Showman, TV and radio presenter Alexander Pushnoy
Photo: Alexander SHPAKOVSKY
On May 10 at 20.00 a new game “Countdown” starts at STS. According to the terms, two participants receive three million rubles, which they will have to save. In each of the five rounds, they are waiting for intellectual tasks and a limited time to solve them. When the time runs out, the counter starts to write off the money. In case of an incorrect answer, players also lose a large amount. In the final, the stars play against each other, and the winner takes all the money that they managed to save … Among the star couples who took part in the program are Valeria and Gluk’oZa, Eldar Dzharakhov and Dmitry Maslennikov, Anton Shastun and Dmitry Pozov, Karina Kross and Yulianna Karaulova , Vladimir Markoni and Alexander Belkovich, Timur Rodriguez and Regina Todorenko, Aidar Garaev and Mitya Fomin, Georgy Dronov and Nikita Tarasov, Yanina Studilina and Kamil Larin.
And on the eve of the host of the program Alexander PUSHNOY visited the radio studio “Komsomolskaya Pravda”.
– Tell me, please, who do you consider yourself to be – a leader, a musician, a scientist?
– It’s amazing, but they pay me money for my, as I think, NOT profession – the presenter. Although, since they pay, this is already a profession … In general, I graduated from the physics department, I even studied in graduate school for a year, and this helps me a lot in life. And I’m a musician – this is my hobby. I once wanted, of course, to be like James Hetfield from Metallica, to ride around the stadiums, playing my music, but in the end what was left was left. And I’m already 47 years old, I’m about to turn 48. Just on May 20, I have a concert in Novosibirsk, on the 26th – St. Petersburg, on the 27th – Moscow. The decrepit 48-year-old musician will give concerts …
– Somewhere now, Mick Jagger laughed at the words “decrepit 48-year-old” …
– By the way, Mick Jagger is constantly asked: “You are already 80, and you still collect stadiums. How do you explain such amazing popularity of such a middle-aged band? He answers brilliantly: “It’s just that they all think that this is the last concert and, of course, they come to it” …
And among all these areas, my profession, for which I am paid money, is still a television and radio host. It’s stupid to get rid of this. But still, every time I am offered this or that project, I immediately say “No”. Because I got sick of telecom a long time ago, and I really don’t see any romanticism in it anymore.
– But now on STS you are starting the “Countdown” program …
– Alexander Akopov called me to visit, said: “Why are you not doing anything at STS?” I begin to tell: here, we had the Galileo program, it appeared in 2007, and ended in 2013. And she had such a great resonance that today children come up and say: “We grew up on your programs.” Alexander Zavenovich suggested: “Let’s try to do something else on STS.” And he knows how to convince! Initially, the same team did a project on TNT, it was called “Two in a Million”, led by Pasha Volya. It was about the game, about the money. It turned out that if you leave the same rules, the same team, but change the presenter, there will be a different program: not about money and not about the game, but about the mood.
For several years now, the Rossiya channel has been running the Five for One program, where I, as a permanent participant, answer questions. Naturally, having been in the place, as they say, a simple guesser, as a leader, all you want to do is suggest. With all my might. And the guys who worked with me, on the set, shouted in my ear: “Don’t, don’t tell me! Why are you doing it?” But I can’t, I’m just drawn.
What aftertaste do you have after filming?
– The most surprising thing is that I absolutely agree with Alexander Zavenovich. He said: “Let’s get high and make it cool and interesting. And you yourself will leave in a good mood. And so it was. I made nine programs and enjoyed it. And I don’t even care what rating it will collect … Although you can’t say that, right?
– As a musician, you are now known mainly for your cover versions … And you are waiting for something new: Pushnoy will sit down, release an album with his own songs …
– If I could write, like Yuri Antonov, 12 songs, but brilliant ones, I would write them. It doesn’t work … What comes to a person with age? Self control. At 20, you can write all sorts of bullshit and think it’s cool. And as you get older, you start editing yourself. I lack youthful arrogance. If I do something, I need to listen to it three thousand times, and correct something each time. And then I could say: well, it seems not bad. And he himself could, at least, listen to it without a twisted face.
In general, a profession is very different from a hobby. When you do something professionally, your task is to do it at least at a certain level so that the people who work with you say: “This is good.” So it was, for example, in the “Countdown” on STS. The program was recorded. Everyone who worked with me said: “Sanya, everything worked out, everything is great.” And when you do a hobby, there are no boundaries above and below. You must not only do well, so that it passes in all respects, you must do – “wow!” On the other hand, my good friend Igor Sharov, who played in KVN a thousand years ago, once said a brilliant phrase: “To write something good, you don’t have to strain very much, but relax very much.”
– Sometimes young people have an interest in famous bands for unexpected reasons. In the final season of Stranger Things, the main character plays a Metallica song while fighting demons. The younger generation climbed to watch and listen, what kind of old people is this?
– And I somehow washed down a cover of the great Yegor Letov, and he was inserted into the TV series “Food Block”. And it was a very funny story. The guy, a fan of the “Food Block”, sits and listens to the soundtrack. Naturally, he does not know me, Yegor Letov either, he just sings along to the soundtrack. And my mother, a woman of my age, comes in. She hears the song out of her ear and starts to sing along too. The son asks: “Mom, how do you know the soundtrack to the “Food Block”? Mom is like this – “Son, let me tell you …” And indeed, for them this is the soundtrack to the series, but for us it is a little different. There was also a story when 17-year-old girls asked me to “perform something from Yegor.” I started to sing something to them from Letov, and they say – “No, from Creed!” Here we have such different Egors. The worst thing is, if they asked me to perform something from Creed, then I would … I don’t know any of his songs!
– Sasha, is there something that causes you a categorical rejection?
– Any style? You know, I can’t listen to chanson. I don’t like cheap arrangements with plastic sound. Guys, if you already have money for this, well, do it beautifully, do it musically.
– You don’t even like Mikhail Krug?
– I know one song from Krug. “Vladimir Central”…. It is unlikely that I can act as an expert here, because if I loved chanson, I would listen to it. I love all guitar music, anything that has to do with the hum of overdriven amps in one way or another!
