Have you ever gotten a shout-out from Redfoo, one of the members of the LMFAO duo, or had Ryan Seacrest mention your name on his show? Mateo Nevarez, a junior studying marketing, has experienced this and more by being an impersonator.
Here’s what Nevarez told me, so I’ll let you read for yourself about how he got into doing this and what his plans are for the future.
Photo Credit: Michael Chen
“Ever since Halloween of my 10th grade year of high school, I’ve been an array of different impersonations of characters and even celebrities. Because of that, I even have led away to acting in small bits of student films, commercials and hosting events.
Although I first started doing this in Miami, where I grew up most of my life, I have done character impersonations in Orlando, St. Augustine, Charlotte, Key West, Naples, Tampa, Miami Beach, Ft. Lauderdale, West Palm Beach and many other places in Florida. Because of my passion to perfect the character, I have been able to meet Redfoo from LMFAO and the professional Jack Sparrow impersonator from “The Pirates of the Caribbean.”
Jack Sparrow is my favorite character to act as not only because it grabs a wider audience (and is much more child-friendly than LMFAO), but also because it is more of a challenge to master his mannerisms (his walk and voice) than other characters. Even after doing the Jack Sparrow act for almost five years now, I still haven’t perfected the voice, and I love the freaking fact that it’s still a challenge. And that’s the reason I started doing these little impersonations. It’s a physical and mental challenge. It’s something that not many people do as a hobby, and those that do it aren’t always the best. So I took my hobby head-on and even started designing my own costumes from scratch.
Being challenging and all, impersonating has provided me with so many great memories and experiences. It has ranged from me walking around the old castle in St. Augustine as Jack Sparrow making children excited and happy to see an old-fashioned pirate, to dancing in the VIP Party Pit at the past LMFAO concert while Redfoo and Sky Blu made a shout out to me from stage.
I still want to continue doing what I think I do best. I want to explore other different characters and practice how would I portray that character in public. Eventually, the only thing that I want to come out of this is that people will get inspired to pick up a hobby they will love doing for a long period of time, master it, and make sure that everyone around you knows you did. I think that after designing Jack Sparrow, Redfoo, Mad Hatter and other costumes, anything that seems absurd and socially awkward, is possible.
Now for those that are interested in following what might be in store for future gigs and costumes of mine, all you do is go on my Facebook (which is open to the public) and check it out there. Ask questions, comment on what costumes you might see and so on. For those that have been following me for years, I can assure you they will tell you that I always have a surprise up my sleeve on a regular basis.”
Check out his Facebook and the clip from Ryan Seacrest’s show when he asked Redfoo about Nevarez, and to learn a little more about this student’s exciting extracurricular activity.