Ukrainian comedian and presidential candidate Volodymyr Zelensky speaks to the media during press conference at his campaign headquarters in Kiev on April 21, 2019, after the announcement of the first exit poll results in the second round of Ukraine's presidential election, that showed him as the winner. - The comedian with no political experience won a landslide victory in Ukraine's presidential election, exit polls showed, dealing a stunning rebuke to the country's political establishment. Volodymyr Zelensky, whose only previous political role was playing the president in a TV show, trounced incumbent Petro Poroshenko by taking 73 percent of the vote, according to exit polls conducted by several think tanks. (Photo by Genya SAVILOV / AFP) (Photo credit should read GENYA SAVILOV/AFP/Getty Images)
Last week in the Ukraine, a country where, if you haven’t been following the news since 2014, everything is normal and fine, the actor and comedian Volodymyr Zelensky was elected president. Now I’m all in favour of comedians finding themselves a stable income, but I have my reservations.
Zelensky started his performing career in the genre known in the former Soviet Union as “KVN”, which is a kind of comedy league competition played in teams who stand on stage in suits and do heavily scripted dialogues à la Morcambe and Wise but is both a lot worse and, somehow, even more 1970s. Zelensky’s most recent and popular creative project, though, is more intriguing: he starred in a TV sitcom about a schoolteacher who became, er… the president of the Ukraine.
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