This American Life

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          Narrated By: Ryan Murdock


In this they are talking about, how when people are put on camera, or on the spotlight, we tend to act differently under the circumstances. It's 2008, and they go on about this man living in the bronx unemployed, in the middle of a lawsuit, coming back from the war. And his life is just a complete mess. Until he walks into a bar, and everybody is watching the presidential speech when everybody turns and looks at him, and their jaws drop, because he looks exactly like the soon-to-be president, Barrack Obama. So he goes on to make a career out of being a Obama impersonator, and through his many bumps, he tries to get though life.

It sort of made me think of how he would feel under the circumstances. Although when Obama was in the middle of election, he was glorified, and everybody thought that this was the president that could fix everything. But as it turned out he didn't quite turn out to be the prodigy he was acclaimed to be, so with people hating his guts you can imagine how hard it would be to look exactly like Barack Obama.

1. How people can change their life when given the opportunity
2. How hard it is to live in a time and place such as he was.
3. To not give up on your life no matter how awful it gets (I guess)

I though the part that I think related to the thesis of the presentation the most, was when he says. When my life was going bad and I had problems, I would just put on the suit, shave, and take a walk downtown, and watch the praise pour in, and it felt amazing. But as soon I would return home and take off the suit, I would realize, Im not Barrack Obama, I'm me, and all my problems would return.