Getting to know UK Comedian/Actor Arnold Jorge (A-Squeezy) – Interview

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We love a laugh over at the Trapped HQ and the belly laughs we get from watching Arnold Jorge’s alter ego A-Squeezy on Youtube means that we just had to get to know the man behind the banter. Arnold Jorge is a young UK actor and comedian, his work includes appearances in UK film ‘The Trap’, presenting for LinkupTV and parodies with fellow UK comedian Jazzy. Arnold’s passion for UK Rap has seen the comedian do stand out parodies of rappers such as Stormzy, Krept & Konan and Lethal Bizzle. We caught up with Arnold to find out more about him.

When did you first become interested in performing?

It’s always been inside of me, to be honest. It was never really a case of ‘Yo, this is what I’m gonna do,’ it’s just always been inside of me. It started with directing. I did shows at first I did collaborations with ‘Don’t Jealous Me’. I saw how fans would walk up to him in the street going crazy over him and part of me was like, ‘Rah, I kinda want that attention too. I don’t wanna be behind the camera anymore.’ I always thought I was funny, but people were like, ‘oh he’s just a director’ – like people weren’t really trying to chat to me. But then I started doing presenting and filming for Link Up TV so eventually it merged together. Then I began uploading things on YouTube and from there it was step-by-step.

Give us a brief timeline of everything you’ve done so far.

A: First off was photography for a youth magazine when I was 15. When I was 17 I started my own company, *????* Vision, which was associated with Link Up TV at the time. Again I was presenting at the time. The AKA situation came when I was co-hosting the Jazzie Show… we created the A. Squeezy character to go along with the J Weezy character he had. From there, I got my own show. Then I started looking at people on TV and realised ‘if you stay on TV, you’re finished.’ So I started on YouTube since it was fresh at the time. People were already uploading my stuff on YouTube at the time so I figured I might as well do it myself. I always had an interest in music so the parodies then came in. It was basically me taking and adding things that came out within that year.

What did it take for you to turn the ideas and sketches into popular, sought-after content and a career in entertainment?

I looked at everyone in the game and some of them just weren’t funny. I’m grateful because my pattern came from 2009 and I still have some sort of relevancy now and I think it’s the people around me who help me do that. I’m just doing me, so when people perceive it well it helps, whether that be through a booking here or there. I never did anything strategic at first, but after I realised I could make a genuine career from this as clients started paying me. After a while, you get too bait to get a regular job or take train but I’m not rich enough to get cab everywhere. It really doesn’t look good when you’re becoming popular on YouTube but then someone catches you working at JD Sports and says ‘I swear that’s my man off the internet?’

How was the character A. Squeezy created?

When I was presenting I approached someone from Channel AKA with the idea for a sitcom. AKA didn’t have a great amount of money at the time so we needed to get creative. While I was waiting for that to progress, I got a call saying ‘Jazzie can’t make the Christmas edition of his show. Do you wanna fill in? We need someone to interview 50 Cent on the red carpet.’ So then we created a roadman who has a water gun and is a rudeboy. We tried it as a one off but people really liked it. Now he’s become a part of me. At first he was a rude presenter, but then I added the humour since I wanted to do music, but instead of talking about money, I wanted him to talk about being broke and pop Evian bottles instead of champagne.

I saw things happening in the ends and I was like ‘Yo, this is dead’ and turned it into a positive. I didn’t want to preach because no one likes to be preached to, but if I could make certain guys realise how stupid it looks, I though that would be better. I guess I can never escape this persona now… the same way Dwayne Johnson will always be ‘The Rock’ and Sean Combs will always be ‘Puffy’.

Squeezy_Jazzie-245

Lots of your parodies revolve around UK Rap. How did you concern yourself with the culture and do you think Hip-Hop and comedy have a natural bond?

People always say I’m respected in the rap game I guess it started when I did a film called ‘The Trap’ which featured J. Spades, Fekky andother well known rappers, from there people would ask how I get these guys to star in them but honestly I don’t know, maybe because the mandem can relate to A. Squeezy a little, Music and comedy to have a tight bond but people miss this. Def Comedy Jam came off the back of Russell Simmons doing Def Jam.

Talking about American Music briefly, a big beef just went down in the states with Toronto rapper Drake and Philadelphia rapper Meek Mill. What’s A. Squeezy’s thoughts on the situation?

I’ve been talking about this all week. Dark skin guys have been on the come up for some time now. We’re finally getting that money and some girls too… You got Drake and Chris Brown going at it and things are looking pretty good for us. Then Meek goes and challenges the ultimate “lighty” in the game and ruins everything with his ‘Wanna Know’ diss track. That track was so poor, I just feel us dark skin guys have been let down by Meek. Part of me thinks they’re both doing it for entertainment purposes. Even then, Meek chose the wrong guy to pick a fight with. Drake is the most popular, so anything he does people are gonna love. He came with the lazy one (Charged Up) first, and then ‘Back to Back’ and it’s like ‘whoa’. Then Meek comes with his diss, complaining about snitching, even though he’s the one who’s snitched on Drake. Nah man, you let us dark skin guys down, man.

You’ve helped most upcoming comedians. What does it take to keep a healthy relationship with your peers rather than becoming rivals?

Pushing unity. When you see rappers coming out, they normally welcome each other with open arms. But, and I don’t mean anyone specifically, when you see a rapper acting like he’s better than everyone else, you don’t really see them getting pushed or promoted or anything. Everyone should just be unified. A lot of guys come with the attitude of ‘I want to steal your fans.’ But we’re comedians, not rappers. We don’t run around beating each other up. What lets us down is when we try to create ‘crowds’, like everyone has a batch as if we’re in school or something. You just need to have faith that you’re sick at what you do and be open to collaboration.

What do you bring to your craft that is unique?

I try to shine a light about coming from a deprived background and inspire people in that sector. I mean I ain’t cracking jokes about being poor. When we did the ‘Success Story’ documentaries I set up a company called ‘Words We Inspire’ which I thought could help young people who are lost and are trying to find their field. A lot of people are trying to get through the door but they can’t. So if I can get the three most influential people in their field at the time to speak about their story, you’re going to want to pattern your thing around that. I don’t want you to just watch a video, I want you to understand the message behind it. When we do the Talent Hunt with Link Up I want people to realise there’s more talent out there than you see. And since a lot of names watch us it gives someone on the come-up a good platform.

Your latest project is “A. Squeezy’s Talent Hunt” with Link Up TV, where you scale the streets of London looking for talent. Tell us about how it came about, why it’s necessary and what we can expect from it.

I hate X Factor and Britain’s Got Talent. They make people celebrities for no reason. All the sob stories are used for tactics. So we thought about creating something similar to X-Factor but only concerning genuine talent. It’s literally us going up to people on the street. But in order to bring in an audience we still had to add the entertainment aspect so people can laugh along to it. Our aim is to take it outside of the UK eventually. We plan on going everywhere you could possibly imagine. I always think of Ed Sheeran and how he busked in other countries before he blew up. People probably walked past thinking he was a nobody at the time… now he’s richer than all of us. Hopefully we can create a big star from this.

Squeezy_Jazzie-471

You’ve been in several short films such as ‘The Trap’ and ‘Diary of a Bad Man’. How competitive is the UK acting market and is that an incentive or barrier to work harder?

I try to stay away from that scene. With acting, it’s always about your next job. A lot of actors are on TV daily but we just don’t watch the stuff they’re in. I might be in a soap such as Hollyoaks, but the second I leave, viewers forget about me. I don’t just want to be an actor, I want to be an entertainer. I want to build my brand up so much that I’m instantly recognizable.

What else have you got going on at the moment?

I haven’t done a lot of things on YouTube for a while so we’re looking into that currently. I’ve been quiet in recent times but that will make sense soon enough. I can’t say too much now but hopefully when I do reveal my next few projects, people will think I stepped up to the next level.

Do you think the UK creative industries should stand alone or accept the support it’s getting from other countries?

People are too scared to make a leap and say ‘let’s do our own thing.’ Skepta has done it… he’s shutting down New York and places like that. Like, he has the crowd going insane… People like Stormzy, Novelist and JME… they’re making things happen on their own and I feel that everyone needs to get behind that. Break here before you try to break America. We need to support the scene over here, I reckon it could stand alone. Maybe in a few years we’ll all be dressing like Skepta.

Follow @arnstagram1 on Instagram to keep up to date with his latest parodies.

Photoraphy: Courtney Francis – @CourtneyFPhoto

 

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