For our season three finale, Breaker was joined by comedian and impressionist Matt Friend. 

At just 27 years old, he’s bridged a priceless gap between social media virality, old-school late-night charm, and genuinely laugh-out-loud political comedy. 

From the BILT Rooftop (Cheers to BILT CEO Ankur Jain and CCO Sean Walsh for having us down), we covered everything from Donald Trump impressions to the decline of late-night TV, performing at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, and impersonating King Charles to his face.

Friend, who now boasts more than six million followers on social media and has more than 250 celebrity impressions in his arsenal, explained how the pandemic and TikTok accidentally created a completely new lane for comedians. “The issue with late night is in the title,” he said. “Late night. No one’s watching things late at night. We’re watching things all the fucking time.”

This isn’t to say Friend doesn’t have massive respect for the genre. He interned at The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon while in college and grew up idolizing Johnny Carson and David Letterman. He believes that a new internet-first ecosystem has allowed creators to build audiences without actually ever appearing on network television.

“You can’t do the things that I’m doing,” he said, pointing to his set at the 2024 WHCD, hosting a CNN comedy special, and touring nationally as a comedian, “in any other era without being on SNL.” 

As his celebrity impressions started to gain traction online, Friend blew up even further when he randomly encountered some of his subjects on the streets of NYC, like Andy Cohen and Rami Malek. All of a sudden, he said, “The Golden Globes happened, and I started to impersonate them next to them.” 

Friend even recalled doing an impression directly to King Charles last month during a surreal appearance at the British ambassador’s residence in Washington. “I’ve been studying your voice, and I’ve been trying to do an impersonation of you,” he remembered telling the King in the King’s voice — to which Charles replied, “Keep trying."

As for Friend’s Trump impression, it’s one of the best in the game — cadence-wise, vocab-wise, all of it. But unlike many political comics, Friend has zero interest in becoming ideologically boxed in.

“I’m doing the same thing when I go on Fox News or CNN,” he said. “I don’t like when people shape-shift comedically,” adding that “if you’re a comedian and all you’re doing is Trump, I would say you’ve got to do more than that.” 

His willingness to mock just about everyone seems to explain why Friend has gained fans across wildly different audiences. As he described it, his crowds can include “the 75-year-old Republican who votes for Trump” sitting next to “the 24-year-old TikToker,” all laughing at the same jokes.

“If you’re still in power, whether you’re a Republican or a Democrat,” he concluded, I’m allowed to make fun of you.” 

Catch more in this week's episode of The Breaker Pod. Make sure you check us out and subscribe on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your pods.