Brett Ambler’s name doesn’t easily come to mind when putting together a list of celebrity kids. But for people who grew up in the 80s and early 90s, it might sound like. A very distant ringing though. Brett Ambler starred in a commercial for Melissa and Doug, a toy company.
The ad was titled Special Friends: Getting Yourself Featured on Kazoo. It was filmed in 1989 and earned Brett the nickname Kazoo Kid. However, in addition to a few stints in career development, Brett has been overlooked over time. He is unfortunately one of the promising child stars who unfortunately never reached the heights of their contemporaries.
Video of Kazoo’s commercial resurfaced sometime in 2016 and was used by DJs in song remixes and on social media as a meme. This breathed new life into the Kazoo Kid as people tried to find out who the kid was and what he was currently up to.
Brett Ambler Bio, Age, Family
Brett Ambler, also known as Kazoo Kid was born on December 8, 1984 in Redding, Connecticut where he was raised. It’s unclear if Brett always carried the dream of being an actor or an entertainer in any capacity, but Kazoo’s publicity seemed like a step in the right direction.
He decided to attend an audition for a commercial that was to center on a toy company’s very first product. He participated as imagined with many other children and finally won the place. The approximately 30-minute commercial was filmed in 1989. It was about a kid who found some random friends and started playing an instrument called the Kazoo with them. Brett Ambler was only eight years old at the time.
In the 90s, Brett Ambler did two voice roles. The first was titled Best Stupid Stories and Song Videos Ever. The second was titled If I Run a Zoo. He remains a somewhat passive actor. He played a Buddy Holly role in the production of the Buddy Holly story in Colorado.
Brett Ambler Height and Quick Facts
So how did the Kazoo Kid return to the limelight? It was a series of events that started in 2011.
In March 2011, a segment of the You On Kazoo video was uploaded to YouTube by YouTuber Jim VanBlarium. Three years later, a YouTube channel called Dead Video Recorder posted a refurbished version of the episode on YouTube. Over the next two years, the video would garner over half a million views and over 2,000 comments.
The spread continued when Redditor MikesicleOctober 2015, posted the video and it garnered 99% upvotes (420 votes) and around 60 comments in three months. A techno remix using the commercial’s audio also surfaced on SoundCloud, posted by user Florian Olsson.
Other YouTube users named Grant NOT The FlashGustin and Gumble Dog uploaded two edits of the video three weeks apart in November 2015. His real moment of glory finally came on January 20, 2016 when the Facebook page of Hood Vines grabbed it. Their posting of the video, within 24 hours, garnered over 2 million views and 38,000 shares.
At that time, Brett’s identity had already been discovered by Redditor “grahamthefalcon” on October 25, 2015. In December 2015, Ambler replied to a tweet confirming that he was the kid from the ad.
After discovering his identity, he was plagued with questions on Facebook about advertising and his childhood. Through her answers to these questions, it was discovered that it was her elementary school teacher who had told her class about the auditions. He recalls the producers being impressed with his ability to mess up on camera and being comfortable doing so.
He also explained the weirdness in the commercial’s audio, explaining that all male voices were dubbed. All female voices were dubbed by the producer, Melissa. According to his admission, Brett can turn the kazoo perfectly. This resurgence has seen many people go out and buy a kazoo for themselves. This started a “kazoomania” that lasted for quite some time. The buzz also reconnected with some of the other kids who were part of the cast.
Brett also revealed that he is still involved in acting and music. In February 2016, he revealed he was working on a children’s game production about Junie B. Jones. On a lighter note, he talked about his favorite song on Kazoo saying he would be willing to have a “kazoo jam session” with anyone who wanted to.
Brett Ambler does not know information such as height and weight. It is however known from his admission and his online photos that his hair is curly and brown as well as his eyes.