Media careers | Elton: Career changers welcome!

The film and television business is a safe of jammed drawers. Escape from it is almost impossible. Just ask Heino Ferch and Christine Neubauer! For decades, landing a job was reserved for professionals who had meticulously worked their way up. Career changers remained the exception; even sidekicks to dazzling stars like Bill Ramsey or Trude Herr were deeply rooted stage talents with charisma, talent, and the tools of the trade.

What a difference from Elton! Alexander Duszat, as he was christened in Berlin in 1971, has qualifications that include training as a television technician plus part-time experience at a local radio station in his second home, Hamburg. Stefan Raab's show intern didn't bring much more to the table when he began the most astonishing on-screen career since Til Schweiger in 2001.

From "Elton travels" to "Elton gambles", from "1, 2 or 3" to "Elton's 12", from "Everyone against one" to "Elton vs. Simon", from "The Dome" to "Die Alm", from the outside reporter on "Wetten, dass...?" to four shows with "Schlag den" in the title - for 20 years there have been too many primetime shows, neither public nor private, without the chubby presenter. He is currently visible in eight formats. Seven, to be exact. Because now comes to an end his era as the guessing fox in the ARD series "Wer weiß denn sowas?" And what is worth a special broadcast to the trained securities trader Kai Pflaume, Saturday at 8:15 p.m., deserves recognition here.

Neither telegenic nor eloquent, neither athletic nor charming, Elton has long held his own in the attention-seeking industry. This tenacity, coupled with an unprecedented lack of vanity, has certainly contributed to the democratization of the entertainment industry, whose aristocracy rarely gives the thumbs-up when plebeians like Elton request entry. But it works. Sometimes. At the height of pop-pop escapism, for example: Roberto Blanco became the black mascot of the white middle class, suggesting diversity until the 1980s when only oleaginous tolerance prevailed. The same was true of Hella von Sinnen: Lesbian, fat, and ribald—the opposite of what was considered feminine—she thundered in front of the RTL cameras and simply sat there.

Cindy from Marzahn was also a mistake in entertainment history when she made it into the mainstream via Markus Lanz's betting couch. At least Ilka Bessin had trained her fictional character on 1,000 stages. Harry Wijnvoord, on the other hand, had only worked behind the scenes before becoming the face of hedonistic private television dilettantism. From stutterer to fast talker (Dieter Thomas Heck), from technician to teen idol (Andreas Türck), from weather forecaster to talk show god (David Letterman), from abuse victim to billionaire (Oprah Winfrey) – sometimes television shows its potential for permeability.

Only through this has RTL comedian Olli Dittrich become the most effective parodist of German sensibilities since Loriot. Only through this has his fellow comedian Anke Engelke escaped from the "Wochenshow" to become a character actress. And only through this has Cherno Jobatay made it to the "ZDF-Morgenmagazin" at the height of its baseball bat years and shaped it like no other. Thirty-three years later, only the die-hard AfD members complain about his imitators, from Dunja Hayali to Jana Pareigis. Yet marginalized groups remain underrepresented in film and television. This is also why Christine Urspruch stands out so much. Having started out as the object of ableist malice in Professor Boerne's "Tatort," her lawyer in the ARD series "Einspruch, Schatz!" is even allowed to be sexually active.

Times do change, and with them the cachet of lucrative careers. Reality TV and social media sweep dozens of career changers into the spotlight of traditional channels every year. The most bizarre success is probably that of Menderes Bağcı. Starting out as Bohlen's nemesis in 15 seasons of "DSDS," the completely talentless spotlight hog is not only part of the trash entertainment inventory; he's also a part of Jan Böhmermann's "ZDF Magazin Royale." Not even Elton has made it into that category yet.