Fun with Celebrity Impersonators: The Next Best Thing on TV

This Summer one of the great TV programs running on ABC is titled The Next Best Thing. Like many of the talent shows being broadcasted on television, there are three judges. Impersonation is the show's theme. A pre selection process weeds out lesser talent and precedes the on stage process out of which potential winners are selected to go forward into the next round of selection for a potential winner of the $100,000. prize.

Once they make it to the televised show, which is edited to show an even more select few, each performer needs to show that they have taken on the persona of the celebrity they are imitating in order to be accepted by the judges and be allowed to make it to the next round of judging as a semi-finalist. Performers have ninety second auditions during which they must perform and show that they have the look, the voice and the convincing overall performance of their selected celebrity. The closeness to the believability that the judges are seeing the real person who is being impersonated is key. The judges must see talent as well as looks.

Without believability, the curtain of suspense of reality is lost. A contestant has to come with the whole package in their act. Just like there were bad performers on American Idol, there are bad impersonators on The Next Best Thing. An impression has to be dead on in order to get the votes. You can't have the look but not the voice or any other mismatched combination. Jerry Springer hosts the show and gives encouragement to performers before they go on as well as consoles them when they fail to hit their mark.

Performers go through great lengths to look like their chosen celebrity with make-up and clothing. In addition the physical attributes, looks and movements of the body are mastered. In some cases the affectations were not done as well as others. A Frank Sinatra impersonator impressed the judges by even having blue eyes by putting on contact lenses that he said did sting a bit. Some of the losing acts on a recent show were impersonators of Oprah, Cher, James Brown, eight Elvis Presleys, three Tina Turners, Humphrey Bogart, and George Burns.

Some of the losers had the looks without the voice, the voice without the affectations or the costume with none of the talents at all. "James" was called "The hardest working man not in show business" in spite of his flips onstage.One Elvis was told that he looked like Elvis twenty years after he died most likely because of his weight . A Cher impersonater was told that she looked like a hooker from Battlestar Galactica. Quite a few really good looking prospects spoiled their chances by acting out of character, Rapping.

Overall there were some really great impersonators in the most recent group of performers. Some of those who made it to the semi finals were one Elvis who really had the looks, voice and dancing like elvis unlike several overweight Elvis impersonators and a Tina Turner impersonator who the judges felt had the dancing down pat although personally I did not think that she looked the part. A Jay Leno impersonator did well but needed to work on his high and low voice changes and a really good Frank Sinatra impersonator made it to the next level as well.

Overall not one person made it into the next level from New York but several did well in Chicago. People traveled far and wide from other states and cities to be in the area for the competition. Some of the acts going forward to the semi final in Hollywood are impersonators of Little Richard, Tina Turner, Al Pacino, Borat, Paris Hilton, two George Bush impersonators, Robin Williams, Dolly Parton and more.