Russian comic Yakov Smirnoff, whose popularity peaked in the mid-80s (Moscow on the Hudson, etc.) has reinvented himself as a philosopher-therapist who uses humor and positive thinking to cure folks of what ails them! He’s finishing up his master’s thesis at Penn on “love and laughter” under the tutelage of “positive psychology” guru Martin Seligman.
"Man is but a reed, the most feeble thing in nature, but he is a thinking reed" – Blaise Pascal
4 responses to “America! What a country!”
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Good for him!
I don’t think he was in Moscow on the Hudson – Robin Williams played the Russian main character.
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He couldn’t be any worse than some of the therapist’s I’ve seen.
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My sister-in-law, a PhD Candidate at Penn’s psych program this year, confirms that our friend Yakov is indeed in the program . . . What a country!
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He had a supporting role in Moscow on the Hudson – the character’s name was “Lev” according to IMDB.
He also played the cabbie/limo driver in the great Richard Pryor movie Brewster’s Millions which came out around the same time, I believe.
A Thinking Reed 
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