Las Vegas Review-Journal: It’s the chicken-or-the-egg question, tribute artist division:
Does someone become a tribute artist because he’s already a fan of a celebrity? Or does a tribute artist become a fan only later, after the tribute artist’s physical resemblance to a celebrity prompted him to learn more about the artist for professional reasons?
It works both ways, of course. But while their respective resemblances to Elvis Presley kicked off the careers of Brandon Bennett and Justin Shandor, it’s their respect for Elvis that has become their reason for doing what they do.
1 comment:
It really interesting to see how people got into impersonations. Both of the guys said that people had told them that they looked like Elvis when they were young, but only one of the guys was a fan before. I completely agree that you have to know someone to be able to love them completely. These two men have really gotten to know Elvis on a more personal level than most people would have. It's really funny that Shandor says that the hardest part is staying in shape. Welcome to acting, good sir! So much of today's media is focused on image and not just talent, though being able to sing and dance the part is important too. I guess it is even more important that they keep Elvis's image because he was a real person. They could actually go for older Elvis and get a bit of a stomach when they get older. Now, THAT would be interesting to see: as they age, they age their Elvis impersonation too! That could work out really well for them. He had such a different style from when Elvis was young compared to when he was older.
On the note of impersonations, we should really get some Fred Astaire impersonators! That would take a lot of work too, though it would be great to see revivals of some of his movies. Ginger Rogers would be interesting to see too. They were both such talented people in all aspects of performance.
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