He may be a law firm secretary by day, but there’s far more to the New York-based polymath who is Tony Wolf than his day job. What his law firm colleagues may not know is Wolf has a rapidly expanding page on the Internet Movie Database (IMDB).

Wolf is a bit of a closet internet sensation. He’s a comedic short film and voiceover actor, on the perpetually evolving brink of internet fame. While Wolf pushes paper by day, by night he dons eclectic costumes, explores the full potential of his voice’s pitch and tone and even partakes in the occasional, radical body modification.

Recently, he buzzed his head and dyed the stubble grey, even giving himself a fake bald spot and receding hairline, for a role as the late Steve Jobs, never knowing if the video would go anywhere. Known in part in his niche community for his voluminous locks, Wolf foreshadowed this move in a song he improvised and recorded in 2007 called “The Faux Hawk Song.” The 41-year-old, occasionally curmudgeonly, Greenpoint resident lets it be known he has ambivalent feelings toward hipsters, to whom he attributes the hairstyle’s popularity.

In fact, the first thing that landed Long Island-born Wolf on IMDB was his role as “Naked Abe Lincoln” for a comedic short called “Hipster Job” set in Williamsburg. This followed 12 years of stage acting after leaving college with a degree in English literature.

Now, Wolf spends nights and weekends in the “studio,” wherever that happens to be, never more than a text message away from his “producer,” Mike Turney, known fondly as “Producer Mike.” With over 40 videos under their belts, they collectively refer to themselves as “The Action Room.” Wolf has worked with other producers as well, and landed parts ranging from a commercial for the Sci-Fi channel to voiceover work hawking DVDs on VH1.

Wolf is a man wholeheartedly devoted to his art and potential for upward mobility. When it comes to self-promotion, however, he vacillates between waxing on grandiose dreams of Hollywood, Broadway and hosting the Oscars, and humbly conceding he’s “not even internet famous” yet. In the world of YouTube, Vimeo, Twitter and similar platforms, however, “fame” as we’ve known it is being redefined — those 15 minutes expedited and more widely distributed, like a kind of celebrity socialism.

In the fast-paced world of comedic internet videos, Wolf says you can never be too quick with a brilliant notion. If you don’t immediately project your brainchild into cyberspace, upload it to sites like “College Humor” or “Funny or Die,” where Wolf’s videos have performed quite well and even become “featured selections,” your joke can get snatched up by the likes of comedic actor Jerry O’Connell. This happened to Wolf.

Wolf notes: O’Connell’s Tom Cruise Scientology spoof may have gotten more of the limelight than his, but comedian Patton Oswalt personally sent Wolf’s producer two separate emails, saying Wolf’s version was “way funnier.”

It’s not just about speed, though speed is imperative — Wolf says the most successful videos never go on too long — it’s also about nailing the jokes. Describing a particular shoot, Wolf says: “We did about 10 takes and you would think the last would be the best, but it was in fact the penultimate take we used.”

Like the Tom Cruise video released several years ago, Wolf’s roles are almost always relevant to popular culture and current affairs. Most recently he acted in a short parodying Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s famously colorless addresses to New Yorkers during Hurricane Sandy’s rampage. In Wolf’s artistic rendition, Bloomberg’s ASL interpreter — who gained an internet following of her own for being animated and “hot” — gets frisky with the Mayor.

The chameleonic Wolf has also taken on Donald Trump, Daniel Day-Lewis and even Hitler. Wolf derives some of the greatest joy from reactions by strangers and friends alike to his imitations and likenesses, but this internet “celebrity” is not too proud to glitter a bit when his parents — including a father known around his hometown for his striking good looks — fawn over his parodic performances as well.

Wolf often even gets double-takes on the street from people who think he’s Matt Lauer, Will Arnett or, perhaps, a mysteriously young Bob Saget.

“My agent tried to get me seen for Abe Lincoln: Vampire Hunter,” says Wolf. “Okay, manager who functions as an agent.” For an internet actor like Wolf, the promotion and production process are often fairly makeshift.

Wolf does a lot of his own promotion via, naturally, the internet. He’s snatched up all the domains he can, but unfortunately, “TonyWolf.com is taken already by a Christian, fundamental-seeming inspirational speaker, singer and comedy guy,” explains Wolf.

He adds: “He’s also an illustrator. He’s like 60 and bald and midwestern. It’s very weird that he and I have a lot of the same talents.”

“Maybe when I become super-famous I can buy TonyWolf.com away from Other Christian Tony Wolf,” he says, with an edge of hope.

Check out more Tony Wolf at tonywolfactor.com.

From City & State’s Heard Around Town, May 8, 2012:

Donald Trump recently revealed that he has no plans to fight the legalization of commercial casinos in New York – but since he’s not really in the casino business any more, it appears to be a moot point. The real estate developer, reality TV personality and one-time presidential contender still has his marquee name on three Atlantic City casinos, which could suffer from increased gambling competition in nearby New York. But Trump, who helped block a similar legalization effort in the state in the late 1990s, resigned from the board of Trump Entertainment Resorts in 2009 and no longer has any role in day-to-day operations of the casino company he founded. In fact, his company, the private Trump Organization, has only a 10 percent equity stake in the casino business, which is what allows the use of his name on the casinos. So why would Mr. Trump would weigh in on the prospects of casinos in Atlantic City and New York? “We have a great relationship with Mr. Trump and he has always been supportive of Atlantic City,” said Brian Cahill, a spokesman for Trump Entertainment Resorts. “We do not speak on behalf of Mr. Trump.” A spokeswoman for the Trump Organization declined to comment.

To read more from City & State click here.

By Andrew Hawkins

Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the Legislature may be banking on legalized casinos to help buoy the state’s economy, but history suggests the industry attracts corruption and scandal just as much as jobs and development.

“NYPIRG does not have a position on casino gambling, but we feel that the history of corruption on this issue in New York and other states indicates that if this amendment passes, a strong oversight body should be empowered,” said Bill Mahoney of the New York Public Interest Research Group, who helped compile this time line.

From Charles Evans Hughes’ failed attempt to outlaw horse racing to Donald Trump’s mea culpa, New York gambling—legal and illegal—has long driven a cat-and-mouse game between those who would make money from it and those who would regulate it.

1894–The Lexow Committee uncovered hundreds of examples of Tammany policeman collecting payments from underground businesses, including gambling houses.

1908–An attempt by Gov. Charles Evans Hughes to eliminate illegal betting on horse racing was repelled by opponents who gave hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes to lawmakers out of an Albany hotel room.

1935–New York City Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia cracked down on corner-store slot machines, a major source of Mafia funding. LaGuardia did it with gusto, rounding up the so-called “one-armed bandits,” swinging a sledgehammer and dumping the busted machines into the river.

1953–After a union leader was found murdered at the raceway in Yonkers, an investigation revealed that stock holdings in New York racetracks were dominated by state legislators and party officials.

What started out as a pretty entertaining contest show eventually made me cringe from the participants’ behavior, especially that of Joan and Melissa Rivers. Melissa went pretty far in the challenge before being fired and was allowed back for the finale to assist her legendary comedian mother, who won the title.

There is no arguing that Team Rivers is reality television gold. I would not be surprised if they are already inking the deal for their own show where they can carry on, name call, break things and have meltdowns on a weekly basis.

I don’t know these two women, yet I feel as though I’ve worked with them. I still remember my first job, where a production assistant took thousands of dollars worth of ad comps and threw them down the hallway in a fit of rage. Not only did she not get fired, she was moved into the department and job she’d been lobbying for.

Then there was the creative director who chucked a stapler across the room and another who ripped a phone out of the wall. I’ve also witnessed co-workers having tantrums similar to that of the junior Rivers, who when let go, cursed and yelled, ran in every direction and looked as though her head was going to spin around like Linda Blair’s in The Exorcist.

I really don’t remember any of my former workmates getting pink slipped for their antics and, in fact, many—like the Rivers—were rewarded regardless. To this day, I still find myself wondering, why is dignity not a skill set required in the workplace?
“Over the last three decades, there’s been more license for [bad] behavior,” says Christine Wilson of Career-911. The Upper East Side executive coach also says that people can manage their behavior if they know there will be consequences, but unfortunately many times there aren’t any, so there’s no impetus to change.

Wilson points out that there are industries where special talents are made mystical, for example creative environments like advertising and fashion, or high stress Wall Street-type jobs. When the tantrum-thrower is a real performer, that’s when management’s thinking really gets clouded.

“Bosses could tell the people to take their bad behavior elsewhere, but with them would go the stream of income they generate,” the career consultant says. “So senior people get into a syndrome where they make excuses and point to the person’s results.”

Wilson also says that because the matter is never addressed, management will never know if the employee would have gotten even better results if he/she weren’t acting out all the time.

I can’t say anyone’s behavior on The Celebrity Apprentice was admirable, not even The Donald’s. But at least now I understand why Joan Rivers’ champagne flute smashing, Vegas poker bashing and general insult hurling was not only tolerated but embraced. She is a performer, garnering $250,000 for God’s Love We Deliver, which provides food free of charge to the seriously ill. And so the end justifies the means.
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Lorraine Duffy Merkl has been named Humor Writer of the Month by the Erma Bombeck Writers’ Workshop. Her column appears every other week.