Double life costs doubles
Tiger impersonators hurt by scandal, too
Herme Chua got booed. Canh Oxelson is no longer getting the best tables at restaurants.
Think Tiger Woods is having problems? Try being one of his lookalikes.
“A lot of people just don’t want to be associated with Tiger right now,” Oxelson said.
For Oxelson and Chua, that means a steady flow of extra cash has dried up. The exposure of Woods’ double life is hitting his doubles right in the wallet.
“I had to turn down a job that would have paid pretty well,” said Chua, aka Tiger 2. “It was an adult nightclub that wanted me to go to six cities in six nights. But I’m active in my son’s school and help coach a track team. If the kids ever found out I was helping to promote adult nightclubs, it wouldn’t be appropriate.”
For the faux Tigers, Woods’ comeback in the Masters can’t come soon enough.
“I’m rooting for him,” said Oxelson, who goes by the moniker Tigersdouble. “Of course I have financial reasons for that.”
The life of a Woods lookalike isn’t what it used to be, even in Southern California, where Woods was raised and where Oxelson and Chua ply their trade. Before Woods’ sex scandal broke, they could pick up some extra cash by making appearances at anything from birthday parties to golf outings.
Chua was getting 10 to 20 gigs a year, a nice supplement to his day job as a database administrator. He parlayed his look into a small part in the comedy “Parfection,” due out later this year, and made a recent appearance on the “Maury” show.
“The audience actually booed me,” he said. “Normally you get a positive reaction but because of the scandal it’s been a lot of negative.”
Oxelson said he used to get great tables at restaurants because people thought he was Woods. Once he was at a restaurant with friends looking at pictures of himself dressed like Woods when a woman came up with her son thanking him for what he had done for black people and golf.
“I couldn’t say I’m sorry, I’m not Tiger Woods,” he said. “She’s not going to believe it, especially with me looking at all the photos dressed like Tiger.”