Republican Obama gig results in death threats

A Barack Obama doppelganger who was cut short and ushered off stage at a Republican conference moments before turning his attention to presidential hopeful Michele Bachman has received death threats from angry party supporters, it has emerged.

Reggie Brown, who until last week was just another corporate entertainer with an impersonation of President Obama, was catapulted into the limelight after delegates failed to see the funny side of his anti-Republican material at a Republican leadership conference in New Orleans.

"There was one person who left a crazy voicemail, threatening me and my manager," Brown said. "There are some crazy people out there. But hopefully what he said does not [transpire]. I'm not afraid. I'm going to get up there and do what I do."

The gathering in the deeply conservative state of Louisiana was designed to set the tone for the presidential bids for leading Republican candidates, including Newt Gingrich and Bachman.

Attendees, made up largely of GOP aides and party members, appeared to be rolling in the aisles with his racially-tinged one-liners aimed at the President. But the laughs turned to boos when Brown began targeting Mitt Romney, Gingrich and Tim Pawlenty among the Republican presidential contenders.

- INDEPENDENT