July 12, 2007
Hooker to the stars is a saucy satirist
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Iris Bahr, a.k.a. Svetlana Maksimovsrskay. Photo by Marc Goldstein
She recently recapped her emergency visit to the West Bank, where Mahmoud Abbas apparently needed a little TLC. Svetlana offered her "services," as well as advice:
"I told Abu Mazen, 'Think positive. What were you going to do with Gaza anyway? I mean honestly, how could you have one Palestinian state in two different places? What were you going to do, build a monorail between the two? Palestinian Express? With purple vinyl seats and happy music.'"The tart-tongued, name-dropping working girl is not only insightful and intelligent, she's also funny and fictional.
American Israeli writer-actress Iris Bahr says she is fascinated with Russian culture and created Maksimovsrskaya (whose name grows weekly as an inside joke) over the years on stage, on screen and on air. At the invitation of KCRW general manager Ruth Seymour, Bahr has developed her into a regular radio character for "Social Studies," a four-minute rapid-fire satire segment that runs locally on KCRW during NPR's "All Things Considered."
Bahr feels that she adds a satiric commentary to the station's programming -- an in-your-face, outspoken humor that is irreverent and refreshing. Radio has many advantages, Bahr says.
"It's liberating! Being heard and not seen allows me to really morph into the character and let the listeners use their imagination. It also lets me work in sweatpants!"
Born in the Bronx and raised in Tel Aviv, Bahr has made a career of social commentary. Her first one-woman show, "Planet America," earned her kudos from LA Weekly and is being developed into a feature film. She toured her short film, "The Unchosen Ones," to various festivals, and she's had small roles in "Curb Your Enthusiasm" (she played an Orthodox Jewish character), "King of Queens," "Friends" and other popular shows.
Bahr will be in Scotland at the Edinburgh Festival all of August performing her second solo show, "Dai." She hopes to bring that show, which is about Israeli culture, to Los Angeles and says she plans to some day write a book that "humanizes Israelis," because she believes the society is greatly misunderstood.
As for Svetlana's commentary -- anything goes. In the three segments that have aired so far, the heavy-accented hooker has touched upon "Ocean's 13," Darfur, "The Secret," Mitt Romney, "Grey's Anatomy" and, of course, Paris Hilton.
"Social Studies" is also available online as a live stream, a podcast and a transcript.
