Журнал Andy Warhol's Interview Россия Interview № 4 | Page 174

182/ ENGLISH SUMMARY
The funniest man in Russia, whose wit never
fully abates, is preparing a daily broadcast in
a format similar to American late night shows.
Ivan Urgant is a universal soldier. He handles
prime-time humor shows, award ceremonies in run-
down amphitheaters and crazy corporate parties
better than anyone. First Channel is launching Ur-
gant’s daily evening show in April. TV host and
champion of honest elections Tatiana Lazareva met
with Ivan on a rainy March morning to talk in detail
about these events.
LAZAREVA: Whenever you give magazine in-
terviews, you just whinney all the time and don’t
give an honest answer.
URGANT: First of all, I never whinney.
LAZAREVA: Well, ok then, you always speak
seriously.
URGANT: Very.
LAZAREVA: But about all sorts of crap.
URGANT: I really doubt that people read glossy
magazines at all. They look at the pictures—at least
I always look at the pictures. And if I decide to read
it, by the second line I realize that the phrase used
in the headline was taken out of context. I read in
the headline that some artist stuck his wife’s heart...
LAZAREVA: With a fork...An axe?!
URGANT: Yes, with an axe. And then it turns
out that this was an axe-throwing contest...in the
Istra River...you know? And that’s it, I no long-
er find it interesting. And I really take interviews
seriously.
LAZAREVA: In what way, looking after your
image?
URGANT: No, I treat it as a part of the profes-
sion. I can’t stand interviews where a tired clown
removes his make-up and bares his inner being.
I don’t like articles where people pour out their souls
for no good reason. It’s a superficial display directed
at me as a reader—what, am I some kind of idiot?
The interviewer’s task is to make the person they are
interviewing comfortable. I came to this conclusion
during a recent trip to the USA, as I adopted the
experience of my overseas colleagues; I was also in-
terviewed.
LAZAREVA: What happened, they mixed you
up with someone?
URGANT: Tatiana...incidentally, my dream was
fulfilled. I was interviewed for The New Yorker.
LAZAREVA: Wow!
URGANT: This is a major magazine in America.
Since I am a big fan of (Sergey) Dovlatov and
(Joseph) Brodsky—for me this is the real literary
Mecca outside Russia. Yes, well, this interview was
in the “selling a refrigerator” section of the maga-
zine. On the question of international experience.
We have journalists who frequently try to put a per-
son in uncomfortable positions, making them extri-
cate themselves so as to...
LAZAREVA: To cause a sensation?
URGANT: Yes, to try to provoke unusual feel-
ings in a person, to get him to remove his mask.
LAZAREVA: Or to remove their cocoon.
URGANT: In some cases, yes. Overseas experi-
ence shows that when a person feels good, he doesn’t
cover himself like an oyster shell when a cheerful
cavalryman approaches, the person himself begins
to say everything necessary. Well, you were my
guest on the program “Gusto”, there were also con-
versations there. And I really love it when there are
these opportunities to happily babble abo ut some-
thing and together raise interesting topics.
SHIRLEY
MANSON
p. 166
by DEBBIE HARRY
The band Garbage is returning after a seven-
year lull. In contrast to other heroes of the past
that are chasing big dollars, this reunion is in
earnest and for the long-haul.
For the 1990s generation, Garbage—the brain-
child of singer Shirley Manson and Butch Vig, pro-
ducer of Nirvana’s “Nevermind” album—was an em-
blematic, if not lethal hallmark. Girls tried their first
taste of love to the songs “Stupid Girl” and “Melt”
and opened a new, adult world for themselves, as so
precisely defined in the soundtrack to the James
Bond movie “The World is Not Enough”. On the eve
of the release of the group’s new album, the red-
headed rogue Shirley Manson—the face, voice and
style of Garbage—talked with Debbie Harry, the
founder of legendary group Blondie, which was an
inspiration for Shirley. It turns out that much unites
the two singers.
DEBBIE: Gosh, we haven’t seen each other in
six years!
SHIRLEY: Yes, the last time we were in the
same room was at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame,
when you were inducted—in 2006, I think.
DEBBIE: And you gave me the best speech in
history. So sweet!
SHIRLEY: I think that if anyone on this planet
deserves to be immortalized, it’s you. You know,
I still have a portrait of you above my bed. I wake up
and go to sleep with you.
DEBBIE: Outstanding. Where have you been
hiding all this time?
SHIRLEY: Well, I decided to crawl from under
my little shell and after seven years take another
swing at this thing.
DEBBIE: Why did you want to come back?
SHIRLEY: A feeling of not being done, like
I have something left in the tank.
DEBBIE: A lot of people are already shaking
with anticipation. What direction do you think your
music is taking?
SHIRLEY: I guess our current music resonates
with the energy of early Garbage. Some people who
have heard the new album said that it reminds them
of our first record. We took so much time off that
over these years we were able to regenerate. There
are moments when you realize that there’s nothing
else to be done. But the record label wants you to
make a new album even if you’re not ready. We
balked at that pressure, came off the road, and de-
cided to simply live.
DEBBIE: Yeah, but then that creative itch
appears...I knew that you were working on a solo
by TATIANA LAZAREVA
jokes like a machine-gun, and one of them with an
1837 dueling pistol.
LAZAREVA: One shot, and then a long time to
reload.
URGANT: I would say more like taking a long
time to aim.
LAZAREVA: Tell me about the structure of the
new program. How is set up?
URGANT: This show is mainly about me. But
I want it to feel like I’m not alone. A show is a col-
lection of certain precepts, technology first of all.
This is not connected with the budget: “I have
40 million dollars and so everything works, and you
have 20 dollars, so nothing will work out for you.”
First of all, it’s the approach to the work. For exam-
ple, for me it’s fundamental that the show achieves
a sense of being filmed here and now.
p. 124
LAZAREVA: What is an interesting topic for
you?
URGANT: I don’t have enough information
about our political figures, for example. They are all
extremely closed. Meanwhile there are many fa-
mous people that are the opposite, unbelievably
open, some are even unscrewed—I want to tell them:
“Guys, take it down a notch!”
LAZAREVA: But you are one of the few toler-
ant, accepting people.
URGANT: You’re mistaken. I see major political
figures as no better than any other TV personality.
It would be great if one of them sometime...
LAZAREVA: Danced with you in Jelsomino
cafe like with (Garik) Martirosyan?
URGANT: No, if one of them talked to me on
camera. I want to find out what kind of wine our
leaders like, what truly makes them laugh, who they
generally are as people. I’ve seen them many times,
but I really don’t know them.
LAZAREVA: How do found out about them
now? Through Wikipedia?
URGANT: You know, I’m a very active user of
Wikipedia.
LAZAREVA: Have you written an article there?
You can.
URGANT: I wrote three essays about Ivan
Urgant—lion king, stag king.
LAZAREVA: And frog.
URGANT: And the frog princess, yeah, I wrote
three articles. But a guy in felt boots came and asked
me not to write in Wikipedia anymore. He knocked
on the window with the back side of a shovel and
said: “Would you be so kind or we will turn off the
gas!” Thus I found out who owns Wikipedia. Inci-
dentally, we’ve already been living Star Wars for
a long time. Luke Skywalker has been earning mon-
ey on the side as a driver, you know? And then again
there is your mobile phone—up till your tragedy with
the toilet you could find out everything you wanted
in a second! On the other hand Andron Koncha-
lovsky was right when he says...I have an excellent
quality, I remember the sayings of Konchalovsky
very well! He utters them very persuasively.
LAZAREVA: What exact number of Andron
Konchalovsky saying’s is that?
URGANT: To make a long story short, the thing
is that the internet can be equally useful and
harmful.
LAZAREVA: Do you have a LiveJournal blog?
URGANT: No. I have a Twitter account. It’s the
simplest way by far to report something important.
LAZAREVA: And who do you follow? Milla
Jovovich?
URGANT: Milla Jovovich. First, only because
she showed me how Twitter works.
LAZAREVA: How many people do you want to
follow your new TV show?
URGANT: Millions, of course. I want to answer
a question with this show: can our television be
relevant and at the same time have atmosphere?
LAZAREVA: What do you mean? You want to
pass on the atmosphere of the hall?
URGANT: Yes, to pass on the prevailing mood
in the studio.
LAZAREVA: It’s no use—on “Good Fun” we
never once managed to do it. The glow on the screen
is less, you have to bring the people to the show...
Another question. Over your years on screen you’ve
brought the public to you, showed them that you are
trustworthy: “I’m going to Ivan Urgant, there’s no
substitute.”
URGANT: Well, that’s your personal opinion.
I know a huge number of people who are afraid to
come on “ProjectorParisHilton”. I fully understand
them, what is more—I myself would think again be-
fore appearing as a guest on the show. It’s an unfair
game: a well-oiled four-man ensemble shooting out
IVAN
URGANT