without having to swear or dwell on things like alcohol and drug addiction. I was about to add "...or focus on racial stereotypes," but that would have been misleading. Like the more recent racial comedy of African-Americans Chris Rock and Dave Chappelle, Southerner Jeff Foxworthy and Mexican-American Carlos Mencía, Yakov makes fun of the milieu he came from.

"In America, you can always find a party," he says. "In Soviet Russia, the Party always found you!"
"In Russia now, ... they also have freedom of speech, but in America you have freedom after you speak. It's a nice little feature."

He's a savvier Borat, always one step ahead of the audience because — let's face it — people don't usually expect foreigners to be funny. The language ought to get in the way. Yakov, instead, knows how to mine it for all the gems it contains.

From his first book, America on Six Rubles a Day — a masterful compendium of such witticisms — Yakov's career led to a TV show, then to his own comedy club in Branson, Missouri, where he still performs. He recently earned a master's degree in psychology and has taught a short university course on "the business of laughter." He's writing books and doing TV again, but this time it's on the subject of humor in personal relationships.

"Laughter is the shortest distance between two people," Yakov says.

He still has that Russian accent and that wild grin, and is as funny as ever.

Eric said lots of quotable things, too. He may have a similar career ahead of him if he stays in Germany.