Episode 143: Alter Egos From Sasha Fierce to Clark Kent

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Paige: You are listening to “Coffee with Gringos.” I'm Paige Sutherland.

Ian: And I'm Ian Kennedy.

Paige: And today we're going have an interesting conversation about alter egos. So, alter egos, for those that don't know, is basically a character or a personality that someone makes up, someone adopt, sometimes you're given it for a show or a movie. A lot of times, celebrities use them, they're used a lot by musicians, but we can all have them. Some people get drunk and have an alter ego that's named Bill or Hank or whatever you want but, generally, you hear about them in celebrity world where people want to kind of separate their personal life from their stage life because they're in the public eye. And so today me and Ian are just going to talk about a few famous ones that most of us know. So, if you get lost, as always, check out that audio guide and transcript online. Okay so, Ian—I can't start this off as I were talking about the largest one—“Queen Bey”—as we all know, Beyonce. She is basically the most popular musical artist in the world, but interesting is she has an alter ego, and she started it out when her career wasn't as big, and that was “Sasha Fierce.” That was her name. The reason is she, as most of you probably know, started in Destiny's Child. She was in a women's group, where she was one of many other people, so she didn't really have a personality of her own because she was in a group. And so, when she decided to start a solo career, you're the center of attention and so I think she wanted to adopt a personality that gave her that extra adrenaline—gave her that extra confidence when she's on stage. And so, she adopted Sasha Fierce and she said that as soon as she stepped onto the stage, she turned into Sasha Fierce and she gave her that confidence that she needed to just rock out and perform. And it clearly worked because she went from Destiny's Child and a group to a solo career beyond anyone else. I mean, she's one of the most popular, and she kind of said that she's kind of gotten rid of Sasha Fierce because she doesn't need her as much because she's so famous now that she has that confidence when she gets on the stage. But it is interesting how she talks about that she kind of needed to be this other person to perform in the way that she did and now we know her as “Yonce”, “Queen Bey.” She's taken out a lot of other different names over the years as she's become very popular.

Ian: Yeah, it's clear that it works for us and she definitely blew up with her career and I mean, look where she is now.  So, it helps take you to that next level, then it's not a bad idea to find that that extra personality—that alter ego. So, the next one that I'll talk about, the example I can think of is one that I think all of us are really familiar with due to superheroes and comics. This alter ego is Clark Kent and Superman. So, I think pretty much everyone knows who Clark Kent and Superman are—at least Superman. And so, the classic story is, Superman came from this other planet called Krypton and when he came to earth, obviously he was a different kind of person who wasn't a human being. But he settled and landed in a small town called Smallville and from there, his family of humans, they decided to raise him just as a normal boy named Clark Kent. So even though he has these incredible superpowers, he lived his whole life as sort of a vigilante in secret so we can see distinct differences between the two personalities as well. You have Clark Kent who is just a normal everyday journalist. He's got his glasses and his suit and tie—just the normal working citizen. And whenever a danger strikes or whenever there's evil lurking about, he takes a quick move into a phone booth, and takes off his clothes and he's got underneath that Superman suit. And he takes off the glasses and he goes from being sort of your everyday “average Joe” just working a nine to five job to being this bulky, handsome superhero that comes to save the day. He's so good at hiding his two personalities that Lois Lane, they are two completely different people to her. She has no idea that Clark Kent happens to be a superhero that she's also in love with and so I think people can look back and see that he is one of the most classic examples of that alter ego-vigilante superhero type of mold that we see a lot in comic books and in superhero movies.

Paige: I think it's really funny because it's like she buys into this like idea that he's a nerd and has glasses where he's dropping his papers on the ground and he's so clumsy and, like, “Oh, Clark. Look at that nerd in his cubicle” and then all he does is take off his glasses and he's this hunk muscle, literally Superman. So, it's pretty funny just how they're trying to make them so different, but underneath he's just always been attractive.

Ian: The right day, I always thought it would be that you would need to hide yourself a little bit more than that. Like, if you're Superman wearing more of a mask or whatnot you feel like just the difference between a pair of glasses would be pretty easy to tell. I feel like Lois should know better.

Paige: She should. I think that's what it's why it's so funny is, it's like they're clearly the same person. Yeah, yeah. Well, we'll give it another one that's really popular and is a little more recent is Sasha Baron Cohen. He's a comedian and an actor, and he was very famous for taking on the alter ego of “Borat”—his fictional character who's absolutely bananas. He's absurd. He's supposed to be this really misogynistic, racist, offensive guy from Kazakhstan, which is in the Middle East. And his whole shtick, his whole thing, is that he's super offensive, he's just very offensive to everyone and he goes around just saying absurd things and doing absurd things. And he does it in real life in the movie where in the most recent one, he goes to a Trump rally and he is Borat and he speaks like Borat. He has the accent, he has the mannerisms, but he's an actor. But he's not acting on a set, he's doing it out in public and he goes into stores and he is I think most famous for taking on an actual alter ego because he goes out and dresses up, has an accent, has this whole thing. It's pretty funny if you haven't seen the movies but you have to take it with a grain of salt because they're so offensive. He's very offensive.

Ian: They're so hilarious. I love those Borat movies, especially the first one I've seen dozens of times and I remember just thinking like, first of all, it's one thing if you have an alter ego and you're filming on a set, you're filming a movie, and that's the way the script is. But in this case, like you said, he's just going out into the public and he's getting a reaction, he's seeing what people are going to say, what they're going to do. And, like you mentioned, they're very uncomfortable, very awkward, and sometimes you kind of wonder, he's brave and/or stupid for doing what he's doing because he could have people attack him. People get angry, it's a pretty ballsy thing to do so. I tip my hat to him on that but it's so funny. As long as you're not someone that gets easily offended, you should definitely watch the movie. And while the movies, and it's hilarious to see how he is an actor and he does such a great job of taking on that, that alter ego role.

Paige: Hey, Ian. Did you know besides the podcast, Dynamic English offers one-on-one classes with native teachers from all over the world?

Ian: Really? But isn't it just a bunch of grammar lessons?

Paige: No, it's completely discussion-based and focuses on topics that the student is interested in.

Ian: That's amazing. But what if I'm not living in Chile?

Paige: No problem. Dynamic does online classes. You can be living anywhere.

Ian: Great, but I'm a little intimidated to take the class alone. Can I join with a friend?

Paige: Of course. Dynamic offers group classes of up to four. Plus, for the next month, Coffee with Gringos listeners get 10% off individual or group classes. So go online to www.dynamicenglish.cl and mention that you are a listener and get your discount.

Ian: Well, I'm sold. Sign me up.

Ian: For the next one, we're going to follow a theme that we've talked about today talking about musicians. We see a lot of musicians that take on these alter egos to either express themselves artistically or to get that confidence like we mentioned about Beyonce. Another classic one that we can point to is the American rapper, US rapper Eminem. So, Eminem, he took on an alter ego early in his career in the late 90s when he was sort of taking off. He took on the personality called “Slim Shady.” He attracted a lot more attention when he took on this alter ego because this was an alter ego in which he was able to express a lot of his pain and a lot of the things he had gone through as a person. So, he was able to express a lot of lyrics about anger and drugs and mental instability and sex and violence and all these problems that people face in reality and what he faced in reality and it's really raw—it's really uncut. I remember listening to these lyrics even when I was younger and thinking wow this is really bad, I shouldn't even be listening to this right now because it was just so violent and so just really awful things he talked about, but this was the way that he was able to artistically express himself in this way take all that pain and these things that maybe you wouldn't want to talk about as your own identity. Even kind of put it on to someone else and tell your story through that way. So, this one's a little bit of a rougher example of that but again we see we see this a lot in musicians who want to be able to express themselves and need a little help from another personality to do that. So that's a good one.

Paige: Another one that I feel like a lot of people know especially around our age if you grew up in the US, a very popular show was called “Hannah Montana” and it was on the Disney Channel which is a very child-friendly geared channel. Hannah Montana was on for many years, it was very popular and it starred Miley Cyrus who's a very popular American singer, songwriter/actress, and that's where she got her start. She came from a famous dad who was a country singer, and she started on this Disney Channel show and she basically played herself. Her dad was her dad in the show and she comes from a famous singer and he was famous. And so, she basically played her life on this child TV show and it was, the themes were that she was his normal girl who was a superstar and so she took on, as this teenager, this alter ego called Hannah Montana, and so whenever she was out performing live singing, she put on a blonde wig, and she called herself “Hannah Montana” and she was famous. And she would go home to her teenage life, take off the wig, and she was Miley, and it was like she lived a normal life. And it was just a funny alter ego because it was like, that was her. She is famous, she is a singer, she comes from a famous family. Her dad played her dad in the show, so I feel like it was really tough to separate herself from that alter ego of Hannah Montana and it's almost feels like that's why as she got older, that she really did the opposite of Hannah Montana and singing about sex and drugs and she got things pierced and changed her hair and got all these tattoos, where it was like she was cast it into this Hannah Montana—good girl, blonde wig singer—and then when she left the show, her singing became darker, it became edgier, her lifestyle, how she dressed, how she looked –everything. So, it was almost like she wanted to really define herself against this alter ego that the show gave her.

Ian: Miley Cyrus, to a degree, she probably felt like she was too attached to that alter ego and so we often see this a lot, unfortunately, with child stars, in general but especially Disney child stars to where they get kind of pigeon holed and their entire identity gets labeled into what their Disney character was or who their alter ego was. So, I think it's natural for her to want to really show who she is as a person and say I'm not just this Disney character and more complex and more adult and good for her. She got out on the good end of it, I think. And so, I think it's just interesting to see those differences as well when someone wants to shake that alter ego after they've already made success for themselves. I think she has definitely shaken it.

Paige: Yeah, I think that's fair to say she's taking that one at like you mentioned, for sure.

Ian: And to wrap up today, we're going to talk about a musician—a very famous musician—who was known for having multiple alter egos and personalities and that is the rock star David Bowie. So, David Bowie he had multiple alter egos that he used artistically throughout his career, starting with “Arnold Corns”, then “Major Tom”, “Aladdin Sane,” “The Thin White Duke”, and probably the most famous of this list, it was a character called “Ziggy Stardust.” And so, his most successful alter ego, this was basically a blend of an intergalactic alien rock star with some Japanese theater and science influences. Very sci-fi-ish and very futuristic, to where he would perform and have albums that were completely dedicated to using this character. So, he uses the character to sort of describe the ascent of rock and roll stardom and he could more easily assume a role of being like a rock-and-roll icon, while still kind of expressing those anxieties that we all have and about life, about death, about what we're doing here. And so, this was kind of similar to a Slim Shady, a little less rough in the sense, but he was able to take these things that he wanted to express artistically and put it on to Ziggy Stardust, to really live through this character, as we know today. I mean, even people who don't know, David Bowie or old music that well, you can usually mention Ziggy Stardust and someone who will probably at least know that they've heard that before. You know, David Bowie had more than a few, He was quite the entertainer but Ziggy Stardust really took the cake for him in his roles.

Paige: I think you made a good point. As we've talked about all these alter egos, a lot of them are musicians and it's because songwriting is so raw. You’re really opening up your life, your feelings, your tough times and you're singing about them in front of millions of people and so, I think it makes kind of sense, like you said, of Eminem to kind of put shields a little bit, so that you're still doing it and you're creating amazing music and telling your story but you're a little removed a little bit. So, it really makes sense that a lot of the alter egos come from musicians who really are putting themselves out there in so many ways. Yeah so, I think, there's plenty more go online, check them out, they're pretty fascinating and interesting to learn about. And as always listeners, if you get lost, check out that audio guide and transcript online. Thanks for listening.

Ian: We’ll see you next time.

Key Vocabulary, Phrases & Slang:

 1.     to get rid (of something) (phrasal verb): throw away, to be free of something.

a.     She has gotten rid of the alter ego since she became famous.

2.     to blow up (phrasal verb): to become very successful.

a.     His career blew up after performing concerts in theaters.

3.     vigilante (noun): a person who enforces the law by themselves.

a.     No one knows that at night he is a crime-fighting vigilante.

4.     to lurk (verb): to be hidden with the intent to attack someone or something.

a.     The criminals were lurking in the dark as he arrived downtown.

5.     Average Joe (noun, slang): an average person with nothing extraordinary about them.

a.      Everyone thinks he is an Average Joe but he is also a superhero.

6.     nine-to-five (adjective): a standard work day time job, typically from 9am—5pm.

a.     She just works a typical nine-to-five job and enjoys the weekends.

7.     bulky (adjective): big and muscular.

a.     The weightlifters are very bulky due to their training.  

8.     clumsy (adjective): awkward and uncoordinated in some physical movements.

a.     He felt so clumsy because he dropped his phone several times.

9.     cubicle (noun): a small portioned off room usually used for work offices.

a.     He has a small cubicle located at the back of the building.

10.  bananas (adjective, slang): outrageous; crazy; wild.

a.     I can’t believe what he does in that movie. He’s totally bananas!

11.  misogynistic (adjective): strongly prejudiced against women; sexist.

a.     Borat is a misogynistic character played by Sasha Baren Cohen.  

12.  shtick (noun): comic routine or performance.

a.     His whole shtick with the Borat character is so funny.

13.  grain of salt (idiom): to view something with question; to not accept something without confirming it.

a.     Be sure to take what he says with a grain of salt since he has been wrong before.

14.  ballsy (adjective, slang): bold and courageous.

a.     He is pretty ballsy for doing all the crazy things he does.

15.  tip one’s hat (idiom): to honor or to respect.

a.     I tip my hat to them for the great things that they did.

16.  to take off (phrasal verb): to become successfully in a short amount of time.

a.     The rock band took off a few years ago and have been super famous ever since.

17.  wig (noun): fake hair that is worn by people on their head.

a.     The alter ego used to wear a wig so that people didn’t know her true identity.

18.  to pigeon-hole (verb): to assign or put something in a specific and particular category.

a.     She didn’t want to be pigeon-holed as the same character for her whole life.

19.  to wrap up (phrasal verb): to finish or conclude.

a.     To wrap up, we want to thank all of you for joining us today.

20.  to take the cake (idiom): to be the best or most remarkable.

a.     She really took the cake today with her amazing story of alter egos.