The performer also known as Robby Roadsteamer was reportedly released about an hour later
Massachusetts-based protest performer Rob Potylo was detained by ICE agents on video earlier today in Portland, Oregon.
The recording shows the longtime music, culture, and comedy staple dressed in his usual tailed giraffe costume outside of the gated ICE facility.
A post to his Instagram account noted the detainment came “after singing Rod Stewart with the Portland Frog,” and asked supporters to help with his defense fund. BINJ learned from someone on the scene that Potylo was released about an hour later and headed for the airport to return home.
Potylo has brought his talents to the front lines of demonstrations for more than a decade, palling around with perennial presidential candidate Vermin Supreme and others who bring laughter to tense and even violent situations. In 2012, a video of Potylo serenading a female police officer at Occupy Wall Street went viral.
In the years since, he has remained active at protests, and also at one point revived the Robby Roadsteamer character he became known for years earlier, a hyperbolic masshole high on coke and Dropkick Murphys. Since Donald Trump’s most recent campaign and election, similar to the Dropkicks, Potylo has ramped up his protesting along with his exposure. He was profiled on BoingBoing the day before his ICE detainment, the outlet quoting his version of the Village People’s “YMCA” which he recently sang while protesting in DC:
Fuck ICE! We don’t need them around, I said
Fuck ICE! They hate all the browns, I said
Fuck ICE! Cause you’re good in a town, there’s no need to be angry!
Trump was on the Jeffrey Epstein plane,
Trump was on the Jeffrey Epstein plane,
He was chasing around all the young girls…
With several hundred thousand followers across multiple platforms, last year he crashed a number of ornery rightwing events big and small, from Turning Point USA gatherings to neanderthal congregations on bridge crossings in Mass. He also famously trolled Hulk Hogan, a childhood idol of Potylo, who was close personal friends with the wrestler Chyna and produced a docuseries on her life for Vice.
We are seeking more info from ICE and will hopefully speak with Potylo after he returns to Greater Boston.
