Staines rapper to hit the road

Ali G is to make a comeback with a live stand-up tour.

Creator Sacha Baron Cohen is set to dust down the shell suit and take to the road 25 years after his alter-ego made his debut on on Channel 4’s The 11 O’Clock Show.

The news was broken by US showbiz industry website Variety, although details of what form the show would take or where or when it will be hitting the road have not been revealed.

Baron Cohen retired the character in 2007 after three seasons of Da Ali G Show and the movie  Ali G Indahouse, because he had become too recognisable to fool people, noting that even the Queen Mother was able to do an impression.

However, the Staines-based has been reprised a number of times since, including the 2012 British Comedy Awards when Baron Cohen appeared in character to receive the outstanding achievement award.

And at the 2015 Oscars he appeared as Ali G without telling the producers he was going to do so. He and his wife, actress Isla Fisher, locked themselves in the bathroom for 40 minutes to secretly put on his costume, after telling people he had food poisoning.

The news comes two years after the character performed secret gig at The Comedy Store in Sydney.

‘I just wanted to get on stage and muck around and see what Ali G would be like with a crowd,’ Baron Cohen said at the time. ‘It was really good fun.’

Asked by GQ magazine if he would do it again, he said: ‘Yes, I think I would. Because the reason I became a comedian was that I loved people laughing at my jokes.

‘To actually hear laughter is a rare thing for me. When I do the movies, I think it is funny, but I have to wait three months to hear an audience laugh.’

Since retiring Ali G, Baron Cohen found even more success with  the Kazakh reporter Borat and fashion journalist Bruno.

Published: 11 Aug 2023