The Elvis Gig
May 29, 2010 | Uncategorized
Call me Mr. Cool. I just met Elvis.
Alright, so it wasn’t that Elvis. But it was the nearest thing to him in the person of Paul Brendan.
Paul, you see, is one of the most popular Elvis impersonators in Las Vegas. And there are a lot of them.
However, I met him in Orlando when the Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority had flown him in for a 30-minute gig for international journalists at a major tourism trade show. That’s the kind of thing tourism organizations do. And don’t start bitching about the use of your tax dollars — the ROI on promos like this is often tremendous. (Click here if you can”t view the video).
Brendan first started impersonating Presley in his UCLA dorm when he was earning a degree in fine arts. And he’s been doing his Elvis gig professionally ever since he arrived in Vegas 15 years ago with $500 in his pocket. In those early days he’d take jobs impersonating Elvis at fees less than others would accept just to be able to pay the bills.
His act has taken him to about 20 countries and almost every US state, although he’s cut his travel back considerably to be with his wife and two boys. A few years ago his wife, a former Delta flight attendant from Kentucky, talked him into investing in a wedding chapel and doing Elvis weddings. It made sense, he says, since ” I just turned 43 — older than Elvis when he died — and I can’t do this much longer.”
But what kind of life can you really have when so many people recognize you, or at least who you’re supposed to be?
“Although it’s all my hair, when I walk down the street I mess it up and often wear a baseball cap so I done’t look so ‘Elvis-y’,” he says. “But I’ll never refuse anyone a photo.”
Still, there’s that unmistakeable resemblance.
“Yes, people come up to me all the time,” he confides. “For example, when I got off the plane this morning I heard the attendants say ‘Elvis has left the plane’. But it doesn’t bother me since this has afforded a good life for me and my children.”
A surprisingly good life. He has, he says, parlayed his Elvis gig into a net worth in the millions.
Nevertheless, you have to ask yourself, is there a down side to all of this?
He contemplates it for a few seconds. “Yes there is,” he says, “I haven’t been able to change my looks for 15 years.”
Jim Ferri
