Political jester Robby Roadsteamer, despite ICE arrest, still hopes humor can keep the peace

Robby Roadsteamer showed up to a hero’s welcome at the No Kings rally on Boston Common this weekend.

A fan in the crowd called out that he was an “American treasure.” Roadsteamer quipped he was relieved to be alive and not in a jail in El Salvador.

The politics prankster had recently been arrested by federal agents out in Portland, Oregon, where he’d joined the menagerie of animal-costumed protesters, dancing and decrying the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement.

Roadsteamer, a Salem native whose real name is Rob Potylo, has been trolling political hotspots around the country for more than a decade. He said this was the first time he was arrested for protesting.

While President Trump has portrayed the city of Portland as a war zone, Potylo said the day he was there was more of a love-fest — until the pepper balls started flying.

Video provided by Potylo shows him dressed in a giraffe costume, which he calls the “Jeffrey Epstein Giraffe.” With a 100-watt karaoke machine hanging from his shoulder, he belted a raucous parody of a Rod Stewart song outside an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility.

He said federal agents standing on the ICE building hit him at least six times with pepper balls, which explode into irritating clouds when they strike. He said he felt like Rambo, and responded to the agents with more taunts.

“They’re like high school bullies … they’re ready to rumble,” Potylo told WBUR.

He said he stayed on the public side of a line painted in front of the ICE facility to avoid trespassing.

“They kept yelling at me to stay away from the blue line, which I was, but I was heckling the living crap out of them,” he said.

Potylo’s video shows three masked agents in camo battle gear rushing up and marching him into the ICE facility. Potylo said he was in custody for about an hour, then was issued a violation for failing to comply with a law enforcement officer.

The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement that Potylo trespassed on federal property and refused to comply with orders to back up. (Potylo said he was only on federal property because the agents dragged him there.)

The DHS spokesperson said Potylo’s video on social media of the incident was “deceptively clipped,” calling him an “attention starved influencer who flew all the way from Massachusetts to trespass on federal property.”

Potylo, 49, is part of a long tradition of political gadflies, clowns and jesters that goes back to ancient times.

He cited Ken Kesey of the Merry Pranksters as an inspiration, as well as Ken Casey of the Dropkick Murphys, who has lampooned Trump supporters at shows.

Dressed as the “Jeffrey Epstein Giraffe” or “Gary the Guantanamo Gator,” Potylo is a regular at Trump rallies and events with MAGA figures, like the late Hulk Hogan, Steve Bannon, Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene and Turning Point USA’s late founder, Charlie Kirk.

Potylo said Kirk’s assassination hit him hard. He disagreed with Kirk about politics, but saw him as a good sport in the political arena.

“It just is such a shame, man,” Potylo said. “I hate violence. I hate it with all my heart.”

“Listen, let’s try to find common ground instead of reasons to start civil wars,” he said. “And I think that’s what was heartbreaking about it.”

Underneath the absurdity of Robbie Roadsteamer, there’s a serious aim. Potylo’s mentor is Vermin Love Supreme, the Massachusetts political satirist on the scene for nearly 40 years.

For Supreme, a jester with a bullhorn and a well-timed quip can even avert violence between protesters and police — he likened it to the way a rodeo clown distracts a bull.

“I myself have been in situations that have been so hairy, that it totally appeared as if violence were truly imminent,” Supreme said. “I believe that humor and being outrageous — and absurd and silly and playful — can totally change things up.”

Supreme lives in Cape Ann. He’s best known for wearing a massive rubber boot on his head and running for US president every four years, promising fully-funded time travel research, zombie preparedness and a free pony for every American. Potylo teamed up with Supreme at the 2012 Democratic National Convention, where the elder Supreme taught him the ropes of protest jesting.

Supreme said he’s been arrested protesting only once, in Los Angeles in 2000. He said he sued the LA Police Department and won a $6,000 settlement.

Potylo said he plans to sue ICE for violating his free speech rights, and he hired Portland-based civil rights attorney Jesse Merrithew this week. But Merrithew informed his new client he’d need to find grounds other than a free speech violation.

“I can’t file a lawsuit for Robbie and say, ‘Stop lighting up people with pepper balls just because you don’t like what they say,’” Merrithew told WBUR, adding that federal agents can’t be held accountable. in the way local or state police can.

Instead, Merrithew said, Potylo could pursue a battery claim against ICE for hitting him with pepper balls, in addition to a false arrest or civil kidnapping claim for Potylo’s apprehension, which he argued was without cause.

“All I can do is get money damages for Robby and hope that sends the message to the government,” Merrithew said.

Supreme, Potylo’s colleague, said he’s glad his protege plans to bring a lawsuit. But he said it’s a bad sign for the country when comedians are getting grabbed by federal agents.

“Ramped up immigration enforcement, the deployment of the feds to these various cities — very, very scary times,” Supreme said. “And can humor keep it in check? Gosh, I sure do hope so.”

Potylo said he’ll likely have to go back to Portland to fight the charge ICE filed against him — and he’s ready to make a big show of it all.

He said he told the ICE agents the day he was arrested: “‘You guys better wear nice suits to court, man, because I’m getting a dream team like OJ’ … and they started laughing.”

This story has been updated to include an interview with Potylo’s lawyer.