“A female tamada? Can you imagine a woman lying drunk under the table?”

Lying drunk under the table… so this is the traditional image of a tamada in Armenia.

And there were two choices - to give it up, or to be brave enough to carry on and show everybody that a female tamada was not just a utopian combination. Evgine Hovsepyan chose the second, and for five years now has been the only professional female tamada in Armenia.

They say nothing happens by chance in life and all events, even those that have nothing common at first sight, are linked to each other and lead to each other.

It was a chain of such events that brought Evgine to tamada-ism.

In 1996, Yerevan City Hall announced a casting call for a Snegurochka (snow maiden) for Mother Christmas Tree. The organizers gathered a group of girls who are usually described as having “legs growing from the neck”.

“Gosh!” the organizers said, astonished, “How can Snegurochka be 1.8 meters tall? Don’t we have even a single short, fair-skinned girl in this city?”

Suddenly they noticed Evgine, who had come to support her friend, a model, and whom Vanush Khanamiryan (an famous Armenian dancer and dance teacher) had refused to accept into his dance group because she was too short.

The mayor called her up to the stage and thus Evgine became Snegurochka, a position she held as of last year.

From time to time Snegurochka leads different ceremonies. Once she was invited to lead the opening ceremony of a restaurant owned by Artur Baghdasaryan’s father’s Ashot Baghdasaryan.

At the end of the ceremony Arthur Baghdasaryan, who recognized the Snegurochka in her, asked if she had ever tried leading wedding ceremonies.

Good idea, why not?

Evgine’s family gаve the idea a hostile reception. Her mother who has traditional Mush and Van blood in her veins, was horrified at what might happen to a tender, fragile girl when a party was at its peak and the wine had gone to men’s heads. At the first ceremonies she would even accompany her daughter to make sure she was absolutely safe.

The mother’s worries, of course, were not that baseless. In Armenia, the conception of the professional tamada is still pretty new (the Vladko Studio, which provides this sort of service and which Evgine works with with, only opened in 2000), not to mention female tamadas.

The newly-established tamada was seen as unusual even by those who had invited her. Problems would occur especially with people from Gyumri and Gavar, famous for sticking to their roots.

“Once at the beginning of my career,” Evgine says, “I was supposed to lead the wedding ceremony of a couple from Gyumri. I went up to the podium with a nice smile, ready to start, and an old man snapped his fingers and exclaimed, “A woman will be governing us?!”

Evgine admits that in such cases what helps her is her second specialty-she is a professional dancer.

“Learning the dances, I learned the culture and traditions of the cities and regions, too. It really helps me find a common language with them. When they see I am very well aware of their traditions, know their songs and dances, they immediately become friendlier.”

Evgine usually starts to prepare for a ceremony a month in advance. She designs a program that includes famous Armenian singers and humorists, funny games and auctions. She also cooperates with male tamadas if need be. She inquires about all the important people and events around the newly married couple.

Being a hired tamada takes care.

“You have to be very careful about arranging games. Some games, say, pouring champagne for each other or eating an apple together without any hands may be very funny abroad, but for our conservative society they are still unacceptable.”

“You must also pay attention to knowing by heart all the names and titles of the newly-married couple’s friends and relatives. In the beginning of my career when I still was inexperienced I would make fatal mistakes. For instance, making a toast to relatives I would forget to mention an aunt living in the USA., who perhaps had sent a gorgeous gift. Imagine the horror of the couple when the aunt comes to Armenia, watches the video of the ceremony, and does not hear her name mentioned.”

“Also, you have to be careful while making jokes, for instance, not tell jokes about “stupid cops” when leading a baptism party for some very important police boss’s son.”

She has to have the right approach to music selection, too. At Armenian weddings and christenings the most popular music is rabiz. Among customers, too, the so-called rabiz element prevails. As a rule, those people have a much greater ability to pay than the intelligentsia.

And what is the advantage of a female tamada over a male tamada?

“A woman is more diplomatic than a man. Very often between the customer and, say, the musicians some conflict take place concerning payment or the song being played. Men are much more emotional, so it starts to feel like a fight. In such cases I try to settle the situation, to make it into a joke, to convince them to compromise.”

Evgine says that the real headache of weddings and christenings is a godfather who always tries to be a leader at the table.

“In this case, too, a woman’s diplomacy and ability to cooperate helps. I invite him to lead the table with me, concentrate the guests’ attention on him.”

The job of female tamada has its difficulties as well.

“Sometimes a woman is not taken as seriously as a man. Thus you get a self-affirmation problem…

“Very often oligarchs’ spoiled wives treat you like one of the servants, try to show they are higher than you…

“You also cannot avoid indecent offers from the guests…

“I am very fond of Sevak (a well-known Armenian writer) and often read his poems at the ceremony. Reading them, I get so into it that I may even have tears in my eyes. I often hear mocking imitations from the people there, which really gets on my nerves…

“At every ceremony you deal with countless different people. You have to find a common language with them all.”

Evgine, no doubt, has a talent for that. In the beginning, she used to lead ceremonies only in Armenia; now she even gets invitations even from abroad.

By the way, leading ceremonies in distant marzes of Armenia or abroad Evgine takes bodyguards with her. Too much caution is never a bad thing.

Evgine has even become the family tamada for some Armenian families. One family of Armenian oligarchs in Khabarovsk prefer to hold their weddings and christenings only in Armenia and only with Evgine.

Thus Evgine is sure-Perplexity about female tamadas in Armenia is only temporary; this profession has a future here.