Kill Tony #784 — Yakov Smirnoff, Ari Matti

Interview: Yakov discussed his 30-year career running the Yakov Theater in Branson, Missouri with over 6 million visitors. He explained how the Soviet Union's collapse eliminated his comedy work, leading him to Branson where people didn't know the USSR had fallen.

Interview: Ari discussed being Estonian but often mistaken for Russian, his Ukrainian wife's recent US citizenship, and his one-year-old son. He joked about his accent getting thicker in darker alleys and referenced growing up near Chernobyl.

Set: Steve discussed homophobia and toxic eras, contrasting his initial phobia with present acceptance. He used wordplay about lying to women and compared genuine love to performing gay acts, ending with Haitian pride and mixed-race children with Polish heritage.

Interview: Steve discussed his Haitian background, his fashionable style, Haiti's unique self-liberation history, and his nieces working as nurses at NYU. Tony made jokes about voodoo healing and Haitian-Polish children.

Set: Frank discussed living in Austin for two years, watching turtle racing with a bookie date, and losing $292 on turtle races. He spent most of his time thanking Kill Tony for the platform and mentioning touring with Donnell Rawlings.

Interview: Tony heavily criticized Frank for wasting his minute with generic thanks instead of jokes, saying he remembered hating him from a previous appearance. Frank defended his material as garbage and blamed the audience's appearance for his last-minute decision to abandon his set.

Set: Ian joked about having sex and discovering you don't need to love someone to have sex with them. He discussed being friend-zoned during sex via the girl's reactions and asked Bill about being friend-zoned inside someone.

Interview: Ian revealed he's been doing stand-up 15 years out of Chattanooga, works in IT, plays D&D, livestreams gaming, and recently got into Elden Ring. Tony and panel extensively questioned his claimed year-ago sexual encounter in a Kia Soul at a gas station parking lot.

Set: Kylie discussed her traumatic experience being robbed at gunpoint in her apartment during her first year in the city. She joked about being deemed ugly, fat, and broke by both the criminal and deputy sheriff, noting the criminal only took cell phones.

Interview: Kylie revealed she's been doing stand-up 3.5 years, previously appeared with Dave Attell, and the same week she was on Kill Tony, she met her biological father for the first time after her mom reached out to him. She described meeting him in California wine country, meeting her sister, and being in her sister's wedding.

Set: Luther discussed being adopted from Russia at age six, clarifying his parents use 'adopted' while he joked 'child trafficked.' He contrasted American poor versus generational Russian poverty, describing hiding from landlords and repo men, joking he upgraded to a gated community when his car was repossessed.

Interview: Luther revealed he was adopted from Russia in 1997 with a sister and brother, grew up in Iowa with other Russian adoptee families, has a Ukrainian girlfriend, works for Tesla, and hasn't kissed anyone since moving to Austin two months ago. Tony arranged his first Austin kiss with audience member Liesel.

Set: Dedrick performed new material about Uno causing relationship drama, fighting Botox salesmen trying to recruit his white girlfriend, dating white women and their dietary obsessions. He joked about kissing her forehead getting porcelain dust makeup on his face, and his friend asking if he was doing coke.

Interview: Dedrick discussed Uno's design to break friendships, different Uno variants, playing Monopoly with uncles over dice games, and debuted 'Black Monopoly' as a concept. He also revealed he recently officiated his first Jewish wedding as an ordained officiant, charging different rates based on relationship type.

Set: Doctor Chuck opened with acronym joke (MILF = mathematically inclined looking fellow), made electrical engineer and devil joke, age-appropriate humor bit, urology setup he held, cash-king country song joke, and self-deprecating PhD/bachelor/master's joke ending with recent sexual encounter.

Interview: Chuck revealed he's been doing stand-up 3+ years in Dallas, from Detroit suburbs, has PhD in electrical engineering and patents including a poop detector for robot vacuums. He discussed his 6'5" height, lack of relationship success tracing to mother's depression, ownership of 1000-2000 books, Bucky's pajamas, daily breakfast taco routine, and his first roast battle win against David Lucas.

Set: Joe opened asking if there are straight people, making joke about thinking about it makes you gay. He made jokes about taking 'g' out of gayness leaves 'anus,' being 27 emotionally, omnisexual having sex with whoever's on him, and bisexual meaning 'bye' after sex.

Interview: Joe revealed he's 58 years old, been doing stand-up since 2019 but lost time to COVID, was previously a drug dealer selling coke and heroin. He's been sober 13 years after overdosing on his birthday in Riverside, California hospital where his organs were shutting down. Now works as a barker at Bulls Irish Pub in Austin.

Set: Chris joked about getting a haircut and barber shaving progressively further down his neck without asking. He made light of the barber's presumption about his body hair, treating an awkward moment with humor about personal boundaries and grooming assumptions.

Interview: Chris revealed he's 31, from Bergen, Norway, been doing stand-up 3 years mostly in Norwegian then English. He works in a bank with corporate customers, went to Arizona State University paid for by Norway's government. He demonstrated American accent impression and made joke about black friends.