The Walmart Celebrities subreddit was originally launched in March 2019, and it has exploded in popularity since then. It currently has 232k members, or shoppers as it calls them, and is home to countless photos of regular people who look just enough like celebrities to warrant a spot in the group. The subreddit welcomes a variety of posts including near-perfect look-alikes, terrible knock-off versions of famous people, and even actual photos of celebrities in Walmart. As you can see, it’s a very welcoming place.
You can find selfies of people that look startlingly like celebrities and classic pieces of artwork that look eerily similar to modern-day famous people in the group. But aside from the photos members post that share a striking resemblance to our favorite stars, the captions are just as hilarious. They are usually a pun or a spin on the celebrity’s real name, such as “Eliza Wood” or “50 Percent”. The combination of these clever names with photos that are reminiscent of real famous people makes this subreddit absolutely brilliant.
In honor of these photos, we wanted to hear from someone who knows what it’s like to be a doppelgänger of a celebrity, and who has even made a living from it. We reached out to Johnny Rico, a professional Bruno Mars impersonator who is based in Los Angeles, California, to hear what inspired him to pursue this career path. “In 2017, I was looking to start a new type of business. Now, since 2010, I would get from people that I looked like this guy Bruno Mars. I never saw it, never cared, as a matter of fact, it annoyed me,” he told Bored Panda.
“While at a red light in Burbank, CA, I saw a big poster of Bruno Mars for his 24K Magic album on the back of a record labels building. Then, this light bulb idea went off, and it was at that moment I could not only finally see what people talked about in regards to looking like Bruno, but I also could see the business aspect of it all almost in an instant,” Johnny explained. “Within a month after that realization, I was able to get a website domain, an outfit and my first gig, which coincidentally happened to fall on Bruno's birthday, October 8th. Since then it's been non-stop booking.”
We were also curious what the average day on the job is like for Johnny. “Depending on where I go and what I do, the average day for an impersonator and look alike can vary,” he explained. “But most are like this, and it's more like three days: Get up a 4AM on a Friday, head to LAX, fly out somewhere on the East Coast, get to my hotel, get ready to go out for some fancy dinner, head back to shower then go to sleep.”
“Next day, on Saturday, I try not to do much because I want to be good for the evening's performance,” Johnny told Bored Panda. “I then head to the event at night, perform 3 songs, meet and greet with lots of people, take lots of pictures and videos for social media and dance with the crowd. I head back to the hotel, shower, and try to knock out. (I say try because of the adrenaline.) Then it's back to the airport to head home on Sunday morning.”
We also asked Johnny how often people actually think he is Bruno Mars or spot him when he’s not even in character. “All the time,” he told Bored Panda. “So much so, I tend to keep to myself more now, rather than go out because there are pros and cons. Also, living in Los Angeles MORE people believe it because it's more believable to see Bruno Mars here because he lives here.”
“Whether or not I am in character, I think for the rest of my life (seeing since 2010 I've been getting it) I will always be ‘spotted’ and hear, ‘Has anyone ever told you, you look like Bruno Mars?’ or ‘Are you Bruno Mars’,” Johnny noted. “And as long as Bruno Mars keeps his businesses growing, I know I will hear it more.”
But Johnny sees the bright side of being spotted as well. “The more I keep [my business] growing, people will start to spot ‘Johnny Rico AS Bruno Mars’,” he explained. “I've had 3 incidents where people have come up to me and asked if I was Johnny Rico. That felt really cool.”
On that note, we asked Johnny what the best parts of looking like a celebrity are. “The real best part of looking so much like a celebrity is knowing that you can turn it into a business,” he shared. “It's provided more for my son, a home, consistently new traveling and fine dining experiences, staying at the best hotels, lux ground transportation and so on.”
On the other hand, we were curious what Johnny thinks the worst parts of looking like a celebrity are. He noted that the lack of privacy can be frustrating at times. He said he often gets stares from random people that make him uncomfortable, or he will be approached and asked for photos when he’s with his son, at the beach, at a festival, while washing his hands in the bathroom, or anywhere else. He also noted that it can also be interesting when he encounters people who are vocal about their dislike for Bruno Mars.
“People get mad at me because they think I am trying to look like Bruno Mars,” Johnny noted. “I tell them he looks like me because I was born 5 months before him,” he added with a laugh. He mentioned that Starbucks employees will also go out of their way to make his drink first sometimes because they assume he’s Bruno, and it always makes him feel bad for the other customers. Sharing an uncanny resemblance to a celebrity can also make it more challenging to make friends, Johnny notes.
