- 2 minutes ago
Comedian Matt Friend has gone viral for his spot-on impressions of celebrities like Jeff Goldblum, Timothée Chalamet and Rami Malek, but it's his imitation of President Donald Trump that has really made him a social media sensation. Friend explains how he pulls off these transformations and reflects on how this unique talent has landed him at the White House Correspondents' Dinner, the Golden Globes red carpet, and doing his Barack Obama impression to the former president himself.
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00:00it's like i picture the person's face like they're like on my face that sounds really
00:05creepy and weird but like i can just like picture his lips hello everybody i am matt friend and this
00:13is variety's anatomy of a joke what a great anatomy this is what a body too what a body
00:22you see this is what happens you let me talk shit will happen i first started doing impressions
00:31and getting into comedy when i was four years old and i watched austin powers for the first time
00:36that movie is what blew my mind mike myers his characters and me trying to replicate
00:40them and then uh i would do my grandfather don levinson hello how you doing it starts with
00:47trying to make your parents laugh and then doing those around you and then i found like
00:53movies and old talk shows and i became like what my sister referred to as a glorified parent
00:59i loved comedy i grew up near second city five minutes away in chicago near zany's just that
01:05rich comedy history of that city was very inspiring but it never occurred to me that i could like do
01:11that i would actually do this i think i always wanted to do it i didn't know what i was
01:15going
01:15to do but i always wanted to do it china okay china they're killing us and it's so disgusting
01:21xi jinping is nasty people ask me was trump was donald trump the catalyst was he the thing that broke
01:30through for me and no it was actually covid pandemic i was doing impressions and characters and sketches
01:36that were not politics my political stuff wasn't taking off until like 2023 i think i was doing rami
01:43malik jeff goldblum timothy chalamet pre-cancellation army hammer rami malik like drinking a coffee
01:55it's pretty tasty actually and then i started to do this political thing and i was doing trump ted
02:02cruz mitch mcconnell birdies all these people and then i find myself at the correspondence dinner
02:07hello everybody why is it so quiet what's happening it's quieter than sleepy joe hello joe how are you
02:12great to see you i would say because trump sucks up so much of our oxygen there's nothing like it
02:18and because i can do him so arguably very well it's definitely helps with the eyeballs
02:28how can i break down a donald trump impression well first of all it's something that has evolved
02:33i hear tape of me doing it eight years ago before i was even like a comedian and i'm like
02:41the voice
02:41wasn't quite there yet it's such a disaster what these democrats are doing to me it's really a
02:47horrible thing when you think about it there's some hook words with all impressions that i do like
02:51when i do howard stern i go right right all right right i start with alan alda who's up here
02:57alan
02:58alda for mash great actor then you bring it down an octave right then you get howard stern
03:03bring it back up alan alda down howard stern right alda for mash what a great room this is i
03:11mean
03:11really this you're a wonderful guy great looking interviewer bring it down are you banging anybody
03:15who are you having sex with are you having sex you're banging people right robin wants to bang you
03:21she wants to bang you with trump well i would say it's more of like a well i'll tell you
03:27what
03:28i'll tell you what well i'll say that's great i think there is a posture thing where you kind of
03:32sit on the edge of a chair like you're taking a shit so you kind of have to like sit
03:37on the edge
03:37of the chair your your posture's up like this you kind of breathe through your mouth a little bit like
03:43um i you could call it a queef i don't know whatever you want to just like
03:51oh yeah he has these weird new noises now like in between words he'll be like oh
03:59oh that's good that's a look at marco that's a hey he does this weird little laugh now like when
04:06he's amused he goes hey it's a good it's a funny one too if you really want to sound like
04:13trump you
04:13just have to do one key thing and that is mispronounce big words whenever you're talking
04:17like he called hamas hummus in a speech and i thought he should just keep naming random foods
04:24from the middle east hummus needs to be shot down and destroyed the leader of hummus baba ganoush is
04:30a nasty guy this is the worst invasion since tikka masala in the 90s tikka masala jady vance's wife's
04:38sister usha tikka masala vance then he'd just say something pretty racist but now with trump there is
04:44sort of a weaker quality to the voice oh that's great that's a good one why don't you come over
04:51and say a few words marco please and i think it was a little bit stronger maybe like 10 years
04:55ago
04:56the bill we're going to build a great wall it's a little bit less of the old man thing it's
05:01a big
05:01problem with these people it's a big problem now it's a big problem it's a big problem right it's a
05:07sad what's happening my process is i watch a lot i love talk shows and i think that's a great
05:17way to
05:18get a sense of who a person is and how they're trying to behave for instance austin butler during
05:23the elvis promotion i was nailing that impression and i was observing like many others did that during
05:30that press circuit he did not stop sounding like elvis presley so he's a guy from anaheim california
05:37but he still sounds like i want to thank baz lerman the director of this film i want to thank
05:43the
05:44presley if i can dream of a better i'm like what you're literally from anaheim but i love you it's
05:49like i picture the person's face like they're like on my face that sounds really creepy and weird but
05:55like i can just like picture his lips or i can just picture rami malek just doing that and i
06:03try
06:04to replicate it or like even like with mitch mcconnell i just kind of try to make my face look
06:09like i'm about to experience a massive amount of diarrhea then i stop functioning completely
06:20i love a chinese woman okay anyways um it is weird because with certain impressions
06:25you have to contort your body to achieve it like with obama i have to turn my head this way
06:31i don't know what that is i can't get it out of this side of the throat
06:35obama is not here he happens to be to the left which is kind of a weird coincidence
06:41if obama was to the right well that would be crazy and weirdly trump is kind of to the right
06:48actually very i just noticed this about myself by the way i swear to god obama is to the left
06:54trump is a little bit you lean to the right side of the chin he's not really like this it's
06:59more like
06:59this bernie sanders is over here you can port your whole body like this like you're conducting a very
07:06tiny jewish orchestra with your hands work up the phlegm for me because i'm also a comedian
07:13so i need to have substance behind what i'm saying i need to have the writing correct because it's
07:19one thing to nail a voice and it's another thing to actually have substance behind what you're doing
07:24but also like it's just weird practice like i'll be walking down the sidewalk as king charles
07:30like for some reason i don't know what it is you know i just sort of scrunch my shoulders
07:34and with charles it's like you're sort of you're gritting your teeth together
07:38i don't know what it is though can you believe my brother in these epstein files
07:42the way he's hunched over that poor poor woman it's terrible it's terrible it really is terrible
07:48what's fun about impressions specifically is that you can use them to say things that i don't want
07:53to say as myself i do a whole bit trump tourettes you know where i i don't want to do
07:59crowd work as
08:00me but if i do it as him it's acceptable for example is that a black person or a mexican
08:05i can't tell
08:06in this light honestly i just can't tell i just i just don't know what's it but i didn't say
08:11it's
08:11him i did not say that that's totally like i'm basically repeating things that he probably has
08:15said look at my african america you're probably gay right that's probably a gay that's another part
08:22of my comedy where i remind people if you're a republican you're at my show i'm just repeating
08:27shit he's actually said grab him by the pussy grab him by the variety
08:35i met obama i did my impression of him with him hey everybody this is barack obama and i am
08:41here
08:41with uh i'm actually barack obama i kind of rolled through all the greatest hits with him so i did
08:49him singing amazing grace and then i did him after he made a three-point shot that's what i do
08:55amazing
08:56grace amazing grace amazing grace and then i took out my mitch mcconnell glasses and i pitched him on
09:03an idea and he goes you got to put those away that that has given me ptsd seriously that is
09:08that is
09:09freaking me out that that is weird have i met trump and have i done what i did with obama
09:14to trump no
09:14if you can't laugh at yourself it's a broader issue that's a danger not just uh politically just as a
09:21as a person i think but especially politically which is why i did not like that trump didn't go
09:27to the correspondence dinner he still doesn't go i think it's very important for the fabric of our
09:32democracy and of our country to just be able to take a joke there's no comedian roasting putin at
09:39the kremlin you know behind a dais so i think that's just so unique to america and that's what makes
09:44this country great we live in such a partisan time now i don't know what there is to gain
09:49in just trying to appeal to one segment of the american or global population but also you should
09:57have a backbone and integrity like you should still like stand up for what you believe in at the same
10:01time and like call out bullshit at the end of the day like i might be doing mitch mcconnell eating
10:07someone out on stage you know is that a political statement it just might be it just might be
10:17who do i have for the oscars this year timothy chalamet was an early impression of mine actually
10:22was the first video of mine that blew up on tiktok i was in college and i just did like
10:27chalamet
10:29joins tiktok this is like uh so sort of crazy to me like surreal that i'm actually joining uh tiktok
10:35like for just like so many great things about it he had this crazy laugh he would like fall back
10:39on a chair he has since evolved he has a buzz cut he's with kylie jenner he's a little bit
10:43more
10:43mature dicaprio too he has this sniff where he'll be like to mr marty scorsese to mr alejandro in a
10:53reto as the history of the cinematic art form unfolds you will widely be regarded as one of its
10:59utmost creators and legends to mr marty scorsese bob de niro thank you very much i do not take
11:07tonight for granted climate change is real remember when he was at the golden globe he was like
11:21what the hell was that i mean i loved it i wish i was on the receiving end of it
11:25if you know what i
11:26mean but with dicaprio it's subtle just it's like it's like he's packing a lip sniffing kind of his
11:34chin up see it in the eyes thank you very much bob de niro kind of uh shortening the names
11:40of
11:40fellow famous people jen lawrence is here hello jen how are you benice benice del toro i call him
11:49benice the best sport in the world there is no one that i will ever meet that is better than
11:55jeff
11:55goldblum i mean he knows how to take a joke and i think he has embraced his celebrity like he's
12:01such a
12:01famous talented actor but now he's morphed into this like internet thing and i think you understand
12:07the sort of what i'm doing you know with goldblum it's sort of a sensual thing where um you know
12:12he
12:12starts with glasses on glasses off of course he kind of it's almost like he's making love to the camera
12:17yes he is and damion grrr of course um the internet slang of damion grrr of course um sandy meisner
12:27my
12:27old acting teacher used to say have another drink my dark-eyed beauty yes of course there may be
12:33trouble ahead like i feel like i'm having sex with myself when i do him um but no he really
12:38is amazing
12:43oh yes it's a yelly thing very good indeed paul motherfucking giamatti is here today mrs adams
12:51fuck you oh god are we rolling okay i'm stan today i'm in my home in london
13:06i'm gonna come my pants baby birds flying high you know how i feel
13:15hey buddy buckle up fucklehead i have a dick the size of a red sequoia and i'm gonna fuck like
13:19a bullet
13:20train well it's an honor to be here talking to variety and no i i didn't know epstein at all
13:27um probably um gucci i don't know but probably gucci i was speaking with teddy geiger on this
13:38sunday's teddy geiger that's like his collaborator i think teddy geiger fuck you hey mick fuck you
13:45i'm ray donovan go fuck yourself fuck you you fucking asshole fuck off fuck you just a lot of
13:52fucks make it work ladies this is fabulous i love the look very chic you really have done something
13:58well here my recommendation would be don't wear no socks with loafers what are we in italy good
14:04morning cupertino it's a thrill to be here today announcing ios 42 and our brand new vision pro
14:16oh it's so great it's so so great steve would love that stuff he really would you know the sort
14:24of a thing he is working with mr tarantino of course on the set of the film was a very
14:30sort of an exciting
14:32enterprise but you know sort of in my country where i come from when we're sort of filming a movie
14:39like that you don't want to be sort of thinking in these sort of generic american terms ted cruz has
14:45been hard for me and i think i finally really nailed him down i really do when this video is
14:51over i'm
14:52going to cancun and having a good time tucker the key to him is just to laugh like you're getting
14:58pegged or laugh like you're getting a prostate exam good evening and welcome to tucker carlson
15:03tonight's subject is joe biden a lizard good evening and welcome welcome welcome to fuck what the fuck
15:11even is this shit okay what according to this graph oh you know what new rule you know i don't
15:19want to
15:19do this and this is the problem with the left the left isn't the right the right isn't the left
15:25oh
15:25they're all oh oh they're all so wrong they're so they're so wrong it's just so wrong right this is
15:34amazing yeah you're amazing yes wait you're cute you're cute yeah i mean i was just talking with john
15:41mayor and bruce hey buddy how are you you're amazing i want a shot ski yes that's amazing how are
15:49we doing
15:50is this making sense what i'm doing i'm like biden what am i saying what do i do it's no
15:56joke
16:01you
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