Yakov Smirnoff

Overview

Known for
Acting
Gender
Other
Birthday
Jan 24, 1951 (74 years old)

Yakov Smirnoff

Known For

Awful Nice
1h 32m
Movie 2013

Awful Nice

Estranged brothers Jim and Dave must travel to Branson together when their father dies and leaves them the lake home. A series of hilarious mishaps and costly misadventures follow as they attempt to restore the house and rebuild their relationship.

Yakov Smirnoff: What A Country!
0h 46m
Movie 1994

Yakov Smirnoff: What A Country!

Yakov Smirnoff delivers some of his best material in this hilarious stand-up comedy special. Audiences have been enjoying his unique brand of comedy for over 25 years, and you'll see why in this side-splitting special!

Yakov Smirnoff: Just Off the Boat
0h 49m
Movie 1994

Yakov Smirnoff: Just Off the Boat

Part of the charm of Yakov Smirnoff's comedy lies in his inspiring and humbling story. From fleeing from the USSR to his newfound life as an American citizen, you'll love hearing his hilarious and heartwarming stories in this special.

Yakov Smirnoff: I Bet You Never Looked At It That Way!
0h 58m
Movie 1994

Yakov Smirnoff: I Bet You Never Looked At It That Way!

Comedian Yakov Smirnoff performing at the Yakov Theater in Branson, Missouri. Once again, using his skills with irony and word play to show the contrast of life here in the United States, and the former Soviet Union, the place of his birth. A lovely walk through context, meaning, and a slight dig at the English language.

Yakov Smirnoff From Moscow...Idaho
0h 53m
Movie 1991

Yakov Smirnoff From Moscow...Idaho

Yakov Smirnoff TV special from Moscow, Idaho

What a Country!
0h 30m
TV Show 1986

What a Country!

What a Country! is an American sitcom that aired in syndication from September 27, 1986 to May 23, 1987.

Heartburn
1h 48m
Movie 1986

Heartburn

Rachel is a food writer at a New York magazine who meets Washington columnist Mark at a wedding and ends up falling in love with him despite her reservations about marriage. They buy a house, have a daughter, and Rachel thinks they are living happily ever after until she discovers that Mark is having an affair while she is waddling around with a second pregnancy.

Biography

Yakov Naumovich Pokhis (Russian: Яков Наумович Похис; born 24 January 1951), better known as Yakov Smirnoff (Russian: Яков Смирнов; /ˈsmɪərnɒf/), is a Ukrainian-American comedian, actor and writer of Jewish origin. He began his career as a stand-up comedian in Ukraine, then immigrated to the United States in 1977 in order to pursue an American show business career, not yet knowing any English. He reached his biggest success in the mid-to-late 1980s, appearing in several films and the television sitcom vehicle What a Country!. His comic persona was of a naive immigrant from the Soviet Union who was perpetually confused and delighted by life in the United States. His humor combined a mockery of life under communism and of consumerism in the United States, as well as word play caused by misunderstanding of American phrases and culture, all punctuated by the catchphrase, "And I thought, 'What a country!'" The collapse of communism starting in 1989, and the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, brought an end to Smirnoff's widespread popularity, although he continued to perform. In 1993, he began performing year round at his own theater in Branson, Missouri, where he remained until 2015. He occasionally still performs limited dates at his theater in Branson while touring worldwide. Smirnoff earned a master's degree in psychology from the University of Pennsylvania in 2006 and a doctorate in psychology and global leadership from Pepperdine University in 2019. He has also taught a course titled "The Business of Laughter" at Missouri State University and at Drury University.

By browsing this website, you accept our cookies policy.