The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer recently featured Politicos Comedy Brigade's visit to Times Square. Reporter Alina Cho visited with Barack Obama impersonator Maxwell Price and Mitt Romney impersonator Jim Gossett to discuss the state of political comedy during the Election Season.

This story refers to Maxwell Price by his given name Louis Ortiz. Maxwell Price is Louis' stage name.

Barack Obama impersonator Maxwell Price appears on John Stossel's show Stossel, which aired on FOX News and FOX Business. Price performs the speech that Stossel wishes the real President would perform, including honest admission of mistakes that Stossel feels Obama has not been truthful about.

By Marie-Joëlle Parent, Journal de Montreal

New York est un bastion démocrate depuis près de 80 ans. Faites déambuler un sosie d’Obama en plein coeur de Times Square et c’est la cohue assurée. J’ai suivi le sosie new-yorkais de Barack Obama, Louis Ortiz, pendant un après-midi dans les rues de Midtown. Voici le résultat…

J’ai rencontré Louis Ortiz pour la première fois en 2009, peu de temps après l’investiture d’Obama. Il était l’attraction de la soirée dans un pub irlandais du Upper East Side. Trois ans plus tard, Ortiz, 41 ans, surf encore sur la vague de l’élection historique. Sa ressemblance frappante avec Obama est devenu son principal gagne-pain et il prend cette “responsabilité” très au sérieux. Il répète les phrases signatures d’Obama comme “Make no mistake”, “Every single American” ou “Here’s the thing” avec quasi perfection.



Je suis né avec le look du siècle. Ce n’est pas un boulot d’acteur comme les autres. Ça vient avec une responsabilité. Je dois bien me comporter, je ne veux pas décevoir les gens, dit-il.

Ortiz a réalisé qu’il ressemblait à Obama en août 2008 quand le Sénateur de l’Illinois a remporté les primaires face à Hillary Clinton. Le Portoricain d’origine, ex-technicien de la compagnie Verizon, était sans emploi depuis 2 ans. Il a reçu l’appel d’un ami qui lui a dit: «Hey! tu fais la couverture des journaux aujourd’hui!» Il décide de se raser la barbichette et enfile un costume. Est ensuite venu le temps de tester son apparence. «Je me suis présenté dans un Comedy Club de Manhattan. Une fille est sortie de la file et m’a sauté dessus, m’embrassant partout sur la bouche en criant “I love you Obama”, raconte Ortiz.



Je l’ai suivi dans la zone la plus touristique de Manhattan. Les Oh my God, c’est Obama!” et “good luck!” ont déferlé. En quelques secondes, il a été assailli par une horde de touristes qui voulaient se faire prendre en photo avec lui. Il a serré des dizaines de mains, pris des centaines de photos, embrassé quelques bébés et répondu aux questions des indécis.



Un touriste du Pakistan avait d’ailleurs des suggestions au rayon politique étrangère. À chaque fois, Ortiz pige dans les répliques d’Obama pour répondre. “Je ne sais jamais si les gens sont sérieux ou non”, m’a-t-il dit plus tard, de retour dans le lobby de l’hôtel. Nous avons dû fuir la foule pour faire l’entrevue. “Certains sont complètement ahuris”.

«J’essaie de ne pas marcher sans sécurité, parce qu’il y a des Républicains ou des racistes qui peuvent me dire des trucs horribles. On m’a déjà lancé: ‘On va lui mettre une balle dans le corps”, m’avait-il confié en 2009.

NOTE: This story covers Maxwell Price by his given name, Louis Ortiz. Maxwell Price is Ortiz's stage name.

By Ryan Murdock, New York Times

What if one day you looked in the mirror and saw the most powerful man in the world staring back at you? In this Op-Doc video, we meet Louis Ortiz, an unemployed Puerto Rican man from the Bronx, whose life turned upside down when he discovered his uncanny resemblance to President Obama.

The first time I talked to Mr. Ortiz on the phone he said, “I’m so glad you called. I’ve been living in the Twilight Zone for the past three years.” That was the spring of 2011. In the week between that call and when we met in person, Osama bin Laden was killed. When I went to the Bronx to meet Mr. Ortiz, people were high-fiving and congratulating him. I knew instantly I had to drop everything else and follow him around.

Mr. Ortiz is a walking, talking image of Barack Obama. When people encounter him, they see the version of Mr. Obama they want to see. And when Mr. Ortiz looks in the mirror, so does he.

Ryan Murdock is a filmmaker who has produced for PBS’s show “Nova” and recorded more than 300 oral histories for NPR’s StoryCorps. This video is adapted from his forthcoming documentary “The Audacity of Louis Ortiz” and a recent episode of “This American Life.”

This article refers to Maxwell Price by his given name, Louis Ortiz. Maxwell Price is Louis' stage name.

By Sara Debbie Gutfreund, Aish.com

Louis Ortiz was an unemployed Puerto Rican living in the Bronx. One night while sitting in a club, the bartender said to him, "Do you know who you look like if you would shave off your mustache? Obama! You look exactly like the President."

Ortiz went back to his cramped, dilapidated apartment and looked in the mirror. He shaved off his mustache and gasped at his image. He did look like the President! Staring down at his stained, ragged clothes he suddenly felt a sense of hope. He went to the closet and put on his nicest clothes. The stares of people on the street when he emerged from his apartment told him that he had a new job opportunity on his hands.

He has since posed for pictures and appeared in movies. He is thrilled with his new job. Everywhere he goes people ask to shake his hand and crowd around him. "Sometimes I want to shout out, ‘It's just me!’ But it's not just me anymore." Dressed in a suit and tie, he stands on the corner of streets in Manhattan and signs people's photos. "I'm living some weird dream right now." Ortiz says. "I looked in the mirror and thought: I can turn my life right side up."

I heard a related incident by Rabbi Yaakov Galinsky who spent four years imprisoned in Siberia. He was sharing a room with a Polish prisoner and every night this prisoner would put on his army uniform that he kept under his bed. He would stare at himself in the mirror, and then quickly remove his uniform and hide it under his bed. This went on every night. “Why are you doing this?” Rabbi Galinsky asked him.

"Before I was captured,” he replied, “for years I was a distinguished general in the Polish army. When I put on my uniform every night, even just for a minute, I see my true self. I don't see a broken, weak prisoner. I see a general in the Polish army, and this is how I keep my sanity here."

Sometimes we are too quick to dismiss the importance of our appearances. “It's the inside that counts,” we hear repeatedly. That’s true, but it's more complicated than that. Yes, who we are is far more important than what we look like. But what we wear does affect our character and behavior. When Louis Ortiz dressed like a poor street beggar, he thought of himself that way. When he dressed like the president, he began to actually act presidential. He started to walk differently, to speak differently. And ultimately, he started to see the world and himself differently.

Studies show that students who dress up for an exam outperform students dressed in their regular clothes. This is why top athletes and coaches wear suits to big games before they put on their uniforms. When a person dresses seriously, he begins to take himself seriously and he begins to believe that he can win.

Putting effort into a dignified appearance also makes people happier. Like the general who put on his uniform every night to keep himself sane, a person who dresses in a respectable way feels better.

Obama's look alike is a poignant example of what psychologists call a "keystone habit,” a habit that creates a significant rippling effect. Exercise is a prime example. Researchers find that those who begin and maintain an exercise routine suddenly start eating better, working more productively and spending less money.

"Embodied cognition" is a growing scientific field that explores the keystone habit of changing one's clothing. It purports that we think with our bodies as well as our brains. Our thoughts are often based on physical experiences that trigger related abstract ideas. Clothing is one of those physical experiences. We look at ourselves in the mirror, and we take on the role that the dress or suit is associated with in our minds. Other people's perceptions of us change as well.

Think of how differently most people interpret a person dressed in ripped jeans versus a man wearing a designer suit. Clothes don't make the man, but they may make the mind. A white lab coat induces people to pay more attention to their environments. An artist's smock may make us more creative. And dressing like people we admire may bring us one step closer to becoming like them.

It's the inside and outside together that count, connecting everything we do and wear with our true inner selves.

After appearing in the President Gaga musical parody released only days ago by Youtube's famous The Hillywood Show, Barack Obama impersonator Maxwell Price appears in the behind the scenes documentary about the making of the video alongside the show's stars, Hilly and Hannah Hindi. From The Hillywood Show: "Little Monsters! It's time for you to go on set of PRESIDENT GAGA by The Hillywood Show®! Filmed in 8 days, see how Hilly and Hannah Hindi created this wild, presidential parody! This feature includes over 20 minutes of behind the scenes footage, bloopers, studio recordings, dance rehearsals, and more! "

Written by David Moye, Huffington Post

Millions of Americans watched the first presidential debate between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney, but perhaps none with the intensity of Jim Gossett and Maxwell Price.

The two men just happen to make their living impersonating the two candidates and a win on either side could mean four years of an income estimated to be higher than the $450,000 salary Obama makes being the leader of the free world.

Price, who has been impersonating Obama for four years, cringed at the president's performance, but is holding out hope that things will change in the next debate.

"He needs to be a little more aggressive," Price, a U.S. Army veteran, told The Huffington Post. "I hope and pray he does win. I do think he has something up his sleeve."

In order to prepare for what could be four years of work performing onstage, movies and TV, Price has went through a rigorous training program conducted by Tim Watters, who made his name being a bogus Bill Clinton.

"You have to exaggerate a weakness, such as a character trait," Watters said. "For instance, Obama likes to say, 'Let me be clear.'"

Reggie Brown, who also impersonates Obama told HuffPost in January that the key to imitating the President is "confidence."

"You have to act like you know how to engage the room," he said, going on to divide the president's persona into discrete fragments, including "Campaign Obama," "Sincere Obama" and, when he's speaking to a large audience, "Martin Luther Obama."

The debate not only helped Romney, but helped Gossett, who has been trying to master his voice for the last few months.

"Romney is challenging," Gossett admitted to HuffPost. "Usually, he has a radio announcer's voice, but, last night, he adopted this halting voice like he was trying to be Reagan."

Dustin Gold, who runs Politicos Comedy, an organization that books political impersonators like Watters, Price and Gossett, also noticed another new Romney trait: stuttering.

"One of the things we noticed about Romney is that he has this stuttering, nervous laughter between his lines" Gold told HuffPost. "It also looks like Romney has been taking voice lessons from Reagan and is adopting his breathiness."

Gossett is ready to step in as a make-believe Mitt Romney, but admits he's trying to get ahead of myself.

"I had the best John Kerry impression around in 2004 and where did that get me?" he laughed.

Although presidential impersonators learned a lot from the debate, Watters doubts that the candidates can learn anything useful from their impersonators.

"If they want to do standup, we can help," Watters said. "If they want to lead the country, no."

Published internationally in various formats, with the story being picked up by NBC News, Yahoo!, and Getty Images among others.

NEW YORK - Americans who despair of ever seeing a civilized presidential campaign really should have witnessed Barack Obama help Mitt Romney iron his crumpled suit in a Manhattan hotel room last week.

Well, if only they'd been the real president and his Republican challenger.

Maxwell Price and Mike Cote probably look more like Obama and Romney than anyone in the world, other than Obama and Romney themselves of course.



Price has it all: the jutting ears, flashing smile, sonorous voice, even Obama's relaxed, athletic walk. When Price puts on a dark suit and does that Obama thing of gazing slightly up, as if thinking great thoughts, he literally stops traffic. "Buses, armored trucks, everything," Price says.

Cote says his Romney is harder to get, especially the voice, but the grey hair at the ears, high forehead, eyebrows and beady eyes are good enough to fool many that they're in the presence of a multi-millionaire who may be about to take the White House.

"I've seen people come up to me shaking," Cote says. "You break their heart."

The life of political impersonators can be as cutthroat and insecure as politics itself. But with the presidential election less than two months away, these are the good times for Price and Cote.

Preparing for their latest gig -- an appearance on Fox television -- the two met with their manager in a hotel and spent about an hour getting into character.

And so here were copies of the two biggest political rivals in the United States sitting on a bed chatting about their bizarre double lives and helping each other get dressed.

"You spray the water and hold the iron right up close, but without touching," Price instructed Cote as they tried to iron out creases in the blue suit jacket.

"You wouldn't really see Obama do this for Romney," Cote said. "Nothing gets done."



Price, who lives in the Bronx, was an out-of-work Verizon phone company technician in 2008 when a friend noticed that under his moustache and goatee beard lay the spitting image of the then little-known, but rapidly rising presidential hopeful Barack Obama.

"I finally took (the beard) off and I could not believe myself. I looked in the mirror and saw a whole new light. I saw dollar signs," Price said, shaking his head. "It's been a wild ride."

Now signed with a talent agency, he's been Obama in Australia, where he met the real Dalai Lama, Japan, South Korea and at a growing number of events back home where his manager Dustin Gold says a top-notch impersonator can command between $10,000 and $15,000 for a 30 minute appearance.

"People want to buy me drinks, food," Price said. "I get the weirdest requests. I got offered some heavy money to do a porno (film)... I think they were really serious."

Like the candidates they're impersonating, everything for Price and Cote rides on what happens on election day November 6th.

"If he (Romney) becomes president, my life changes," Cote said.

Cote was in the drywall, or plastering, business until he turned 39 and took the radical step of becoming a stand-up comic, working his way up and down east coast venues. He still does a bit of plastering, but hopes the Romney act will end that.

"I'm hoping I don't ever have to go back," he says.

According to Gold, an Obama impersonator will have some shelf life regardless of the election result. Price has a more established rival, a lookalike called Reggie Brown, but "has the natural ability to be better than Reggie," Gold says.

But if Romney sinks, so do his impersonators and without the sweetener of the real Romney's fortune.

"If Romney loses, it's done," Gold said. "No one's going to ask for Romney again."

On their way to the Fox event, the two impersonators paused to dive into the crowd at Times Square.

"My fellow Americans. Today, we stand..." Price began.

Mini-pandemonium ensued.

"Is it really him?" gasped Vicky Viaene, 25, visiting New York with her family from Belgium. "We were on the tour bus and we saw him. We thought it was Obama, and we got off the bus and ran here."

Locals were more savvy, immediately noting the absence of the security that would surround a real president.

But NYU Medical Center administrator Monique Bailey said she did a double take upon spotting the fake Obama. "He sounds exactly like him," she said.



There's little down time in the business of being someone else. Cote needs to work on his Romney voice, and Price is fine-tuning his imitation of the way the president crosses his legs when he sits.

"I think I own Mitt. The others are so far off," Cote said. "I have a picture of him in my bathroom right now."

"Only one?" Price said. "I have, like, 25 of Obama on the wall. Different smiles and so on. I have mirrors everywhere."

His teeth shone in a perfect replica of the Obama smile. "I feel like he's been cloned. It's weird."

Following his appearance alongside Pauly Shore and Politicos Comedy Brigade's own Sarah Palin impersonator Patti Lyons at the 9:30 Club in Washington, D.C. on June 30th for the filming of the Showtime special Pauly-tics, Barack Obama impersonator Maxwell Price has been selected to appear in the iTunes artwork for the Pauly-tics album. The artwork is pictured above.

Barack Obama impersonator Maxwell Price and Mitt Romney impersonator Mike Cote appeared on FOX News Stossel alongside anchor John Stossel for a discussion about the role of third parties in the electoral process. Stossel, Price, and Cote were joined by Libertarian Party Presidential Candidate Governor Gary Johnson, Constitution Party Presidential Candidate Virgil Goode, and Socialist Party USA Presidential Candidate Stewart Alexander.

More from the blog of John Stossel, FOX News Anchor:

You've heard Obama's and Romney's pitches.

"We're moving America forward!"

"We did build that!"

I'm tired of hearing from just them.

There are other voices we don't hear, because the media rarely covers them.

Declaration of Independents author Matt Welch and Theresa Amato, who wrote Grand Illusion: The Myth of Voter Choice in a Two-Party Tyranny, argue that we should pay more attention to third parties and their candidates.

Then we're joined by three of them:

Libertarian Party nominee Gary Johnson: "Free markets and limited government are the foundation of prosperity."

Stewart Alexander from Socialist Party USA: "We support the needs of the working class people... make sure we don't have disparity in income between the rich and the poor."

Virgil Goode of the Constitution Party: "We support limited government as outlined in the Constitution."

The three candidates will state their case and question each other. I won't let the two guys pictured enough talk, because it's time we hear from the "others."

I say: One of them would be a better president than Obama or Romney.