THE SCIENCE OF BEING ELVIS: Think it's easy to be Elvis? All you have to do is don a black wig, sideburns, shades and white jumpsuit? Sure for many Elvii this is the extent of their talent.
But for those who want to succeed, there is a lot more to their performance and it is a long, arduous road to the top! There are several elements that need to be addressed by aspiring Elvii if they are to reach the upper levels of the impersonator pyramid.
These include:
The Vocal Style: Elvis had a distinctive vocal style. His vocal inflections, humour during a song (integrated with his physical movements) and ability to sing songs from different musical genres are all elements impersonators need to master. The vocal skills needed to sing Hound Dog (rock) are different to those needed on the Hawaiian Wedding Song (ballad) as are the skills needed to convincingly sing It's Now Or Never (semi-operatic) and Stranger In My Own Home Town (blues).
The Attire (Jumpsuits): Elvis impersonators want their act to be as convincing and realistic as possible. For this reason many spend thousands of dollars having their costumes designed and hand-made with sequins and patterns calculated to mirror those on Elvis' original costumes, particularly his trademark white jumpsuits.
And not just one, but two, three, four and more depending on how successful (and ) the performer is. Popular costumes are Elvis' Aloha jumpsuit, the Peacock suit, black leather outfit and the colored jumpsuits like the 'Burning Love' suit and his black jumpsuit. Even 'Elvisoids' invest in jumpsuits yet they are most likely never to appear live except at karaoke nights. BK Enterprises in the
The Movements: Elvis' performing style was an integral part of his appeal and presence. Not surprisingly then, to be a successful impersonator requires that a person practice, learn and perfect a range of 'Elvis' movements. And it would be foolhardy to believe that it easy to perfect these moves. The 'science' of performing Elvis involves a vast array of different 'moves' and 'poses' including: the lasso the squat the blind man's rock glass on palm arm-fling cut-off bowling cutoff open-handed punch cutoff air guitar fist pump shakey leg body palsey backhanded throwaway
The top bracket of performers spend countless hours watching and re-watching seminal tapes of Elvis in action, from the 1950s television appearances to Elvis: That's The Way It Is. The performers in the top echelon have achieved a high degree of integration of all these factors.
The concluding part of this article will appear in our next edition of the Spotlight on the King series. In it we will examine the 'equal opportunity' nature of the industry, the impersonator associations, the Elvis impersonator legacy and attempt to answer the question: why Elvis?
This series of articles are reprinted with the kind permission of www.elvisinfonet.com
Elvis The Voice
www.ElvisTheVoice.com
One of the world's great Elvis Presley tribute artists
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