The next time you’re out and about in Kansas City and run into Chiefs head coach Andy Reid, you might ask him if he’s really Andy Reid. You might be talking with Matt Black.
Black looks so much like Reid, especially when he’s dressed in Chiefs red, that he has a hard time convincing people that he’s not Reid. He just says, “I’m almost Andy.”
Black said he got the original idea in 2018 when his wife signed them up for a costume party for Halloween. He didn’t want to buy a costume, so he just put on a Chiefs sweatshirt, shaved his beard and kept the mustache. As he was getting ready to leave the house, he looked in the mirror and thought he looked a little like Reid.
His friends told him he was a dead ringer for “Big Red,” but he didn’t buy it. Eventually, enough people told him that he could pass for Reid that he started to add it to his repertoire.
Black has a background in theatre and opera, so he knew about performing. He also knew about stage makeup, so the 56-year-old knew how to add about 10 years to his appearance, so that he appears the same age as Reid.
How good is he? Reid has told him he will get texts from family and friends saying they saw him around town, when it was actually Black on the appearance.
It’s not just Black’s physical appearance that bears a resemblance to Reid. His mannerisms are very similar. He even has a similar sound to his voice. Black’s stage background has helped him learn how to better mimic the Chiefs coach.
And it’s not just a recent resemblance, even though he’s been doing public imitations for less than 10 years. Black said his high school football pictures look like Reid’s. Reid played football at BYU. Black was raised in the RLDS church and even considered attending BYU because he wanted to attend school with like-minded people and it had a strong music program.
Black did say that he’s never participated in the “Punt, Pass and Kick” competition, so that’s where the similarities end.
Black has done several commercials with Reid, including working as a stand-in for some State Farm commercials.
“I sit there so they can set up the camera shots for State Farm,” Black said. “Once they got the camera shots set up, then Andy, Patrick (Mahomes) and Jake from State Farm come in. We fist-bump tag team and they do the lines. I wait until they need another camera shot.
“I did a Snickers commercial with Coach, where I was actually in the commercial. In fact, when the commercial ends, that’s me walking off the field at Arrowhead. Coach was able to give them just an hour, because it was during the preseason. It was about 120 degrees on the field at that time in late August or early September.”
Great googely-moogely!
Black said he’s been a fan of Reid for a long time, but he was impressed with Reid in a whole new way the first time he met him prior to their first shared commercial.
“Great people study the people that they’re going to be coming in contact with,” Black said. “The first thing he asked me was, ‘Are you going to sing for us?’ I was like, ‘Oh my gosh. Andy Reid knows who I am.’”
Black should be used to being recognized. He’s been singing professionally in Kansas City for more than 40 years, including twice a year with the Lyric Opera of Kansas City. He’s also a paid singer for Second Presbyterian Church in the Brookside area of Kansas City.
In his “spare” time, he serves as the director of sales for Hyalogic LLC, a company in the natural products industry. Their products are in stores like Sprouts and Whole Foods. They specialize in hyaluronic acid products for skin, joints, hair and eyes.
He’s also a “method actor,” so when he’s in character for Reid, he tries to sound like him. Of course, that creates a constant demand for his talents, especially leading up to and during the NFL season. He estimates that he does 30 to 40 videos a day in the late summer, mostly imitating Reid. He even does videos for Fantasy Football leagues.
Because so many people think Black is someone else, he is careful how he acts when he’s “in costume.”
“Coach knows that I try and be very careful about how I present,” Black said. “Even the funny things that I do on TikTok or elsewhere, I try and keep it mostly in his character.”
Even when he’s not dressed like Reid, people still ask Black for autographs. He’s careful to explain quickly that he’s not who they think he is. People try to buy him food, and he turns them down.
In fact, when he’s doing promotional gigs for restaurants, he won’t accept free food.
“I say to them, ‘I am here to help you as a small business. Why would I take from you?’”
Reid finds humor in Black’s work. A good-natured guy anyway, Reid is flattered by the impersonation. It’s expensive to buy the latest gear, but Black wants to be as accurate as possible. When he received a gift of a Bose headset to match the one Reid wears on the sideline, even though it was presented to him by the NFL, Black found out that Reid paid for it.
Now, to make it a better story, Black recently spent some time doing “appearances” with a Taylor Swift look-alike. They recently made an appearance on “Taylor Swift Night” at a Monarch’s game.
Black said the only time he “loses himself” is when he’s driving and someone cuts him off. He tries to maintain his composure so people don’t think Reid is a jerk.
Some people will drive past him, glance at him and then slow down allowing him to pass. Then they take a quick glance as Black goes by. As they pull up even with him again, they have their cameras out. Black just smiles and waves.
“I think my side profile might be the most striking resemblance,” he said.
As I interviewed Black, I kept chuckling. The similarity is so striking, I couldn’t wrap my mind around the fact that I wasn’t interviewing Andy Reid, as I have done many times in my career.
I consider Reid a friend, though I wouldn’t say we’re close friends. But I can now add Matt Black to my list of friends.
That’s all I’ve got to tell you about the “fake Andy Reid.”
With that, time’s yours.