DELRAY BEACH – The shape-shifting ability of Charly Esturilho struck again on Monday.
At Spanx The Hog’s weekly open mic Esturilho surprised the crowd by dressing as fellow comic Steve Lamm and performing an interpretation of Lamm’s set.
“I’m just a fan of his,” Esturilho said. “I love his work and I’ve seen him so much I can do his act by memory.”
Nailing – then exaggerating – Lamm’s mannerisms and inflections, Esturilho’s version of Lamm absolutely crushed.
None laughed harder than Lamm, himself.
“I was beyond flattered,” Lamm said. “I thought it was great.”
Lamm knew what was coming. Esturilho asked in advance whether he could borrow Lamm’s tie, hat, glasses and trademark ukulele.
As can be seen in the above video, Esturihlo isn’t as accomplished a ukulele player as Lamm, but that only made the bit funnier.
And Esturihlo was careful not to steal Lamm’s punchlines word-for-word.
“The fact that he butchered every joke but you still know which joke it was and it was still funny was great,” Lamm said.
A portion of a previous Lamm set appears in the second video.
Esturilho wasn’t the only comic portraying another comic.
Zach Bugarin dressed as Nik Macik and performed his interpretation of Macik’s act.
Macik is the producer of the Spanx open mic, but missed the performance to perform at a different gig. Throughout the night Macik’s phone filled with photos of Bugarin sent by other comics.
“One of the funniest things about it was that I wasn’t there and everybody kept thinking Zach was me,” Macik said.
Esturihlo doesn’t include impressions in his set, but he does have a track record of successfully imitating other comics.
In 2019 Esturihlo arrived at a comedy contest dressed as Nadeem Awad and won a prize for his set.
Esturilho is already considering imitating a different comic come next Halloween season.
“I have some ideas but it’s too early to commit to one yet,” Esturihlo said. “It might be a woman.”
