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Getting started: Elvis
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October 8, 2001: 7:00 a.m. ET
Portraying the King can be lucrative, if you've got the right moves
By Hope Hamashige
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - In the beginning there was just one Elvis Presley. One King of Rock and Roll. One pair of blue suede shoes. One white jumpsuit.
In the 25 years since his death, Elvis' popularity has hardly waned. His records still sell, his fans still converge on Graceland to hold candlelight vigils on the anniversary of his passing. And then there's the phenomenon of the Elvis impersonator.
Nobody knows exactly how many Elvis impersonators there are today, but most guess it is in the tens of thousands. They come in all shapes and sizes. There are young Elvises, old Elvises. There are Chinese Elvises and Brazilian Elvises. There are Elvises who sing in English, Spanish and Korean. Some are part-time Elvises, some play the King every day, all the time.
There are sort-of Elvises like El Vez, a Mexican-American who has made a career of tweaking Elvis songs to lyrics like: "You ain't nothing but a Chihuahua."
Fans, it seems, can't get enough of Elvis' magic. And the closest they can get to Elvis in the flesh busting out "Shake, Rattle and Roll" is someone like Scot Bruce, an Elvis impersonator who performs all over the world.
"It blows me away when I'm in other countries and little kids come up and say: 'Hey, it's Elvis," Bruce said.
Radio station prank launches career
Scot Bruce's debut as Elvis was something of an accident. He is a musician and in the early 90s he started piling his hair in a pomp after he joined a rockabilly band.
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Scot Bruce portrays the handsome, young Elvis. | |
It wasn't long before people started commenting that Bruce resembled Elvis Presley. For fun that year, Bruce dressed up like the King on the anniversary of Elvis' death and paid a visit to KLOS-FM. Mark and Brian, the station's popular radio show hosts, invited him in to the studio to sing Elvis tunes.
By the time he got home, there were 50 messages on his answering machine (Mark had given his home phone out on the radio) asking him to perform as Elvis.
Getting started as an Elvis impersonator isn't expensive, but it takes something money can't buy: talent. Elvis impersonators better be able to sing, not just well, but as well as the King himself. They also better be able to swing their hips and strum in Elvis' signature style. Audiences also want an impersonator who looks like Elvis.
It's that latter requirement that forces most impersonators to choose to portray Elvis in his later years. It's easier to disguise their looks if they dress in the white jumpsuit, put on a black pompadour wig and cover their faces with the bulky sunglasses that Elvis favored in his Vegas years.
Viva! Las Vegas
Darren Lee started his career as an Elvis impersonator in the living room of his parent's home in Edmonton, Canada. "Mum" was a fan, explained Lee, and her boys learned the music because their mother played Elvis records all the time.
"Growing up I did air bands with Elvis music," Lee said.
All the men in the Lee family share a resemblance to Elvis, which added to his appeal. For most of his teenage years he tolerated snickering strangers whispering "Thank you. Thank you very much," in a mock-Elvis voice, because he thought it was actually kind of cool.
It was a natural progression, then, that when Lee started playing guitar, Elvis songs were among the first he learned. At 15, he started singing Elvis songs, mostly for fun, in lounges around Vancouver. Before long he was touring Canada in a show called "Elvis, Elvis, Elvis."
Lee propelled his career forward by participating in a big Elvis impersonation contest in Memphis. Lee competed every year from 1991 until he finally won in 1997. With that win he earned the attention of Donny Moore, who produces the American Superstars show in Vegas. He's now doing nine shows a week as Elvis at the Stratosphere Hotel and Casino.
There are Elvis impersonators working up and down the Vegas Strip. Trent Carlini headlines his own show entitled "The Dream King of Rock and Roll." American Superstars and Legends in Concert are perennial favorites among visitors.
And Chris Davidson, who founded the Elvis-A-Rama Museum, has hired four impersonators who represent different periods in the King's career to put on shows at the museum.
In Vegas, impersonators are paid fairly well. Davidson pays impersonators up to $1250 a week. Elsewhere, they can make up to $3500 a week. But the competition for those kinds of gigs, which offer steady work, is intense.
Davidson said he has wanna-be Elvises offering to work for free. Moore and John Stuart, who produces "Legends in Concert," both said they are constantly flooded with audition tapes from potential Elvises. Only the ones who look the part, sing the part, dance the part and are as magnetic on stage as the King himself ever get to the top.
Getting to Vegas was amazing, Lee said. Now that he's there, he has to keep honing and perfecting his moves and keep working on his voice.
"I'm still perfecting this," said Lee. "I know there are a lot of Elvises out there who are trying to get my job."
Sporadic, lucrative work for independents
Not everyone ends up in Vegas, however. Plenty, like Bruce, are roaming Elvis impersonators, performing wherever they can find work. Bruce lives in Los Angeles where he works with Look Alikes by Char (Char Masuda is a Dolly Parton impersonator herself), but has taken his live show around the globe. He's also done voice-over work for television and radio, appeared in music videos and appeared as Elvis on the soap opera "Days of Our Lives."
The pay for such appearances ranges tremendously. For a quick appearance at corporate functions, a big part of many impersonators' living, they can earn between $500 and $1000 to perform and pose for pictures. When the Elvises perform out of state they can usually charge more, Char said, up to $1500 for an appearance. And when they are called to perform overseas the best Elvises can charge between $4000 and $5000 a night.
The sporadic commercial work can bring in as much as $15,000 for a day's work.
The pay can be substantial, but the downside is that an independent Elvis like Bruce can't rely on a regular paycheck. And the gig, particularly for the few who can portray Elvis in his earlier days, can be fleeting. Once the looks start fading, so, too, do the bookings.
"This is a great job for now," Bruce said, "but I realize it can't last forever." 
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