Elin Davydova: Can You Joke About Ukraine?

The Comedy Hole: English Standup in Europe

"Everything can be joked about. But with this war, you can't be in the middle in terms of the side you pick. And you have to be very clear about the side you are on."

Ukrainian comedian Elin Davydova (@elinwrites) has lived all over the world and speaks 6 languages including Chinese, Japanese, Ukrainian, and Russian (bleh). She joins The Comedy Hole gang to first tell a very disturbing story about being drugged by a gang in China, but then we start discussing comedy eventually! Stick around for the last 20 minutes where the gang discusses how to handle difficult topics in comedy like the war in Ukraine, racism, and anti-semitism.

"The first comedy show I went to, the host made me so angry, he embarrassed me...and I knew immediately that I wanted to make other people feel this way." - Elin Davydova

Some topics we cover:

● Is turtle soup delicious?

● Is Jordan bragging?

● Is your first comedy gig always better than your first s3xual experience?

● Elin's first-ever jokes about therapy.

● The role of mentors in comedy.

● The gang talks about the jokes that they kept from their first-ever sets.

● Do you have to be sad to be funny? (You don't)

● Is Beatrice's comedy about "funny little stupid things"?

● Is Jordan an @sshole?

● The worst show of Elin's life was in front of 20 Japanese women and her Tinder date.

● The trauma of growing up as an ethnically Armenian person in post-Soviet Ukraine.

● Going from being bullied to being on billboards thanks to the power of puberty.

● Can comedians joke about Ukraine? And if so, how?

● Beatrice would like to make it very clear that she is not fat.

● Jordan recounts the worst bomb he's ever seen in Warsaw.

● Elin talks about her own personal Brexit.

"Everyone has to admit that life is not honey. It's not sweet. It's just terrible. And you just have to live through life being terrible. Do not go to therapy." - Elin Davydova

"Hey look! A dog." - Beatrice Rossano

The Comedy Hole (@thecomedyhole) is run by Beatrice Rossano (@beatricerossano), Jordan Thomas Gray (@jordanthomasgray), and Ariel Bialski (@arielbialski) - three standup comedians and comedy show hosts based in Warsaw, Poland.