look - a - likes...look - a - likes photography & text by shaul schwarz there are thousands of...

Look - A -

LikesPhotography & Text by

Shaul Schwarz

There are thousands of celebrity look-alikes and impersonators in the U.S. Agencies are cashing in on this growing business sending their impersonators off to corporate events and trade shows around the world. Here are just a few....

gettyimages.com/exclusive

NEW YORK CITY-OCTOBER 27: Donald Metsker captures Tony’s grandiose Mafioso persona in a warehouse.

gettyimages.com/exclusivegettyimages.com/exclusive

Jeffrey Allen gestures after he has transformed into his signature character he impersonates, Sir Elton John,

John Di Domenico looks into the mirror after he has transformed into one of 30 characters he impersonates, Austin Powers.

NEW YORK CITY-OCTOBER 30: Natalie Reid poses as Paris Hilton in New York City.



NEW YORK CITY- OCTOBER 30: Tiffany Clause applies make-up as she prepares to imper-sonate the famous actress, Angelina Jolie,

SANTA MONICA, CA-DECEMBER 17: Joe Richards holds a fake Oscar outside his beachfront apartment in Santa Monica as he impersonates the actor Jack Nicholson.



VAN NUYS, CA- DECEMBER 22: Jim Nieb impersonates the current American President, George W. Bush at a local a strip club in Van Nuys, California.

Jim Nieb impersonates the current American President, George W. Bush as he pumps gasoline at the local gas station in West Hollywood, California.

Jim Nieb sits in a restaurant in West Hollywood after impersonating the current American President, George W. Bush for a holiday party,.


STUDIO CITY, CA-DECEMBER 17: Greg Chelew waits backstage before performing his David Letter-man impersonation and Top10 List for a corporate holiday party at the Sportsmen's Lodge.

WILLIAMSBURG, BROOKLYN- NOVEMBER 22: Kym Perfetto impersonates the American pop singer, Britney Spears.

PASADENA, CA-DECEMBER 22: Daniel Lopez poses outside with his guitar as he impersonates the famous actor, Johnny Depp,



NEW YORK CITY-OCTOBER 29: Joby Rogers, Michael Jackson’s top hand-picked impersonator applies make-up and prepares for a show at Webster Hall in New York City,

BROOKLYN, NEW YORK- NOVEMBER 2: Joseph Manuella impersonates Robert Deniro near the Williamsburg Bridge


Joseph Manuella impersonates Robert Dinero while greeting one of Katz’s Delicatessen’s oldest waitor, Richard,

Donald Metsker drives his car mimicking Tony Soprano in the series opening scene.

WILLIAMSBURG, BROOK-LYN- NOVEMBER 4: Kym Perfetto dances in a local bar-ber shop as she impersonates the Latin pop star, Shakira


NEW YORK CITY-NOVEM-BER 22: Jack Luceno imper-sonates Cosmo Kramer from the hit TV show, “Seinfeld”



THE CAST OF CHARACTERS:

DONALD METSKER: For Donald Metsker, impersonating Tony Soprano from the hit HBO series, The Sopranos, “comes naturally.” Here, Donald captures Tony’s grandiose Mafioso per-sona in a warehouse in New York City, October 27, 2006. In the 1980's the growing number of celebrity impersonators and look-alikes helped to create "Hollywood parties" at major hotels and convention centers. Since 9/11, Metsker has been a part of the World Trade Center Diaster team at the New York City Medical Examiner's Office and co-designer and developer of the computer system keeping track of the human tragedy of 9/11. After winning HBO's Sopranos Look-Alike Contest, Metsker was asked to be James Gan-dolfini’s (Tony Soprano) photo double, starting in season 6 of The Sopranos.

JEFFREY ALLEN: Jeffrey is a celebrity impersonator who started his career in 1988 as a solo act, playing keyboards and singing in South Florida. While pursuing a publishing career for his vast library of original music, Jeffrey contin-ues to make a living as a professional impersona-tor performing at industry showcases, nightclubs, casinos, and on major cruise lines. Jeffrey has spent hundreds of dollars on authentic wigs, glasses, rings, watches and other accessories to really become the person he impersonates.

JOSEPH MANUELLA: Austin Powers is just one of 30 characters that JManuella has been impersonating the actor for over 30 years and has appeared as Deniro’s stunt double in “The Fan” and “Great Expectations.”One of the more popu-lar celebrity look-alikes, Manuella is frequently hired for corporate events, private parties, theme festivals, and fundraisers.

JOHN DI DOMENCO: Austin Powers is just one of 30 characters that John impersonates for corporate parties, private parties, and trade shows. John started his career as an actor and writer, which evolved, into impersonating several popular icons we envy today. For the last five years John has been focusing most of his ener-gies on working with Live Industrial producers on large-scale corporate theatre and trade shows on a national level. John is a celebrity imperson-ator who takes pride in creating and preparing for his many characters. He has spent many hours with a vocal coach to perfect the voices of his characters and hundreds of dollars on authentic wigs, glasses, watches and other accessories to really become the person he impersonates.

NATALIE REID: Natalie Reid, who looks so much like Paris, enjoys free upgrades on air-planes, front row at New York’s Fashion Week, free five-star restaurant meals and hasn’t bought a drink in memory. Natalie Reid, considered to be the world’s top Paris Hilton look-alike, posed naked for Playboy magazine in the September 2006 issue. “I think it’s going to lead to a lot of opportunities. I still want to pursue modeling but I really want to get into acting,” claims the 21-year old. Paris Hilton hired the impersonator to take her place because she was tired on her hit sitcom, "The Simple Life." When asked what she thinks of the impersonator, Paris says, "that's hot!" Reid has become somewhat of a celebrity and has her own following because of her like-ness to Hilton. She makes most of her income from appearances at clubs, private parties, and other venues posing as the famous socialite.

JOE RICHARDS: Joe Richards holds a fake Oscar outside his beachfront apartment in Santa Monica as he impersonates the actor Jack Ni-cholson on December 17, 2006.

TIFFANY CLAUSE: Tiffany has only been impersonating Jolie for a year after a friend recommended she submit photos of herself to talent agencies. Tiffany has never met the famous actress and mostly appears at private parties and corporate events. She is a mother of two, similar to Jolie, and lives in Maryland as an interior designer. In the 1980's the growing number of celebrity impersonators and look-alikes helped to create "Hollywood parties" at major hotels and convention centers.

JIM NEIB: With over 15 years entertaining audiences around the world, Nieb specializes in stage acts, and most recently perfected his voice and make-up for his Bush character.Unlike most “dead-ringers” in the celebrity look-alike industry, Jim Nieb goes through extensive make-up with the help of professional make-up artist Barney Burman and the creator Mike Marino to transform into Bush. It takes approximately 5 hours to attach prosthetic cheeks, nose, forehead, chin, ears, and wig to complete the make-over. Part of what makes Jim’s performance unique is by adding improvisation and audience interaction to keep his performance fun and original. With the celebrity impersonator business booming, Nieb keeps busy impersonating Bush and still has time to act and produce. Many impersona-tors join talent agencies across the country that will send them off to corporate events and trade shows around the world.

JACK LUCENO: Luceno impersonates Cosmo Kramer from the hit TV show, “Seinfeld”. A recent news article describing Michael Richards explosion of anger and racial epithets during a performance at a comedy club in Los Angeles, has greatly effected Luceno’s impersonator pro-fession. Due to the negative publicity Richards created, corporate events and bar/bat mitzvah performances have been canceled.

GREG CHELEW: Chelew has been a celebrity impersonator for over 12 years working for many Fortune 500 companies and creating Letterman’s signature Top 10 List specifically tailored for each company. Chelew is a “dead-ringer” in the vast world of celebrity impersonators because he naturally looks like the TV talk show host with little or no additional preparation or make-up.

KYM PERFETTO: Kym works as a personal trainer and is an aspiring actress and singer residing in New York City. To make extra cash, Kym performs as Britney Spears, Shakira, and Marilyn Monroe at corporate events and private parties. With the celebrity impersonator business booming, Perfetto keeps busy impersonating sev-eral different characters with the help of a talent agency that will send her off to corporate events and trade shows around the world.

DANIEL LOPEZ: New to the celebrity imper-sonator business, Daniel Lopez is known as one of the best Johnny Depp look-alikes with many ironic similarities to the real Johnny Depp in-cluding the exact same birth date. Lopez strives hard to perfect his Johnny Depp “look” by work-ing with a tattoo artist to mimic the exact tattoos Depp has on his arms and hands.

JOBY ROGERS: For over 20 years Rogers has been perfecting Jackson’s dances and manner-isms. Joby successfully stars in Webster Hall’s Awesome 80’s Prom Show as well as touring with the Las Vegas style review show, LaCage Aux Folles. It takes approximately an hour and a half to transistion from Joby Rogers to Michael Jackson.

look - a - likes...look - a - likes photography & text by shaul schwarz there are thousands of...

Documents