A doctor who moonlights as a balloon artist is hoping Stephen Colbert—or a balloon version of him—can help him deflate his student loan debt.
After being anonymously referenced in The Late Show with Stephen Colbert’s regular news roundup “Meanwhile,” Dr. Brandon Axelrod is hoping to get his name out there with a balloon art version of the host.
Axelrod made headlines last month not for his accomplishments as a doctor, but for the unique way he’s been paying the bills. When he’s not putting in hours as a surgical resident, Axelrod crafts balloon art at birthday parties and other events. After People magazine covered Axelrod’s work, the story wound up in the recurring Colbert segment last Thursday night.
“Great skill for a surgeon,” Colbert quipped before imagining what the doctor might tell a patient. “‘Uh, Mr. Demming, the obstruction has been removed. And while I was in there, I made your colon into a poodle.’”
In an Instagram video posted over the weekend, Axelrod recounted waking up on Friday to “dozens of messages saying that I was on the Stephen Colbert show yesterday.”
After tracking down the right YouTube clip, Axelrod noticed that his balloon business was unlikely to get a Colbert bump because the segment lacked one key detail.
“He didn’t mention my name,” Axelrod pointed out. “How am I going to get to this $400,000 if you’re not going to plug me?”
Axelrod is seeking to pay off over $405,000 of student loan debt. The 27-year-old works as an oral and maxillofacial surgical resident in New York City, and People reported that he’s been honing his balloon art skills since age 10.
“Ultimately, there’s only one thing to do right now,” the doctor concluded. “That’s to make a Stephen Colbert balloon. Hopefully it goes viral, and that way Stephen Colbert sees it himself.”
Axelrod captured a time-lapse of himself sculpting the balloon-ified Colbert: a full-sized suited man complete with necktie, black hair, and his usual blue mug. And if the artistry itself wasn’t impressive enough, Axelrod noted he had bigger fish to fry the day he made it.
“I was sort of racing against time because I’m on call this weekend,” he revealed. “So anything could happen at any moment.”
Viewers of Axelrod’s video have already begun tagging Colbert and The Late Show in the hopes of getting the host’s attention.
“I can deliver it to him onstage, something like that,” Axelrod suggested.
