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Be Elvis!
Author: Rick Marino
Published in hardback by Sourcebooks, Inc.
ISBN 1-57071-556-4
I have to admit that Elvis impersonators are not my favourite people. It was therefore with some trepidation and a little distaste that I started reading Rick Marino's "Be Elvis!", a sort of handbook for would-be impersonators.
Rick Marino is an Elvis impersonator himself and has been so for over twenty years -- he appeared as one of the many Elvi in the film "Honeymoon in Vegas" and performed at the 1988 US Presidential Inaugural Ball. Indeed, he is also a president in his own right, president of the EPIIA, the Elvis Presley Impersonators International Association, so all in all he should know what he's talking about.
He certainly seems to cover all the aspects of being an Elvis impersonator in "Be Elvis!": why become an impersonator; the different "types" of Elvis; hair and makeup; costumes; preparing a show (including lighting, sound, and song selection); putting on a show; marketing and publicity. No doubt there are plenty of useful items of information here for all potential impersonators and I'm sure that many who already consider themselves to be Elvis impersonators could also learn a thing or two from this cornucopia of tips, which are presented in a free-flowing and very readable style.
In addition to the above information, the book also includes some pretty basic Elvis anecdotes here and there throughout its pages as sidelines and boxes. Don't expect any revelations here, though, for "Be Elvis!" is not really aimed at Elvis fans as such, nor does it pretend to be a book about Elvis: it is quite simply a handbook for (would-be) impersonators with a little bit of Elvisology thrown in for good measure.
The book is nicely produced, with an unusual reflective cover and good quality paper; the layout is very pleasing and it is well illustrated. Most of the photos used show impersonators, of course (sorry, but I have to say it, some of them look really naff -- check out page 51!), and most of these are of the jumpsuited variety. There are a few decent pics of the real thing, however, though these are often strangely captioned: a shot from "Paradise, Hawaiian Style" is indicated as being from "Blue Hawaii" and the caption accompanying a photo from "Clambake" alludes to Elvis's sound and style "from the very beginning." Even the impersonator pics betray occasional carelessness: the group photo on page 61 is immediately suspect as both the guitar players seem to be left-handed and just slightly closer inspection reveals that the "Elvis" name-badges on the jackets are very strange indeed -- the photo has been printed in reverse! Proof-reading also seems to have been rushed through, too, with the Lansky Brothers' name printed correctly early in the text, but then as "Landsky" later on.
In his introduction, Rick Marino writes that there are estimated to be between 3,000 and 10,000 full- or part-time Elvis impersonators. Rick might be somewhat conservative with these figures, however: according to a report I heard just this week, recent research in the USA identifies no less than 85,000 Elvis impersonators around the world, compared to some 150 in 1977. The report went on to state that, should growth continue at its present rate, one in every three people in the world will be an Elvis impersonator by 2019! A frightening thought for most of us, but it bodes well for sales of "Be Elvis!"
David Neale
Copyright December 2000