By Matthias Williams and Margaryta Chornokondratenko
KIEV, July 12 (Reuters) - A comedian and entrepreneur,29-year-old Roman Hryshchuk had only been in politics for a fewweeks when he found himself in front of a semicircle of votersin a park in western Kiev, fielding questions from a testyaudience.
One woman in a pink hoodie repeatedly asked whether he wouldsell his television production business if he became a lawmaker,and then asked where his campaign office was so she could visithim.
Another voter heckled that Ukraine's president didn't appearto know what the capital of Canada was, after his teammistakenly said it was Toronto in a statement. At one point, atipsy man loudly waded into the meeting and was escorted away.
As a student, Hryshchuk worked as a stagehand on the comedyshows of the man who went on to become Ukraine's president,Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
Now he is following his showbiz role model into politicsbecause Zelenskiy, vowing to scrub Ukraine's parliament clean ofcorruption and nepotism, invited members of the public to run onhis party's ticket at a parliamentary election on July 21.
Zelenskiy caused a political earthquake with his landslidevictory in the presidential election in April. He appealed tovoters as an everyman outsider, making a virtue out of his lackof political experience, and struck a chord with Ukrainians fedup with how their country has been run since independence in1991.
Ukraine has some of the worst poverty levels in Europe andHryshchuk said Ukrainians had reached "boiling point" where theywant to vote in anyone but the old politicians.
"The meeting was very emotional," Hryshchuk told Reuters.
"And this is normal, because, once again, when people havebeen given promises for 27 years and nothing was done ... theyare ready to project onto any person who comes to them and says,'I want power', all that is bad in their lives, and they dump iton this person."
Zelenskiy's Servant of the People party, named after a TVcomedy series where he played a fictional president, is oncourse to win most seats in the parliamentary election,according to surveys of voter intentions.
At stake is the chance to form the government of a countryon the frontline of the West's standoff with Russia followingMoscow's annexation of Crimea in 2014 and its role in a conflictin eastern Ukraine that has killed 13,000 people.
Zelenskiy currently shares power with a government andparliament dominated by people loyal to his predecessor.
If he wins control of parliament, he has pledged toimplement anti-corruption measures such as stripping lawmakersof immunity from prosecution and pro-business policies likelifting a moratorium on the sale of farmland.
He has also promised to find a peaceful solution to theeastern conflict and offered to meet Russian President VladimirPutin for talks.
UNORTHODOX CAMPAIGNING
Zelenskiy won big in April by departing from traditionalpolitics, relying on comedy gigs, social media savvy andcrowdsourcing policy ideas to climb the polls, while eschewingrallies.
His team hopes to reprise that unorthodox campaign successand bringing people like Hryshchuk on board is an example.Hryshchuk was one of around 3,500 people who applied to run forZelenskiy's party through a specially created website.
"Previously - especially for young people - guys understoodthat everything was decided for them and in many respects thiswas true," said the head of Zelenskiy's party, Dmytro Razumkov.
With Zelenskiy's candidacy, "a completely different categoryof our fellow citizens appeared, who believed that they toocould influence this process," he told Reuters.
"And today, many of them are standing next to us, and I hopethat they will be represented in parliament."
To be sure, Zelenskiy has faced scrutiny about some of hisappointments and his business connections to Ihor Kolomoisky, apowerful tycoon whose TV channel 1+1 was a platform forZelenskiy's presidential campaign.
Nevertheless, no current or former lawmakers were allowed torun for Zelenskiy's party.
After applying, Hryshchuk was interviewed about hisbackground, family, political views and ambitions, before beinggiven training at Zelenskiy's headquarters on how to campaign.
"Before it was announced that I would be a candidate, Idecided with my friends: 'Roman, let's go to Google, and look atthe search history that comes up when we Google your name,because it will never be so beautiful and clean,'" Hryshchuksaid.
"So, I have something to lose."
BREAD FOR EMPTY BOTTLES
Hryshchuk is contesting a constituency with a large studentpopulation in the Solomianskyi district of Kiev. Voters can setup meetings with him through messenger apps like Viber.
He holds public meetings three times a day, and usesFacebook to target specific groups to encourage them to attend.Via his campaign website, Facebook users can download a framethey can put on their profile picture to show support.
The election takes place in summer when classes at theuniversity have finished. To try and get students to stickaround and vote, Hryshchuk said he planned an initiative calledSolomaCouchserf where residents offer students to stay overnightin their apartments on election day so they can go to the polls.
Millions of Ukrainians, including university graduates, havemoved abroad in search of better paid jobs. After a sharpdevaluation of the hryvnia currency, in dollar terms, Ukrainiansearn $50 less per month than they did before the annexation ofCrimea in 2014. The average salary is less than $400 a month andthe average pension is around $115.
A July survey for the International Republican Institutefound 18 percent of Ukrainian voters needed to save money to buyfood. A further 31 percent had enough for food but needed tosave or borrow money to buy clothes and shoes.
"The first time you return from Europe, you want to cry,"Hryshchuk told Reuters.
"Recently, my wife and I went on a cruise and saw pensionersfrom all over Europe on holiday. And then I meet with aUkrainian grandmother who came to a meeting, and after themeeting said: 'I'll go collect some bottles to buy bread.'"(Additional reporting by Sergiy Karazy and Valentyn Ogirenko.Editing by Carmel Crimmins)