DATE=9/22/03

TYPE=English Feature

NUMBER=7-37869

TITLE=Vegas Impersonators

BYLINE=David Clements

TELEPHONE=205-0539

DATELINE=Las Vegas

EDITOR=Faith Lapidus

CONTENT=

_

INTRO: There's nothing like seeing a big star like Neil Diamond perform live…

AUDIO: CUT 1 Jay White Intro & song You Don't Bring Me Flowers (In full, then under)

"This particular song is one of those songs that went all the way to the top of the charts in 1979. Originally this song was recorded with a dear friend of mine named Barbara Streisand who could be here tonight. [under here] We did call her up though and said could you fly in from Los Angeles. She said "Absolutely I can do that. I'll just need one thing waiting for me when I get to Vegas, a check for four million dollars." I said that's not exactly in the budget.. (laughter)..."

INTRO: ...unless, of course, you attend a performance by a celebrity impersonator… .

AUDIO: Jay picks someone out of the crowd to sing with him. (It's actually his daughter.) "You Don't Bring Me Flowers"

INTRO: There are perhaps more celebrity impersonators in Las Vegas than there are actual celebrities… as David Clements discovered.

TEXT: Las Vegas is all about fantasy… and the impersonators in this city are fantastic they look and sound like stars who might be too busy or too expensive to play Vegas, or just getting older:

AUDIO: CUT 3 WHITE

"I'm about fifteen to twenty years younger than Neil (Diamond), so I represent the eighties era as far as costumes, look and mannerisms... "

TEXT: Jay White is a Neil Diamond impersonator.

AUDIO: CUT 4 WHITE

"And that's really the era that most of the general public remembers him from. The 'Jazz Singer' was from that era. So I'm trying to help keep his youth alive a little bit here."

AUDIO: CUT 5 Fab Four doing She Loves You (x-fade with Cut 2)

TEXT: The Fab Four is hailed by critics as one of the top Beatles tribute acts in the world. Along with the oldies, the group presents some of the Beatles' later material, like songs from the Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album. They were originally recorded with a symphony orchestra and never performed by the Beatles on tour.

AUDIO: CUT 6 Beatles material A Day in the Life or Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

TEXT: But times have changed. Ron McNeil, who portrays John Lennon for the group, says that today's technology allows them to bring some of this music to a live audience for the first time ever.

AUDIO: CUT 7 MCNEIL

"We're actually the only four-piece Beatles group that performs all of the Sergeant Pepper's stuff and later, live on stage. Everybody else uses some kind of tape or some kind of sequencer or a CD or something like that. We just took the orchestrations and decided to perform them on keyboards live on stage. You know, just about anybody can play 'She Loves You,' but to get into some of the later orchestral arrangements is pretty difficult. We're really excited about the fact that we can do that."

TEXT: And that's the beauty of impersonators, pseudo-celebrities, tribute acts, or what ever you want to call them. You get to pretend you're being serenaded by your favorite stars in an intimate setting, without paying exorbitant ticket prices.

Of course, the impersonators don't make the exorbitant salaries the celebrities they impersonate do… so would it really be worth it to quit your day job to start a career as a professional tribute act?

AUDIO: CUT 8 ALEXANDER PERFORMING ELVIS (Sweep in, hold a bit, then under and lose slowly)

TEXT: Prominent Elvis Presley impersonator Gary Alexander, who performs regularly at the Viva Las Vegas Wedding Chapel, says 'yes!'.

AUDIO: CUT 9 ALEXANDER

"From what I understand, the general Elvis Impersonator in Las Vegas makes anywhere between $50,000 and $100,000 a year. I saw that printed in a magazine before, so I'm taken care of."

TEXT: So what does it take to make it in the impersonator business? To answer that question, I spoke to talent agency owner Jackie Basco, who arranges many events and concerts involving celebrity impersonators.

AUDIO: CUT 10 BASCO

"I think that you really have to study your character. It's like being a good actor. You have to be current with the music. Some people have a natural voice that just sounds like somebody. Some people look like them. It always blew my mind how people knew they looked Marilyn Monroe. Maybe they had brown hair and brown eyes and look nothing like her. All of a sudden they get dressed up, they buy a wig and a dress and they look exactly like her, and they talk exactly like her."

TEXT: The most successful impersonators have both the looks and the voice. But what comes first? The Fab Four have had to work hard as musicians to be able to play most of the Beatles material. For them, the looks had to come later on. Ron McNeil has to wear several wigs and costumes to portray John Lennon throughout the program.

Heidi Thompson is the opposite. She's one of the few female Cher impersonators. But she says looking like Cher for most of her life has made it hard for her to pursue an acting career.

AUDIO: CUT 11 THOMPSON

"I do look like her. I always have, since I was 13. It actually has not been a blessing because I could never get parts (in movies), because people thought I looked too much like Cher. People would walk by and say, 'Oh my gosh. She looks like Cher.' Even if I was doing, 'Memory' from Cats, they would go 'look! it's Cher!' You might as well make a living at it. I now respond, '...yeah six nights a week, two shows nightly at the Imperial Palace.'"

TEXT: The desire to be taken seriously on their own terms is something that many impersonators struggle with. Heidi Thompson is currently marketing a movie script she's written about a female composer trying to get her work heard in the 1800's.

But there are career advantages to being an impersonator. Ron McNeil says that being a part of the Fab Four has opened doors for him and the rest of the group.

AUDIO: CUT 12 MCNEIL

"We all tried to write our own songs and be sort of the next Beatles individually. We didn't even know each other. When I was 18, 19 years old we were all trying to make it. I would have killed for some kind of attention from a record company or for somebody to come and listen to our stuff. Now we have Jeff Lynn and people hearing us and run into a lot of record people. So we're going to record a record. If that happens, we'll have some places to ship it and some people to give it to."

AUDIO: CUT 13 HELP! or other Beatles standard by the Fab Four.

TEXT: For now they're going to have to settle for screaming fans, even if those fans are really screaming for someone else. For Coast to Coast, I'm David Clements.