Week 12 - The Sincerest Form of Flattery

[talonkarrde]

What do I do? I make my living as an Elvis-impersonator.

In a way, it feels like you’re profiting off people that don’t quite have all their marbles, yanno? You put on some makeup, some glitz, you go out there to the dance halls and the weddings and sing some off-key lines that they’ve heard a million times, and they pay you good money for it. And you don’t even have to be perfect: the second you start looking like what they imagine the King to be, they ignore all the imperfections, the extra ten pounds here, the stubble he didn’t have there, the bad hairdo and the cheap clothes you bought from a Halloween place

It’s sort of a weird feeling, let me tell you, when people pay money just to see you be someone else. When they call you by a name that isn’t your own, when they scream for you and claim they’re your biggest fans and that you never died. Those ones are creepy, when they think you (and every other impersonator out there) is the real deal.

But it’s their nostalgia, and it makes them happy, so who am I to judge what they want? It’s a free market society and all that, and if there’s demand, then there should be supply to meet it. I’m just givin’ the people what they want, and I’m not harming anyone. I’m just playing my - well, his - music, and singing my heart out, and giving chicks snappy lines.

And I have to say, there are times when I’m beltin’ out those lyrics, right, and I really do feel like the King, like his spirit is moving through me, and it’s just magical. Sometimes, it stays after, and I just stay in my costume - they feel so natural on me those times - and walk down the streets, doing what he’d do. Because it’s what I’d do, you know? I’m him, in a way, carrying on like he would, and I really think that his spirit touches me. Like we’re linked, and all that.

I mean, if you think about it, what’s to say that he didn’t pass onto the next world and then come back, living in people like me? Sometimes, I ask chicks to call out Elvis when they’re in bed with me, because, man, it gives me such a rush, and--

Wait, wait. You’re not recording this, right?

Comments

[cheshire23.livejournal.com]

For some reason this makes me think of Leonard Nimoy's I Am Not Spock. Nice job.

[streetnights.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

[basric.livejournal.com]

An interesting entry. I liked it. Well written.

[streetnights.livejournal.com]

I, for the life of me, couldn't come up with a serious entry. So I tried for something slightly off-kilter and sardonic instead. Thanks!

[ecosopher.livejournal.com]

Haha, the ending made me laugh :D

[streetnights.livejournal.com]

;) Just imagine the look of horror and panic on the guy's face!

[lawchicky.livejournal.com]

I love the last paragraph :) nicely played!

[streetnights.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I would LOVE to be the guy to get him on tape saying everything he said.

[myrna-bird.livejournal.com]

You entertain and bring happiness...
Ha! Funny ending. Good job.

[streetnights.livejournal.com]

It's a crazy way to make a living, isn't it?

[shadowwolf13]

I've actually been to see a semi famous Elvis impersonator ... it's so interesting. It's interesting to see how people respond to him as well as seeing how easily I could fall into the fantasy. :)

[streetnights.livejournal.com]

Oooh, that's really cool. I wonder if they all get together somewhere once a year to talk about their experiences? Imagine, a room full of Elvises. Elvii? :P

[shadowwolf13]

That would be very interesting! I wonder what you'd call a gathering of Elvises. LOL

[awriterswindow.livejournal.com]

Haha...this is awesome.

[streetnights.livejournal.com]

Thanks! :D

[similiesslip.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure if this is fiction?

Either way...I mean, we all want to be part of "something bigger." And there's no harm in feeling that way. We're all human.

Singing in front of an audience can be such a rush, can't it? Sometimes there is nothing like performing.

Fiction or not, this is a great entry. And if it is you, I think it is great that you are making people happy:)

[streetnights.livejournal.com]

This is fiction :P

I've wondered a bit, always, what it would be like to be doing something like that. Combine the rush of singing and performing to the different sensation of not having that much pressure because you're giving people someone else, instead of yourself; it has to be a very unique experience.

And thank you!

[streetnights.livejournal.com]

I think it's interesting because it lets the impersonator slightly off the hook - but for the really good ones, they don't get as much credit as they would if they were performing their own stuff, right? They'll always be remembered as the shadow of the greater figure.

[java-fiend.livejournal.com]

LOL... I'm somehow strangely disturbed by the ending. lol... Nicely done. A fun piece.

[streetnights.livejournal.com]

Strangely disturbed is what I'm going for. Coming from the master of strangely disturbing pieces, though, I think this is tame in comparison!

[comedychick.livejournal.com]

Even though I just read another entry about Elvis in your tribe, this was a different story, different tone, so I think it works separately instead of seeming like a copied idea (lucky! I was worried it might at the start). I'm with the others who said they like the ending.

[streetnights.livejournal.com]

As they say, you cant' have too much of the King, right? ;)

[pixiebelle.livejournal.com]

Crazy ending there. Slightly disturbing, but well done!