Anton Tymoshenko use jokes as a ‘defense mechanism’ as part of his wartime stand-up comedy

Just a few months after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, 31-year-old Anton Tymoshenko was performing his stand-up comedy underground — literally — in bomb shelters in and around the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv

“This is our comedy cellar in Ukraine, it looks like this — my [whole] country is in the cellar nowadays, to tell the truth, because of bombing and rockets, all this stuff,” he said. “It’s really easy to find an audience for stand-up, because you just come and people hear you.”

Tymoshenko, who has been doing comedy for 10 years, said he and some of his comedian friends were among the first performers to return to the stage during the war. 

Tymoshenko said that he has a bigger mission of raising money for Ukraine’s armed forces and giving people a break from thinking about the war. Or, in some cases, to use the conflict for material.

In response to some of his earliest jokes about the situation, he said, “People laughed so hard, because they had so much tension in their mind and their body, and when they got this relief, it was amazing.”

Stand-up comedy has existed in Ukraine for less than two decades and has only recently become a mainstream form of entertainment. Now, in wartime, Tymoshenko and other comedians who are bringing stand-up culture to Ukraine are trying to figure out where comedy fits in. For many, comedy is both therapeutic and a defense mechanism amid uncertainty.

“One of the benefits of living near Russia is that you always live in the moment, because we might have only a moment to live in Ukraine,” Tymoshenko said, adding, “People around the world try to find how to live in the moment; they try this mindfulness, meditation, fly to Thailand, or to Bali. Stop it, just come to Ukraine.”

But as the fighting dragged on, he said, figuring out wartime stand-up became tricky.

In Ukraine, the war impacts everyone. But there’s a wide spectrum of how it has affected people’s lives. Some people lost loved ones, some have been displaced and many are coping with trauma and fear.

“You need to find a joke that will fit [everyone], and sometimes, it’s very difficult,” Tymoshenko explained. “Also, like soldiers, they have their own sense of humor. It’s pretty dark, but you never know, as a civilian guy, could you or not cross this line.”

Another challenge that Tymoshenko has taken on is reaching international audiences. In April of 2022, Tymoshenko performed in English for the first time. Last year, he traveled to the US and Europe as part of a fundraising tour for Ukraine.

“My goal was to perform in front of Americans who don’t know me at all, and check, can I make them laugh,” Tymoshenko said. “It was a successful mission, not from the first performance, but in the end, in my last two shows, it was amazing, I was like, yes, I know how to do it.”

Outside of Ukraine, Tymoshenko said it takes longer for audiences to warm up to this type of dark humor.

“People feel uncomfortable to laugh about your tragedy, and probably, that’s good,” he said. “For the stand-up show, it’s not good, but generally, for mankind, it’s OK that people will not laugh at your tragedy so hard in your face.”

Like many Ukrainians, Tymoshenko said he is reluctant to think too far ahead. But he offered an analogy.

“When the star explodes, you can see the bright shine, and you see something bright, you can’t see the shape of the thing there. So, [Ukraine’s] future looks like that. It’s so bright because of the explosion, so you can’t see what’s there.”

In the future, Tymoshenko said he hopes to write jokes that do not involve war. He also wants to experiment more and be more creative with his stand-up comedy. 

For now, though, his humor reflects the world around him — even if the jokes are dark and uncomfortable.