Elena Vorobei: The ups and downs of the queen of practical jokes and parodies of the Russian stage

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

The bright star of the charismatic and extravagant parody genre actress Elena Vorobei lit up when Alla Pugacheva noticed her and invited her to her “Christmas meetings” in 1998. Since then, the artist began to be recognized by millions of viewers, whom she conquered with her extraordinary vocal and artistic talent. And for more than a decade, her female charm and gushing energy has been pleasing and delighting the public. Arouses great interest among fans and the personal life of the queen of practical jokes and parodies.

It's not a secret for anyone, all women want to look beautiful, not funny … Elena, not without irony, somehow in one interview shared her reasoning on this score:

However, over time, Elena resorted to plastic, and nevertheless changed something in her appearance, of course, within reasonable limits.

And that's how it all began

Elena Lebenbaum was born in 1967 in the Belarusian city of Brest. By the way, in a family that had nothing to do with art: my mother was a seamstress in a factory, my father worked as a locksmith in the housing office. From the very birth, Elena grew up as a lively and active girl, during her school years she often hooligans, although she studied very diligently. And besides, she studied at a music school.

It should also be noted that the real surname of Elena Vorobei is Lebenbaum, which means "Tree of Life". Lena had a gift for parodying while still at school. At first, she forged the signatures of teachers, and not only in her diary. Classmates handed her in piles of theirs, and she put the necessary marks in them and assured them with the signatures of the teachers. Then the girl began to copy the voices of her teachers, then she skillfully parodied Alla Pugacheva and Gennady Khazanov, which delighted and surprised her family and peers a lot.

And, despite the fact that Elena always dreamed of becoming a clown, after finishing the eighth grade, her parents sent her to a music school. All prophesied her a career as a music teacher, and she dreamed of a Leningrad theater university. Once having visited this amazing city, Elena decided that she would study and live only there. Therefore, after graduating from a music school in Brest, she went to Leningrad for her dream. The first two times Elena failed the entrance exams miserably, but for the third time she still became a student at the theater institute and got on the course with Isaac Stockbant. And it happened in 1988.

Some five years will pass, and she will receive the Grand Prix and the Audience Award at the Yalta-Moscow-Transit competition. It was then, in 1993, that Elena Lebenbaum first appeared on television screens as a young promising performer. However, the matter stopped there. For promotion, money was needed, and not small, which, of course, the rising star did not have. And since Elena did not have a rich husband or a producer to promote herself, she changed her role. As it turned out, the genre of parody turned out to be the springboard where it was possible to show both the outstanding abilities of the singer and the talent of the actress. And while being noticed by the general public.

By the way, it was after the competition that Elena decided to take the pseudonym "Sparrow". After all, then, in 1993, when receiving the Grand Prix, the young singer did not even know that her surname Lebenbaum almost played a cruel joke on her. Ten years later, Elena learned from Irina Ponarovskaya that the commission had been thinking for a long time about whether to give the award to an actress with a pronounced Jewish surname or not.

It must be said that at that time Jews were not particularly favored in the Union. Therefore, the decision to change the stage name was very timely … During that creative period, the artist was carried away by the work of the famous French singer Edith Piaf, parodying her songs. Colleagues in the shop Galtsev and Vetrov immediately suggested as an option - "sparrow": this is how the surname "Piaf" sounded in translation from French, to which Elena said: "What sparrow? Sparrow!" Since then, she began to appear on stage under this bold name.

Having displaced male comedians in the comedy television program "Full House", "little bird" since 2000 has become its constant participant and one of its main heroines.

Personal life of the famous parodist

There were always a lot of rumors about Elena Vorobei's personal life: they talked about her fictitious marriages, about romances with married men, about relationships with an Australian entrepreneur, then with a producer, and also about an affair with Yuri Galtsev, and later - Sergei Chelobanov. And this is not the whole list, consisting of imaginary husbands and lovers …

Indeed, the parodist had many novels, but she was officially married only once.

The legal husband of the artist was Andrei Kislyuk, with whom she worked at the Buff Theater at the beginning of her career. When they got married, Elena, who came from a simple working-class family, found herself surrounded by real Petersburg intellectuals. Her husband's parents were wary of her, because she is an aspiring artist who came from Brest, and Andrei grew up in a family of hereditary St. Petersburg doctors.

Elena loved her husband very much, but his relatives saw in her only a girl who claimed their living space, and this literally poisoned the life of a young family. And then Andrei decided for her on a real man's act - he left the comfortable apartment of his parents for the hostel where Lena lived. There they lived a happy two years. Gradually, the young couple saved up money and bought a small room in a communal apartment, and after a while they lived in a small apartment.

The couple lived together for 10 years. Their family life has cracked, in part due to the fact that their family never had children. At that time, doctors diagnosed Elena Vorobei with a terrible diagnosis - infertility. Then, a desperate actress, began to actively build her career, life gave her a chance, and she could not miss it. For the sake of art, Elena sacrificed her family life: she divorced and moved to Moscow. She was invited to his theater of humor by Vladimir Vinokur himself. However, not having worked for Vinokur for a day, Sparrow became the queen of parodies and practical jokes in the famous "Full House" program. It was then that her finest hour began.

In the spring of 2003, the artist unexpectedly became a mother, giving birth to her long-awaited daughter Sophia. The girl's father was a famous St. Petersburg businessman. At that time, Elena had a lot of work, and her body could not withstand such a load - her daughter Sonya was born at 7 months old, and Elena had to make a lot of efforts to make the girl grow up healthy.

At the time of the birth of his daughter, the man had a family. Soon his marriage broke up, but he never married Elena. Another woman became his chosen one. When Sofia was eleven, her father died of a fatal head injury. From his second marriage, he left two children.

Then Elena had a relationship with Alexander Kalischuk, a young sound engineer of the theater. For Elena's sake, he divorced his wife. For some time, the couple lived in a civil marriage. Alexander was a caring husband and father, he was able to find contact with her daughter. However, their further life did not work out. Now the artist does not have a serious relationship, but she still believes in miracles and real feelings …

Over the 20 years of her creative career, Sparrow has made many parodies, including those of famous personalities. Her characters are always memorable and vivid. And only she alone knows at what cost it is given to her to enter the image and convey all the nuances of the production and the mood of the heroes. As you know, the actress skillfully parodies the images of men, which is not easy because of the low timbre of their voice.

Elena herself says that over the years it becomes more and more difficult to make the audience laugh. In the first 10 minutes, the spectator who comes to the performance thinks about whether he wasted money on the ticket. And the artist needs to prove that the audience did not come in vain. And she proves it masterfully. Each appearance of a parodist on stage or on the TV screen is a sea of positive emotions, sparkling humor and good mood.

Read also: Evgeny Petrosyan and Elena Stepanenko: Why the 30-year marriage of humorists ended in failure.