PART-TIME HUNKS -  FIVE ELVIS IMPERSONATORS SLIP ON THEIR BLUE SUEDE SHOES AND GET PERSONAL Robert McArthur, 44 VICE: How did you first become interested in Elvis Presley? Robert: It all started with me being a fan when I was a kid. When Elvis died in August of 1977, I had just started listening to him and getting to know who he was. The very first concert I saw was his last TV special. When did you decide you wanted to become a professional Elvis impersonator?  About ten years ago, my mom asked me if I wanted to go see an Elvis impersonator in Buffalo, New York, which is where I’m from. Seeing it brought me back to my childhood and gave me a renewed interest in Elvis. I became friends with these Elvis impersonators and told them about my childhood dream of dressing as Elvis. They said, “You should give that a try. You never know.” Eventually they convinced me to do it, and it turned out to be a great success. Did you have any musical experience at that time? Yeah, I had been in bands but never anything big. I didn’t do much singing. I mostly played guitar and used it as a way to get more confident with my voice. Throughout the years I’ve been in oldies bands, country bands, folk bands, heavy metal… In fact, I have an oldies band I jam with on the side right now.  How often do you perform as Elvis?About three to four times per week. On the weekdays I perform at nursing homes and senior centers, and I also do singing telegrams. Then on the weekends I do birthday parties, weddings, bar mitzvahs, and similar events. I’m also an ordained minister. Do you get asked to marry a lot of couples?I do a couple per year. I marry people as Elvis and also do vow renewals. I do a package where I will marry them as Elvis, perform at the reception, and DJ the wedding.  Do you have other jobs, or is this it?This is my full-time gig. In addition to Elvis, I also do other celebrity impersonations: Neil Diamond, Engelbert Humperdinck, and the Blues Brothers, as well as that oldies band I mentioned. That one is a superhero band—every person is dressed as a different superhero, and we do oldies and 60s surf music.  Which superhero are you?Batman. We have Superman on drums, Green Lantern on keyboard, Aquaman on bass, Wonder Woman on trumpet, and Hawkgirl plays the sax. Are people within the Elvis-impersonator community friendly with one another or is it more competitive?Yeah, most of the guys get along. I’m friends with the local guys, but there are also national people. I traveled around when I first started out and went to the Elvis contests where I met a lot of them. I would say that 90 percent were great to hang out with. In the local community, if I can’t do a job I’ll call someone else and ask them to do it, and they’ll do the same for me. There are a few guys who aren’t very nice or sociable, though. There is a little rivalry between Elvises.  What’s the best Elvis song? That’s a tough one. He has over 700 songs. I can’t put a favorite one out there, but I really enjoy a lot of his movie songs. He made 31 movies during his career and did the soundtracks to all of them, but none were very big hits. There are a lot of hidden gems in those films. One of my favorite movies is Live a Little, Love a Little, which he did later in his career.  Tunes aside, what’s your favorite thing about Elvis? He was larger than life. He was loved by so many people. He had a very lavish lifestyle but was still down-to-earth and very generous as well. People would admire his cars, and he would give them the keys and say, “Enjoy.”  Do you ever run across female fans who have an infatuation with Elvis, and does that extend to you?All the time. We were doing a party for this husband who hired Elvis for his wife’s birthday, and she was going crazy. She was acting like I was the real Elvis. She was practically fainting at my knees and hugging me as I performed. My girlfriend gets a big kick out of women trying to get close to me when I’m performing. It’s funny. What makes your Elvis impersonation special?I connect with the audience. If I see they are not enjoying themselves, I make sure that they do. My performances involve a lot of audience interaction and I give away scarves or teddy bears, like Elvis did. I don’t have an attitude, and I very much become Elvis when I put the boots and shades on. I try to put on an authentic show Elvis would be proud of.  MEET MORE ELVISES

PART-TIME HUNKS - 

FIVE ELVIS IMPERSONATORS SLIP ON THEIR BLUE SUEDE SHOES AND GET PERSONAL


Robert McArthur, 44

VICE: How did you first become interested in Elvis Presley? 
Robert: It all started with me being a fan when I was a kid. When Elvis died in August of 1977, I had just started listening to him and getting to know who he was. The very first concert I saw was his last TV special.

When did you decide you wanted to become a professional Elvis impersonator?  
About ten years ago, my mom asked me if I wanted to go see an Elvis impersonator in Buffalo, New York, which is where I’m from. Seeing it brought me back to my childhood and gave me a renewed interest in Elvis. I became friends with these Elvis impersonators and told them about my childhood dream of dressing as Elvis. They said, “You should give that a try. You never know.” Eventually they convinced me to do it, and it turned out to be a great success.

Did you have any musical experience at that time? 
Yeah, I had been in bands but never anything big. I didn’t do much singing. I mostly played guitar and used it as a way to get more confident with my voice. Throughout the years I’ve been in oldies bands, country bands, folk bands, heavy metal… In fact, I have an oldies band I jam with on the side right now. 

How often do you perform as Elvis?
About three to four times per week. On the weekdays I perform at nursing homes and senior centers, and I also do singing telegrams. Then on the weekends I do birthday parties, weddings, bar mitzvahs, and similar events. I’m also an ordained minister.

Do you get asked to marry a lot of couples?
I do a couple per year. I marry people as Elvis and also do vow renewals. I do a package where I will marry them as Elvis, perform at the reception, and DJ the wedding. 

Do you have other jobs, or is this it?
This is my full-time gig. In addition to Elvis, I also do other celebrity impersonations: Neil Diamond, Engelbert Humperdinck, and the Blues Brothers, as well as that oldies band I mentioned. That one is a superhero band—every person is dressed as a different superhero, and we do oldies and 60s surf music. 

Which superhero are you?
Batman. We have Superman on drums, Green Lantern on keyboard, Aquaman on bass, Wonder Woman on trumpet, and Hawkgirl plays the sax.

Are people within the Elvis-impersonator community friendly with one another or is it more competitive?
Yeah, most of the guys get along. I’m friends with the local guys, but there are also national people. I traveled around when I first started out and went to the Elvis contests where I met a lot of them. I would say that 90 percent were great to hang out with. In the local community, if I can’t do a job I’ll call someone else and ask them to do it, and they’ll do the same for me. There are a few guys who aren’t very nice or sociable, though. There is a little rivalry between Elvises. 

What’s the best Elvis song? 
That’s a tough one. He has over 700 songs. I can’t put a favorite one out there, but I really enjoy a lot of his movie songs. He made 31 movies during his career and did the soundtracks to all of them, but none were very big hits. There are a lot of hidden gems in those films. One of my favorite movies is Live a Little, Love a Little, which he did later in his career. 

Tunes aside, what’s your favorite thing about Elvis? 
He was larger than life. He was loved by so many people. He had a very lavish lifestyle but was still down-to-earth and very generous as well. People would admire his cars, and he would give them the keys and say, “Enjoy.” 

Do you ever run across female fans who have an infatuation with Elvis, and does that extend to you?
All the time. We were doing a party for this husband who hired Elvis for his wife’s birthday, and she was going crazy. She was acting like I was the real Elvis. She was practically fainting at my knees and hugging me as I performed. My girlfriend gets a big kick out of women trying to get close to me when I’m performing. It’s funny.

What makes your Elvis impersonation special?
I connect with the audience. If I see they are not enjoying themselves, I make sure that they do. My performances involve a lot of audience interaction and I give away scarves or teddy bears, like Elvis did. I don’t have an attitude, and I very much become Elvis when I put the boots and shades on. I try to put on an authentic show Elvis would be proud of. 

MEET MORE ELVISES

Posted
in Elvis Elvis Lives Costumes Fashion Impersonators Music Rock n Roll Portrait
The Death of the Rockstar - Everyone’s Sober Now The old cliché of “sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll” is dead. Ok, if not completely dead, it’s in the process of taking its last, sad breath. The mysticism that once surrounded the “rock star” has evaporated into pictures of them in their sweatpants at Starbucks and unwarranted crotch shots as they exit their limousine. Bottom line, it’s not cute. Despite the mainstream artists’ need to put their bling, bitches and Bentleys on blast in music videos, that’s not what’s really going on beneath the surface in the real world. It’s a lot darker and colder out there. Addiction is running rampant among all types of people; young or old, married or single, famous or one of the Joneses, it’s affecting people in similar ways. So I wondered, do artists these days feel any sort of social responsibility when it comes to painting a picture that’s full of syringes, rolled up dollar bills, Lean and video hos? Surprisingly, what I found in the majority of my interviews is that most artists are sober, in the process of getting sober, straight edge or barely indulge. Why? Because being a musician is actually a job. It’s not just drinking and drugging all night as you move from prospect to prospect hoping to get laid. In a 2010 interview with Bad Religion front man, Greg Graffin, he reveals something that is almost shocking, especially because his world is surround by punk rock debauchery and disastrous stories of drug overdoses (as in the cases of Sid Vicious of The Sex Pistols and Billy Mercia of New York Dolls). “I’m straight edge so I’ve never understood how people can function with drugs and alcohol,” Graffin admits. “But I also know that the drugs today are so potent that they are infinitely more dangerous.” And he’s right. According to CNN.com, 40,000 kids died of drug overdoses in 2010. Ben Haggerty, more widely known as Macklemore these days, could have been one of them. The Seattle-based emcee’s struggle with substance abuse nearly ended him, but he made the brave decision to go to treatment before he was just another statistic. Continue

The Death of the Rockstar - Everyone’s Sober Now

The old cliché of “sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll” is dead. Ok, if not completely dead, it’s in the process of taking its last, sad breath. The mysticism that once surrounded the “rock star” has evaporated into pictures of them in their sweatpants at Starbucks and unwarranted crotch shots as they exit their limousine. Bottom line, it’s not cute. Despite the mainstream artists’ need to put their bling, bitches and Bentleys on blast in music videos, that’s not what’s really going on beneath the surface in the real world. It’s a lot darker and colder out there.

Addiction is running rampant among all types of people; young or old, married or single, famous or one of the Joneses, it’s affecting people in similar ways. So I wondered, do artists these days feel any sort of social responsibility when it comes to painting a picture that’s full of syringes, rolled up dollar bills, Lean and video hos? Surprisingly, what I found in the majority of my interviews is that most artists are sober, in the process of getting sober, straight edge or barely indulge. Why? Because being a musician is actually a job. It’s not just drinking and drugging all night as you move from prospect to prospect hoping to get laid.

In a 2010 interview with Bad Religion front man, Greg Graffin, he reveals something that is almost shocking, especially because his world is surround by punk rock debauchery and disastrous stories of drug overdoses (as in the cases of Sid Vicious of The Sex Pistols and Billy Mercia of New York Dolls).

“I’m straight edge so I’ve never understood how people can function with drugs and alcohol,” Graffin admits. “But I also know that the drugs today are so potent that they are infinitely more dangerous.”

And he’s right. According to CNN.com, 40,000 kids died of drug overdoses in 2010. Ben Haggerty, more widely known as Macklemore these days, could have been one of them. The Seattle-based emcee’s struggle with substance abuse nearly ended him, but he made the brave decision to go to treatment before he was just another statistic.

Continue

Posted
in Drugs Sobriety Drinking I like getting drunk sxe straight edge on the wagon rock n roll
The Black Lips Are Headed to the Middle East If you’re in a band, it’s important to go out, buy some clean clothes, and take your show on the road—how else are “the people” supposed to know who’s on the other end of all those illegal downloads? Look to the Black Lips for inspiration. In the past year alone these four dapper young lads have trekked across Europe (Helsinki anyone?), the US, and Thailand, slamming their “any show, any time” ethic into dangerous Quixote territory. Now they’re adding a new zone to that resume—the fucking Middle East.  You heard right: this fall, our boys are gonna tear that storied juncture of Eurasia and Africa a brand new buttonhole. The shows kick off in Jordan, and will bring the band through Iraq, Egypt, Lebanon, and a bunch of other spots you’ve heard of on the news. The full tour schedule is below.  You can get a taste of their on-the-road persona in this clip of them eating ant eggs in Thailand: Also, you can pick up a copy of their latest record, Arabia Mountain, right here. Go do that. Black Lips’ Middle Eastern Tour 9/14/12 – Amman, Jordan – TBA *9/19/12 – Larnaca, Cyprus – Savino Live *9/21/12 – Cairo, Egypt – Culturewheel *9/23/12 – Tunis, Tunisia – Le Squat *9/26/12 – Dubai, UAE – Music Room *9/28/12 – Hawler, Iraq – TBA9/29/12 – Sulamaniah, Iraq – TBA10/6/12 – Beirut, Lebanon – Metro Al Madina * * with Lazzy Lung

The Black Lips Are Headed to the Middle East

If you’re in a band, it’s important to go out, buy some clean clothes, and take your show on the road—how else are “the people” supposed to know who’s on the other end of all those illegal downloads? Look to the Black Lips for inspiration. In the past year alone these four dapper young lads have trekked across Europe (Helsinki anyone?), the US, and Thailand, slamming their “any show, any time” ethic into dangerous Quixote territory. Now they’re adding a new zone to that resume—the fucking Middle East. 

You heard right: this fall, our boys are gonna tear that storied juncture of Eurasia and Africa a brand new buttonhole. The shows kick off in Jordan, and will bring the band through Iraq, Egypt, Lebanon, and a bunch of other spots you’ve heard of on the news. The full tour schedule is below. 

You can get a taste of their on-the-road persona in this clip of them eating ant eggs in Thailand:

Also, you can pick up a copy of their latest record, Arabia Mountain, right here. Go do that.

Black Lips’ Middle Eastern Tour

9/14/12 – Amman, Jordan – TBA *
9/19/12 – Larnaca, Cyprus – Savino Live *
9/21/12 – Cairo, Egypt – Culturewheel *
9/23/12 – Tunis, Tunisia – Le Squat *
9/26/12 – Dubai, UAE – Music Room *
9/28/12 – Hawler, Iraq – TBA
9/29/12 – Sulamaniah, Iraq – TBA
10/6/12 – Beirut, Lebanon – Metro Al Madina *

* with Lazzy Lung

Posted
in The Black Lips MENA Rock n Roll
Can Twin Shadow Help Increase Interracial Boning? Music is one of the most powerful unifying forces. The reason we have rock n’ roll today is because black artists like Chuck Berry picked up on white country and bluegrass and mixed it with black blues music to create something awesome and new. And you better believe mixing music wasn’t the only thing those guys were swapping back then between the races—on the low  (and illegally in some states) they were mixing bodily fluids too. This is why I’ve always believed good eclectic music is also a catalyst for more interracial sex. Interracial banging is the best thing in the world because maybe if more people of different races boned we might actually reach a better understanding and respect for each other. If not, at least we’d all be having great sex, which is good in its own right. The power of musicians on interracial sex is probably why a lot of racist white parents aren’t crazy about their daughters listening to hip hop. They know one minute they’ll be singing the theme song to the Fresh Prince of Bel Air, and the next minute they’ll be getting porked by little Lamone from down the street. I’ve dated tons of girls outside my race, so to me this phenomenon is all good. The first white girl I was probably attracted to was Kim Gordon. I used to beat off to my dad’s VHS copy of Screaming Fields of Sonic Love when I was ten with the fury of a thousand swirling hurricanes. Although my theory is not scientifically documented, anecdotal qualitative evidence I’ve gathered from other black dudes across the country has led me to believe it is very real. So, when I heard Twin Shadow was performing at Brooklyn’s Glasslands, I saw it as the perfect opportunity to do some field research on the subject. Twin Shadow is the stage name of George Lewis Jr., a black dude of Dominican descent who has that dangerous effeminate thing going on that only guys like Montgomery Cliff and Prince can pull off. He’s one of my favorite artists working today, and one of the strongest acts to see live. Last Thursday he played a bunch of synthy new tunes from his upcoming and still-untitled sophomore LP. And he probably made a lot of white girls wet. Here is how the night played out and what vital information I gathered on what I would like to officially dub, the Twin Shadow Effect: Continue

Can Twin Shadow Help Increase Interracial Boning?

Music is one of the most powerful unifying forces. The reason we have rock n’ roll today is because black artists like Chuck Berry picked up on white country and bluegrass and mixed it with black blues music to create something awesome and new. And you better believe mixing music wasn’t the only thing those guys were swapping back then between the races—on the low  (and illegally in some states) they were mixing bodily fluids too. This is why I’ve always believed good eclectic music is also a catalyst for more interracial sex. Interracial banging is the best thing in the world because maybe if more people of different races boned we might actually reach a better understanding and respect for each other. If not, at least we’d all be having great sex, which is good in its own right.

The power of musicians on interracial sex is probably why a lot of racist white parents aren’t crazy about their daughters listening to hip hop. They know one minute they’ll be singing the theme song to the Fresh Prince of Bel Air, and the next minute they’ll be getting porked by little Lamone from down the street. I’ve dated tons of girls outside my race, so to me this phenomenon is all good. The first white girl I was probably attracted to was Kim Gordon. I used to beat off to my dad’s VHS copy of Screaming Fields of Sonic Love when I was ten with the fury of a thousand swirling hurricanes. Although my theory is not scientifically documented, anecdotal qualitative evidence I’ve gathered from other black dudes across the country has led me to believe it is very real.

So, when I heard Twin Shadow was performing at Brooklyn’s Glasslands, I saw it as the perfect opportunity to do some field research on the subject. Twin Shadow is the stage name of George Lewis Jr., a black dude of Dominican descent who has that dangerous effeminate thing going on that only guys like Montgomery Cliff and Prince can pull off. He’s one of my favorite artists working today, and one of the strongest acts to see live. Last Thursday he played a bunch of synthy new tunes from his upcoming and still-untitled sophomore LP. And he probably made a lot of white girls wet. Here is how the night played out and what vital information I gathered on what I would like to officially dub, the Twin Shadow Effect:

Continue

Posted
in Twin Shadow Interracial sex Rock n Roll