Politics
The Churchill of Staten Island
On the 150th anniversary of Winston Churchill’s birth, Luke Boyd, a Churchill impersonator who lives on Staten Island, will get up at 11 a.m.: “When Sir Winston would have.”
Good morning. It’s Friday. We’ll find out how a Winston Churchill impersonator plans to spend Churchill’s 150th birthday. We’ll also meet the new head of New York City Transit, the division of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority that runs the subways and buses.
Luke Boyd as Sir Winston Churchill at the Museum of American Armor in Old Bethpage, N.Y.Credit…Museum of American Armor
Luke Boyd plans to begin the day tomorrow by pouring a glass of whiskey and lighting a cigar.
It’s not his usual morning routine, but he considers it a special day. Nov. 30 is the 150th anniversary of the day on which Winston Churchill was born. Boyd, a Churchill impersonator who lives on Staten Island, will get up at 11 a.m., “when Sir Winston would have emerged from his chambers.” No doubt with a cigar, Boyd said. “And he would have been lubricated.”
Boyd sounded like himself when he said that, not like Churchill, who stammered and had a speech impediment that turned the “s” sound into an “sh.” But Boyd toggled into character for one of Churchill’s most famous lines: “Never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never.”
“You use tools an actor uses to convey a sense of age or self-importance” to an audience at a historical reenactment, he said. “They’re not saying ‘Hey, you’re not Churchill.’ They’re buying into this. They want to take your picture. They want to shake your hand. They feel like they’ve met someone from the past.”
Churchill is merely “a side hustle” and “a passion project” for Boyd, who is the director of education and public programs at Historic Richmond Town, a living history village on Staten Island. “It’s simpatico with Churchill,” he said, “but Churchill never came to Staten Island.”
