Comedian Yakov Smirnoff Pursues American Dream at University of Pennsylvania
Comedian Yakov Smirnoff was the 1980s embodiment of the American dream. After escaping the communist Soviet Union in 1977, Yakov arrived in the U.S. unable to speak English. But this didn’t stop him from becoming a household name by the mid-1980s, when he was performing his standup comedy on “The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson” and countless other TV programs, including his very own show, named after his famous catch-phrase.