Nimrod Kamer (born 1981) is a comedy writer, gonzo journalist and club crasher based in London.

Nimrod Kamer
Kamer in 2018
Born1981 (age 42–43)
NationalityRomanian, Israeli
EducationSam Spiegel Film and Television School
GenresGonzo journalism, satire
Notable works and rolesThe Social Climber's Handbook

Life and career

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Kamer was born in 1981 in Petah Tikva, Israel.[1][2] Kamer claims to hold both Romanian and Israeli passports.[3] In 2004, while attending Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Kamer and a friend were charged with painting anti-Israeli graffiti that sparked a "media sensation"; he was placed under house arrest for 10 days, served 250 hours of community service and was on probation for a year.[1] By 2007, he was a high school teacher of cinema.[1]

Kamer's public career started in Israel in 2005, as the Sudoku puzzle tutor known as "Captain Sudoku".[4] In 2006, he started writing for the Hebrew-language financial newspaper Globes and contributed to the first edition of Maayan, an Israeli arts magazine edited by Roy Arad and Joshua Simon.[5] In 2009, Kamer became social media manager of BIP, a comedy channel owned by Keshet Broadcasting. Under that channel he eventually created the comedy shows Michael and I[6] and Jobless Nimrod.[7]

Moving to London in 2011, Kamer started publishing periodically in film and written form on BBC Newsnight,[8] VICE Magazine,[9] The Guardian,[10][11] Interview,[12] Wired,[13] The Huffington Post,[14] London Evening Standard,[15] SCNR,[16] British GQ,[17] and Fortune.[18] In 2012 he began appearing as himself on UK's Channel 4 show Random Acts alongside Heydon Prowse. In September 2013 he presented a Guardian show titled #Thinkfluencer[19] in association with Arte Channel.

In late 2016 Kamer began as an art editor for GQ magazine, which lasted until the early part of 2018.[17] He has interviewed Takashi Murakami, Svetlana Marich, Kamiar Maleki and Adrian Cheng, and featured numerous graduate artists from Manchester School of Art and Goldsmiths, University of London.[citation needed]

On 13 July 2017, Kamer attended The Spectator magazine's summer party in Whitehall, and briefly spoke to then Prime Minister Theresa May about his concerns as a Romanian passport holder residing in the UK in the wake of Brexit. May assured him that he could stay in the country, whilst Spectator editor Fraser Nelson also reassured him, upon hearing that Kamer is also an Israeli passport holder.[3][20]

In March 2021, Kamer began writing for a magazine founded by Graydon Carter titled Air Mail.[21] He wrote an article about NFTs and Web3 for Fortune.[18] In 2023, Kamer began writing for Interview magazine.[22]

Selected spoofs, satires and journalism

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Kamer has made several adversarial news films alongside satirical reporting.

In 2006, Kamer visited Egypt and made a five-minute documentary titled Girls at the Cairo National Stadium during one of the matches of the Africa Cup of Nations. In the film he focused on the female spectators in the crowd, which caused the Daily News Egypt to write an article called "Filming Gone Too Far?", about the ethics of filming Egyptian lady fans without permission.[23]

In April 2012, he made a series of prank videos in which he extorted celebrities vis-á-vis vandalising their Wikipedia pages.[24][25][26] In May 2012, he posed as a rich man and made "indecent proposals" to celebrities such as Kelly Brook attending the Cannes Film Festival.[27] In April 2012, he appeared in the video series produced by Don't Panic, dressed in an old lord outfit whilst arriving at the House of Lords to claim various expenses (Lords are reimbursed for expenses). He "purchased" land in Scotland, a token amount for £29.99, which presumably made him a de facto lord.[28] In October 2012, Kamer created a fake Obama Kenya birth video to highlight the "Birthers" and Donald Trump's obsession with getting an old 8mm footage of the US president's alleged African birth.[29][30]

During 2013 he created a fake TED Talk with Billie JD Porter to ridicule the TED apparatus and satirise individuals and companies who use Wikipedia for profit. It was embedded on Gawker.[31][32] In March 2013 he reported on the new "finger hashtag" in Wired magazine.[33]

In June 2014, Kamer joined Katharine Hamnett to perform a stunt outside Hackney Town Hall, aiming to make Hackney Mayor Jules Pipe ban all Monsanto Roundup herbicides being used in the borough.[34] In July 2014, Kamer travelled to Nassau to investigate a leak by Edward Snowden that suggested the NSA listen to phone calls made in the Bahamas. He spoke with local ministers, parliament members and attended a local Freedom of Information rally.[35] In December 2014, Business Insider reported on Kamer's satirical quest to become the worst rated passenger in Uber's history.[36]

Kamer has been described as "the doyen of club-crashers".[37] His article "The Art of Getting In" is a satirical piece on clever ways to get into members-only events and locations normally reserved for the rich and (almost)-famous, which he calls a "new form of class warfare".[38] His first piece as a regulator contributor to Air Mail magazine is a guide depicting the various ways to enter Mar-a-Lago without a membership.[39]

Other works

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In November 2015, Kamer and German novelist Delilah Jay released a song entitled "It's A Boy" with the hope of representing the United Kingdom in the upcoming Eurovision Song Contest 2016. Eurovision news source Wiwibloggs published the story.[40] Kamer also hosted The Golden News Shower on Fair Planet, directed by William Pine and commissioned by Joseph Reich.[41]

In 2018, The Social Climber's Handbook: A Shameless Guide by Kamer was published through BIS Publishing, with illustrations by Charlie Behrens (son of Timothy Behrens).[42]

In 2023 Kamer started writing for Interview Magazine,[43] a publication founded by Andy Warhol. He also contributed to Plaster Magazine.[44]

References

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  1. ^ a b c Hecht, Esther (March 2007). "Feature: Graffiti". Hadassah Magazine. Retrieved 14 June 2021.
  2. ^ "Nimrod Kamer". The Artists. Archived from the original on 14 June 2021. Retrieved 14 June 2021.
  3. ^ a b "EU citizen confronts Theresa May telling her:'I'm about to get deported'". The Independent. Retrieved 24 July 2017.
  4. ^ Karniel, Gal (21 July 2005). "Moreover / Zen and the art of Sudoku". Haaretz. Israel. Retrieved 21 September 2014.
  5. ^ "maayan2 - Roy Chicky Arad Online האתר של רועי צ'יקי ארד". sites.google.com. Archived from the original on 30 June 2010. Retrieved 7 October 2016.
  6. ^ Schneebaum, Avi (1 December 2009). "Funny, in 140 characters or less". Haaretz. Israel. Retrieved 21 September 2014.
  7. ^ Kamer, Nimrod (February 2010). "Jobless Nimrod". Channel 2 (in Hebrew). Israel. Retrieved 21 September 2014.
  8. ^ Kamer, Nimrod; Clayton, James (8 January 2014). "London Men's Fashion Week LCM". Newsnight. BBC. Retrieved 21 September 2014.
  9. ^ Kamer, Nimrod; Pine, William (14 September 2012). "Nimrod Visits Downton Abbey". Vice. Archived from the original on 16 September 2012. Retrieved 21 September 2014.
  10. ^ Kamer, Nimrod; Pine, William; Mills, Merope (10 May 2014). "Nimrod Kamer at Eurovision: 'the last line of defence against anti-gay Russian propaganda'". The Guardian.
  11. ^ Prowse, Heydon; Kamer, Nimrod (3 February 2014). "Benefits Street: the alternative. Welcome to Bonus Street". The Guardian. Retrieved 21 September 2014.
  12. ^ Kamer, Nimrod. "Nimrod Kamer (works)". Interview.
  13. ^ Kamer, Nimrod (6 March 2013). "Finger-Hashtags". Wired. Retrieved 21 September 2014.
  14. ^ Kamer, Nimrod (14 April 2013). "Twenty Twitter Etiquette Rules". Huffington Post. Retrieved 21 September 2014.
  15. ^ Kamer, Nimrod (14 March 2014). "The new Yoofemisms: stay down with the kids with some super-hot lingo". London Evening Standard. Retrieved 21 September 2014. Pictures by William Pine and Zoë Jenkin
  16. ^ Kamer, Nimrod (2020). "Nimrod SCNR Videos". SCNR. Retrieved 16 March 2021.
  17. ^ a b Kamer, Nimrod (25 June 2017). "Meet the new powerhouse of Asian art". GQ. Retrieved 25 June 2017.
  18. ^ a b Kamer, Nimrod. "Nimrod Kamer on Fortune". Fortune.
  19. ^ "Emoji to get some long-awaited diversity with new range of skin tones". The Guardian. 4 November 2014. Retrieved 4 November 2014.
  20. ^ "Theresa May And David Davis Confronted By Romanian Journalist At Spectator Summer Party". Huffingtonpost.co.uk. 14 July 2017. Retrieved 24 July 2017.
  21. ^ Kamer, Nimrod (13 March 2021). "Nimrod Kamer (works)". Air Mail.
  22. ^ "Nimrod Kamer". Interview.
  23. ^ El Alfy, Farah (27 February 2006). "Filming Gone Too Far?". The Daily News Egypt. Archived from the original on 14 February 2012. Retrieved 21 September 2014.
  24. ^ Eördögh, Fruzsina (25 April 2012). "Israeli prankster Nimrod Kamer faces Wikipedia deletion for celebrity extortion". The Daily Dot. Retrieved 21 September 2014.
  25. ^ Yiannopoulos, Milo (20 April 2012). "Warring With Wikipedia". The Kernel. Retrieved 21 September 2014.
  26. ^ Halleck, Thomas (8 November 2013). "Wikipedia And Paid Edits: Companies Pay Top Dollar To Firms Willing To 'Fix' Their Entries". International Business Times. Retrieved 18 November 2013.
  27. ^ "Indecent proposal". The Irish News. 28 May 2012. Retrieved 21 September 2014.
  28. ^ "Comedian Descends on House of Lords". Political Scrapbook. 19 April 2012. Archived from the original on 19 October 2012. Retrieved 21 September 2014.
  29. ^ Grant, Drew (31 October 2012). "Exclusive: The Making of the Very Fake 'Obama's Kenya Birth Video'". The New York Observer. Retrieved 21 September 2014.
  30. ^ Friedman, Ron (4 November 2012). "Israeli behind fake Obama birth video". The Times of Israel. Retrieved 21 September 2014.
  31. ^ Cook, John (13 June 2013). "Must-Watch TED Talk On Monetizing Wikipedia". Gawker. Archived from the original on 10 October 2023. Retrieved 21 September 2014.
  32. ^ Grant, Drew (20 June 2013). "Exclusive: New Media's Merry Prankster Takes on Sacred Techno-Calf with 'TED(µ) Talk'". The New York Observer. Retrieved 21 September 2014.
  33. ^ Grant, Drew (6 March 2013). "Don't Start Finger Hashtagging Quite Yet". The New York Observer. Retrieved 21 September 2014.
  34. ^ Bartholomew, Emma (2 June 2014). "Katharine Hamnett accuses Hackney Council of ignoring weedkiller petition". Hackney Gazette. Archived from the original on 3 June 2014. Retrieved 21 September 2014.
  35. ^ Devereaux, Ryan (9 July 2014). "Bahamians React to NSA Surveillance". The Intercept. Retrieved 21 September 2014.
  36. ^ Moss, Caroline (2 December 2014). "UK Journalist Claims He's The First Uber User With A 1-Star Average Rating". Business Insider. Retrieved 2 December 2014.
  37. ^ Seth Alexander Thévoz (2022). Behind Closed Doors: The Secret Life of London Private Members' Clubs. London: Robinson/Little, Brown. p. 9. ISBN 9781472146465. OCLC 1334883282.
  38. ^ Kamer, Nimrod (November 2020). "The Art of Getting In". The Gentleman's Journal. Retrieved 30 August 2022.
  39. ^ Kamer, Nimrod (13 March 2021). "How to Sneak into Mar-a-Lago". Air Mail.
  40. ^ Adams, William Lee (15 December 2015). "Delilah Jay And Nimrod Kamer Submit Outrageous Song To UK Eurovision Selection". Wiwibloggs. Retrieved 3 December 2014.
  41. ^ "The Golden News Shower". Fair Planet. Archived from the original on 18 April 2015.
  42. ^ Kamer, Nimrod (May 2018). The Social Climber's Handbook: A Shameless Guide. BIS Publishers. p. 112. ISBN 978-9063694838.
  43. ^ "Nimrod Kamer, Author at Interview Magazine".
  44. ^ "Nimrod Kamer breaks onto the London art scene".
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