Russian comedian Sasha Nezlobin will make his Edinburgh Festival Fringe debut this year
Russian comedian Sasha Nezlobin will make his Edinburgh Festival Fringe debut this year with I’m Fine – the world premiere of his first full hour performed entirely in English.
Before leaving his home country, Nezlobin was one of Russia’s best-known comedy figures, performing arena shows, starring in hit television programmes as well as screenwriting and directing numerous productions. Then, in 2022, after posting jokes criticising Putin’s invasion of Ukraine on Instagram, the reaction from Russian authorities was such that he found himself boarding one of the last direct flights from Moscow to New York with his wife and daughter, leaving behind a sold-out career and a country he can no longer safely return to.
Back in Moscow, Nezlobin has become a recurring character on Russian state television – not as a comedian, but as a traitor. Authorities regularly attempt to designate him a ‘foreign agent’, a label that – should he set foot on Russian soil – would require him to mark all his content with disclaimers and leave him highly vulnerable to arrest. Russian activists have also sought to prosecute him for violating ‘LGBTQ propaganda’ laws over one joke relating to Russia’s archaic anti-gay laws, made after he left Russia, from thousands of miles away – indeed, solidarity with LGBTQ people in Russia carries the same legal designation as involvement in a terror network.
Despite Russian state media’s best efforts to paint him in America as broke, broken and full of regret, Nezlobin can still pack a room. Hundreds of Russian-speaking diaspora fans across the UK and Europe flock to see every gig – understanding his references, his politics and his reasons for leaving. In those rooms, he’s still a star.
Now he leaves that comfort behind. Stepping out with his first full hour in English, to audiences with their own cultural shorthand, without shared jokes and frames of reference; this is perhaps his biggest challenge yet. But early warm-up gigs are going well, and Sasha is excited to share his story with an English-speaking audience.
A sharply observational hour about this very unique emigration story and the life that came after. Nezlobin tells the unbelievable stories of his life, from the scary to the absurd, about starting over in your forties and having to explain to your daughter why they now fly economy instead of business class.
With family still split between Russia and Ukraine, the material carries an emotional complexity that goes beyond just political commentary. Whenever anyone asks Sasha how he’s doing, he answers the same way: “I’m fine.” The show is an attempt to work out if that sentiment is really true.
About Sasha Nezlobin
