Love him or hate him he is still
one of the great commedians of our time.
Sacha Baron Cohen (c) Getty Images
In my view, Sacha Baron Cohen, has a flair found in few other commedians which puts him at the top of the tree along with Peter Sellers and even Charlie Chaplin. This is his story and a demonstration of some of his talent.
I thank Wikipaedia and IMDB for their writings which I have used
British actor and comedian Sacha Baron Cohen was born in Hammersmith, London. He is the son of Daniella (Weiser), a movement instructor, and Gerald Baron Cohen, a clothing store owner. His father, born in England and raised in Wales, was of Eastern European Jewish descent, while his mother was born in Israel, to German Jewish parents.
Baron Cohen was first educated at the independent Catholic St Columba's College in St Albans, before moving on to attend the independent Haberdashers' Aske's Boys' School in Elstree.
He then studied History with a focus on antisemitism at Christ's College, Cambridge, graduating in 1993 with upper-second-class honours. As an undergraduate, he wrote his thesis on the role of Jewish activists in the American civil rights movement.
He was a member of the Cambridge University Amateur Dramatic Club, where he performed in shows such as Fiddler on the Roof and Cyrano de Bergerac, as acted in shows with the Labour Zionist youth movement Habonim Dror He played the cello while growing up, and made his original television debut as a cellist on Fanfare for Young Musicians
Upon leaving University, Baron Cohen briefly worked as a model, before moving on to work as a host on a satellite TV station.
He took clown training in Paris, at the École Philippe Gaulier, studying under master-clown Philippe Gaulier. Of his former pupil, Gaulier says: "He was a good clown, full of spirit" while Baron Cohen remarks of Gaulier, "Without him, I really do doubt whether I would have had any success in my field".
In 1995, Channel 4 put out an open call for new presenters, and Baron Cohen sent in a tape featuring himself in character as an Albania TV reporter (an early prototype for Borat). He was hired and worked on various 'youth TV' projects before, in 1998, appearing in The 11 O'Clock Show (1998) which became a cult hit thanks to his character, Ali G. Ali G proved so popular that a spin-off show Da Ali G Show (2000) and film Ali G Indahouse (2002) where produced.
America soon beckoned with a stateside version of Da Ali G Show. Feature film work followed with Baron Cohen providing the voice of Julien in Madagascar (2005) and appearing as Jean Girard alongside Will Ferrell in Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (2006). He followed this with the smash-hit Borat (2006), for which he won a Golden Globe and was nominated for a writing Oscar. His other film work includes supporting roles in Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007) and Hugo (2011), and starring in the title roles of Brüno (2009), The Dictator (2012), and The Brothers Grimsby (2016).
Characters
Ali G
Baron Cohen appeared during two-minute sketches as his fashion reporter Brüno on the Paramount Comedy Channel during 1998. He shot to fame with his comic character Ali G, a fictional stereotype of a British suburban male "chav" who imitates urban black British hip hop culture and British Jamaican culture, as well as speaking in rude boy-style English with borrowed expressions from Jamaican Patois.
Hailing from Staines (a suburban town in Surrey, to the west of London), Ali G started appearing on the British television show The 11 O'Clock Show on Channel 4, which first aired on 8 September 1998. A year after the première of the show, GQ named Baron Cohen comedian of the year. He won Best Newcomer at the 1999 British Comedy Awards, and at the British Academy Television Awards he was nominated for Best British Entertainment Performance
Da Ali G Show began in 2000, and won the BAFTA for Best Comedy in the following year. Also in 2000, Baron Cohen as Ali G appeared as the limousine driver in Madonna's 2000 video "Music", directed by Jonas Åkerlund, who was also responsible for directing the titles for Da Ali G Show. Baron Cohen is a supporter of the UK charity telethon Comic Relief, which is broadcast on the BBC, and as Ali G interviewed David Beckham and wife Victoria in 2001
In a 2001 Channel 4 poll Ali G was ranked eighth on their list of the 100 Greatest TV Characters. In 2002, Ali G was the central character in the feature film Ali G Indahouse, in which he is elected to the British Parliament and foils a plot to bulldoze a community centre in his home town, Staines. His television show was exported to the United States in 2003, with new episodes set there, for HBO.
At the 2012 British Comedy Awards, 13 years after winning Best Newcomer at the 1999 Comedy Awards, Baron Cohen accepted the Outstanding Achievement Award from Sir Ben Kingsley in the guise of Ali G, and stated: "I is grown up now. I ain't living in my nan's house any more. I is living in her garage." In 2013, he received the BAFTA Charlie Chaplin Britannia Award for Excellence in Comedy.
Ali G's interviews with notable figures (especially politicians) gained notoriety partly because the subjects were not aware that Ali G, rather than being a real interviewer, was a comedic character. According to Rolling Stone magazine, Baron Cohen would always enter the interview area dressed as Ali G, carrying equipment while acting like an inconspicuous crew member. The crew would be accompanied by a man in a suit and tie, leading the subject to believe that this was the person who would interview them. Baron Cohen, as Ali G, would sit down to ask the interviewee some preliminary questions to give them the impression that this was a test run before the well-dressed man conducted the real interview; this continued until a few moments before the cameras started filming, revealing the suited man as the director and Ali G as the interviewer, granting Baron Cohen the element of surprise as the interviewee would be less likely to opt out of the interview so close to its start.
Borat Sagdiyev
The Kazakh journalist Borat Sagdiyev was first developed for short skits on F2F on Granada Television in the UK that Baron Cohen presented in 1996–1997, with the character at this time being known as Alexi Krickler.
The character remained dormant while Baron Cohen concentrated on his Ali G persona, but with the subsequent success of Ali G, Baron Cohen revisited his Borat character. The character was featured in segments of Da Ali G Show. Borat's sense of humour derives from his mocking of society through outrageous socio-cultural viewpoints, his deadpan violation of social taboos and use of vulgar language and behaviour.
Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, a feature film with Borat Sagdiyev at the centre, was screened at the 2006 Toronto International Film Festival and released in the United Kingdom on 2 November 2006, in the United States on 3 November 2006 and Australia 23 November 2006. The film follows Sagdiyev as he and his colleague Azamat Bagatov travel the US to produce a documentary about life in the country, as all the while Sagdiyev attempts to enter into marriage with celebrity Pamela Anderson. The film is a mockumentary which includes interviews with various Americans that poke fun at American culture, as well as sexism, racism, homophobia, anti-Semitism and jingoism. It debuted at the No. 1 spot in the US, taking in an estimated $26.4 million in just 837 theatres averaging $31,600 per theatre.
Baron Cohen won the 2007 Golden Globe for Best Actor – Musical or Comedy, his sixth such award. Although Borat was up for "Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy", the film lost to Dreamgirls. On 23 January 2007, he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. He shared his nomination with the film's co-writers, Ant Hines, Peter Baynham, Dan Mazer and Todd Phillips.
Aside from the comic elements of his characters, Baron Cohen's performances are interpreted by some as reflecting uncomfortable truths about his audience. He juxtaposes his own Jewish heritage with the anti-Semitism of his character Borat.
In 2007, Baron Cohen published a travel guide as Borat, with dual titles: Borat: Touristic Guidings To Minor Nation of U.S. and A. and Borat: Touristic Guidings To Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan.
On 21 December 2007, Baron Cohen announced he was retiring the character of Borat. The character was brought back on a 2018 appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live and appears in the 2020 sequel Borat Subsequent Moviefilm, for which he won another Golden Globe Award. After the release of Borat, Baron Cohen said he would retire Borat and Ali G because the public had become too familiar with the characters. After the release of Brüno, he said he would retire that character. However, the character of Borat was brought back for the 2020 sequel Borat Subsequent Moviefilm as well as the 2022 Kennedy Center Honors where he did a standup routine as Borat for the induction of U2.
Sacha Baron Cohen had other personna such as Bruno, a flamboyant Gay Austrian fashion presenter, as he developed his habit of taking to the extreme his mockumentary humour could offend some people, which is why with some people he is extremely popular and others much less so.
We now present some excerpts to give you an idea.