Verka Serduchka is playing the Wiltern April 5. Sunday. Doors at 7.
If you don’t know her: Andriy Danylko is a Ukrainian comedian who’s been doing a drag character since 1990 — middle-aged railroad car attendant, silver star hat, completely unhinged in the best way. Ukraine gave her a TV show in the mid-90s. In 2007 she went to Eurovision in Helsinki and nearly won the whole thing, finishing second with a song called “Dancing Lasha Tumbai” that Russians insisted was secretly titled “Russia, goodbye.” Danylko said no, it’s Mongolian for milkshake. He lets them think what they want now.
“It drives Russians crazy,” he said in 2024. “Among artists, I’m one of Russia’s number one enemies.”
After the invasion he stayed in Kyiv, bought body armor for soldiers, then turned around and sold a Rolls-Royce he’d been sitting on — a 1974 Silver Shadow that used to belong to Freddie Mercury — and put every penny into a rehab center for wounded Ukrainian troops. The place that sold it didn’t take a commission. Came to £286,000. Zelensky gave him a medal.
“I know how Serduchka acts on stage,” he said. “But now I’m discovering my own stage persona.”
Drag performers in WeHo and across this country are dealing with their own version of this. Bans, boycotts, venues folding under pressure. West Hollywood keeps showing up. Serduchka knows what it looks like when the government is the one coming for you.
Turned up in the Melissa McCarthy movie Spy in 2015. Has played Pride festivals all over Europe. The LA date got pushed from last spring. After the Wiltern it’s Chicago, Brooklyn, Toronto.
Support this amazingly funny talent and laugh all the while you do so! Tickets at wiltern.com.
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