“I did two chemotherapy treatments. After the second one it was very bad”: ex-host of the “Battle of Psychics” Sergei Safronov is fighting cancer

Sergei Safronov is one of the members of the Safronov Brothers trio. He and his brothers perform illusion and magic shows. However, Sergei became popular thanks to filming in “Battle of Psychics” as a skeptic.

Childhood and adolescence

Sergei Safronov was born on September 30, 1982 in the capital of Russia - Moscow . His mother wanted to become an actress as a child, but began working as an engineer, like his father, an illusionist.

Sergei was born into a family of five:

• Father - Vladimir .
• Mother - Svetlana .
• Twin brother - Andrey .
• Older brother - Ilya .
• Directly Sergei himself.

Andrey and Sergey Safronov

Since childhood, Sergei and Andrey studied piano at a music school, and also studied acting in a theater studio. While studying at school, the future magician played for seven years at the Sovremennik and Vernissage .

In 1993, the future illusionist starred in the story “Acquaintance” for “Jumble” and in the story “New Times” for “Wick” .

Sergei Safronov’s childhood and family, work in Yeralash

Their mother played a big role in shaping Sergei and his brothers’ desire for creativity. In her youth, she dreamed of becoming an actress, so with enviable persistence she realized her unfulfilled desire for art in her children - she took them to castings, enrolled them in clubs, and forced them to learn to play the piano. As a result, Sergei worked in advertising, actively participated in school theatrical productions, in filming for the film magazine “Fitil”, and dubbing about a hundred miniatures for the children’s humorous film magazine “Yeralash”.

In turn, the father, as a hockey player, instilled in the children a team spirit and an understanding that they should achieve results in any endeavor together - you cannot score the puck alone. That’s why they are still always together, take care of each other and almost never conflict.

According to the hero himself, he studied poorly at school (with “twos” and “threes”). Therefore, after the 9th grade, the school director advised him and his brother not to go to the 10th and 11th grades, but to enroll in a circus school, which they did. And for this Sergei is immensely grateful to him. After graduating from this educational institution, the school director helped them again - he allowed them to prepare magic tricks in the assembly hall and the labor room, where they had the tools they needed. For Teacher's Day, the guys then prepared and showed several of their tricks.

In addition to the circus, Sergei has a second education - theater and film actor. He played in Sovremennik (from 4 to 11 years old), in Natalia Bondarchuk's children's theater Bambi, in the Vernissage theater (from 16 to 20 years old).

Basic facts from the life of an illusionist

1. The magician first graduated from the School of Circus and Variety Arts named after. M. N. Rumyantsev, and then entered the Moscow State University of Culture and Arts at the theater and directing department and graduated from it in 2006.
2. In 2002, Sergei, along with his two brothers, founded a magic show called The Safronov Brothers . Illusionists immediately began performing on television in various programs. Their first performance took place in the “Night Shift” , then the brothers performed at ’s “New Year’s Party” with the number “Origami”. For the third time, their performance took place on the television show “What? Where? When?" , thanks to which the Safronov Brothers began to gain popularity, so they were able to release several programs with their participation on Channel One.
3. Also in 2002, Safronov and his brothers began to come up with tricks for various shows. Among such shows were performances at the Luzhniki rock festival, the musical “Twelve Chairs” and the “Silver Galosh” .
4. The magician became famous not only on domestic television, but also abroad. In Switzerland, he performed a teleportation trick in which a man moved from Geneva to Montreux.
5. Sergei created a column published every week in Usachev’s program “Eyewitness” . In this section, the illusionist showed tricks to people he met on the street.
6. Sergei organized an enchanting appearance of singer Svetlana Surganova at her own concert at the Moscow Youth Palace, dedicated to the day of the release of the album “Ships”.
7. The Safronov brothers taught magic tricks to the public in two television shows: “School of Magic” (an independent television show on the M1 channel) and “First Class” (lessons in the Okhlobystin program).
8. In 2007 , the magician passed the qualifying casting for the role of co-host in the TV show “Battle of Psychics.” For 13 years, the magician played the role of a skeptic in the “Battle of Psychics.” In this show, Sergei, as he himself claims, made attempts to expose psychics without a script.
9. Since 2011 , the illusionist began acting in films. The first film in which Sergei was lucky enough to star was “A Short Course in a Happy Life.” The artist is also known for the films “Easy to Know”, “Stop! Cut! To Baikal", "The Last Hero", "Storm" and "Deadly Illusions" .
10. In 2012, the Safronov brothers began acting as presenters in “Ukraine of Miracles.” Sergei, together with Andrey and Ilya, traveled to Ukrainian cities and showed city residents magic tricks, and residents could take part in a TV show, showing their own tricks or illusions.
11. In 2013, Sergei took part in a show on the NTV channel called “Island” , where he was able to survive on a tropical island and took the place of the winner . The reward for the victory was an amount of 12 million rubles.
12. In 2015, as part of the entertainment program “Park” , aired on Channel One, the brothers repeated the most famous tricks, surprising the audience.
13. In 2015, together with his brothers, the magician created his own show on the STS TV channel, the appearance of which he contributed to. In this TV show, the brothers competed with each other and determined the best illusionist among their trio.
14. Safronov Jr. and his brothers won the nomination “The world’s best large-scale illusion 2015”, and at the same ceremony they received the award “For their contribution to the genre of world illusion” .
15. In 2021, Sergey and his illusionist brothers took first place in the “Best Illusion Show 2018” .
16. Winter 2019-2020 Sergei became one of the three organizers of a magic show called “Magic man. Start". As part of this show, a world record was set for the largest number of people (7 people) simultaneously levitating in the air.
17. In 2021, Sergei Safronov left the television show “Battle of Psychics” due to a scandal with Alina Verdish, who accused the illusionist of extortion and provided screenshots of correspondence with the illusionist as proof of her innocence. The magician said that Alina Verdish will face trial in this situation.

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Publication from Illusionist Sergey Safronov (@safronov_sergey)

"The fight of extrasensories"

The brothers gained popularity from their role as co-hosts of Mikhail Porechenkov in the reality show “Battle of Psychics,” which premiered in 2007 on the TNT channel. From the first days of broadcasting the TV show, the brothers acted as skeptics who questioned the psychic abilities of the participants.

Sergei Safronov in the show “Battle of Psychics”

In addition to magicians, the actions of psychics were also analyzed by psychiatrist-criminalist Mikhail Viktorovich Vinogradov, and later psychologist Alexander Makarov joined the team of critics. Marat Basharov became the host of the show from season 8, which did not affect the presence of the Safronovs in the project. Vera Sotnikova, Ksenia Novikova, and Elena Valyushkina help run the program. Previously, Lera Kudryavtseva and Ksenia Borodina participated as co-hosts.

The television show enjoys constant success with viewers; the program's ratings have not fallen for 18 seasons in a row. Viewers are not embarrassed by the fact that all episodes of the program, as Porechenkov said, are based on a script, and there is no mysticism on the set.

Personal life of a magician

In 2009, the illusionist participated in the filming of a series called “Miracle People ,” where he met a girl named Maria . At first she was in an unofficial relationship with Sergei, but a year later Maria and Sergei had a daughter, she was given the name Alina . After three years of relationship, in 2011, the couple had a son. Shortly before his birth, his parents legalized their relationship. The son was named Vladimir .

With his first wife Maria and children

After seven years of relationship and five years of marriage, Maria and Sergei divorced due to frequent outbursts of jealousy on the part of his wife. However, the former spouses remained on good terms after the breakup and do not hold grudges against each other. All the property that the spouses acquired jointly was left by the ex-husband to his wife.

In 2021, the illusionist began a new romantic relationship with Ekaterina , his assistant. Thus, the magician violated the ban on combining personal and work relationships. It was only because of this ban that Catherine and Sergei initially hid their relationship. At the beginning of 2021 they got married. Initially, only the children of the illusionist and his ex-wife Maria, who was sincerely happy for Sergei, knew about the wedding. And at the end of 2021, a girl was born into the family, who was named Alice .

With his wife Ekaterina and daughter Alisa:

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Publication from Illusionist Sergey Safronov (@safronov_sergey)

Sergey SAFRONOV

Movie

2021 Crystal (KION), dir.
Dushan Gligorov, role - Chief Speleologist 2020 Dura herself, dir. Anna Zaitseva, role - Dad

2020 Circus performer, dir. Alexander Kananovich, role - Obersturmführer

2020 Liter 2.0, dir. Anatoly Patrushev, role - Producer Yesenina

2020 IP Pirogova-3, role - Fedya

2019 Storm, dir. Boris Khlebnikov, role - Reanimatologist

2019 Guardians of the Fatherland, dir. Mikhail Kolpakhchiev, role - Wolfgang Klaus

2019 Saving Leningrad, dir. A. Kozlov, role - Infantry General

2019 Death in the Language of Flowers, dir. A. Gusev, role - Baklanov (main)

2019 Rzhev, director Igor Kopylov, role - German officer

2019 Raya knows everything!, dir. Ruslan Paushu, role - Dubinin

2019 IP Pirogova, dir. Anton Maslov, role - Fedya

2019 The Fab Five 2, dir. Sergei Poluyanov, role - Feshin

2019 Out of Game 2, dir. Viktor Shamirov, role - Coach

2018 Svoi-2, dir. P. Zabelin, role - Voloshin

2017 On the other side of death, dir. Leonid Plyaskin, role - English designer

2017 The latest article by the journalist, director. Evgeny Sologalov, role - Korzhov

2017 The Last Straw, dir. Oleg Larin, role - Andrey (main)

2017 Hunting the Devil (NTV), dir. David Tkebuchava, role: Sergei Mukhin

2017 Execution cannot be pardoned, dir. Kim Druzhinin, role - Svyaznoy

2017 Alive, dir. Mikhail Kabanov, role - Surgeon

2017 Water area, dir. V. Koifman, role - Gennady Ivanov

2016 Shaman. The New Threat, dir. Maxim Kubrinsky, role - Coach

2016 Portrait of a Beloved, dir. Kira Angelina, role - Georgy

2016 The Last Office, dir. I. Shudegov, role - Nikolai Yakunin (main)

2016 Major-2, dir. N. Bulygin, role - Owner of premises

2016 Cuba, dir. A. Shcherbinin, role - Arkady

2016 Anna the Detective, dir. Arthur Romanian, role - Myshloedov

2015 Sea Devils. Smerch-3 (NTV), dir. A. Kartokhin, role - Volkov

2015 Leningrad 46 (NTV), dir. Igor Kopylov, role - Yaroslav Kondratyev

2015 Druzhina, dir. Mikhail Kolpakhchiev, role - Ambassador of the Order of the Sword

2015 Murder scenery, dir. Evgeny Zvezdakov, role - Igor Gordeev

2014 The Last Day, dir. Kim Druzhinin, role - Usmatov

2013 Odessa, dir. Igor Kopylov, role - Zbarsky's assistant

2013 Liteiny-8 (NTV), dir. Igor Moskvitin, role - Afanasiev

2013 Interrogator-2, dir. A. Korshunov, role - Boris

2013 Tail, dir. Roman Barabash, role - Sergei

2013 Cop Wars-7, dir. S. Raevsky, D. Skvortsov, role - Konopleva's neighbor

2013 Special Agent-4, dir. Andrey Elinson, role - Rudolf

2011 The Voyages of Sinbad, dir. Kim Druzhinin, role - Karl

2010 Farewell, “Makarov”!, dir. Maxim Brius, role - Stanislav Petrovich

2010 I won't say, director. Ivan Kopylov, role - Malyutin's Friend

2009 Sea Devils - 3 (NTV), dir. K. Kapitsa, role - Williams

2007 Catherine's Musketeers, dir. A. Karelin, role - Guryev

2007 1612, dir. Vladimir Khotinenko, role - Polish mercenary

2006 His Majesty's Secret Service, dir. Ivan Kalenov, role - Rudakov

2006 By stage | In Transit (UK, Russia), dir. Tom Roberts, role - Ivan

Movies

In addition to many television shows, in 2011 Sergei Safronov began his creative career in feature films. In the drama “A Short Course in a Happy Life” directed by Valeria Gai Germanika, the artist played a cameo role. The film was about the fate of four women - Sasha, Lyuba, Katya and Anya (Svetlana Khodchenkova, Ksenia Gromova, Alisa Khazanova, Anna Slyu), who are trying to be happy.

In 2014, the actor appeared in the lyrical comedy film “Easy to Know,” created by order of the STS TV channel. Pasha Basov (Garik Kharlamov) makes a real estate deal and becomes the owner of an old mansion. In a new place, mysterious things happen to the young man. Kristina Asmus, Vladimir Yaglych, and Alexander Revva also starred in the film, which grossed $5.4 million. Sergei Safronov appeared in the episode.

In 2021, the Russian horror film “The Route is Built” was released, in which Sergei appeared in a more significant role. In the same year, the premiere of the comedy “Stop! Cut! To Baikal”, where the illusionist appeared before the audience in the leading role. The magician's partner in the film was singer Bianca (Tatyana Lipnitskaya).

Paid tip

Recently, Alina Verdish stated on her YouTube channel that she was a victim of deception by Sergei Safronov.

“I have recordings of conversations, bank transfers, a huge number of messages, leaked tasks,” said the parapsychologist.

According to her, Safronov charged from 200 to 900 thousand rubles for giving tips to participants at different stages. Verdish also claims that the illusionist leaked information about famous people.

The TNT television channel, in response to the scandal, announced the dismissal of Safronov. Representatives of TNT stated that the presenter tried to deceive the program team by “giving a hint to one of the telepaths during the qualifying tests, who later did not make it into the main cast of the 21st season.” The official commentary of the TV channel was published by Starhit.