“Hello, Lucy?”, “Oh, so!” – what a pity that we will no longer hear these sparkling monologues performed by the author Viktor Koklyushkin. The satirist writer, star of “Laughing Panorama”, “Full House”, “Crooked Mirror”, “Humor Club”, died on November 12 from acute heart failure, two weeks before his 76th birthday.
Writer, playwright, screenwriter Arkady Inin shared his memories of the famous comedian, who was a laureate of many literary prizes and competitions.
– I knew Vitya for 40 years, – says Arkady Yakovlevich. – Where we have not met, where we have not worked together. This is the “Club of 12 chairs” – the department of satire and humor in “Literaturnaya gazeta”, and your “MK”, and numerous concert venues.
According to Arkady Inin, Viktor Koklyushkin had his own voice, literally and figuratively. His monologues and stories, written contagiously and poignantly, were not like the humoresques of other authors. His slightly nasal voice could be recognized with his eyes closed.
– And it was not feigned, he talked like that in real life. He was in great demand not only as a performer, but also as an author of sketches. His stories were read by many pop artists, these are Vladimir Vinokur, and Efim Shifrin, and Evgeny Petrosyan, Elena Stepanenko …
And for the first time he appeared on the screen, on stage, in 1983 in the program “Around Laughter”, which we invented together with Viktor Veselovsky. We came up with such a trick – we took the authors and brought them onto the stage, showed them on the screen. And this program was hosted not by an artist, but by a parodist poet Sasha Ivanov. With the 12 Chairs Club of Literaturnaya Gazeta, we traveled all over the country, gathered stadiums. Vitya Koklyushkin immediately entered the top ten circle, which also included Arkady Arkanov, Grisha Gorin, Tolya Trushkin …
– He always read his monologues and stories with a serious, impenetrable face.
– Yes, as if he was not funny, but rather sad. And the audience laughed at this time. Vitya Koklyushkin immediately fell in love with the audience, his jokes diverged into quotes. He was an absolute introvert, a person “turned on himself.” Most humorist writers are very mobile people who wave their hands, desperately gesticulate, and pour out anecdotes. This is not about Vitya at all. I do not remember that he once told an anecdote. In our younger years, we gathered at numerous feasts. I don’t remember that Vitya was once a toastmaster. I don’t remember that he was telling stories in our circle and people gathered around him. He was always turned “inward.” This does not mean that he was withdrawn, unsociable. In no case. Vitya was quite a sociable person, a wonderful conversationalist. I was always ready to keep up the conversation
Arkady Inin says with a smile that when Victor let go of his beard and mustache, he became like a Chekhovian intellectual. Then his beard grew up to Tolstoy.
– It’s not about the beard, of course, I’m kidding. The point is in the moral message, in his decency, honesty, respectful attitude to people, compassion. Vitya was a very nice, kind person. I know well his second wife – Olya Zlotnik. This is a very intelligent, sweet woman, a wonderful writer who became a real guardian angel for Viti. They were a very harmonious couple, very suitable for each other. Previously, we often met all together at concerts, premieres, anniversaries. And then the pandemic began. The coronavirus has separated us. And now the news came that Viti Koklyushkin was gone. In recent years, he spent most of his time at home in Peredelkino. We are left with his wonderful books.
