Prior to the president-elect floating down his golden escalator in 2015, comedian J-L Cauvin had been portraying Donald Trump.
But Trump’s announcement that he will reopen the economy by Easter at the start of the COVID-19 epidemic in March 2020 was Cauvin’s big break. Cauvin made the decision to create a parody video. It received 6.9 million tweets and 2.9 hits on YouTube before going viral.
Since then, New Jersey-based comedian and former lawyer Cauvin has been parodying Trump and other political figures almost every day on various media outlets. Half Blackface, his stand-up show, is currently streaming on Amazon Prime. Watch for his daily video commentary on Trump and other topics on XandBlueSky. He is engaged in the podcasting scene with Rain on Your Parade and Make Podcasts Great Again.
Additionally, on December 13 and 14, he will be performing in Harrisburg. We spent some time discussing his career in general and his talent for imitation.
When did you make the decision to transition full-time into the secure field of comedy from the precarious field of law?
In my day job, I never quit. Too many times over my career, I believed that I would be able to break free from the constraints of my day job and become the celebrity I was destined to be, but that wasn’t the case. I continue to work as a lawyer part-time. Being a full-time comic has always been my desire, but I don’t want to experience setbacks. I’d like to settle my rent.
Since you were young, you have performed impressions. Which is your favorite?
My impression of George Washington was of [actor/martial artist] Jean-Claude Van Damme. In sixth grade, I made buddies who laughed. After that, I created impressions of the basketball team’s coaches, teammates, and teachers. I had an intrinsic ability to sing, a natural facility with it. My mother is Irish-American, while my father is an immigrant from Haiti. Perhaps my ear become more sensitive as a result of the assortment of sounds. However, making friends and making people laugh was simple. Being a comic was never my goal.
How did your career in comedy begin?
The first time I was out of my depth, I had finally found my match while attending Georgetown University for law school in 2003. I had to have something. I tried going out a lot and drinking, but that didn’t work.
I attended open-mike evenings to watch lesser-known people perform stand-up, which is not what my favorite comedian, Chris Rock, did. It gave it a somewhat more authentic feel. I won the title of best college comic in Washington, D.C., twenty-one years ago.
When did you realize that your ticket was Trump?
It found me. I would speak as myself after removing it from my stand-up routine. After YouTube came up, I began drawing sketches and doing impressions. I was a better comedian than others who did Trump impressions. For five years, no one took note of what I was doing [until the Easter pandemic Tweet went viral]. The tricky thing with comedy is that you have to be excellent and lucky. Sometimes being good isn’t as important as luck.
You told NJ.com in December 2020 that you were tired of playing Trump and hoped to move on, therefore you thought the Trump era would finish with the election of Joe Biden. That did not occur.
In 2020, I was pleased to believe that the Trump campaign would be coming to an end. I did have a plan for getting out. I had an hour of stand-up ready to go, which turned into the Amazon show Half Black Face, and I was lucky enough to land a role on the show Billions. I was going to change course. Observing the Biden administration, I assumed [Trump] would be merely a sour political analyst, but who has remained the dominant political figure? Melania and I feel shackled together. We are unable to escape.
Much of your humor has an undercurrent of seriousness, particularly when it comes to topics that are close to your heart, like immigration.
My dad is an immigrant from Haiti. These are individuals, regardless of your opinion of Trump’s policies. When did we forget that America is a friendly country where people can realize their dreams? In general, we’ve forgotten about that. Social media and smartphones have distorted who we are as a society. We are more aware of our own needs than those of others. Consider the events that are taking place in Springfield, Ohio. [Trump] claimed that Haitian immigrants were like a barbaric tribe that ate pets. It was a fictional piece. No one says you can’t be an immigration hawk, but it’s totally untrue and un-American to make fun of individuals. There isn’t any cost. We’ve deviated too much from our professed beliefs.
The last time you played Harrisburg, in 2022, you said you were pleasantly surprised to find it wasn t the backwater you expected and you took on aheckler.
You know, it was a group of eight people. Seven of them were huge fans at the end of the show.
What new impressions do you see in the new Trump administration?
People enjoy my Elon Musk. Vivek Ramaswamy is a work in progress those are some hot new properties on the Trump scene, hopefully.
Will you retire your impression of Sen. Mitch McConnell now that he s leaving office?
I will retire Mitch McConnell when the Lord retires Mitch McConnell. Until then he will be my impression emeritus.
What can Harrisburg audiences expect to hear at your show this weekend?
There will be a few impressions of political figures, some new material, stories from my life, like becoming hockey fan in my 40s. Anybody who shows up will have good time.
IF YOU GO:J-L Cauvin will be at Harrisburg sComedy Zoneon Dec. 13 and 14. Shows start at 8:15 p.m. General admission tickets are $20.
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