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'Celebrity Avenger' Jake Byrd is 'the mouthpiece of the fans'

Tony Barbieri knows Jake Byrd, a ubiquitous gadfly who shows up at celebrity events and makes comments so politically incorrect they'd make Borat blush. To call Jake obnoxious would be kind.

Barbieri knows Jake so well, in fact, you might confuse the two as being the same guy. Jake will have none of that, of course. Some people will see Jake at a celebrity trial, for example, and say, "You're a writer on the Jimmy Kimmel Show." An indignant Jake will shout back, "No, you're a writer on the Jimmy Kimmel Show!"

Viewers of the media frenzy surrounding the Michael Jackson trial in 2005 likely saw a great deal of Jake. Jake ingratiated himself to fans with his fervent support of Jackson, only to annoy many with statements one might construe as pro-pedophilia. Jake called Jackson "a world treasure."

Says Barbieri, "Jake was the mouthpiece of the fans, and some of the fans didn't appreciate what Jake's views were."

The New York Times didn't appreciate Jake, period. In a story about Jackson's arraignment, the paper quoted Jake, assuming he was a real person. The Times later printed a correction stating he was fictional. Jake disputes this report.

Jake also made an appearance during the Paris Hilton trial wearing a cap reading "Let her live." When Hilton was sent back to jail in June for driving with a suspended license, Jake, who's a huge Hilton fan, repeatedly screamed "No!" at a news conference.

Jake was also outside the home of Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes after the birth of their daughter, Suri, last year. Wearing a "Yes Suri" T-shirt, Jake handed out cigars to fans, then proceeded to interrupt them while they were being interviewed. "Suri means 'torn rotator cuff,"' he interjected. "I would have named her Booze. Booze Cruise." Later, he added, "I heard when Katie's water broke, she made a little Dawson's Creek."

Jake was back on the news last month following O.J. Simpson's Las Vegas arrest. During the news conference after Simpson's bond hearing, Jake stood next to Simpson's lawyer, Yale Galanter, and once again acted like an idiot. "It's an emotional time," said Jake as Galanter spoke to the press. When Jake's cell phone rang, he picked it up and said, "I can't talk right now." He even tried to high-five Galanter. The barrister declined.

"I wouldn't have touched me either," says Jake during an phone interview with Barbieri very close by.

"Michael Jackson is Jake's favorite guy, but O.J. is really coming on strong," says Barbieri. "If you thought people got upset when Jake said, 'Thank you for supporting Michael Jackson,' when he says, 'Thank you for supporting O.J. Simpson,' they really go nuts."

Adds Jake, "Everyone is down on O.J. But they really should be embracing this stealing stuff, because it distracts him from stabbing people."

Labeled the "Celebrity Avenger," Jake first surfaced in 2005 when Kimmel suggested that Barbieri cover the fan scene at the Michael Jackson trial. According to an unsubstantiated report, Jake's moniker comes from the first name of a Kimmel show writer who was given a parakeet the building manager wanted removed from the premises.

"Jake just decided to start defending all the celebrities who didn't have a voice to defend themselves," says Barbieri. "How do they have an outlet to be heard? So Jake made it his life's goal to speak for those who can't speak for themselves."

Jake agrees. "I was there for the Martha Stewart trial to let her know that Michael Jackson loved her. She looked at me like I was crazy," he says. "I really wanted to get out to support (Iranian President Mahmoud) Ahmadinejad. He's really a very misunderstood young man and a helluva dresser."

Barbier says Jake "likes to point out the absurdity of media circuses. Like the O.J. thing. There's something like 100 cameras from around the world focusing on his arraignment. Some of those camera crews, at least a couple of them, could have been sent to Lindsay Lohan's house. We have to get our priorities straight."

When Jake isn't defending celebrities, he works at Pete's Tropical Fish Barn in Chino, Calif. "He's a salesman, but he should be the assistant manager," says Barbieri. "It's all politics in the tropical fish world. I don't have to tell you how that works."

Pranks, if you believe the scurrilous rumor that Jake is a fictitious prankster, have become Barbieri's stock and trade. He also writes and "performs" on "Crank Yankers." The show, which airs on MTV2, features actual crank calls made by show regulars and celebrity guests that are then re-enacted onscreen by puppets.

That Barbieri, the 44-year-old son of Ernie and Toni Barbieri, would have a career in comedy seemed destined. In the first grade, when his teacher asked the class who they wanted to be when they grew up, Barbieri answered, "Mel Brooks."

The entertainment gene likely came from his father, who plays the accordion professionally. That career took the family from Framingham to Brooklyn, where Tony grew up. He still spent his childhood summers in Framingham with his aunt, Theresa Barbieri, and grandmother, Adele Barbieri. Now a Los Angeles resident, he continues to return to Framingham for the annual family clambake hosted by his cousin Ricky.

"It's a huge highlight of the year," says Tony Barbieri. "We head back to Barbieri Road on the shores of Lake Waushakum, eat clams and lobsters until we pass out, then wake up and eat some more. It's the best!"

He calls his summers in Framingham "great times, though I think several falls off the roof may have helped steer me on my current path of lunacy."

Barbieri also credits his mother for her assistance on taking that path. "She was instrumental in egging on my young comedy chops," he says. "She did nothing to discourage me from crossing my eyes in every single class picture and encouraged me to 'read my Mad magazines.' "

Says Ricky Barbieri, "Tony was funny from day one. He's hilarious." He was even a prankster as a boy. "You'd shake his hand and he'd have the buzzer on," Ricky recalls. "He still does stuff like that. For the clambake, people can't wait for him to come because he always brings a bag of goodies full of tricks. It's just his nature. When we go fishing, the next generation of kids, 10- to 15-years-olds, they all have to be in his boat or they won't go."

Ricky also notes that Tony is a fine cook. When family visits him in Los Angeles, he makes an Italian dinner using his grandmother Adele's recipes. "We always look forward to that," says Ricky.

After graduating from New York University, where he majored in writing and theater, Tony Barbieri began writing for Mad, contributing the feature "Monroe." Focusing on an angst-filled, teenage loser, it has been running in the comedy magazine for 12 years.

After moving to Los Angeles, Barbieri hooked up with fellow comedian Don Barris and, along with Kimmel, wrote "Windy City Heat," a made-for-TV-reality film produced by Comedy Central. The 2003 movie is presented as a practical joke being played on a man named Perry Caravello, a gullible friend of Kimmel and Adam Carolla. Caravello believes he has been given a chance to make a movie called "Windy City Heat," a crime drama about a sports private eye named Stone Fury. However, there is no such film; it is all an elaborate prank played on him by Kimmel and Carolla. In the film, Barbieri plays the part of the perpetually stoned Walter "Mole" Molinski.

Other writing credits include the TV programs "That '80s Show" and "The Man Show" and the film "Pledge Night."

Barbieri and his wife, Daryl, have three children - Isabella, 7, Lola, 4, and Enzo, 1. Jake's gap-toothed look comes compliments of Isabella, who accidentally head-butted him when she was 1. He has a temporary bridge. "I was upset at the time, but it turned into a gold mine," he says.

Jake is particularly pleased to be interviewed. "I hope Pete reads this article and maybe bumps me up to that assistant manager gig," he says. "I'll hang it over a fish tank."

Bob Tremblay of The MetroWest (Mass.) Daiy News can be reached at btremblay@cnc.com or 508-626-4409.