Haute Night's Behind The Rope Series With: Nightlife Photographer Of The Year, Kirill Bichutsky

His parents fostered his creativity by enrolling him in summer art classes. “They were always supportive of my interests, but said if I wanted to do it, I had to do it 100%.” He received a full scholarship to William Patterson University to pursue a degree in animation. Shortly into his collegiate career he began to lose interest in animation and started gravitating to his second love Comedy. “I started going to comedy shows, and hanging out in the comedy scene.” As witty as his tweets might be, he never attempted to become a standup comedian. “I wish I was that funny” he admits “I was just glad to be accepted into their community.” After doing some graphic design work for a few comedians, comedy clubs such as Caroline’s and the Comedy Cellar took notice of his work and he became their in house graphic designer. Having already acquired a job, he began to lose focus at school and almost lost his scholarship 3 times before dropping out for good. “We became this crew that could hang out with the comedians and that was the best spot to meet your idols. I got to meet Chappelle, Chris Rock and a lot of other comedians I idolized that weren’t necessarily famous.” [Bobby Kelly, Kirill, Dane Cook] [Sarah Silverman, Kirill]