"I'm drivin' through Pennsylvania." "Through the night." "In the morning I get to Ohio." "I go to a diner to have breakfast and a cup of coffee." "No mole, regular clothing, I sit down at the counter, order scrambled eggs and toast, and a cup of coffee, with some home fries." "Waitress comes up to me and takes my order and she's starin' at me." "Goes back, gets the coffee, brings it out, and says," ""You're Robert De Niro, aren't you."" "I go, "No, I'm not Robert De Niro."" "She goes back, brings the order of eggs, toast, and home fries, she says," ""You can tell me." "You're Robert De Niro, aren't you."" ""Ma'am, I look like Robert De Niro," ""but I'm not Robert De Niro."" "She goes back, refills the coffee, she says," ""I know you're Robert De Niro."" "I stop eating, I stand up, I say," ""If I was Robert De Niro, would I be eating" ""in a scumbag joint like this?"" "You know what she says?" ""It's Robert De Niro!"" "Hey, Mattisen?" "Yeah?" "Will you come in here and help me, please?" "Sure." " Like this?" " Pull it out, yup." "And hook that right in there." "Ta da." "Ta da." "What we're doing tonight is a pre-convention webcast." "We invite all of the attendees, and anybody else in the world who wants to log in, and they can ask questions about Sunburst Convention, what the schedule's going to be like, who's going to be there, anything and everything" "they wanna ask about the convention." "Okay, guys, if you're joining me, make sure you have your headsets on or your microphone muted." "Jim Mority, I believe that is our new." "Frank Sinatra impersonator." "Jack Berrios is getting in the room," "Kiss is in the house, whoop whoop!" "My very first desire to be in entertainment was after I saw the Ringling Bros. Barnum  Bailey circus." "P.T. Barnum is probably my hero, he had a knack for taking almost next to nothing and making something big out of it." "I really liked his ballyhoo, his announcing this marvelous, spectacular, wonderful thing that's gonna happen, and people stop and listen, and go, "Really?"" "And they go and see it." "And that's some of the marketing stuff we do with Sunburst, is going, hey, we have 100 professional celebrity impersonators and lookalikes from all over the country and even Canada coming in, and you should come see it, it's going to be" "a lot of fun, and it is." "Is everybody having a groovy time, say; "Yeah baby!"" ""Yeah baby!"" "Absolutely, allow myself to introduce myself." "Austin Powers, International Man of Mystery, at your service, baby, yeah!" "Ladies and gentlemen, we are presenting the." "Sunburst Convention of celebrity impersonators and tribute artists, and we have a fantastic parade of stars for you, ladies and gentlemen," "Lady Gaga and Kenny Rogers, you'll never see this again, take a picture right here." "Hail to the Chief, President Barack Obama." "Here come Hef and Pamela Anderson, ladies and gentlemen..." "If they're really good, it's, you just think you're sittin' there watching that person." "It's amazing." "The makeup, the look, the hair, the movement, the voice, every little aspect of the character that you can get." "It started in the early 80s, when singing telegram companies and entertainment companies said, hey, we have celebrity lookalikes, or people who look like Elvis, or Marilyn Monroe, or maybe James Dean, and then it just kinda" "started growing from there." "You can hire an Angelina Jolie lookalike and a Johnny Depp lookalike, and they can walk into a conference, and people react to the lookalikes just as much as they do to the real people." "But, you can't get to the real people." "The business has really become more and more professional." "¶ Like a virgin, hey!" "¶ Touched for the very first time ¶" "To me, it's like a magician." "That's what I was gonna say, it's like magic." " Yeah." " It's like magic." "You know the magician is not cutting the woman in half, but you're very impressed as to how real it looks, and does something to people that I don't even know how to describe." " Oh yeah!" " Oh my god, all of you!" "My heart is skipping a beat!" "I can't function." "I've been doin' this with the convention now," "I think this is my fifth year." "The reason it was put together, basically, was to get celebrity impersonators, work, you know," "Greg started it, but it was kind of like an accident, he said he was talkin' about havin' a convention to a friend and the next thing he knew, she put it on the internet and said, Greg's havin' a convention next year," "and he was like... 4000 people had received an email with my phone number and my email address on it, and an announcement that we were gonna do a celebrity impersonators convention." "I went home, I came in the door, I shut the door," "I looked at Jackie, and said, guess what we're doing?" "And she said, what?" "And I said, we're hosting a celebrity impersonators convention." "I think probably the biggest misconception is that we're all crazy." "Is that we always do it for money." "That everybody's an Elvis." "Yeah, that's probably true." "That it's all made up of, you know, nuts and flakes, you know, like granola." "Most of us know we are entertainers." "Most of us know we are impersonators." "There is actually demand for it." "I never knew that the career of impersonator was ever existed." "It's theater people, it's performers, it's musicians, it's people, you know, it's your next door neighbor." "I mean, literally, it's your next door neighbor." "People will automatically assume that you have similar personality traits, or, you know, that, you know, you've got the same habits as that person whether they do something good or bad." "They think that we all belong in some rubber room somewhere, 'cause obviously we must be crazy." "It's a job that, I've become very good at it, but I don't get my lines crossed," "I don't think that I'm Tiger Woods." "All I gotta do is walk out to my car and I know I'm not Jay Leno, that's for sure." "We are trying to portray an image and do justice to the celebrities that we are impersonating." "The secret to the whole impersonation business, really, is, we like to make people smile." "People think I just fly out to San Francisco, or get on the Midway, we were on the aircraft carrier, the Midway aircraft carrier, for Kentucky Fried Chicken, fireworks are going off, and that's what" "people see on Facebook." "Like, oh, Patsy was on the Midway." "And they don't know that for two weeks ahead of time" "I am not able to eat." "Up until now, we go to convention, and I thought I was a weirdo." "Now, damn, I see so many weirdos, I feel normal." "Hello, is this room service?" "Yeah, can you send up a fried peanut butter and banana sandwich?" "Thank you, thank you very much." "This is my hair and my sideburns, so I look like this all the time." "And it's great, because, I take people who've never been with me before, and we'll be driving in our car, and we'll have people hangin' out of their windows with cameras." "As a performer back east, there's only a few places that you wanna ultimately end up." "Either you want to be in Hollywood as an actor, and if you do what I do, Vegas was the place." "Everybody said so, and everybody kept telling me, you need to be in Vegas." "So I came here, and I really am excited," "I joke, you look in anybody's attic in this town, you're gonna find an Elvii." "There's hundreds of them here." "The toughest part, with doing Elvis, is not the hair and the makeup and the costumes, because you can wear white pajamas with studs on 'em and put sod on your head and people are gonna say" "it looks like Elvis." "It's the charisma that he had." "Elvis has always been something that has been very, ah, very easy for me." "I started when I was 12 years old," "I was actually in a band, a Sha Na Na type band, a 50's band, even when I sang in, I was worship leader in church, and I remember people sayin', you know," "don't sing like Elvis when you're leading praise and worship." "And I said, well, Elvis did, and that's the way I sound, so what am I gonna do?" "I remember seeing him in 1977, and he looked, it was actually a week before he died." "And his belt was facing down, but I remember, if he told 35,000 people to stand on their heads and spin, they'd have done it." "He had that control of an audience, and he never lost his voice." "His voice was always there." "It's exciting to be here in Vegas." "There's a couple things that I want," "I mean, obviously, I would like to have a show." "Specifically, I want my picture on a billboard up near the Strip, or on the Strip, and I wanna have a hit show in a major hotel." "Nothing, nothing really lofty, or big." "One of the bodyguards of Elvis, when he had 'em in Vegas, told my assistant, he says, it's really strange being next to Charlie, 'cause he's got the essence of Elvis in him." "And that was kinda spooky." "Not at the right floor, but thank you." "Welcome." "This a surprise, you don't see this every day, huh?" "No." "And I think one of the funny reactions, too, is when you're not in character, and people go crazy, I'll walk into a department store, or walk into a Home Depot, in regular clothes," "and they'll get on the P.A. system and say," "Elvis is in the building." "And I say, can't I just buy some lumber?" "There's a statistic somewhere in the world that says that you have approximately two dozen to 36 doppelgangers in the world, people that look just like you." "So, you know, in Russia right now, there's somebody that looks Bill Clinton, too." "But he ain't doin' an act." "You know, bein' that we're both believers, you realize, we're gonna look like this for all eternity." "Yeah, thanks for reminding me." "He gets a big kick outta that." "The idea first came up in 2006, the day that we went to Universal Studios, the second day that we went to Universal Studios, or was that, was that...?" "That was during the convention." "Yeah, that's what I'm sayin'." "And we were walkin' towards each other with blue ties, blue shirts..." "And it felt like Blues Brothers." " Right, exactly." " Yeah, we had our jackets..." "Strung over our shoulders." "And then one of us popped out," "Bill and George's Excellent Adventure, then we stopped and looked at each other and went..." "That's it." "So, here we go." "And..." "Always start to the right." "'Cause left is wrong." "I am volunteering as Secret Service for the presidents, Bill Clinton and George Bush." "And I'm a student at Seminole State." "Can I have everyone's attention please!" "Trying to make an announcement," "I don't want you guys to like, worry, we're just kind of securing the presidents right now, and so, they'll be here shortly to kind of give you the most awesomest show ever." "It's great to be here at Seminole State Community College, because I live here in Orlando, so it's like, like the home team." "And I don't, so, it's like the away team." "You guys rock." "Not to be confused with, I rock." "It's really a blast playing to the college market, because college students are impressionable." "They're interested in learning, they're there to learn." "To have the privilege of influencing someone else toward good is a high honor." "When I first got into this I thought it would be just entertainment, and now to have the opportunity to add value to someone else's life that will benefit them, hopefully, or possibly, for the rest of their life, is just astonishing." "So, how many senators are there in the United States?" "100!" "Yes indeed, and how many is half of that?" "50!" "True or false." "Every state has three senators." "A significant number of students have come up and asked us, are you professors at this school?" "So they're actually approaching this as a learning experience, and we've had a couple of fascinating discussions about the Constitution, which is what this show is about." "There's a verse in Proverbs that says, iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another." "We believe that." "We've been put together to benefit others, and to be of benefit to one another." "Yeah, to sharpen each other." "As much as I enjoy the impersonation," "I'm looking for the opportunity to be real." "There's a part of me that wants to, now kind of launching into this new phase of my career, where I am a motivator who impersonates George Bush, rather than a George Bush impersonator who sings and that's all there is." "It's really exciting to be able to have comedy, music, motivation." "Thank you, and thank you." "Yes we can, yes we can." "The reason I am here today is because this state does not need to be red." "There are more of us than there are of them." "And if we stand together, we will move this country forward." "Although I am a person of multi-ethnicities, our president is a black and white individual," "and I have to make my appearance match his a little bit more closely." "I think my sister's okay with it now," "I kept that hidden from my sister and from my mother for the longest time, because I know that their political leanings are a lot more conservative than mine." "My mother was very surprised, but she thought it was pretty cool, she was happy for me, and my sister, well, she had to, it took her a little bit more to get used to it." "Oh, here comes the difficult part, putting in the gray hair." "Judy!" "Can you help me put on my gray hair, please?" "I'm making a mess and spilling everywhere." "Yeah, yeah, it's going everywhere." "I know it's hitting the scalp now." "I think we've painted my scalp silver." "I think we did." "Today is early election, and I'm here to support our local candidates and support our president, get people to come out and vote." "Obviously I am a presidential impersonator, and I have decided to use that for good, for the good of the community, for the good of the nation." "Mostly I get cheers, sometimes I get jeers." "Oh, you're wearing the shirt of my opponent." "Don't even, don't even." "Save it." "Every so often you get some that just go a little over the top, I had one at that same, very same appearance, that came up to me and said, said, Obama, I want a picture with you, but I'll tell you," "I hate you, and if I had a gun I'd shoot you right now." "And I was glad that I had a fake Secret Service person with me who was actually a security guard, who got in this guy's face and got him to back off, because we weren't sure if he actually did have a gun" "and was gonna go pull it." "And I'm figuring, I'm not the actual president, you don't have to really hate me if you hate Obama." "My candidate of choice is Barack Obama." "I just cast my ballot, cast my vote for myself." "I feel good about things, all I have to say is, four more years." "Since I became an impersonator, I began having aspirations to get into politics," "I've started getting more involved in the local democratic club, doing things for the club." "Then I started looking into seeing, how can I become, how can I get into politics." "It's good to see you." "Sean, one of the first things I think that you need to do is you gotta buy a pickup truck and get rid of the motorcycle, because you're not gonna be able to carry around too many yard signs" "on the back of that bike." "No, I'm not going to get rid of my Harley, the Harley stays, I don't see myself getting a pickup truck instead." "I think, Sean, if, you know, you rely on somebody else's image, you're gonna be stuck with some of their baggage." "Be your own man, but you're gonna run your own game." "You don't need to rely on ridin' on somebody else's coattails." "How would it feel to see my name on those cards, on those yard signs someday?" "I would like to see that, I think that would be a really, really cool thing, to drive around my neighborhood and see my name plastered on everybody's lawn, plastered all across the front of the polling place, I'm looking forward to that." "I honestly would not have taken this job if I felt, or knew, that there was not a dressing area." "'Cause that just doesn't work for me," "I know from experience." "Okay, so you're gonna get back to me?" "'Cause I gotta figure out how to handle this." "Bye." "They better figure somethin' out." "Oh, oh, my god, Barry." "How can you put on an event with that many acts and not have a dressing room?" "I'm pretty sure they're gonna come up with somethin', they have to, three costumes and no place to change?" "Three Madonna costumes, yeah." "I mean, wow, that's crazy." "I am here tonight at the fabulous Brooklyn Bowl, in Brooklyn, New York, and I'll be performing with 26 other acts at the annual Madonnathon here in New York City, and we're looking forward to having over 2,000 Madonna fans crowd in here tonight," "they have a huge appreciation for Madonna tribute artists, because we reenact special times in her career that will never be done again." "It's gonna get crazy." "Crazy, crazy." "In a good way." "And this is just doin' some research, 'cause, you know," "I gotta research my character." "She's got a star on the cooter." " She does!" " Oh!" "There she does." "So, I actually had that incorporated into my costume." "Oh, good, I got a makeup mirror, okay, this is, this is the proper way to get ready for a show, definitely." "Kathy did right by us." "I'm so happy!" "I've done wakes, I've done funerals," "I've done weddings, I've had a few Playboy Magazine offers," "I got a guy, he's been writing me for three years now, desperate to reenact the "Justify My Love" video." "He wants me to reenact the video with him and some friends, he offered me $200,000, and I just said to him, that's not what tributes do." "Awhile back I was watching a Madonna program where she got up and thanked her staff of 600 for helping her put her show together, all of a sudden I felt real small, I thought, wow, she's got 600 people, and I just have" "myself, and if I'm lucky, my husband." "I organize everything in these folders, each folder represents a show, here we are with Madonnathon." "I make my set list, more costumes, more lists." "Makeup, knit cap, camera, camera charger, phone, phone with extra batteries, baseball cap," "Kleenex, and a brush, that's just my purse." "And the next stop is gonna be the Sunburst Convention in Orlando, Florida." "One of the things that's so brilliant about Sunburst is that Sunburst makes arrangements for all of us to get professional video and photography done." "I'm so busy traveling during the year," "I don't have time to be runnin' off to different studios," "I like to get it all done, knock it out all at once." "So I bring a closet load, I bring a trunk load of my costumes to Sunburst, because I wanna take advantage of these opportunities." "But coming up next, the one you've all been waiting for, because she'll blow your mind with just her look." "Chris America." "¶ Madonna" "¶ Y-O-U" "¶ You wanna." "¶ I see you comin' and I don't wanna know your name." "¶ L-U-V Madonna." "I wanna give them the Madonna experience, basically, where they feel like it was up-close and personal, kinda intimate, and just let them enjoy the illusion of being able to see her close." "They get a kick out of it." "I think I did get a reaction from this," "I was real pleased, so, I'm good." "This is the first time I've worn this outfit," "I wanted to debut it at Madonnathon." "And then of course, maybe like at Sunburst," "I'll do this look." "Chris America, everybody!" "One thing we're doing this year that we've not done in the past is, after the showcases, we invite the talent buyers and the talent agents to come over and come into the promo room and pick up a promo." "We're doing more than just agents and buyers, we're inviting the general public to come in there, too." "The Sunburst Convention is a four day event, where we invite celebrity impersonators from all over the country, so during the day, it's all about business, with seminars, and showcases, but at night, we have a lot of fun." "Every year, I am always worried, are people going to come?" "'Cause it's quite a risk to put on the convention and then as we get closer, I find out, yes, more and more people are coming, and then as we get really close to the convention," "I start going, oh my god, look how many people are coming." "I got started when, out of the blue, people started coming up to me and telling me, you look like Stevie Nicks." "So I walked through the door and she's like, oh my god, you look like Bret Michaels, I'm like, okay..." "When I first realized I looked like Robin in 1978," "I went to a McDonalds and ordered a cheeseburger, drove up the window and told the girl, oh, sorry, I dropped my change, and she went, "Aahh!"" "Well, I went to a restaurant, and the guy came over and he said, you look like Sean Connery." "So she's like, I got a wig." "I'm like, I don't wanna wear a wig." "So she brought out this wig, and finally got me to wear it, and it looked like somethin' from Dumb and Dumber, it was just a really, really bad wig." "It's Mowk, it's mowk!" "And there was a contest, and I walked in, immediately everyone knew who I was..." "And then, all of a sudden, an agent came up to my table, and he said, I can make you a lotta money." "And she's like, ah, you gotta put the eyeliner on, he looks just like..." "I'm like, now you're gonna have me wear makeup, are you kidding?" "Said, wait a minute, you ain't Mowk!" "But you look just like Mowk!" "Said, what do you want me to do?" "He said, I want you to beat up some guy and throw him in Donald Trump's swimming pool as James Bond." "I said, wow." "I could do that." "Let's go!" "So we drove over to Milwaukee in my wife's PT Cruiser, and I mean, people down the interstate going, yeah, Rock of Love!" "And I just grabbed the microphone and I just said," "¶ Just like the white winged dove." "¶ Sings a song, sounds like she's singin' ¶" "And they went, there's our winner." "And I was like, Mork?" "Who's that, man?" "And she was like, the TV show!" "I'd never seen it." "We get in the parking lot and it was like," ""Hey Bret, get outta the car!"" "People screaming' and everything, and one guy yells, who woulda thought Bret would be drivin' a PT Cruiser, you know?" "And there we were, beating up people and throwing 'em in the pool, and I've worked ever since." "Walk one, two, three, hold four, five..." "Out, in, five, six, seven, eight, don't be, we're gonna walk, two, three, four, five, on six you come here." "Don't be a drag, just be a queen." "I've been doing Lady Gaga for about one year." "She's pretty new and in fact, two years ago," "I probably didn't even know who she was." "And now I'm a huge fan, I've come to know her," "I've followed her very closely, and what she does, and I've really come to appreciate her talent." "She is truly amazing." "I've always tried to incorporate backup dancers, and I think they add so much to a show." "My opinion is, a lookalike on stage without dancers is sort of glorified karaoke." "I think to make it really look like a show you need dancers." "A one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight." "One, two, with confidence!" "Lady Gaga does involve a lot of dance numbers, a lot of big production value, and so, doing these kind of numbers for Sunburst is good rehearsal for us, it's good practice, we have a great crowd to perform for," "so I love it, it's great." "There are a lot of what we call" ""party store lookalikes."" "You can go to a party store and buy Lady Gaga in a bag, you know, with a little costume and sunglasses and a wig, and they're very cute, and they're great at Halloween," "but to really perform as that character, you've gotta take it to as high a level and high a quality as you can." "And to be as authentic as you can, not just the look, but also the voice, the walk, the talk, and the music, and the dance." "I study as much as I can about her," "I go to all the fan sites, I try to keep up with the latest news, all the new outfits that she's wearing, every day Lady Gaga has a new outfit." "I don't know where she keeps all of them, because they change every day." "So, there's no way someone like me could keep up with that, no way." "One of my favorite things that I just got were these boots, Lady Gaga, as you know, is famous for wearing, now, the heel-less boot, and they look difficult to walk in, but if you keep your weight forward," "they're really not bad at all, and they make me 10 inches taller." "This is going to be a costume, a duplicate as close as I can do, to something that Lady Gaga wore in 2009 for the Music Awards." "This is the corset, and the blazing bra." "My goal is to bring a surprise every year to Sunburst, and something people don't expect." "This performance really inspired me a lot, and I wanted to recreate that as closely as I could." "But that was from 2009, that's the first time" "I saw the bra, and said, oh my gosh, that is something" "I would love to have, and that's when my husband said, okay, let's make one." "This is loaded." "The only thing I didn't do that I should've done is check the battery, but that takes just a couple seconds to fix, so..." "Are you ready there, girly-girl?" "I think so." "Today we are going to test out the blazing bra in the backyard, with lots of room and lots of space, just to be sure that everything's working like we think it will." "So when you do your thing, shoulders back, make sure your hair, you know, like you're finishing up or whatever, don't..." "So you gonna wanna be out like that, like the Fembots." "I'm still a little nervous, 'cause it's still very close to my face, and to my synthetic hair," "which is very flammable." "We got two different loads in here, this is the big load, and then this one is with an insert in it, does basically the same thing, so we're gonna check out and see how the time works on it," "and the timing, remember you got your trigger over here, be careful of that." "And this is completely safe?" "It's completely safe, just stay, you know, where the wind is goin' that way, so you want, and of course you're gonna be out like this, you don't wanna be, you know." "Not too exaggerated, that's fine." "Let me know when you're ready." "Song ends, one, two, three, go." "You can move around, it's okay." " I can move around?" " Act normal." "I'm perfectly normal." "My dogs are very excited about it." "Is this proud?" "That's good, I like it." "Smokin'." "Oh my goodness, that is just exactly what I wanted." "That is exactly what I wanted, yes." "There are a few things that we do wanna keep working on, we don't quite have the timing down where we would like it to be." "I'm just so happy that Wally was able to make it work, and do it so beautifully, and I can't wait to show this at Sunburst, it's gonna be awesome." "This new career has really placed me with many extremely attractive young ladies." "As you can see on the computer here, these are the Barton twins, and I worked with them down in." "Fort Lauderdale just recently." "All of these ladies I'm friends with on Facebook at the present time, and it's fun, it's cool, I appreciate it." "My personality is one that is desirous of" "just doing crazy, interesting, wild things." "High School principal for 25 years, collegiate football official for 21 years, and every four or five years I attempt to find different types of avenues that are exciting and interesting." "One hundred ton Masters boat captain." "Motorcycle enthusiast." "A certified race car driver." "I have a new endeavor being a Hugh Hefner personality and my wife has extremely mixed emotions about participating in a Hugh Hefner type of situation, so she is not as supportive, but she allows it," "because after 49 years, she still cracks a whip." "You'd better take this vicious attack dog before she hurts someone." "Bye-bye." "My mother is still alive, she is 94 years old, but she does not know that I am doing the impersonation of Hugh Hefner." "The major reason is that Hugh Hefner, in her words, is just a dirty old man." "This particular gig is approximately 8,000 people, they'll also have a couple of girls, I do believe, that will hang with me for a little while, but usually the girls don't keep up with me," "so I'll probably go solo for a time, but everybody always asks me, where are your girls?" "So I try to have the girls there, but if they're not, they're fine, because there are plenty of bunnies in the audience, and they all love to be bunnies." "I've always been a nighttime party animal." "The hours don't phase me, all I need is three hours of sleep, so when I go and do a gig," "I'm there until the place closes down, four, five in the morning, bring it on." "When the girls come up and start talkin' to me," "I try to evade the question, I don't say that I am," "I don't say that I'm not." "With the girls, I just grab 'em and get in their ear, my statement to them is, you can only imagine." "And then I walk away, and they go, oh my god, it is him!" "Invariably I run into individuals that challenge me as Hugh Hefner, that I'm not Hugh Hefner." "I noticed this one man coming toward us, and he just said, flat out, you are a fake." "And my response to him is, you believe what you wanna believe, all I know is, I'm having a good time," "I hope you have a good time, and before I could go any further he also indicated, and I know you're all shriveled up, and you don't have a big dick." "Before I could react in any way, the girl that I was with," "Nicole, stepped right between us, went right in his face, and she said, I'll have you know, he does have a big dick," "and I love it." "I sent him a letter, and I received a letter back, from Hugh Hefner, which said," ""Dear George, thanks for your letter and the photos." ""A nice likeness." "All best, Hef."" "I thought that was nice of him to respond, because he's gotta be receiving thousands of letters." "This point in time, I'm still waiting for an invitation to the mansion." "We are in Tampa, Tampa, Florida, we're here to go to the Kiss concert, it's the Kiss-Motley Crue concert, it's called The Tour, and we're here to rock and roll all night." "My son and I got started with Kiss back when Kiss announced their farewell tour, on a wrestling show, he showed a lotta interest on who they were, what they were, why they wore makeup, and since I was a Kiss fan since 1975," "I had a buncha memorabilia, and I showed him all the stuff that I had, he showed a lotta interest," "I bought tickets to the concert that was in Orlando," "I dressed him up like Gene Simmons, and he went and actually, he was very terrified to get outta the car, as soon as he got out, all the people just came flyin' over, and" "started takin' pictures with him, and he loved it." "He was hooked." "My friends are very supportive when they see me fully dressed up." "They're a little weirded out at the fact how I wear more makeup than their moms and sisters, and I wear, I'm a guy who wears tights and big seven-inch heels." "This year we're bringing Kiss to Sunburst, 'cause we've been Kiss fans for awhile, and for awhile we've been talking about starting a little." "Kiss tribute, everybody knows who Kiss is, and it's just a different show, and we like to offer a variety, and I think that's our big thing for Sunburst." "I don't know what the attraction is to a man in makeup and high heels, but there's an attraction there, especially Gene Simmons, the women, I am not a ladies' man, by nature, I'm not used to women chasing me down" "and attacking me, but doing Gene, they just come flyin' over, and they hug me and jump on me, and they wanna take pictures with me, and they offer a lot of services to me." "I've done shows as Gene, been there for two hours, taken pictures, talked to girls, and they're all over me," "I go back, I take all the makeup off and I go right back out, see the same exact woman, and they don't even look at me, they don't even say hi." "So, it's a trip." "This is my favorite piece, because it makes me very manly." "I don't think there's a lot of fathers and sons that perform and put on shows, it's brought us a lot closer together, excuse me." "And it's a lot of fun." "He's gonna get in the front seat," "Talon and I'll get in the back, you guys go in that one." "It's crazy, right?" "We haven't even gotten there yet." "This the trick on gettin' my tongue red." "Sugar free lifesavers." "Great for a diabetic." "Just like that." "The crowd is crazy, they're so much fun." "I love every one of 'em." "They're a trip." "And some people actually think I'm Gene, they're tellin' me about a particular tour they went to, and that I met them back in Pennsylvania, and the kids..." "It's crazy." "Oh my god, all of you." "It's a good crowd." "It's gonna be a fun night." "It's gonna be great, yeah!" "I love it, I love the attention I get when I'm being Sarah." "Elvis has the most loving and endearing fans, you know, comin' up and hugging him, and it was awesome..." "I take Jay, we went to the concert, Tim McGraw, of course, the opening band's playing, we're just wantin' to sit in our seats and watch the band..." "I got all the crazy rock and rollers," ""Ozzy!" And it's just chaos." "Unlike other impersonators that are singers," "I get told to go to hell." "It started with one person wanting' a picture, then two, then 10, then 20, I had people..." "I had this lady goin', who's that?" "Who is that?" "Even if that person doesn't particularly like that entertainer, they wouldn't be vulgar." "Like, man, this Elvis guy, he's like, you know, he's gettin' laid all the time." "This one lady just came up and said," "I want to throw up on you." "And I just said, have a heart, lady, I'm a lookalike." "One lady, "You look nothing like Tim," ""I can't believe you're doin' that."" "What does she say to me?" ""Can I have a picture with ya?"" "For me, I mean, Ozzy's faithful to his wife, you know, I mean, I ain't gettin' any, you know," "I'd actually, I'd have to break character, just to get laid, you know, but I tend to stay in character, so I mean, it's been a long, lonely road for me, I'll tell you that." "¶ Well I'm a." "¶ A Laura lover." "¶ That lovely lady stays on my mind." "¶ Stays on his mind." "¶ Stays on his mind." "¶ Stays." "Oh yeah." "¶ Well I'm a Laura lover." "¶ That lovely lady stays on my mind ¶" "That was the president, doing the King." "¶ Well I'm so glad I got her love for my own now." "¶ Sweet child." "¶ There won't be no child left behind." "¶ Seems how lately babe." "¶ Got a bad case of red, white and." "¶ Blue." "¶ Whoa, yeah." "Bro, I'm gonna have to take off, but I gotta," "I wanna ask you somethin' real quick." "Okay." "I've got this big John Maxwell thing comin' up..." "Well yeah, and you know how we were talkin' about how" "I wanted to kinda add motivation, try to be adding some seriousness to the comedy to make it bigger and maybe more valuable." "You think that this'd be a good time to do it?" "I can't, I'm surprised you haven't done it already." "Why would you be reluctant to do that?" "It's right up your alley." "I know, but, Bro, it's, I feel like I'm on a diving board and I'm afraid to jump, because, you know, it's like gravity, you can't reverse it," "you know, you're always, once you're off the board, you can't go back, if it doesn't work, and it, you know, messes up my reputation, then where are you?" "Well, trust that it's the right move." "You know, taken from the peanut gallery here." "It's the obvious place for you to be." "One time I was in the airport, and I was getting ready to board, and this thought, clear as day, came to me, sing to everyone." "Right, and it was just a powerful, almost a command." "And so I looked over to my left, and I saw the captain." ""Hey Captain," and he said, what, and I was in character," "I travel in my suit, as you know," "I said, "Hey Captain," I said," ""I'm proud to be an American."" "And then I turned around to the rest of the line and went, "Well, at least I know I'm free."" "And I wound up singing to 300 people, getting ready to board that plane." "It's just one of those things that I try to do, because I'm so convinced that if I can add value to people, it's worth it, it's worth it, to lift their day." "And it changed the whole dynamic of everybody in that line, getting ready to get on that plane." "And it's just so cool." "So, you know, I just wanna do more of that, and make a difference for folks." "And here we are." "Wonderful Las Vegas, Nevada." "It's just amazing, 'cause I get to see all the signs, see what's goin' on, and it really is, I just," "I love this atmosphere of, just, performers, and you see the names that are here, and the people that come to town to do these shows, and they're like the biggest entertainers in the world." "Well, my thought is to see my picture on one of these, one of these signs right up there, and it doesn't matter which one it is." "I'm not picky." "Any one of these gigantic, huge, LED signs would be perfect." "I have no more than three seconds in between my songs, and so, when I do an hour long show," "I'll have 35 songs that I'll do, so in a two hour show," "I'm gonna be doing 50-some songs, and they get their money's worth, but at the end of that night, I mean, at the end of an hour show," "I am totally wiped." "It seems that after four months of doing the show at the Kings Room at the Rio, we moved into the Crown Theater, and that's the big theater, the main showroom, and came out on my second" "night of the show, and lost my voice completely." "I literally walked out on stage and could not sing." "And that's something that's never happened to me in 30 years of performing." "During the show, I lost it completely," "I literally had to whisper the rest of the show." "I immediately contacted the doctor, that night, actually, and they put me on some antibiotics, and then put me on some steroids to try to help with the inflammation, and it's something that" "I'm not alone in, because it's something that's referred to as "Vegas Throat," and it's happened to a lot of different singers, in fact," "I was just looking here online, I'm trying to find some vocal doctors here in town, and I'm reading about." "Celine Dion, had to cancel more shows, and they're tellin' her not to come back for six to eight weeks, because she's got a virus causing inflammation of her vocal chords, and, really don't know right now" "what I'm gonna do, I have some, I definitely got a problem," "I can't sing any of my high end, and it's, it's got me very concerned, because it could be the end of my career if I can't sing anymore, and I'm not sure what the future of the show" "is going to be, either." "So, we'll have to get with the doctor and see what happens." "How are you doing, sir?" "All right, doing great, doing great." "I'm not who you think I am." "And the reason I'm out here is because" "I'm running for office, I'm actually running for city commission." "Well, I'm here at this local neighborhood, because I need to get 150 signatures on petitions in order to get my name on the ballot to be elected in November." "I figured I'd come as the Obama impersonator image, 'cause I figured that it would give people a chance, it would allow people to feel, maybe more at ease." "I'd like to know if I can count on you for your signature on a petition." "I'm not sure, see." "You sound like Obama, you talk like Obama..." " And I approve this message." " You did." "Give me a few, can you come back maybe tomorrow?" "I'd be happy to, but as you know, Air Force One is all fired up and ready to go." "Oh, okay, I understand." "You gotta go pay for the gas." "I need some gas money too, so." "So, are you gonna be an impersonator when you become a politician?" "Actually not, Nick, I have to be myself," "I have to be Sean Banks as a politician, just the regular, ordinary, normal person." "Well, I've been a republican, my family's grown me that way, I guess, so, I don't know, I don't think you have my support right yet." "But it is a non-partisan race, it doesn't matter that I'm a democrat or republican." "But it's because I look like the president." "Yeah, you do, a little bit." "Well, I don't think it's going well right now." "I only got a few signatures, and this just isn't working out, what I feel as though is that going as the Obama impersonator, people are more interested in the Obama impersonator image, and not me as a candidate." "So I don't think I'm really being taken seriously, so I think I'm gonna have to take a different approach." "So, what'd you say your name was?" "Thomas." "All right, Thomas, great to meet you." "I'm Sean Banks, I'm one of your neighbors from a couple blocks down..." "And if you wanna know what I stand for," "I stand for the working families, the working class people, like yourselves..." "As you are one of us, you know, you're not the rich, high and mighty in some mansion, you know, neither am I." "I'm your neighbor just down the way." "So, you know, we're kinda all in this together." "Great, well, good luck, I hope you do, and..." "Well, I appreciate that, thank you." "I appreciate it." " Good luck." " Thank you." "Thank you so much, thank you for your support," "I appreciate it." "What I've found is that the people of the neighborhood are more receptive to me walking up as a neighbor, rather than as a celebrity impersonator." "But I think I made a lot more of a connection with the people this evening as myself." "Well, lemme see now, this guy came from, actually," "Playboy Enterprises, put that out." "This is from Ruby's, Ruby's puts a lot of Hugh Hefner smoking jackets outfits, and of course, I cannot forget my special, my very first one from J.C. Penney, and it is great, I love it." "This is good, I'm lookin' forward to this." "Sunburst Convention this year, this is the first time" "I'll be going, I understand that there's plenty of opportunities presenting themselves at the convention for jobs and that's one of the reasons, but major reason is just to go to see what these people are all about." "Everybody go ahead and have a seat please." "Show Start." "Check one two, check one two." "That's better." "Thank you." "Anyway, if I haven't met you personally yet, my name is Greg Thompson, producer of the convention, and welcome to the Sunburst Convention!" "This year we have a record number of talent buyers coming to the Sunburst Convention." "Have plenty of business cards on your person to give out to anybody and everybody." "It's good to see all of our friends from years past, and can't wait to become friends with all of the new people that are coming here." "This lady came up to me, and she says," ""Mr. Rogers, can I have your autograph?"" "Was a local karaoke host doing this last year at Halloween, we had some folks from England that were in..." "And the lady kept saying," ""Oh my god, it's Oprah, it's Oprah!"" "I had a nosebleed ticket, you know, but when Ozzy was comin' on, I went down to the wings." "They came up, sang a song, and the guy wanted a picture with me, no, that's really him, that's really him." ""Okay, ma'am," I said, "I'm actually an." ""Oprah tribute artist."" "I'd give you an autograph, but I'm not really Mr. Rogers." "And then everybody thought I was Ozzy, and then there was some women that actually ran up and wanted me to sign their boobs!" ""Hey, Dr. Phil, how are ya, I love your show!"" "At some point this handsome man approaches and says, "Oh, Miss M, you know," ""I must tell you, I'm a big fan of yours."" "I had to pull out my driver's license and she said, "No, I know you people have fake IDs."" "Well, they went back to their table, had their laptop with 'em, Googled Billy Mays, and then found out he had died a year earlier." ""I have all your records, I've seen all your movies," ""and please, might I have an autograph."" "And she says, if you don't want to sign it, just say so, you don't need to lie to me." "No, really, I'm not, I'm the store manager here, he goes, "Oh, Dr. Phil, you're such a jokester."" "When I was on America's Got Talent, I told Sharon," "I'm sorry, you know, I forged Ozzy's name on the boobs, you know, but what're they gonna do, submit the boobs into evidence?" "I said, wait a minute." "Let me ask you a question." "What would Kenny be doing in K-Mart?" "He says, "Oh, by the way, I must tell you" ""that I'm a New York City detective."" "I'm thinking, you're a detective?" "Can't you detect I'm not Bette Midler?" "You know, detect!" "Detect!" "What the hell?" "I mean, look at us, we are living proof that anybody can grow up to be president." "But you know, it's amazing how a nation with so many differences can still make a difference once we lose our indifference." "Hey, Bill, don't we have a song about differences?" "Yes we do." "Yeah, yeah, let's sing it." "Soon as I get my pick outta my pick pocket." "He's been takin' lessons." "¶ You say Saddam-a." "¶ I say Sadda-ma." "¶ You say Osam-a." "¶ I say Osa-ma." "¶ Saddam-a, Sadda-ma." "¶ I'm 'fraid of his mama." "¶ Let's call the whole thing off ¶" "Tonight we're getting ready for rehearsal for the Sunburst Convention, and this is our last rehearsal prior to, so we have a lot to do tonight." "Okay everyone, I just wanted to let you know that tonight we're going to be working on "Born This Way"" "with a few adjustments, because they have told us that we cannot add special effects to the show, nobody's allowed to, so we had to cut the bra." "No!" "I know, I know, we'll get to use it later." "But for this particular event, we're going to cut that, so we have to adjust some of the choreography." "I'm a little nervous because we were told a couple of days ago that the hotel does not allow special effects, and that includes the blazing bra that I was planning to use." "So tonight we're gonna have to rechoreograph that in a few spots, change it around, and teach it to everyone, and hopefully everybody can remember it and store that in their bodies and their minds well enough to" "have it down pat for the show." "I'm so excited, I look forward to working with all of you on Friday and Saturday, I think it's going be fantastic." "Thank you so much!" "Go Vixens!" "Second day of Sunburst Convention, everything's goin' great, seminars today, people learned a lot of stuff." "In the case of the person is still alive, we are in the gray area between your First Amendment rights to be an entertainer and earn a living, bumping up against their rights of publicity." "Tomorrow I'm a little worried in a good way, because I said that if we more than sell out tomorrow, and if people have, we've got people waiting to get in but we don't have anymore room, that would be" "a good problem to have." "I think that's gonna happen." "I think that's gonna happen tomorrow." "Hey, so did you already check in?" " Yeah, I checked in." " Okay." "Hello?" "Okay, well let me, I'll tell you what, let me call you back in a little bit, okay?" "Traveling with this much luggage, at times, is very cumbersome, it's very exhausting and tiring." "It is sort of a masochistic job, but someone's gotta do it, and I guess that was me." "So, I brought several costumes with me to the convention this time because I wanted to get some photographs with Michael Cairns." "Michael Cairns is an excellent photographer and I'm always comfortable working with him." "He's able to find certain poses that can reflect the character that we're trying to do." "So, you can like, play with the necklace." "When you're trying to capture a character, you'll take maybe 20, 30, 40 pictures, somewhere in there you'll capture the one shot that really gets that character's personality." "Do you think that's good?" "I love that." "Oh, yeah, that's good, okay." "Okay, that looks, I think that looks really good." "When I come to Sunburst, what I really look forward to is," "I enjoy showcasing, I enjoy meeting the agents and the buyers, of course, but I really enjoy meeting up with my colleagues." "'Cause I'm friends with so many of them, and we just have a really good time together, and, for the first time, I could, like, sit and watch them perform in a showcase," "and wow, they're like the real deal!" "The nice thing is, we get together and we really have an understanding about what our profession is like, and what we're about." "It's not an easy profession to explain to the average person." "Dealing with Madonna's fame, it's kind of changed over the years." "When she reached the height of her fame, which, to me, was really going into the Blonde Ambition era, which is the early 90s, it was just a frenzy, and people were just out of control, but it's not" "the frenzy, crazy response that it was 15, 20 years ago." "Lady Gaga's got that now, so, I think Madonna's kinda passed that torch on to her." "I lost a nail." "Gotta get a nail, hold on." "My showcase is today, and I'm excited, and I'm nervous, but I feel really good about it, because we've rehearsed it a lot." "I think we're gonna pull it off as best as we possibly can, and I'm really hoping the audience will like it." "Betty Atchison as Lady Gaga and the Vixen Dancers." "Put your paws up." "'Cause you were born this way." "¶ My mama told me when I was young." "¶ We are all born superstars." "The showcase was awesome." "It went so well." "Better than we ever hoped it could." "Dancers were spot on." "I felt really good, there was a lot of great energy when we performed, so I feel like we really did a good job, and I'm so happy, I'm just beyond happy." "I hope it looked good!" "Got a good response from the audience, too, so that's a good sign." "After this there will be some awards given out at the Sunburst Convention, and they give awards for different things, and one that I'm really hoping to get is for Best Showcase, because I feel like so much work" "went into this, not just on my own part, but with Wally putting the props together, the dancers working so hard, it was such a team effort, it would just be so great to win that, just because" "it would recognize all the work everyone put into that." "So, fingers are crossed." "So this morning, President Obama and Dr. Phil," "Martha Stewart and I, we went golfing, and there was a group of four men in front of us, they were moving very, very, very slowly, it was taking forever for them to play through." "We finally asked the groundskeeper, we said, what is taking those four men so long to play through?" "And he said, oh, it's a very sad story." "Those are firemen, and our clubhouse caught on fire last year, and they put out the fire, they saved our clubhouse, but in the process, they blinded themselves." "But we let them come and play golf, because they saved our clubhouse, and we have to treat them with care 'cause they're blind." "So President Obama said, oh, I'm gonna go write a letter," "I'm gonna name a day after them, such heroes." "And Dr. Phil said, I'll have them on my show if they need a little help, and I looked at the groundskeeper and I said, why the freak can't they play at night?" "People don't necessarily understand who Dame Edna is, or why this guy is dressed in a dress and a purple wig." "And one my friends have children, and they call me Uncle Scott, and, you know, sometimes it's hard for them, like, you know," "I don't want them, what do they think?" "What does my eight year old nephew, came to see me for the first time, and, you know, my brother was like, whoa, I wonder how he's gonna react, like, will he understand, will it, you know," "is my son gonna start dressing up as a woman, and, again, not that there's anything wrong with it, but for some people, it raises certain connotations or certain assumptions about orientation, or sexuality, or whatever." "The bling!" "Oh, and it's blowout sale." "I'll take it all." "You love blowouts." "I've actually done theater for 15 years." "And then I was at a Halloween party, and I went as Dame Edna, and everybody was like, oh my god, you're so good, you should do that, and so I started doing it, and the rest," "as they say, is history." "Can I see this one right here?" "I'm not a drag queen artist, I don't do drag," "I don't, it's not my thing, so, I'm not dressing up as other women, or looking like a woman." "It's weird for me to talk as me, I do do it after awhile, 'cause after hours of doing the Dame voice it gets a little tiring, but it's weird, you know," "I feel weird when I'm suddenly talking like Scott Mason and not Dame Edna, and I'm in a dress." "Role reversal." "Come on, honey." "Put it on me." "Ow, you don't have to put it tight around my neck!" "Perfect." "All right, just do it." "We have to stop." "We have to stop." "Okay, are you sure?" "Yes, don't tempt me!" "I'm at $126." "Last night I was doin' the get down to the dance floor thing and I am paying for it today." "Shoes are the most uncomfortable." "That's why you gotta appreciate women in high heels, 'cause, shoes suck." "I will not pierce my ears for this, and I did something for the first time this year that I've never done before, which is shave my legs." "If I could say, hey, can I be Dame Edna, the Dame Edna, as opposed to impersonating Barry Humphries doing Dame Edna that would be really sweet." "This is Whoopi." "To make sure I'm all right and you haven't murdered me." "Hello, darling." "Hello, sweetie." "My last gig, which was very exciting, exciting, not in a sexual way, but was an all male gay nudist camp." "Ooh!" "150 naked men sitting in the audience." "So, that was a lot of fun." "My first line was, this is the one show" "I don't want a standing ovation for." "You know, I haven't been doing this a long time, and you're the veteran, you're the expert, you're the man, and..." "How can I be the man when you clearly are the man?" "Well, I'm the man with the women." "You're the man with the guns and the mafia!" "You can go a long way with this." "And you don't have to be 25 to start out." "So ah, I like this color on you." "Very nice." "Yeah, I don't know whether to wear this tonight or put my maroon longer one on." "Whatever stands out on you, is better." "You know, you get a lot of attention paid, and you go to a place, and you're just trying to have a dinner, and people keep walking up and saying, you know, can I have your autograph, or," "Mr. Depp, we love your work, you know, and it's like, I'm just trying to eat, you know." "I walk out of the door and I have my tattoos on and I've done my lips, and I'm in the dress," "I walk out as Angelina..." "Sometimes, sometimes there's a crossover, and it doesn't usually, I'm not usually aware of it, but I teach college..." "When I get back in my car and I come home," "I walk through the door, and I'm Tatiana." "Often I will be talking in class or whatever and I'll do a little this, or I'll slip into her talk a little bit, and they immediately bust me on it." "Well, sometimes friends'll say things when we're out and about, and they'll yell, hey Danny, come over here, you know, and then people look." "I think my husband wishes, on the other hand, that sometimes I'd walk in and be Angelina for him that night, but it ain't gonna happen." "But then some days, you know, you don't have anything." "You go down the street and no one recognizes you, and you almost start thinking, wow, did I, nobody told me I look like Depp today!" "It's kinda odd." " Yo, Dad!" " Yeah?" "What's the set list for today?" "What are we doing?" "We're gonna do "Calling Dr. Love"..." "That's it?" "Just one?" "Yep, just one song." "Short, sweet, go in, rock 'em, leave." "Get in, get out." "Get in, get out." "That's our rock star lifestyle." "That's how we roll." "That's how we do it." "We try to do it." "And we have Brad here as Peter/Eric playing the drums, and Matt as Ace/Tommy Thayer playing the electric guitar." "Nah, I was actually very pleased..." "Not that tight." "I was actually very pleased when he asked, 'cause I've always wanted to dress up as Kiss." "And when, you know, they came over, I was like, ah, what the heck, might as well try it." "The first thing that went through my mind is, okay, ah, do I really have to wear spandex, are you kidding me, this is not, no, that's not gonna work." "And then he pulls out the boots, you've gotta be kiddin' me, dude, no, this is not gonna work." "And then it worked." "In a very odd way." "All right guys, come on, we've gotta another show right here, we got our song to do, let's go out there, let's kick some butt, have a lotta fun, and let's rock this house, all right?" "Let's rock and roll all night..." "And party every day!" "¶ You need my love, baby, oh so bad." "¶ You're not the only one I've ever had ¶" "¶ Ooh, just call me." "¶ They call me Dr. Love." "Showcase went amazing, you know, the crowd was phenomenal, everybody was there, they all did their part," "Gene spat the blood, I broke the guitar, he did the crazy solo, Peter threw the sticks, it was just, it was phenomenal, we all had fun," "I'd say that's how a rock and roll show is supposed to go." "And I ain't gonna lie, you know, every show could obviously be better... ¶ 'Cause I am your doctor of Love, yeah ¶" "That's why it's good to be me." "This first showcase for us doing Kiss was an experiment, something we wanted to do, it was his idea, I think we got a great reaction from it, so I think we're gonna try to take it to the next level" "and see how far we can go with it." "There was a lot of agents there, we had some great responses from the agents, hopefully we can get hired to do a lotta meet and greets, maybe some performances for openings and such..." "I've been more inspired to do my own characters after seeing my dad, and, it's definitely what I wanna do, I have the confidence, I have the support behind everything..." "I think we can honestly say that we're gonna do this for awhile." "Kiss is definitely still out there performing," "Gene Simmons has no intentions on stopping, so he's gonna continue doing this, which makes it great for us, because it allows us to continue doing what we like to do, impersonating them, and..." "And continue working as long as they're around." "And we're able to grow a lot closer, I think, than most father and sons are able to do these days." " Making more memories." " Yeah, that's what counts." "And getting a paycheck's not bad." "No." "We're here in West Palm Beach, I'm here with the." "John Maxwell Company, John has a program where he certifies trainers, speakers, and coaches, and he brought me into kind of jazz up the place." "I have to fight a little bit of apprehension, 'cause, I mean, John Maxwell, he's sold 21 million books." "The leadership guru probably of the whole world." "So, public speaking, you know, that's his thing." "So to speak in front of him, to have been invited to do so, very exciting, but also, you know, there's a level of, you know, bein' out on a cliff, you know?" "Thank you." "Should I make this to you?" "Yes, please." "Being an impersonator has moved me into areas" "I never thought I would have the privilege of going, and it's been outstanding, so much fun." "Of course, George Bush is no longer the president, and so in order to keep the act alive, and to keep myself relevant, so I've developed as a speaker, trainer, coach, by being involved" "in this group here, the John Maxwell Group." "So glad you're here, thank you so much for bein' willin' to help us out." "You don't have to worry if you lose control of yourself and start laughing, that's perfectly fine, people get a kick outta that." "Try not to, though, 'cause, the whole idea of trying not to, and then laughing, that's hilarious." "Would you guys be open to us having a word of prayer together before we start?" "Okay." "Lord, thank you for these two guys, thank you for the opportunity to speak into the lives of these 150 or so people, or 250, however many it is." "Lord, I pray that you would allow me to say something of value to these dear folks." "Lord, I give you honor and glory for it, and thank you for it." "In Jesus's name, amen." "In public speaking, the first thing you gotta do is win your crowd, and I get to cheat at that, you know, because this act automatically draws people in, and they can't wait to see what" ""the president" is gonna say." "John, are you here, are you in the room still?" "Yes he is." "He's here." "It's good to see you, friend." "I like you." "And you know, I really like what you said today about culture." "Because when you were talkin' about culture, you weren't talkin' about a petri dish." "You were talkin' about environment." "That was freaky." "I don't see ever not doing impersonation." "I love it, it's become who I am, I'm tied to it." "And it's tied to me." "Because leadership is what?" "Influence." "Y'all sound like you don't know that." "Let's try it again." "Leadership is..." "Influence!" "Leadership is!" "Influence!" "Leadership is!" "Influence!" "Now you know it." "I wanna take just a moment and introduce a friend of mine, somebody that I'm extremely close to." "Me." "My name is actually John Morgan, and I've been with you all week, and I know that you all know that" "I'm one of you, I'm a John Maxwell certified speaker, trainer, coach, in the mentorship program." "And it's so much fun, and I'm using the principles that I've learned here, each and every time" "I get the opportunity to go out and speak." "I've never been more excited about anything in my life that I've done, and it is just an absolute joy to be able to share comedy, to lift people up, to make their day, I mean, you have no idea how many times" "a day people tell me, "you made my day, ahh!"" "And they slap their, you know, kids and stuff, it's just amazing, and then, but to be able to go out of character and share from my heart some, you know, intimate story about my own life," "and then share a motivational or teaching lesson out of that, that people can go, "I never thought of that,"" "and they have an a-ha moment." "It's just, it's very rewarding." "Well, I have to say that these last few months have been really, really crazy." "But, on the flip side of things, I have recently been elected president of the Democratic Club of." "South West Volusia County, so, with that, I can now run peoples' campaigns from the backside of things, from behind the scenes, the force, pushing the candidates on through, and helping them get elected, and putting the right people" "in the right positions for our community." "I decided now is not the right time to run for office, but I'm still gonna have a lot to do with the politics in town, but I'm not gonna be the, the face that people are going to be" "seeing at their doorstep, asking for a vote," "I'm not gonna be the name that they're gonna be checking off on the ballot." "It all started out with being the impersonator of the President of the United States, and here I am, now, taking on the role of." "President of the Democratic Club of." "South West Volusia County, so, I think that's pretty cool." "So I'm looking forward to, looking forward to some good things to come." "Well, I'm on my way to close up the bus." "My tour bus, I have a 40 foot Silver Eagle tour bus, and I'm, I had sold it." "It's an old classic, and it's filled with a lot of memorabilia, things from a lot of my shows and a lot of gifts and things that people gave me, and everything that was inside that bus" "was either sewn by me or built by me, and it was something I was really, really proud of, so I have sold the bus, and this is my goodbye to it today." "I said I wanted to come to Las Vegas, I wanted my picture on a billboard on the Strip, and I wanted to have a hit show in a major hotel." "I did end up getting that, and ended up having my voice damaged." "But at the same time, I said, I've gotta find something else to do, and I had dabbled in a few different things, and one of 'em was to go back to what I loved doing, which is scuba." "Teaching scuba." "So what we're doin' now is we're getting all the gear together for the students, so we can go down to the lake, and we get 'em ready to go on down there and we do" "two or three dives, actually, three dives today." "The minute you stick your head under the water, you're thinking, Lake Mead, green, you won't see anything at all." "You're gonna find it's different." "The people out in front will be able to see great." "The people behind you, it will look like 9/11 after the cloud came through." "I said to my wife one morning, I said, would you like to go open a dive shop in Boulder City, which was totally out of nowhere, because I had just trained her how to dive, she said yeah, sure, let's do that." "So we drove up that day, and we saw a couple different locations, and signed a lease, and opened up." "We've been growing so much, it used to be only this part, we signed the lease and took over next door in a very short period of time." "You know, and now it's been a year later, and we've practically outgrown next door, too." "But since I looked this way, I said, okay, it's kind of unique." "At first we actually were going to use the name Scuba King, connecting the Elvis to it, so then it became, well, come dive with the King." "And I have people in class every single day that are like, oh, I'm so excited to tell my, everybody, that my dive instructor's Elvis." "All right, so, you're in the diving Mecca of America." "Las Vegas, Nevada." "And you can dive on the Strip." "There are some dives on the Strip." "They're not necessarily where you would wanna do scuba, but if you follow the road all the way down, ends up into this beautiful oasis, which is Lake Mead." "And this is usually a day where they're all a little shaky and a little nervous, and, but gettin' ready to have a good time." "There are times that I could walk away from the scuba business and never look back." "There are times that I've been performing and I could walk away performing and never look back." "I've been trying to come to terms with the thing." "I love performing, performing is my life." "The thought of all of a sudden maybe not being able to perform anymore, is there gonna be that void there?" "And I really think that the void is being filled up by the scuba shop, by SCUBAfy." "Every time I teach a class, I'm performing." "I'm no different in this class than I am onstage, other than maybe I'm in a jumpsuit onstage." "And so, in a way, I'm still getting to perform every day, three times a day, I just don't have to wear the jumpsuit while I'm doing it." "I can't tell you how many times people have come up to me and said, do you have a jumpsuit that's covered in studs, or rhinestones, or something like that, and a BC that's all encrusted..." "I've gotta get a mask that has EP in the middle of it, and all gold or something, and get the cape goin' on as I'm swimming through the water..." "If my voice comes back, I'm not sure exactly what I'll do with that." "I do have a concept for a new show, though." "And I know what I would like to do, if I come back." "And, I don't know, by the time this gets done, maybe it'll be working, or maybe it'll just go away, and that's the concept of him never leaving the building." "Elvis has never left." "The worst part about this whole thing is that it does mess up my hairdo." "Y'all come back now, ya hear?" "I feel like something's missing!" "Hey Dame, you gonna have to get down there." "I know." "We're going, we're going." "All right." "You know I'm nervous about goin' on..." "You're always nervous." "But that's what gets my adrenaline going." "So I can be on." "What did I tell you, if you're nervous, it means you still love it." "Hey sweetie." "Hello, Possum, hello." "See, that's where I shaved, up to here." "Up to the knees." "That looks a little..." "What is that?" " What'd you use?" " I used my electric razor." "For your face, you used the same razor?" "One for my legs." "No, you really used the same razor, that's nasty." "I did put some lotion on afterwards, because..." "It gets ashy?" "It was, yeah, it was ashy." "You should've called me, I'd tell ya what happens." "Yeah, our awards banquet's tonight, and everybody, it's kind of like a dress up, fun night, but very causal at the same time." "And we have about 25 different awards we give out for various reasons, it could be for best costume, who traveled the farthest, that type of thing, but we also have Best Showcase," "Mirror Image Award for who looks most naturally like the celebrity they impersonate, it's a lotta fun, but this is our, ahhh." "It's, we get a lot of congratulations, and it is truly, truly appreciated, but we really tried to step things up quite a bit this year, and I just busted my butt to get agents here" "to see you guys, and it paid off, 'cause they loved you guys, they're like, oh my god, the talent has really gone up over the years, so give yourselves a round of applause," "because the agents diggin' you guys this year." "So there, we got a lot of awards to give away, and because of you guys, we are able to put this on." "Makin' 'em have fun, makin' 'em smile, and to me, that was perfect, that's what it was worth." "You know, it's fun, because it never gets boring." "You have no idea how much fun this is." "It's like being at the Oscars tonight, isn't it?" "Inducted into the Sunburst Convention Hall of Fame for Funniest Female, Miss Bettina Willams as Whoopi Goldberg." "It's a thrill." "Every time I get in front of an audience, it's a thrill." "Whoopi, what do you mean you're shy, Whoopi?" "You're the cushion in my life." "Sunburst Convention Hall of Fame inductee," "Scott Mason, Funniest Male." "You know, Billy may be gone, but maybe I can let him live on in the hearts of others for even a short period of time." "Almost had 'em goin' there, didn't I?" "When they see us, they can get to us, they can shake our hands, they can give us hugs, kisses, whatever." "For the Mirror Image Award," "Mr. John Morgan as President G.W. Bush." "George Kane as Hugh Hefner." "You can have somebody walking' down the street and their face is just like, somber, and the next second, they see you, and in one second," "I mean, it didn't have to build, they didn't have to kinda get it, they just go, and their face lights up." "The Best Showcase Platinum Award goes to." "Betty Atchison as Lady Gaga." "God, I don't know what to say, I'm so bad at this, but, I just wanna thank all of you for inspiring me, because I would never have had motivation to work as hard as I have without all of you to sort of" "push me along, so thank you so much." "Will you let me help you?" "I need to let you know, I'm here for you, okay?" " Chris America!" " As Madonna." "You know, and I tried, I had to quit drugs or quit smoking, too, you know, but I tried that." "Nicorette Gum, you know..." "Gum, you know, I couldn't get it lit!" "And of course, dear, who could forget Mrs. Doubtfire?" "This is me, okay, I can't change it." "I dunno, I guess it's just, it's a gift, man, I dunno." "I have my weapons and the helicopter's on the roof." "I don't wanna hurt ya." "I just wanna bash yer brains in." "The estimation is that by the year 2020, one in 50 people will be an Elvis impersonator." "I want to say congratulations to all of you, it was a fantastic showcase, and I hope you guys had a good time, good night, and God bless, we hope to see you next year." "Didn't plan on doing this, but it's actually been more lucrative than doing theater." "People said, well, why don't you just do stand-up comedy as yourself?" "And I don't think I could do it." "There's something about being in a dress, and a wig, with the glasses, I can get away with murder." "I bet Gene and Paul doesn't hafta do this." "Yep, got people to do it for 'em." "That's why they got roadies." "The show's over, I'm exhausted." "My feet are killin' me from these boots." "It's been a long three days, I'm ready to go home, but it's been a lot of fun, it was great." "Madonna has some very dedicated fans, and they would give anything to talk to her, and to meet her, and a lot of times they substitute me as her, in a sense, it's quite a phenomenon." "I am not sure how much longer I'm going to be doing this, I just don't know, all I know is that it's extremely enjoyable at this time, and I'm havin' fun," "and I think the people that see me have fun." "You know, it's really cool to have something that is so universally loved." "That eclipses all of the crazy stuff." "That's what I love doing about it." "It's just seeing the joy on peoples' faces." "Because we all help each other." "That's the whole spirit of Sunburst." "We pretty much don't sleep that whole, what, five days?" "Yeah, we don't sleep the whole five days." "Knowing that you're connecting people and the potential ripple effect for that..." "Everybody remember to keep the chat down, the shows start in 30 seconds." "At the end of it, it is a big exhale, and then I get to sit down and think about all the cool, fun stuff that happened." "So, to me, it's like a roller coaster ride, and at the end, you go, whew, that was fun, when are we gonna do it again?" "People have had a hard time figuring out what to do with us, in this industry." "Well, because we are an anomaly." "It's hard to sell it, it's hard to figure out the exact right niche." "Your country needs ya!" "I'm here to defend." "Are you gonna take a shot?" "Oh, heck yeah." "Let's get a picture with ya." "How good of a shot am I?" "Well, I'm better than Cheney." "Who's next?" "I haven't met Danny DeVito, but he does know of me." "I did get to meet Johnny Depp on a set." "The first time I met Sarah, her staff saw me in the audience at the Silver Spurs Arena in Kissimmee." "Yeah, I worked with Sean several years ago." "We filmed a tea commercial." "So I come up." "I have a hotdog and a coke in my hand." "I'm just about ready to take a bite and I look and I thought "God, that guy looks like Johnny Depp."" "And Sarah just rocked back on one foot and grabbed me by the shoulders, and she was so dead tired." "You could tell." "And, all the sudden, there he was in front of me." "And he turned to me and he said," ""Hello Sean." "You look wonderful today."" "I said, "That's because I look like you."" "I thought, "It is Johnny."" "So I went over to say hi and he looks at me really funny." "He goes, "These photo doubles are getting freaky."" "About that time, his assistant walks over and goes," ""Here you go Mr. Depp," and hands him a coke and a hotdog." "My cousin is married to Michael Douglas's cousin." "And, they're very close." "And I asked my cousin if he would ask Michael, to ask Danny, if he would sign off on a commercial I did so it wouldn't have a disclaimer." "And he did." "So that was very nice of him." "She just grabbed me by both shoulders and went," ""Oh my gosh, this is like lookin' in a mirror!"" "And that being said, I would like to meet him, and thank him for looking like me."