Meme icon known as ‘Kazoo Kid’ will perform in Macon for this world record attempt

A meme icon from the late 2010s is hoping to help Macon break an unusual world record.

The 8-year-old boy who starred in a kazoo sing-along VHS tape known for the iconic line, “Wait a minute. Who are you?” has grown up and is now a thriving 44-year-old Denver man.

Brett Ambler, now a professional thespian and Irish band artist, will perform at an upcoming event in Macon solely organized to break the Guinness World Record for the largest group of people playing kazoos at one time.

“This is the first live appearance as the Kazoo Kid since I was like 10 years old,” Ambler told The Telegraph.

The 30-minute video product, called “Special Friends: You on Kazoo,” was released in 1989. It lived underground until a shortened clip of it resurfaced on YouTube and went viral around 2014 to 2017.

“That was sold in toy stores, mostly,” Ambler said. “You could put it on for your kids, and it came with a kazoo shrink wrapped to the VHS cassette.”

It’s a strange feeling to know that tens of millions of people associate the now fully gray-bearded, working man with a tape of him playing the kazoo with a bowl haircut as a child, he joked.

His current face is somewhat recognizable in comparison to the clip filmed over two decades ago.

Almost all of his Instagram posts still get flooded with strangers’ comments unrelated to anything he posts.

“There was a point in time when I shut down people being able to follow me on Instagram for a while, because everything I posted was just, ‘Wait a minute. Who are you? Kazoo, kazoo, kazoo,’” he said.

For example, Ambler posted a selfie at a concert for the rock band Phish around three months ago. He expected people to, perhaps, comment anything even slightly related to the context of the post.

Instead, user @emilynashofficial commented “dm please it’s about using a sample for a song from kazoo kid” with a prayer emoji, of course. Two other users @acotoo_ and @_abdulloh_tokhirov commented gifs of the kazoo video.

“There are worse things that could happen to somebody, and it doesn’t happen nearly as much as it did … when it was a hot commodity,” Ambler said. “But if you’re going to leave some random quote that has nothing to do with something I’m posting, make it a deep cut, find a line in the video that nobody else quotes. I dare you.”

In another instance, he posted a photo of instruments onstage of the Colorado Symphony Orchestra on Monday, March 3, and user @lcarringtonn commented “You should play your kazoo there.”

These days, Ambler works one day per week at a restaurant, but mostly sustains himself financially as a full-time actor.

He performs three to four times per week in a live production called “Gutenberg! The Musical!” at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts in the Garner Galleria Theatre. He previously played Buddy Holly in “Elf: The Musical.”

Ambler, who is part Irish, also plays the upright bass in an Irish string band called Banthom House. He also dabbles on the electric bass, piano, accordion, mandolin, guitar, drum set, hand percussion, flute and can “absolutely rock” on the kazoo, he said.

He collects funky-looking kazoos in a plastic container. He received some for free from toy companies after going viral, and some from friends.

He doesn’t rewatch the iconic video often, but he won’t shy away from it either.

“It kind of has its own life, so sometimes I think of it as a video of me, and sometimes I just think of it as the Kazoo Kid, not young Brett Ambler,” he said. “I release him to do whatever he wants to do on the internet now.”

Macon’s attempt at kazoo world record

The current largest kazoo ensemble record was achieved in London in 2011, when 5,190 participants played the kazoo, according to Guinness World Records.

The Macon record-breaking attempt is from 4 to 8 p.m. on March 28, at the Atrium Health Amphitheater at 3657 Eisenhower Parkway. Tickets cost $5 and are free for kids 6 years old and younger. Each ticket includes a kazoo.

The event is part of Macon’s annual International Cherry Blossom Festival and organized by Visit Macon. It was unclear how many people purchased tickets by Monday.

This story was originally published March 11, 2025 at 6:00 AM.