Comedian Druski’s latest sketch video only has nine words in its description: “That Guy who is just Proud to be AMERICAN.” But in the 36 hours since he posted it on social media, the video of him assuming the persona of a NASCAR fanatic — attending an actual NASCAR event complete with an American flag cowboy hat, sagging overalls, and oh, yeah, a full body race change via makeup — has already captured the internet’s discourse machine. 

The video is less than three minutes long, but manages to capture an impressive display of Druski embodying some of the funniest aspects of Southern racing culture, which includes him singing Born In The U.S.A. in a lifted truck, chugging beer after beer near a crowded race track, and being driven nearly to tears over a simple rendition of the National Anthem. There’s also plenty of nods to how overwhelmingly white the sport tends to be — at one point Druski drives past a Black fan and asks if he’s “lost.” It’s an absolutely hysterical offering, but feels perfectly on-vibe from the comedian, who built a following with his character-driven social media sketches. Born Drew Desbordes, Druski, 30, is a long way from the kid who spent his time at the dinner table cutting up. He told Rolling Stone in 2024 that social media helped him build his comedy career because it allowed him to completely bypass gatekeepers — and find people who shared his sense of humor. “We don’t need anybody to tell us we can be on that TV show, or to kiss up to somebody to try to get in that door,” he said. “I think it’s just amazing that I can create my fan base.”

Since Druski released his NASCAR video, it’s gone viral on every social media platform it’s been posted on, including Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook. But it’s been especially celebrated on X, where it’s reached over 175 million views and is still growing. There’s of course, the debate about whether a Black comedian donning makeup to appear white is racist — “whiteface is racism” arguments abound — which is to be expected on a site that’s become known for a tidal wave of misinformation and misogyny, racism, and Nazi-themed content. But what’s been louder is the general awe at just how perfect Druski’s makeup looks — so good, in fact, that it’s actually tricked some people. “Been scrolling by this not understanding why yall kept putting this white man all over my tl,” tweeted one person. “Whole time it’s fucking Druski.” 

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“The amazing thing about Druski’s skits is not just the commitment to character but the access he somehow gets and the supporting characters that add a touch of verisimilitude,” wrote author Bolu Babalola. “A cultural historian if you will.” 

While Druski is the mastermind behind the video, the Picasso responsible for that perfect blend of white makeup, fake tattoos, and farmer’s tan is Georgia makeup artist Kaylee Kehne-Swisher, who specializes in everything from commercial touchups and makeovers to nitty gritty film special effects. She worked on Weapons, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.3, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Zombieland: Double Tap, and now, the internet comedy sketch that you’ve probably already watched at least three times. But what people might not know is that this isn’t the first time she’s worked with Druski — it’s not even the first time she’s used makeup to turn him white. Kehne-Swisher is also the makeup artist behind his May skit, “The white boy that’s accepted by the Hood.”

“I love these characters that Druski’s coming up with,” Kehne-Swisher says. “I’ve always really loved [Saturday Night Live], where you can hardly tell who a person is under Clinton makeup, or White Chicks — these big makeup transformations. I’ve been trying to come up with more ideas for him, like ‘What can we get away with?’” 

Rolling Stone chatted with Kehne-Swisher about the process behind the now-viral video, working with Druski, and why she thinks SFX will always have a big place in art. 

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I’m so glad we’re chatting! How long have you been doing makeup and SFX? 
Gosh, since 2011 now. I went to Joe Blasco, which is a makeup school in [Orlando], Florida. I’ve done everything from wedding makeup to these kinds of big body makeup and creature makeup and prosthetics. That’s how I got wrapped in with Druski — he was looking for a big makeup [project] like this.

Had you heard of Druski before you signed on? 
Honestly, I hadn’t. Once I heard his name and started looking his stuff up, I really liked it. But no, I’d never heard of him before that.

Tell me about how you even tackle a project like this. How much of this was your interpretation of a prompt versus entirely his idea? 
Well, the first time [they reached out], they were very hush hush about what it was exactly. Just that it was going to be a race change, it was the next day, and that we had to do it and let it walk away, no touch ups or anything. I knew it had to stay on a long time and be able to get on fast. But it still took about seven hours. 

That was for “The white boy that’s accepted by the Hood,” which is another race change sketch.
Yeah! It was a long process the first time because it was just me. So this time around, I was able to bring another artist on, assistant Rachel Bongard Ross, and we got the makeup down to about four hours. This time around for NASCAR, they sent me some samples of the sunburn and that mullet look and we just went from there. I had maybe four to five days to prep for it this time, which is really nice, but it was definitely a lot of work.

Walk me through the steps you have to go through in order to get a final product that, frankly, looks pretty realistic.
This is something that makeup artists have to do often actually — like with stunt doubles, we have to make them match [the actor]. You have roll out their current color with a red or something close to neutralize and bring in that blood tone. Then you go over that again with different tones, and then eventually the flesh tone. From there, we add more paint on top of that, speckling and all kinds of  shimmer to make it look like more skin. For Druski, we added tattoos, and a lace mustache to him. Originally I was going to try to put a lace beard over his beard, but, with the time [crunch] we actually ended up just straightening his own board. We did have a lot of ideas at first, wanting to add things to his nose, and do a stretchy nipple and have more wrinkly eyes, but I’m actually really happy we didn’t do it because I feel like you can see him in the makeup.

How do you make the sunburn and the tattoos look so realistic? 
It was so fun. I worked with a company called Hookup Tattoos here in Atlanta, and they make tattoos for movies and all kinds of things. Then I also found some temporary tattoos on Amazon and they came out surprisingly good. You have to put paint on top of them to make it look a little more real, but for character makeup it was perfect. 

And we basically painted the sunburn right on. After we painted him a regular skin tone, we airbrushed the entire shirt outline on. Then with lighter tones, we went over and speckled different reds and misted other tones of red to give it some modeling. I think it works perfectly. 

One of the things that’s so surprising about the video is how well the makeup wears. How do you keep so much pain intact through what was essentially a Beer Olympics? 
This is something I’ve done before with stunt actors or others in the film industry, when they have to be in water. It’s a concoction of a lot of different makeup products called Jordiane, and then a makeup gel, and then a strong pigmented alcohol-based paint. A ton of things mixed together really blocks everything out and helps you get a blank canvas. And from there you can bring whatever tone you want, use a pink or an undertone of blue depending on what you want to achieve. It’s basically a lot of color theory. 

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If it takes that much to put it on and get it to stay, what’s the removal process like? 
It’s another mixture of things [laugh]. We use a silicone oil and that helps kind of break down those different layers of paint. Then an alcohol based remover, and that kind of helps get that alcohol based paint off. It’s very oily. It’s a lot of rubbing and wiping and rubbing and wiping. 

You’ve been a makeup artist for a long time. What do you think makeup’s place is in the art and film world, especially at a time when productions are dominated by a ton of technological advancements and VFX?
I actually was on Weapons, which is a movie that came out recently. Gladys was me! But that was a huge thing using practical effects because a lot of films now are using CGI and AI. I think that it makes it a little bit more special when you do things practically, because it is becoming so much more of a norm just, you know, making it in a program and not having to do it for real. A blend of CGI and makeup together are perfect. But when you do effects completely in digital, it takes the artistry away from it. So finding people that are willing to keep doing things practically, and instructors that want to keep doing that, people like Druski, who want to make these big characters — it’s really, really cool.