SOFIYA ALEXANDRA
Sofiya Alexandra is a writer and comedian who grew up in Odessa, Ukraine, and moved to Los Angeles at the age of eleven. She appeared on Comedy Central’s This Is Not Happening talking about her grandpa’s dick surgery while using some colorful Russian. Sofiya has written on Amazon’s Danger & Eggs, an Emmy-winning animated series starring SNL’s Aidy Bryant.
She’s been featured as a standup at Limestone, Laughing Skull, Women in Comedy, Out of Bounds, and many other comedy festivals. She tours all over the U.S. performing standup and has opened for Beth Stelling, Emily Heller, and Nicole Byer. Her first album Father’s Day comes out June 2020.
Interview by Tyler Nesler
In what unique ways did the contrasting experiences of growing up in Odessa, Ukraine, and moving to Los Angeles at age eleven shape your comic sensibilities? Do you think the absurdities in the differences between cultures can best be commented on via comedy?
Haha, I literally have a track on my upcoming album Father's Day about the differences between the two countries called “Born in the USSR” — love the title by the way, totally unique! Without rehashing the joke, Soviet/Russian people don't grow up with the idea that they "could be anything they want to be" — that's very American. We have to worry about being practical. The great thing about being fed the American dream is that yes, anything is possible, but the sad thing is, that frequently the odds are so stacked against immigrants, people of color, people from lower socioeconomic backgrounds, that they have to be an insane level of extraordinary and lucky to actually achieve their dream.
Of course, I definitely feel glad to live in America; I would most likely not have had the luxury to be a professional comedian in Odessa. I mean, even our greatest treasure Yakov Smirnoff left. And totally, any commentary on culture is best commented on via comedy because it's like the spoon of sugar that makes the medicine go down. Also no one ever gets offended at comedy!!
Was humor more or less a coping mechanism for you while growing up? When did you realize you wanted to pursue comedy professionally? Was there an "aha" moment, or was it more of a gradual revelation?
I think the experience of being an immigrant broke me and made me funny. I was a pretty serious little kid in Odessa, I had straight A's in school which was very hard, I took ballet every day, I had to worry about my grandma's mental illness, and about my mom and me sharing a communal apartment with a sixty-five-year-old alcoholic stranger — thanks, communism!
Middle school and high school in L.A. were hard socially. I didn't really feel funny until I got to college and saw I could be a real mean bitch and people liked it and then I became a monster for a little while. I always wrote short stories, and in my twenties they all turned funny somehow. I did improv comedy for a couple years, then I got into standup and realized I could finally turn all the things that traumatized me or embarrassed me into jokes, but it was definitely a gradual revelation. I was twenty-eight when I really started standup.
Who were some formative standup comic inspirations for you?
So I'm gonna name two Russian legends that will mean nothing to any Americans but everything to me — Klara Novikova and Mikhail Zhvanetsky. They are who I loved seeing when I was little and they still hold up. Chris Rock, always and forever, for the best jokes and delivery. Eddie Pepitone for the funniest yelling in the game, Tig Notaro for the driest most perfect jokes and perfectly slow delivery. Maria Bamford for masterfully using her face and voice and making mental illness so hilarious and real.
When was your earliest attempt at performing stand up? Was there a lot of laughter, or tears, or silence? What was one aspect to the experience that made you want to keep at it?
The first mic I ever did was in Philly, and I got laughs, but I also was in no way serious about standup then. My first show was in L.A. at the Formosa Cafe and I did really well, which is for sure what hooked me for life. I'd probably have kept eating glass if it got me the laughs and attention that standup did.
You often mine the famous grimness of the Russian spirit for comedic material. Have you ever had the opportunity to perform for a mostly (or all) Russian audience? How do you think Russians perceive comedy differently than Americans?
Most of the time, if I have Russians in the crowd they love observations about themselves. We're tough but fair. But one time at the DC Improv a Russian woman left a show in anger after my Russian jokes, even though the waitstaff told her I was also Russian. When I asked if she was blonde, they said, "How did you know?!" Let's just say this Jew had a *feeling.*
You were featured on Comedy Central's This is Not Happening series doing your cringingly hilarious bit "The Dick Whisperer." Did your grandfather ever see your routine about his "septic dick" emergency surgery, and if so what was his reaction?
My grandpa doesn't speak English, so I fast forwarded through a bunch of it for him until the Russian yelling. He has no recollection of the dick surgery at all, and said "You told people about this?" I said, "AND I got paid." He nodded in a very pleased manner.
You've had a long running creative partnership with your pal Courtney Kocak. What's the creative chemistry like between you two, and how do you think it's evolved over the years?
I love working with Courtney, she's a never-ending fountain of ideas and is always up for anything. One of the best things about her is that she thinks big and always shoots for crazy big ideas. And because of that, we've gotten to do some really cool things together, like travel to Helsinki in the dead of winter to record interviews about love and sexuality.
When it comes to our sense of humor, there's a large overlap in the Venn diagram, but the best part is all the weird stuff that lives in just her circle, because it's so purely her and so uniquely funny. We've been working together for over seven years now, and we've gotten a lot better at communicating and mind-melding, and at being more efficient with our time.
Would you say at this point that you and Courtney are a bona fide comedy duo? Would you ever (or have you ever) performed on stage together as a duo with a routine, like French and Saunders, or Martin and Lewis?
I would say we're two comedians who're best friends as well as screenwriting and podcasting partners. Courtney's also started doing standup, plus she's a killer podcasting producer and writer in her own right, and I wouldn't want to diminish her light in any way by calling us a comedy duo. That said, we're starting a standup comedy show with our friend Dave Rankin in April called Rhapsody at the Bohemian, a new bar. We're also working on a really fun story the two of us want to tell onstage together about our experience getting happy ending massages in Tokyo.
Courtney Kocak and Sofiya Alexandra
You co-host a comedy-sex-travel podcast with Courtney called Private Parts Unknown, which uncovers stories of love and sexuality from around the world. What was the inspiration for it? What's been one of your personal favorite episodes so far?
For four seasons the podcast was Reality Bytes, and Courtney co-hosted it with a bunch of different comedians, including myself. That podcast was more straight interviews with people in L.A. about love and sexuality, and we got a lot out of it. But then Courtney and I talked about doing something that pushed us out of our comfort zone, and we brainstormed Private Parts Unknown (shout out to Anthony Bourdain), an international travel podcast where we could learn about love, dating, sex, and sexuality trends around the world. We wanted to learn about other cultures and compare the ways people around the world relate to each other.
My favorite episodes are the Tokyo series we're about to release because we get to talk about our experiences getting happy ending massages, among interesting interviews with sex workers, gay ex-pats, and S&M fans.
I also love this one we did from Helsinki about what it's like to date in such a feminist place:
Hei Girl Hei: Dating & Romance in Helsinki, Finland—The Happiest Country in the World
And these two from our time in Mexico City featuring a trans collage artist and lesbian performance artist among others:
You will soon be releasing your first comedy album, Father's Day. Are there any sneak previews out there for it? When will it be officially released? Is there anything else coming up soon that you would like people to know about?
Father's Day is going to drop June 21st — surprise surprise, on Father's Day! There are no sneak previews out right now, but keep an eye on my Twitter and Instagram for future promos. I also have another podcast for I Heart Radio called 420 Day Fiance that I cohost with Miles Gray of The Daily Zeitgeist — we basically have *elevated* discussions about our favorite show 90 Day Fiance plus the podcast is also an inane game show.
Check for updates and musings on Sofia’s Twitter, Instagram, and site
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Tyler Nesler is a New York City-based freelance writer and the Founder and Managing Editor of INTERLOCUTOR Magazine.
