Aleksandr Popov – “Trash Pedagogue” | Aruküla

From nightclub security guard to teacher? If that sounds like a bad joke, that’s because it is. Except it really happened. “Trash Pedagogue” is Aleksandr Popov’s new full-length stand-up show about how a nightclub security guard became a teacher overnight—just a few days after losing his father. It is a story about grief, burnout, the school system, and a man who was handed chalk, a gradebook and a classroom full of children one day and told: “Here. Try not to ruin anyone.”

I was a nightclub security guard with two university degrees in my pocket. Two is better than one, the turntable needle doesn’t shake! One morning, my phone showed a missed message—the vassal of the temple of education had invited me to an interview. A friend apparently thought I might be able to survive in front of a classroom full of eager young minds. After all, I had survived nightlife until then...

I didn’t believe for a moment that they would hire me. Surely the need couldn’t be that desperate! Let’s be honest—I’m exactly the kind of guy whose closet has enough skeletons in it to fill several republics. More than enough to fill an entire production line of wardrobes. But apparently desperation had taken over the school building. The new school year was just around the corner. And so it happened—I became a teacher.

Days after learning of my father’s death, I stood in front of my first class—the most demanding audience I had ever encountered. This is the story of a man who was never meant to become a teacher—a walking contradiction, the poster boy of Sewer Glamour, an ape-like product, ugly as the pitch-black night! A disintegrating human wreck held together by sarcasm, grief and a willpower in danger of fading away.

I am not the man you would want teaching your children—unless you want them to see with their own eyes what happens to a person who starts to crack under questions meant to be asked of an intelligent life-form.

“Trash Pedagogue” is the second entry in the trilogy from the creator of “50 Shades of a Security Guard”—an origin story that should never have happened. The prologue, “WORSENING”, is living proof of that! No skills. No preparation. No plan. Only grief... and a desperate need to prove that as long as his heart is still beating, he can still be used despite being useless.

At the door at night. In front of the class by day. Always a problem. Never simply a solution. And yet his trembling hand holds up the torch of the educational flame that is trying to go out.

Aleksandr Popov – “Trash Pedagogue”

The show is in Estonian and lasts approximately 2 hours, including an intermission.

Doors open at 18:30
Start at 19:00

Tickets on sale at Fienta.ee
“Top-Grader” ticket €10/15 – on sale until 31.08.2026
“Latecomer” ticket €16/19
“Supporter” ticket from €25

The tour is organised by Aleksandr Popov & House of Palagan
Tour information: info@palagan.ee
Media contact: merily@palagan.ee