Couplets (cabaret)

Friedrich Wolf called the couplet "the direct involvement of the audience in the game" (German: die unmittelbare Einbeziehung des Zuschauers in das Spiel).

[1] Samuel Esterowicz recalled: "In the cinemas, besides films there would also appear the touring so-called kupletists (singers of topical, satirical songs) – Vasily Pravdin, Gregory Marmeladov and others.

Kolya [Shenyuk] and I enjoyed the kupletists very much and, buying their librettos, zealously studied their soliloquies in order to recite them with feeling to our ladies.

Unable to stand my noise, mama entreated me to quiet down and when this did not help, she tore the libretto from my hands and stuck it into the pipe of the samovar, where the fire consumed it.

The actor uses a send-up of his personal problems to make general comments on social and political grievances or human character flaws.