Unless I was half-asleep and having a horrible nightmare, I heard a radio commercial this morning for Yakov Smirnoff on Broadway. I even remember the “joke” he told: [broad Russian accent] “In this country they say the man is the head of family. That means the woman is the neck, because she makes the head turn this way and that—and that is why the man says he has pain in the neck!” [/broad Russian accent]
Mind you, that was the joke they thought was the best to promote the show! I wonder who his opening act will be, Ray-Jay Johnson?
A press statement read: “Yakov has shifted his focus to an even greater challenge, guaranteeing him long-term job security—the relationship between men and women.”
Not only that, but he’s apparently ripping jokes off from My Big Fat Greek Wedding. (No, I didn’t see the movie, but a similar line appeared in the Post’s Weekend section review of the film.)
Interestingly, Smirnoff is only having shows on either Fridays and Saturdays, or Saturdays and Sundays (I forgot which). That, combined with the fact that, originally, he only planned to do two weeks’ worth of shows (thought, unfortunately, it’s now been extended to six weeks’), implies that he’s renting out a theater. That, in turn, suggests that he’s fallen so far on the pop culture scale that he’s the only man that would book Yakov Smirnoff.