Elvis Impersonators

I've been thinking about a very weird group of people. No. It's not my readers (though they are people and most of them are arguably weird). And, no, it's not my neighbors (though they are weird and most of them are arguable people.) I'm talking about Elvis Impersonators.

It seems that twice a year, on the anniversaries of The King's birthday and his death, they seem to come out of the woodwork. I can never keep the dates straight but I can usually feel a disturbance in The Force.

Anyway, I think they hold a completely unique position in our society. This is why. Think about other celebrity impersonators. There are agencies that rent out celebrity look alikes for special occasions and there are people who make entire careers out of celebrity impressions. Or for at least as long as their celebrity is still popular (celebs like Presidents and Tom Cruise for example). There are even male drag queens who work doing impressions of female stars (Carol Channing, Judy Garland). All of these people differ from Elvis impersonators in two aspects.

First, all of these other people give celebrity impressions. They don't believe anyone will actually mistake them for their celebrity. And they chose their celebrity because they share some characteristics with them. They sound like them (voice or singing) or bear some passing physical resemblance. Such as an Abe Lincoln impersonator would probably be tall and thin. But, at some point, someone will look at their performance and say, "O.K., I can see it."

With Elvis impersonators all you need is the white jump suit and the fake hair and sideburns. You can be young or old, fat or thin, tall or short, white or black or Japanese, you can be talented or have none at all and you can still get into this group. What you look like and your talent for mimicry have nothing to do with it.

The second difference is the other celebrity impressionists are usually trying to give tribute to their celebrity. Sometimes they pull it off and sometimes they don't. But they are trying.

Elvis Impersonators generally look bad and sound bad. They are going for it with the broadest of strokes because they know they can get away with it. But, more often than not, they come off as a mockery rather than a tribute. And that's the really sad part.

There is an entire generation who pretty much is only aware of Elvis through these pathetic parodies and have marginalized him as a wack job. I submit that if these impersonators had any respect for Elvis' talent and uniqueness, they would leave the building in shame. Because isn't that the point? Wasn't that what made Elvis the King of Rock and Roll and a larger than life icon? It is because he proved that just anybody can't be The King.

Thank you. Thank you very much.