Alexander Tsypkin: dialogues about love, success and a “purely St. Petersburg theme”

Tsypkin’s success story is a story about the courage to take a step into the unknown and the subsequent “atomic luck”, as he himself calls it. In 2015, the top manager of the St. Petersburg Megafon and the star of the St. Petersburg PR party suddenly quits and moves to Moscow, starting everything almost from scratch. “If there is no serious career growth in the company in 3-4 years, it is necessary to bring down.” And he dropped. But not just from the company, from the city. “I needed to quickly acquire the necessary connections for a PR person. It usually takes two or three years to get to know a person well and understand that you can deal with him. For one meeting at the event you will not understand. You have to go to a birthday party, talk about this, about that, about women – this is an investment of time. I didn’t have that time. But I understood that if I meet a person and in two minutes I arouse at least some interest, and I definitely arouse interest, then he will go to my Facebook page. Tsypkin chose the easiest way to tell about himself – personal funny and sad stories. It all started with 30 likes, today his post is gaining an average of 1000, although there was almost a Russian Facebook record of 35 likes. The scheme worked. And then dry facts.

Alexander felt sorry that the stories were disappearing in the feed, he decided to release a book for friends. I turned to the publishing house, and the publishing house bought the book, and a month later it became a Russian bestseller. Then he invited the actor Danila Kozlovsky, whom he knew from St. Petersburg, to read the story “Tomato Juice” on camera. He agreed. Video on Youtube collected 1 million views. This is how the format of “Unprincipled Readings” was born, and then it began to spin. Today “Unprincipled Readings” is 100 concerts in 12 countries with the participation of more than 40 actors and ten writers. Creativity brings Tsypkin his main income. He is in demand and independent, but he is well aware that “a farce with scribbling can end as quickly as it arose.”

In the meantime, this moment has not come, we talked about why it is more profitable to work for yourself, what is important for a man to do. And of course, about love.

For those who prefer video text, we publish fragments of the conversation.

About the midlife crisis

– Moving to Moscow, popularity in social networks, book, reading. All this happened before or immediately after the 40th birthday. Does it have something to do with a midlife crisis?

– I always changed jobs, every 3-4 years. If during this time there is no serious progress, it is necessary to leave. By that time, Megafon had already done everything, and I needed to change something. Being a lazy person, I always put myself in situations where I have no choice. So here, there were reasons why I could not help but move to Moscow .. But the fact that now all this together pulled me out of a midlife crisis is one hundred percent.

Firstly, today I am absolutely independent: I can go anywhere in the world and live quietly on contracts according to scribble for the next two years. I don’t have bosses. I will earn more money than I earn with any PR. It’s one hundred percent. And I don’t need anyone in this sense: neither the boss, nor the commander. It is important.

Secondly, I have a feeling that this can be done at any age. Of course, it makes you younger, because you are all like a rock star. Usually at this age a person buys a sports car, but for me the situation is reversed. A well-known sports brand offered me a car so that I could drive it for a year. I haven’t been able to pick it up for a month now. When you go into such activities, there is more money. And it’s not just about income. You no longer need to spend money on any means of identification, you don’t need to prove anything to anyone. You wear an expensive thing because you like it, and not because you need it, otherwise they will consider it incomprehensible.

– Was there a crisis at all, or did I come up with it?

– There was, of course. He started. This has not been achieved, and here you will not achieve it. And with the book, it just so happened that I was number one. Let it be a short period of time, let it be in a niche in which there is no one else. Of course, that calmed me down a bit. Put a tick. All is not yet lost. The publicity pulled out of the potential problems. And not on the Forbes list, however, but now I understand that I will write two or three more books, they will be translated. And in general, even if I lose all popularity, they will bring money for a long time.

On Money

– What part of the income brings you “Unprincipled Readings” from all works?

“Now it’s more than half. 100 sell-outs, and people buy tickets. It is clear that this is a production project, it is clear that there are a lot of expenses, but this is a commercially successful project. Readings — it’s convenient. Two microphones and we: nothing else is needed. Now my producer and I are planning to launch a reading format with Western actors. The stories have already been translated and viewed by American and English publishers. They liked it, you can do it. I won’t say anything more for now. Going global is also making money.

You say that money is important to you. Do you have a financial goal for today?

– There is no special purpose. The amount to aim for is always simple. You take the number of close people, multiply by the amount of expensive treatment. If all of a sudden a disaster happens to all loved ones, you can help. This is the amount I strive for and I am very afraid that at some point I will not be able to do this. While the goal is far away.

About relationships “in St. Petersburg”

– … I try to make any kind of activity bring money.

– But you gave us the story “Window” for free.

I have already received money for it three times. I gave it to you for free. But now you owe me.

“I don’t feel that way.

– You feel it. Well, judge for yourself, what would I get for this story from you? 10, 20 thousand rubles? I don’t think it’s frivolous money. Better 20 than nothing. But sometimes it’s better to refuse. But now I owe Psychologies.

– I repeated it twice, I began to feel …

– Here you see! This is a very important “Petersburg theme”. We all keep a huge register of our relationships with people. Peter is unique. On the one hand, it is a big city, it has many important posts. On the other hand, it is very small, provincial, so these posts have been occupied by the same people for decades. There are Psychologies in Moscow and 20 other journals whose chief editors change every three years. There is no point in investing in a relationship. You were invited for an interview, but you didn’t invite you to the concert. So what, not this magazine, so different. You can’t do that in St. Petersburg: there’s only one magazine, one editor-in-chief, and it’s eternal. If you forget to call for a concert, you will never get into this magazine. So everywhere: in schools, hospitals, museums. Therefore, in St. Petersburg, you definitely remember that the head physician Ivan Sidorovich helped the nephew of your wife’s brother. And if you refuse Ivan Sidorovich, you will die, because you will never get to this hospital. And if you hit, then right on the operating table you will hear: “Well, Tsypkin, didn’t invite you to the concert? Take the anesthesia off him.” And you think about long-term relationships with people.

About squandering, personal life and love

Do you part with money easily?

– I understand that they need to be saved up for some kind of life situation, but I don’t shake over them. I blew a fortune on travel. I’ve had over 600 trips in my life. That is, I had days when I flew to Dubai for a night party and returned back. Had a dinner trip to South Korea. And most often it was the last money. In this sense, I part with money easily. Plus, I always tried to make some beautiful gestures related to my personal life.

– You are romantic?

— Absolute.

What’s the craziest thing you’ve ever done for a woman?

– I will not say. The craziest act of my life is yet to come. Well, you understand, I can’t tell you about some crazy actions now, and then my personal life will tell me …

– Before your relationship with Oksana Lavrentieva, you didn’t particularly advertise your personal life. Why is it like this now?

We are both public and have decided that we will create our own content, or it will be created for us. And came up with a satirical format “dialogs with a cat”. And that’s it! You can’t write anything about us, it’s much worse than our dialogues, and the haters are gradually lagging behind. That’s all there is about us on the web, we don’t give joint interviews. I won’t say more about my personal life.

– In Bunin, for example, love has always been associated with tragedy. What is love for you?

– Love, unfortunately, will always be associated with tragedy: if two people live to old age, one will die earlier, the second will have a tragedy. The exception is parental love for children, parents leave earlier. A loved one may have problems, difficulties, it becomes your problem. Love is a simple thing when both the pain and joy of another person become your love and joy. Good for you, good for him. But since we all feel bad, love is associated with a kind of drama. And the drama hits our audience better.

About the Russian mentality

Is love for drama a Russian feature?

Yes, we do not allow ourselves to be happy. And we ban others. It seems to us that if a person smiles all the time, he is an idiot. Look, on the street everyone is walking with gloomy faces. Our smiling person is weak, somehow he is not serious. We have everything through suffering. It annoys me, but I automatically came under some pressure and began to write more dramatic things. Although writing satire is much more difficult. But in order to enter the history of Russian literature, it is necessary for everyone to die.

— Do you want to enter the history of Russian literature?

– I’m generally for the world. If I already have ambitions, then my ambitions do not end with Russia. Not necessarily literature, maybe the history of a world scandal, but to be remembered there too. This is a huge complex of our Russian inferiority. We all want it. To be remembered there. I don’t believe that there is even one singer, musician, anyone who would refuse to receive an Oscar or a Grammy. But I don’t think Dustin Hoffman cares if he gets the Golden Eagle. This is the provincial mentality. Therefore, you can treat Mikhalkov as you like, but there is an Oscar – that’s it. And he, by the way, is absolutely deserved.

On slovenliness and the “welfare quantum”

– Do you have many shortcomings?

– Railway carriage! I am boorish, aggressive, sometimes arrogant and swaggering. At the same time, you are also a slob (the word has been changed to a very similar, but decent, hereinafter censored. – Approx. ed.). The situation in which I would forget at all that I have a meeting and would be in St. Petersburg is normal. I forgot about the speeches so that you understand the extent of the problem. They call me, they ask where I am, but I forgot. I was lucky, I managed to get there. I don’t remember the names of 80 percent of the people I have close friendships with. I can’t do anything about it. It always has been. Somehow I audited the box, found 17 Troika cards on the subway. How do I ride the subway? I come, put 1500 rubles on the card and lose (censored) the card. I spend more per month on a subway card than on any car. Or another situation. I have about six credit cards, some were with a big plus, which I completely forgot about. But from all this I invented the “welfare quantum”.

– What is it?

– Let’s say, maybe there is a situation in which you find 10 thousand dollars in jeans?

– Not in mine.

– And the dollar?

– Yes.

– And a thousand?

– Yes.

Will you rejoice in a thousand?

– Yes.

– And the dollar?

– Нет.

“Here’s a welfare quantum for you — a thousand. That is, an amount that you can forget about and be very happy when you find it.

About charity

– In a cynical society, one does not really believe in a sincere desire to help those who are engaged in charity …

– Children or adults who receive money do not care at all what motivation a person had. Does an authoritative entrepreneur atone for sins, does he try to promote himself. You should never criticize people who, it seems, do something for others not out of good intentions. Everyone who is seriously involved in charity has gone through some tragic moments themselves. It’s true.

– And you?

All doctors in my family. When you understand that dad, mom, grandma, grandpa, aunt save lives, but you don’t, the question arises: can you do something? I’ve always had an inferiority complex about this. Recently, Ingeborga Dapkunaite and I went to the hospice to read stories. She called me. Ingeborga does a tremendous amount of work at the Vera Foundation. I, of course, was afraid to go there, like any person. But when you see those who are there, these kind and bright faces… Something inside changes. The land is all hospice with one difference: they know when. At the same time, you and I can come to the hospice, read stories, go out, get hit by a car, and they will outlive us. When you see that people need what you do, you want to do it again. It is impossible to help a large number of people alone. In 2017 alone, we collected 20 million from all charity projects in which I somehow participated. Of course, I wouldn’t have raised that much on my own. That’s why I work with funds. But I am proactive in this sense: I am invited to do something, and I do it. I might not have done it myself. In this sense, it is necessary to write about Ksenia Rappoport, Konstantin Khabensky, Danil Kozlovsky, Ingeborg – these are blocks.

About karma

Do you believe in karma?

– I, as the person who made the kora on Kailash (Kailash is a sacred mountain for six religions: Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Tengrianism, the Bon religion and the Ayyavazhi religion. Kora is a pilgrimage, bypassing a sacred place. – Approx. ed.), not I think that there is some kind of accounting. Do you know a joke? An oligarch ends up in the other world, and he is dragged to hell. He says: “Are you crazy, I gave two billion to charity, check the papers.” They check: “Listen, it’s true. Sorry, we’ll refund your money.” I do not think that anyone there considers how much Tsypkin donated. Few? Well, that’s it, he’s tryndets (censored). First, we don’t know what tryndets (censored) is. I heard that leaving through cancer seems like an infernal horror for us, and for many it is an opportunity to prepare for the transition to another world, to close questions here. I think if every person were told every year: you have only a year left, and in a year they promised another year, we would all receive Nobel Prizes. Because we wouldn’t waste time on bullshit. Therefore, no. I don’t believe in bookkeeping.

– And why did you make the bark?

– Accidentally. I didn’t know what it was. Friends went and I went with them. Naturally, he did not pray to anyone, he just walked (censored).

— Do you do everything by accident?

– If something flies to me in life, I assume that they say to me from above: “Tsypkin, you already drank, morally decomposed, you were lucky in life, everything is fine with you, let’s unload a little.” This is how I feel about it. A couple of times, when quite a lot of money was stolen from me, I explained to myself this way: I unloaded. Everything that comes is sent to me for some reason. Well, with the book, with the stars, I really got atomically lucky. It’s kind of the perfect picture. So something needs to be returned. I do it more for Jewish reasons, just in case, so that it doesn’t get worse. I look at all this with a share of sarcasm, cynicism and humor.

On the status of a “writer”

You said you don’t consider yourself a writer. Who are you then?

“Before, I didn’t even want to name myself. Then I thought, I write books, there are circulations, but not a writer, damn it (censored)! But in the truest sense of the word – no, not a writer. The writer still creates big worlds. I don’t create worlds, I create little stories like photographs. I have no idea what kind of hero. Sometimes actors before going on stage ask: “Tell me about this hero.” – “In terms of? There is a dialogue.” – “No, but who is he, what is he like, where did he come from, did he come out?” No no no. I can not do that. So, of course, great writers who write novels are a completely different caste. I write stories, I guess I’m a storyteller.