Reggie brings 'Obama Effect' to TT
Thursday, March 17 2011
Reggie Brown in a characteristic US President Barack Obama pose at the Hyatt....
Reggie Brown in a characteristic US President Barack Obama pose at the Hyatt....
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Reggie Brown who played the role of United States President Barack Obama in the 2010 movie Obama Effect told Newsday when asked what he expects to take away from Trinidad when he leaves said: "The cultural experience.
There's nothing like it, my job right now gives me the best opportunity to get paid to travel the world and have good experiences like this (in Trinidad), the food, the music, the people, I love it."
Brown was sought by promoter Randy Glasgow to bring his Obama Effect to this country at the six-show Alternative Comedy Festival across the country.
On Tuesday, Brown took a stroll through the Brian Lara Promenade and shook hands with the town folk, as well as posed for pictures with curious onlookers.
Brown stated: "I've always wanted to come here so this is an opportunity for me to come and work here and have some fun."
He told of a time a year ago when he dated a girl whose father was from Trinidad and was told by her how beautiful Trinidad is, after which he became a big fan of the Caribbean island.
Having got into the country on the Thursday just after Carnival 2011 he vowed to come back for Carnival next year. "I don't want to miss it again." He said he likes soca music, and mentioned artistes Benjai and Ravi B.
During a one-on-one chat with the 30-year-old at the Hyatt Regency Trinidad where he is staying, the political humorist and world-class impersonator, certainly demonstrated his ability to capture the look, voice, movements, and persona of US President Barack Obama, that immediately captivates one's mind.
Brown began impersonating the president a little over two years ago, Obama was elected to office. He said, "We jumped on our bikes rode down to Grant Park where Obama was giving his victory speech, after that I saw people trying to do his impersonations and I thought they weren't doing a good job, I could do better so I put a video out and it got international news coverage and it just started going from there."
Brown added that people had been telling him for ten years that he looked like Obama when the latter was a Professor, then a Senator. He said: "I always took it as a compliment and it was like oh, nice. I'd then take a picture with someone and that was it. But then I decided that I could make a career out of it so that's what I did."
Not too long afterwards, Brown left his hometown Chicago and moved to Los Angeles to do more film and television work. Since there Brown has done White Men Can't Dance (2009) and The Obama Effect (2010), as well as had countless appearances on numerous major television and radio networks including NBC's Piscopo After Dark, Disney's Hannah Montana, the Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Comedy Central shows and TBS's Lopez Tonight with George Lopez.
Brown also appeared in the music video "Gimme My Money" and on FOX News' "Huckabee Show".
Most recently he did a parody of Notorious BIG's video "Juicy" called "Extra Juicy" and already got 400,000 views after one month.
Prior to his "presidential fame", Brown worked three jobs, one as a writer for NBC Chicago Street Team, which earned him an Emmy in 2008, another as host of Akira TV for a fashion retailer in House of Blues and he also worked in Dana Hotel in downtown Chicago.
Brown's current job has taken him all over the United States and Canada with his impersonations, and this year he intends doing many more international shows. Next month he will be in Guam to perform at a big military base there.
Of the first three local comedy shows he performed in last weekend, Brown thought he had a great reaction from the local audience. He said: "Thank God, I think their love of the President (Obama) definitely transferred over to me which was a nice greeting and I definitely had a warm welcome."
He had special thanks to local comedian Errol Fabien who helped him go over material, choosing jokes that reached the people since his material is mostly political for the US audience.
"After meeting with Errol Fabien, he had me get my finger on the pulse of TT and what's going on to make the content relevant to the audience," he said.
However Brown used some of his own material and worked on it so that could relate to the audience, in the process getting some good laughs and it was fun for him.
More at http://www.newsday.co.tt/features/0,137334.html
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easy with the fucking high volume!!!!
globalchaos1984 10 months ago 5
That Obama guy is great!
ItisI111 10 months ago 2