Anna M. (IEE) about desire to meet interesting or extraordinary people

My interest in extraordinary people began in childhood. My mother worked in the theater, and there were always some festivals going on there—theater festivals and others. There was really nowhere to leave me, so ever since I was very little, they would take me along. There was this feeling of a special atmosphere, as if everyone was involved in this shared thing—the theater. There were theater skits. Everything was fun, lively, emotional. I would walk around thinking, “Karachentsov just passed by, Zolotukhin just passed by…” You could touch their sleeve, take a photo with them—no one refused—and all this happened right in front of your eyes. It was incredibly cool.

As a child, I wasn’t yet a full-fledged member of society, but I could watch them from around the corner. After I got someone’s autograph, I would start fantasizing about how we’d work together in the future, start a personal relationship, and so on. I would learn everything about that person—from all magazines, collect all information, find out when they would come to the next festival.

Viktor Shenderovich came to the “Cheerful Goat” festival for two years. Every year I would get his autograph. He would ask, “What’s your name?” I’d say, “Anya.” He’d write: “To Anya, with fondness, from Viktor Shenderovich.” And then at some point I met him in Moscow, walked up, and asked, “Can I have your autograph?” And he said, “I remember you.” He wrote: “To Anya from…” And then: “I’ll write it the same way as last time. You must have lost that autograph… so I wrote it the same way again.” For me, Shenderovich was like light in the window. I was just dying of excitement—I watched all his shows, everything, everything… I was insanely drawn to him. Now I realize that I was drawn to him because he was famous, unusual. His social status was somehow special. I could go to school and say, “I know Shenderovich…”

This plays a very important role.

I try to communicate with actors, musicians, or people whose social status is not necessarily high, but, for example, someone who is an art director or something like that—people I can brag about knowing. For me, that’s important. Very important, actually—that there are some unusual people around.