Stand-up comedy is not common in Estonia. Not very demonstrative by nature, Estonians generally keep their thoughts and much of their ironic humor to themselves. But there might be something new in the air.
“There’s an amazing vibe to this place,” said Louis Zezeran, an Australian who is leading a young but energetic stand-up movement. He said the country has a lot of potential for humor. “Estonia has a curiosity for the world. It stagnated during the Soviet era, but now, it’s still raw and it’s still fresh.”
In the past few months, a group of comedians, born everywhere from Tallinn to Texas, has been hard at work. They call themselves
Comedy Estonia, and they have been performing stand-up in packed restaurants and bars since May.
Along with similar groups in Finland (Comedy Finland) and Scandinavia (We Do Comedy), Comedy Estonia brings Western-type comedy to regions with no tradition of the stand-up method of humor.
Zezeran came to Europe in 2006 with a group of friends after some theater work in his home country. After finishing a master’s degree in computer science, he worked in Germany, Estonia and Helsinki. Now he is pushing to make comedy his full-time vocation.
“I listened to comedy CDs as a kid,” said Zezeran. “So I listened to a lot of hours of it. Sometimes I would listen to it in my sleep.”
Eric Seufert, a native of Houston, Texas, had his own improvisational comedy troupe while attending college in Austin. During graduate school in London, Seufert spent a year abroad in Estonia, where he met Zezeran. They wondered why there was no stand-up in Estonia, and that’s when Comedy Estonia had its genesis.
“Humor is one of those universal things,” Seufert said. “Everyone wants to laugh. It’s different to perform here though than it was back home, where people would give you a little leeway to make them laugh. Here, in Estonia, you have to make your jokes to the point.” He said part of the difference might be because the audience is made up of non-native English speakers.
Comedy Estonia has four core performers, but it is introducing more open microphone nights to bring local and foreign newcomers into the mix. The group has played in five venues in Tallinn and Tartu so far.
Another regular is Stewart Johnson, an American married to an Estonian who has lived in Tartu for 12 years. Johnson never watched stand-up comedy – that is, before he had to prepare his own five-minute debut. He has now performed 17 shows. “It’s fun trying to make something from nothing,” said Johnson, whose wife helped develop his best jokes.
“There are so many different styles,” said Johnson, a fan of the Scottish comic Billy Connolly. “Estonians are subdued compared to other nationalities. They might use few words, but they’re strong ones. Estonians have a strong sense of humor, and they know how to use it. But the moon’s the limit for comedy in Estonia.”
Humor in Estonia has changed considerably since the Soviet era, when politics and the general order of daily life often seemed absurd to the people living in it. Some humor focused on subtext. To get the real jokes, you had to read between the lines. But there was also a fair share of slapstick, physical comedy.
“At its core, Estonian humor is dry and self-deprecating,” said Andrei Tuch, who is the only Estonian regular. He has been acting since age six. “But people are excited about the shows -- ‘wow! There’s actual comedy in Estonia?’”
Zezeran believes that stand-up gives Estonians a chance to speak directly, in a way they aren’t used to. “You get to speak without being edited,” Zezeran said. “We’re encouraging as many Estonians as we can to perform, because at a certain point, when that happens, there’s going to be some wild stuff – some serious art.”
Scott Abel is an instructor at the Baltic Film and Media School, part of Tallinn University. In the interest of knowing his subject, he took the microphone for 10 minutes. That story is to follow.