KVN
KBH ... KVN
Maxim told the other day that he is going to be the MC in the school’s end of year KVN. Over the weekend he’s been busy learning and practicing his routines. That struck me as quite good … not only that he has been chosen, but the fact that he has started preparing already, with the end of the school year not being until May. It’s a sign of how serious an honour he considers it to be.
KVN is a local tradition, derived from the days of the Soviet Union. When I first came here I saw some episodes on the Russian TV Channels and although it was interesting, I can’t say that I understood what was going on … and, to be honest, I’m not sure that I do even now.
The confusion starts with the name: KVN, or Ka-Ve-En, (actually, in Cyrillic it’s written KBH). It is an acronym which stands for Klub Vesyolikh Nakhodchyvikh or “Club of the Funny and Inventive”.
The event is a sort of humourous team game that is often televised but may be performed in a local hall or theater, and predates Comedy Club. For the British readers, it reminds me very much of the chaotic atmosphere of ISIHAC, “I’m Sorry, I haven’t a Clue” – billed on Radio 4 as “the antidote to Panel Games”.
In KVN, the teams are usually students and they compete by giving funny answers to questions and performing prepared sketches, each of which are marked by a panel of jurors, which consists of well-known celebrities, (TV presenters, actors writers, etc.). That’s where the confusion continues … I have absolutely no idea about how they score the individual rounds even though the judges may give an debriefing which supposedly explains why they allocated points as they have.
Typically, each team is asked to perform four or five different tasks. The first is normally a greeting in which each team in turn introduces itself and its members to the jury and the audience. For some of the more well known teams this is a bit of a formality. This is usually followed by a rapid question and answers round. There is usually a musical round of some sort where contestants sing, dance or play and instrument. Other rounds may include Homework, where the teams have been given a theme and prepare a sketch or routine to perform, or can focus on news items of films in the cinema.
Some of the routines can be very funny and even if I miss some of the finer points in them, but there is usually enough in them to raise a smile even for those with just a rudimentary knowledge of Russian.
The first contest was held on November 8th, 1961, and it has become such an institution that the date is commemorated each year as KVN Birthday. Although it is one of the longest running shows in the territories of the former Soviet Union, it hasn’t all been plain sailing. After eleven years, the programme ran into problems with the official censors who took offence at the student’s’ impromptu jokes, considering them to be anti Soviet and in 1972, it was banned. In the more relaxed atmosphere of perestroika, however, it was revived in 1986 and has been running ever since.
The televised games are from the Russian Major League and the Premier League. The teams that appear on national television can achieve a status as stars and teams even go on tour with their routines – many, if not most, performances being sold out. Some individuals have gone on to star in films and TV as comedians and actors.
There are in fact many other local leagues, which annually hold competitions for their local champions and we even have one here in Kyrgyzstan. Established in 1996, it is now in its seventeenth season. Games are organized in three leagues: Premier, High and also one for schools. In the fourteenth season some 44 teams took part. KVN Kyrgyzstan have also organized a variety of festivals over the years and this year, they are running a four day competition at the end of June in Issyk Kul. Games are regularly held in Osh, Djalal Abad, Naryn, Karakol. Karabalta, Tokmok, Kant, Belovodskoe as well as in Bishkek KVN teams from Kyrgyzstan also take part in the Central Asian League and the Eurasian League.
The leagues are united under the umbrella of the KVN Union which claims that, in addition to the massive television audience, (the show always get high ratings), over five million people attend the shows, in over 100 cities across Russia, which feature some 40000 participants organized into over 3000 teams each year. Its popularity can be judged by the fact that President’s Yeltsin, Putin and Medvedev have all appeared prominently in the audience at one time or another.
Although, as I said, KVN reminds me in many ways of “I’m sorry I haven’t a clue”, we don’t really have anything like this back in the UK and in many ways it’s very much a Russian phenomena and institution. On the other hand it is also growing in popularity around the world. KVN is apparently played in places as far afield as Australia, Germany, Israel, Portugal and the United States.
As an aside: It seems that, this year, the Kyrgyz league is in a little difficulty. They are having trouble raising funds for the prizes. Although there is still time before the finals in May, it is probably a worrying period for the organizers. Some of the particpants, however, have pointed out that they don’t “play for the money”.
Bishkek