It doesn’t take longer than 30 seconds thumbing through Tyler Allen’s Insta to realize the man has a gift. The Malibu surf instructor/personality boasts an entire lineup of ridiculously entertaining clips, including impressions of surfing’s finest, hilariously spot-on WSL voiceovers, and a smooth gang of other funny vids you’ll be turning up the volume and hitting the play button twice on.
This week, thanks to a friend doing some tagging magic on Instagram, Tyler’s latest video of him impersonating Donald Trump with wave commentary has blown up overnight (literally) and caught the attention of basically every surfer with at least half bar of WiFi, plus a cool million others eyes across social media + the Internet.
After having a certain internal member of the Whalebone team turn us onto the video as it began to blow up, we gave the guy a friendly shout and lined up a few questions for a quick interview. Turns out this may be the beginning of a very long, very drawn out, unsurpassable career for the gent.
Guess we’ll start off with the easy guys. Where are you originally from and where do you currently reside?
I’m from LA—I live about 15 mins inland of Malibu.
And what’s your official occupation?
Haha. I don’t know if I’m really an “official” kinda person? But I teach surf lessons with Malibu Makos, the best damn surf camp ever, and I also do voiceover work.
Your recent impersonation of Trump recapping a wave seems to have caught a few people’s attention on the Internet this week. How did all that go down? Did @kook_of_the_day just scoop it up and repost?
Man, I just filmed that, posted it for my buddies to get a laugh and I woke up in the middle of the night to my phone going off nonstop. My friend Keegan Gibbs sent it so @kook_of_the_day and it went pretty big!!! So thanks Keegan and @kook_of_the_day!
What’s been your personal favorite impression to date?
Hard to say what my favorite impression is at the moment. Obviously the Trump one is “very very popular believe me.” I can do about any accent you throw at me, I think I have a good ear. Maybe my Rosie Hodge impression…
Rosie Hodge interviews Alejo Muniz
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It’s a bit of a known fact that certain surfers tend to take surfing seriously. Has anyone you’ve ever impersonated got in touch with you to let you know they’re not quite feeling the love?
I think no matter what you do in life, there is gonna be some people that disapprove—even if it’s something really rad. Especially with comedy, I think you are gonna end up coming off at least a little offensive to someone. But, I’ll take one punch in the face for every 1,000 laughs I get! That’s just part of the game babyyyy!
It’s our understanding that you’re a strong proponent of yellow-colored boards being the fastest boards one can ride. And it’s a strong argument. What’s your individual reasoning?
Yeah, I don’t know why I really like yellow boards. But it’s kind of a “Catch-22” because apparently they attract sharks…but they are also obviously the fastest, so you could escape a sketchy situation pretty quickly.
Favorite/least favorite commentators in the history of the tour?
I don’t have any least favorite commentators—they are all interesting to me. I think it was obviously a super good call for WSL to put on the frother, Barton Lynch, though. He’s fucking hilarious! And what happened to GT?? I think I have a good impersonation of him…
Best beer to have on hand when attempting to nail an impersonation?
I like dark beers when it’s colder out, like stouts and porters, but summer vibes…just gimme a Tecate or Red Stripe or Heineken!
Let’s say we have a guy that works in the back of our office that, hypothetically, claims he can hack into the next WSL stream and get you 45 seconds of uninterrupted airtime. What three, fresh impressions you would premiere to the world if we pulled that off?
If I could get on the air on the WSL, that would be the most ridiculous dream ever. Three impressions I would do: Chris Bertish, GT (the commentator), and Sam Hammer. But I’d really like to just be myself, I think that would be funny too.
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What’s the rest of the year looking like for you? You trying to get this career poppin’ for good?
The rest of the year…seems I might be busy doing really cool funny stuff! I feel really busy at the moment, but also going to keep up doing the surf lessons because I love that, too. I can’t believe this is happening. I’m getting so much positive feedback and love from everybody—it’s only motivating me to press on the gas!!! Cheers!!!
Check out more of Tyler’s work via his Instagram (@tylerallenvo) and website.
