[4] The character is notoriously ill-mannered; frequently salivating onstage, drinking and smoking his way throughout songs, while berating his musicians and audience members with insults and expletives.

Drawing positive comments and reviews in the press, Wilfredo was described by the Guardian newspaper as "weird, intimate and wonderful"[25] and by Time Out as "an extraordinary creation who cuts a hacking, spluttering, beer dribbling figure upon the stage".

[26] The comedy industry website Chortle observed the character as "cantankerous, often lecherous and almost certainly consumptive, coughing and burping his way through the set, at one point hacking up phlegm like a horse chewing a toffee.

He had gained access to a social media account belonging to Kate Copstick, head comedy critic of the influential Scotsman newspaper, writing a glowing review of his talents under her name.

"[32] On 6 December 2017 Roper opened Off-Broadway in the comic/clown role of the first large-scale pantomime to be presented in New York for over a century, at the Playhouse Theater of the Henry Street Settlement.

Roper made his directorial debut with Ashley Blaker's stand-up comedy Goy Friendly, opening for three weeks Off-Broadway at New York's Soho Playhouse.

[35] In November 2014, Roper was among 44 comedians to sign an open letter to Dapper Laughs published nationally in the UK's Independent newspaper, protesting "encouraging rape culture and normalising sexism" in an ITV2 series, which was subsequently cancelled.

[36][37] He is a member of the Save Soho movement, a collective of artists who oppose the ongoing closure and demolition of music venues and independent businesses within the London neighbourhood, adding his signature to a letter to Boris Johnson in 2014.

On his paternal side, Roper is a great-grandnephew of brothers Johnnie Cullen and George Sanford, two early 20th century stars of the British Music Hall stage, and a great-nephew of the BBC wartime singer Jeannie Bradbury.

[40] The American writer Trav S.D., author of No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous, describes the generational differences between father and son: Matt Roper is a chameleon-like comic actor.