Entertainment / Celebrity
Bulawayo's own Joker
11 Sep 2016 at 13:09hrs | Views
A 17-year-old Petra High School student from Bulawayo has become an overnight internet sensation, with his epic DC Comic super villain impersonation of The Joker, which he posted on YouTube last week.
The six minute clip had almost a thousand views by Thursday, since Daniel Lasker uploaded it to his channel.
His impersonation of the Joker, which was originally played by the late Hollywood actor Heath Ledger, is pretty good and could likely see him landing a role in the showbiz industry if he ever plans on taking that route.
Lasker told Sunday Life that the idea to impersonate one of television's most iconic characters came to him when he watched Batman: The Dark Knight.
"About four weeks ago I was re-watching Batman : The Dark Knight, and when it got to one of the Joker's scenes, just for fun I started mimicking him, as he spoke, and I noticed I could pull off a pretty decent Joker accent. I paused the movie and sent a voice note of me impersonating the Joker to a friend and then to my surprise he sent me a message saying that I actually sounded like the Joker.
"I then sent it to a few more people just to test the waters, and they were also all responding in the same way. I never actually planned on doing a Joker impression video, or ever thought I would act as him at all, I guess it just happened," he said.
Lasker acknowledged his friends and family for supporting his unconventional newfound hobby.
"My friends think it was a really cool idea, and they very much enjoyed my whole impression. My mother was very supportive as usual, props to her for putting up with her son being a psychopath for a while. The rest of the family too, especially after I explained to them how as an aspiring actor, there will come times in my career when I have to act as the bad guy," he said.
Lasker says everything about the Joker stands out to him and although the character has been played by different actors such as Cesar Romero (who was the first play the character), Jack Nicholson and much more recently, Jared Leto, Lasker identifies most with Heath Ledger's version of the character.
"Heath Ledger takes top prize. He added so much originality to The Joker that none of the other actors came close to. It's a great feat to be able to perform the original comic book Joker well, (which all the other actors did), but to be able to completely re-shape the character into a crazier, more dangerous version, in such a way that fans will be rejoicing over rather than be enraged by, is truly quite something," said Lasker.
When asked if he perhaps feared being psychologically haunted by being so deeply immersed in such a dark and twisted character, as was the case with Heath Ledger and Jack Nicholson, Lasker said his processing of getting into the Joker character was not as severe as that of professional actors.
"Take Heath Ledger for example. Even most of the times off-set, he would remain in character; walking, talking and thinking like the Joker. He did this to instantly get into character whenever needed. Thankfully I never had to adopt most of these methods to pull off my character. He spent a lot more time preparing and staying in character than I did. Ultimately, everyone is different, and if it happened to those people, there's no guarantee it will happen to me also, I think I can thankfully say I am in no way changed by my performance," said Lasker.
Apart from playing a very convincing Joker, Lasker proves to be a talented young man with a passion for the arts.
He has been in at least 13 stage plays, which have landed him honourary awards with Allied Arts and other arts bodies. He serves as a vocalist for Backstreet Serenade, a two-man band which he started with his friend. Lasker has also done promotional videos for his school, holiday camps as well as local businesses.
He said he had a new project coming up soon, "I am very blessed to be working with some amazing people on a very big project that everyone will be hearing about soon. I'm very excited about it, and I can't wait for everyone to see it. It's going to be the WOW factor!!! So keep your eyes open for it," he said.
Lasker is available on social media as Daniel Lasker on Facebook and YouTube and as Daniellasker99 on Instagram.
The six minute clip had almost a thousand views by Thursday, since Daniel Lasker uploaded it to his channel.
His impersonation of the Joker, which was originally played by the late Hollywood actor Heath Ledger, is pretty good and could likely see him landing a role in the showbiz industry if he ever plans on taking that route.
Lasker told Sunday Life that the idea to impersonate one of television's most iconic characters came to him when he watched Batman: The Dark Knight.
"About four weeks ago I was re-watching Batman : The Dark Knight, and when it got to one of the Joker's scenes, just for fun I started mimicking him, as he spoke, and I noticed I could pull off a pretty decent Joker accent. I paused the movie and sent a voice note of me impersonating the Joker to a friend and then to my surprise he sent me a message saying that I actually sounded like the Joker.
"I then sent it to a few more people just to test the waters, and they were also all responding in the same way. I never actually planned on doing a Joker impression video, or ever thought I would act as him at all, I guess it just happened," he said.
Lasker acknowledged his friends and family for supporting his unconventional newfound hobby.
"My friends think it was a really cool idea, and they very much enjoyed my whole impression. My mother was very supportive as usual, props to her for putting up with her son being a psychopath for a while. The rest of the family too, especially after I explained to them how as an aspiring actor, there will come times in my career when I have to act as the bad guy," he said.
Lasker says everything about the Joker stands out to him and although the character has been played by different actors such as Cesar Romero (who was the first play the character), Jack Nicholson and much more recently, Jared Leto, Lasker identifies most with Heath Ledger's version of the character.
"Heath Ledger takes top prize. He added so much originality to The Joker that none of the other actors came close to. It's a great feat to be able to perform the original comic book Joker well, (which all the other actors did), but to be able to completely re-shape the character into a crazier, more dangerous version, in such a way that fans will be rejoicing over rather than be enraged by, is truly quite something," said Lasker.
When asked if he perhaps feared being psychologically haunted by being so deeply immersed in such a dark and twisted character, as was the case with Heath Ledger and Jack Nicholson, Lasker said his processing of getting into the Joker character was not as severe as that of professional actors.
"Take Heath Ledger for example. Even most of the times off-set, he would remain in character; walking, talking and thinking like the Joker. He did this to instantly get into character whenever needed. Thankfully I never had to adopt most of these methods to pull off my character. He spent a lot more time preparing and staying in character than I did. Ultimately, everyone is different, and if it happened to those people, there's no guarantee it will happen to me also, I think I can thankfully say I am in no way changed by my performance," said Lasker.
Apart from playing a very convincing Joker, Lasker proves to be a talented young man with a passion for the arts.
He has been in at least 13 stage plays, which have landed him honourary awards with Allied Arts and other arts bodies. He serves as a vocalist for Backstreet Serenade, a two-man band which he started with his friend. Lasker has also done promotional videos for his school, holiday camps as well as local businesses.
He said he had a new project coming up soon, "I am very blessed to be working with some amazing people on a very big project that everyone will be hearing about soon. I'm very excited about it, and I can't wait for everyone to see it. It's going to be the WOW factor!!! So keep your eyes open for it," he said.
Lasker is available on social media as Daniel Lasker on Facebook and YouTube and as Daniellasker99 on Instagram.
Source - sundaynews
