I have to admit, I haven’t thought about Joel Osteen since he refused to open his megachurch’s doors after Hurricane Harvey, and I was in no hurry to think about him again. But thanks to Michael Klimkowski, a Los Angeles comedian with the Dabs Den sketch group, here I am. I’m not complaining, though.
Unfortunately for Klimkowski, he looks quite a bit like Joel Osteen (although, if you compare them side-by-side, it’s pretty easy to pick out the real Osteen). Fortunately for everybody else, he has put his Faux-Steen physical appearance to good use by impersonating the snake oil salesman megachurch pastor for laughs. Last month, Osteen held a big event in California, and Klimkowski decided to crash it to see how far he could get just using his looks. He got surprisingly far, duping a fair number of people along the way. These are people who are prone to being duped, though, so I’m not sure how much of an accomplishment it is. But it’s pretty funny. Finally, Osteen’s overaggressive security catches up with the impersonator at the end and threatens him with jail time. Apparently, the real police saw the humor in the incident. From a story on the infiltration:
Klimkowski is committed to the character, too. Hammy to the max, he schmoozes and poses for selfies with guests, Forum employees, and security guards, all of whom seem to melt in his presence. Following him were Dabs Den members Reggie Henke, Jay Farnie, and John Parr, who carried the cameras and each wore unplugged walkie talkie headsets. That was all it took, he tells us, to gain access to both Forum and the auditorium.
Henke also tells us that the confrontation recorded at the end of the video was with Osteen’s head of security. Though that guy asserts they’re going to the jail, Henke notes the “real police” just thought it was funny. “Especially because Mike, our ‘Joel,’ never really dropped character and kept getting approached by ‘fans’ even as we were detained.”
Truly, these men are doing the Lord’s work.
Watch the video:
Klimkowski’s YouTube channel features other Faux-Steen content, including “Osteen’s Day Off” (NSFW):
I don’t know who’s the bigger fraud, Osteen himself or his impersonator…
What do you want to kibitz about tonight?