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For master impressionist Conor Moore, it started with Pádraig Harrington.
“Ehhh,” as Harrington would say, it actually started before that.
For Moore, who changed the world as we know it when he proved that Ian Poulter can laugh at himself, it started when he was selling telecommunications packages back home in Ireland. His heart wasn’t in it but he was good at it and there were bills to pay.
After watching Irish football one evening, Moore put together a video bit on his phone in which he imitated/made fun of fans who had “gotten into a bit of fisticuffs” during a match. Moore sent the video to some friends who got a laugh and suggested he do more.
A night later, Moore was at it again, this time doing a video about the Irish football championship.
“That went viral and I knew I was on to something,” Moore said by phone recently. “The day after that I quit my job in telecommunications and said, ‘I’m going to give this six months and make a bunch of videos and see if it can take off.’ ”
Now, Moore is a star himself, his impersonations of the famous, the talented and the quirky having made him so popular that players want him to poke fun at them, almost like it’s a badge of sheepish honor.
Which brings us back to Harrington.
The three-time major champion and upcoming Ryder Cup captain is a talker with a distinctive manner and a habit of prefacing his remarks with “Ehhhh … ”
Red meat for Moore, whose father had become captain of his local golf club, bringing Moore closer to the game. While Moore himself has never been much of a golfer, he loves the game and all that comes with it.
“I just felt there wasn’t golf comedy,” said Moore, who is based in Dublin. “So many people have this impression that golf isn’t fun or something. Anybody that plays it knows what a great game it is. Anyone who doesn’t looks at it like, ‘No, it’s boring.’
“Golfers always like a good laugh. It was easy when I fell into it.”
Moore started with an impression of Harrington and Rory McIlroy – the Irish accents were easy – and put them together with a few others for a video he posted before the 2018 Masters. It was so popular that Golf Channel reached out and struck a deal with Moore to provide content for the network.
That led to work in commercials with Tiger Woods, an increasingly busy schedule of comedy gigs (he does more than impersonations of golfers) and now a part-time home in the United States to accommodate the demands of his success.
Two weeks ago at the PGA Merchandise Show in Orlando, Moore was there – almost ironically – being himself.
“I was just walking around taking pictures with the people. It’s crazy,” said Moore, whose impersonations include international soccer stars, fighter Conor McGregor and, most recently, a pre-Oscars video taking good-natured aim at film stars.
“It’s almost like I don’t like him because he’s that good. It’s like it’s too good. It’s funny though. I love all of his impressions apart from mine.”
RORY McILROY
Among the many reasons Moore’s comedy works – he has a keen ear, a grinding work ethic and, of course, a brilliant sense of humor – is the spirit in which he operates.
Moore doesn’t so much skewer his subjects as he gently roasts them with sugar. He makes everyone laugh even if they’re laughing at themselves.
“It’s almost like I don’t like him because he’s that good,” McIlroy said. “It’s like it’s too good. It’s funny though. I love all of his impressions apart from mine.”
What doesn’t McIlroy like about how Moore portrays him?
“It’s almost too like me,” McIlroy said.
Comedy is a funny thing … and not everyone gets it. There’s a danger in what Moore does, poking fun at players for what they say and how they act, but there is no meanness to what he does. It’s warm, not hot, embracing not insulting.
“He keeps it fun,” said Sergio García, one of Moore’s first subjects.
At the Players Championship last year, García – whose laugh is the centerpiece of Moore’s impersonation – gave it back to the comedian when they met.
“I put my hand out to shake his hand and he just looked at me and went, ‘Hehehehe,’ ” Moore said, imitating the high-pitched laugh he gave García.
“The laugh is the only thing he doesn’t have right but everything else is good,” García said, laughing.
Heading into the 2018 Ryder Cup matches in Paris, European team captain Thomas Bjørn got Moore to assemble a pre-event video scripted around a press conference. McIlroy, Poulter, Henrik Stenson, Francesco Molinari, even Bjørn himself, got the full Conor Moore treatment in the video, which was played in front of the entire team.
The big one, of course, was figuring out Tiger Woods. He’s been on television more than Law & Order the past 20-plus years so everyone knows the voice and the mannerisms. Capturing those things, giving them a gentle twist and making it work was the challenge that literally kept Moore up nights.
He couldn’t find a hook. A friend told Moore if he had to stay up five nights in a row, then do it. He needed to nail Tiger.
“With Tiger, I was listening to interviews. He always says things are ‘tough.’ This was tough. That was tough. That was one of the words for me,” Moore said. “I remember I was in bed one night and I was so obsessed over it.
“I was watching videos, just watching interviews and I remember, ‘I’ve got it.’ It was something about the word ‘tough’ and the word ‘well,’ I got those couple of words. I can string a sentence or two together.”
Less than a year later, Moore and Woods were doing commercials together.
“He’s talented, that’s for damn sure,” said Woods, who puts Dustin Johnson, Poulter and McIlroy as his favorites in Moore’s routine.
What did Tiger think when he saw Moore’s impersonation of him?
“I didn’t think I sounded like that. But he was good,” Woods said before defending himself against too much parody.
“I don’t say what I say … I say more than that … I do.”
Moore found the sweet spot and made it work.
“Tiger couldn’t have been any cooler or any nicer. You know how they say never meet your heroes? That wasn’t the case with him,” Moore said.
When Irishman Shane Lowry won the Open Championship last July at Royal Portrush, Moore was prepared. He brought a gym bag stuffed with props and watched from the media center as Lowry carried an island on his thick shoulders as he stalked the Claret Jug.
Midway through the back nine on Sunday, when Lowry’s lead seemed comfortable, Moore ducked into a private room and recorded a video as the new Open champion that he posted as Lowry’s celebration was just getting started.
Moore had worked out what he wanted to do on Saturday night when Lowry was sleeping on a four-stroke lead.
“On the way home on Saturday night we were out having a few drinks,” Moore said. “I couldn’t get a taxi so I started walking back home and I remember I was just bouncing around things in my head.
“If he wins I’m going to say this and this. A taxi came up and I said, no, because I was on a roll. I kept walking for 20 minutes. That’s when I got the concept.”
There’s still a big one out there that Moore hasn’t touched – Jack Nicklaus.
“I’ve been maybe a little bit scared to do him because he’s Jack,” Moore said. “He said to me, ‘You’ve got to do me.’ I may do it this year.”
If he can do Tiger Woods, he almost has to do Jack Nicklaus.
Maybe he will.
“It’s a dream job. It really is,” Moore said.
“It’s the stuff of dreams. It’s a little bit different from trying to get people to buy a new phone package where I save them 5 percent.”
Ehhhh ….
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