The man who looks just like Obama

MOTORCADES, nightclub attacks and free meals. Reggie Brown reveals what it’s like to be the spitting image of the world’s most famous president.

Barack Obama, or Reggie Brown, meets his fans in Sydney. Picture: Corey van Hese

NO, this isn’t Barack Obama. It’s Reggie Brown, the US president’s most successful impersonator.

He’s made a career out of looking and acting just like Mr Obama, and makes as much as $A36,000 for a 30-minute appearance.

Brown, who is currently visiting Sydney from California, told news.com.au that being the spitting image of a world leader had some surreal perks. “I’ve been escorted in 18-car motorcades and walked in to events to Hail to the Chief with fake bomb-sniffing dogs and Secret Service agents,” he recalled.

“People were freaking out, it took a few minutes for them to realise what was going on.

“I’ve had international clients that don’t even realise I’m not him.”

Brown first heard he had a double when his brother saw Mr Obama playing basketball at Chicago’s exclusive East Bank Club in 2001. Weeks afterwards, a woman came into the city restaurant where Brown worked and said he looked just like her professor. Obama was lecturing at the University of Chicago Law School.

Brown looked up the mysterious man, and was amazed. “He was 20 years older, skinnier and with bigger ears, but I just looked at the picture and thought, ‘Oh my god’.”

When Obama became a senator in 2004, Brown went down to Chicago’s Grant Park with a megaphone, and the crowd went wild. That was his ‘lightbulb moment’.

Brown was already writing for NBC5’s website, presenting a TV show and hosting events in front of thousands of people.

“My life was grooming me for this moment,” he said.

He put aside his plan to host a cookery program and moved out to Los Angeles under the care of Randy Nolen, the Hollywood agent who represented well-known George W Bush lookalike Steve Bridges.

“Taxis would U-turn, cars would screech their brakes and people would run across the street or pick up the tab for me in restaurants,” he said.

He had hit the big-time.

Bodyguards keep watch over proceedings. Picture: Corey van Hese

Posing for photos in the CBD. Picture: Corey van Hese

But looking so recognisable carries some risk. “In New York, two guys came after me in one night. I was leaving a comedy club and some guy came after me. Luckily, I’d wrestled and trained in ju-jitsu, but I had to defend myself. Then I walked into my hotel and some guy who’d had too much to drink and didn’t like the president started on me in the lobby.”

Brown is a great admirer of Mr Obama as a politician and a man, and says his performances are always “respectfully” comic.

He’s appeared with a Michelle Obama lookalike, performed songs with a Kim Jong-un impersonator and is friends with other people in the industry, including David Beckham, Bono and Sarah Palin impersonators. They make quite a spectacle when they go out.

Brown has met Obama briefly but is still waiting for his invite to the Oval Office, and he says he’s happy to stand in for the president on secret missions where needed.

The #president @IamReggieBrown and @karlstefanovic @TheTodayShow @findercomau pic.twitter.com/3PE7qkwrmv

— Michelle Hutchison (@MichHutchison) September 7, 2015

He’s now in Sydney for finder.com’s US launch, and his future career prospects look bright, with appearance coming up in Barbershop 3 with Nicki Minaj and Ice Cube, and Brad Pitt Netflix vehicle War Machine.

“These next few years are going to be insane,” he said. “I’m going to get to do a lot of travelling, from sea to shining sea.

“I can keep doing this for 20-plus years. The number one Bill Clinton still works, and he’s 50 pounds [23 kilograms] heavier than the real thing, and the George Bush impersonator makes $A70-90,000 a year.”

It sounds like a pretty great gig, but like any job in Hollywood, you need to have the right look.

Originally published as The man who looks just like Obama