Moderator and Entertainer Oliver Baier Celebrates 60th Birthday

Oliver Baier, born on December 4, 1965, quickly found his way into broadcasting after completing his education. After participating in a radio workshop, he joined the team of Radio Adria in the late 1980s, which catered to German-speaking tourists on the northern Adriatic coast during the summer. In 1990, he began his career at Ö3, stirred discussions with the unusual midday show "One o'clock," and initiated the astrology show "Sternstunden" together with Gerda Rogers.

Oliver Baier: From "Mahlzeit" to "Montevideo"

After a stint in Germany at ProSieben and Antenne Bayern, the then station manager and now State Opera director Bogdan Roščić brought Baier back to Ö3 in 1996 to entertain for years as the host of the comedy midday show "Mahlzeit." With the end of the quiz show "Hol's der Geier," his time at "Hitradio" concluded in 2006. Later, Baier could be heard repeatedly as a host on Ö1.

By then, the face was well known to the voice. Baier had been present on domestic screens since 1994. With the anarcho-trash show "Montevideo," in which he, along with janitor Ralph (Gerald Votava) and a living trash can (Clemens Haipl), invited celebrities from Hader to Heino and played absurd games with callers, the entertainer created an ORF cult format honored with a Romy, whose 22 episodes were equally loved and hated by the audience.

"What's New?" with Austria's Comedy Who's Who

Considerably more mainstream in terms of viewer taste is "What's New?" Every week, contestants must spontaneously and humorously answer curious questions or explain the meaning of unusual objects. The panel consists of the who's who of the Austrian comedy scene. "That I often had to make a fool of myself as a host so that my guests could shine might be my greatest achievement in these 20 years," Baier joked in an interview on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the ratings hit.

In 2015, the host, who is not lacking in quick wit and self-irony, surprised his fans when he suddenly appeared on the show with a completely bald head. To counter rumors about chemotherapy, the now openly cap-wearing host explained the decision as a result of alopecia areata.

Oliver Baier Played with Hader and at the Music Theater

Baier is familiar with the television business not only as a showmaster. Starting in 2002, he worked as a writer and for the first time as a director for the comedy format "echt fett". Five years later, he was a writer and director for "Die liebe Familie - Next Generation", and in 2009, he acted alongside Josef Hader in David Schalko's TV two-parter "Aufschneider".

The stages far from studios and cameras have also been familiar to the entertainment professional for a long time. Apart from tours with his own programs "Das Leben ist ein Schlager" and "Schlager Schlachtung", Baier's numerous engagements have taken him to the Volksoper ("Die Tankstelle der Verdammten" by Georg Ringsgwandl, 2000), the Rabenhof ("Galanacht" by Werner Schneyder, 2007), the Kammerspiele ("Komödie im Dunkeln" by Peter Shaffer, 2009), or the Rosenburg ("Eine Mittsommernachts-Sex-Komödie" by Woody Allen, 2015). In 2016, he played the role of Frosch in "Die Fledermaus" at the Léhar Festival in Bad Ischl, and three years later, he was the narrator in the "Rocky Horror Show" at the Musical Summer Amstetten.

In recent years, Baier has repeatedly been seen at the Bühne Baden - for example, as the valet Penižek in "Gräfin Mariza", as Sigismund in "Im Weißen Rössl", or as Higgins in "My Fair Lady". For the Bühne Baden, the host and actor, now nearly 60 years old, has shown a completely new side of himself and in September of this year signed a petition criticizing the dissolution of the local orchestra - "for the first time in my life," as he revealed.

(APA/Red)

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