It was just after New Year’s, and I was looking forward to watching the first new episode of Saturday Night Live of 2011, hosted by my old friend Jim Carrey. As it turned out, it was a lame 90 minutes.
But a sketch toward the end of the show caught my attention. Carrey played a swami who tried to contact the departed for his clients, only to channel the voices of celebrities. It gave Carrey a great opportunity to do impressions, and it reminded me that this is how he had started out in the ’70s.
It made me wonder what happened to all the impressionists.
In the ’80s, there were some great impressionists onstage in Toronto. Mark Halloran, who did Richard Dreyfuss so well you could swear he was in the room; Maurice LaMarche, whose Johnny Carson set the standard for all other Carson impersonators; and Ray Landry, who specialized in political figures.
LaMarche eventually made his way to Hollywood and made a fortune in cartoons, but the others faded from public view.
More recently, Rodney Pentland had some local success with his great impressions of Bill Cosby and Jack Nicholson before his untimely death a few years ago.
A few other comics, such as Mark Walker, do voices, but incorporate them into their larger stand-up show. And then there are the singing impressionists, most obviously Andre-Philippe Gagnon, who would wow crowds by doing a “We Are the World” tribute using all the voices in the original.
Also Martin Dube and Gordie Brown are two Canadian impressionists making it big in Vegas. Of course, Rich Little was the platinum standard in the impressionist game for decades, one of the biggest comedy stars in the world. He still works, although his material hasn’t changed since the Diefenbaker era.
It’s slim pickings for fans of the impressionist’s craft. One exception is Frank Caliendo, who’s a big hit in Vegas now with his mixture of politicians and celebrities. And if you’re looking for someone classic yet original, look no further than this year’s breakout star on Saturday Night Live, Jay Pharoah.
Pharoah’s expert impressions of African-American stars such as Denzel Washington and Will Smith are eerie in their perfection.
It’s a short list, and the genre has been in decline for years. Why?
In the classic movie Sunset Boulevard, aging movie star Norma Desmond laments what Hollywood has become. “We had faces then,” she says. She might also have included voices. We now occupy a universe so obsessed with the visual that what we hear is no longer relevant. Compare classic impressionists’ choices — Jimmy Stewart, Fonda, Bogart, Jack Benny — all unique and recognizable, whereas today’s stars, such as Clooney, Damon, Hanks and DiCaprio, possess voices that are neutral and uninflected.
Perhaps the nature of stardom has changed. Everyone knew what Johnny Carson sounded like. And though Craig Ferguson has his own unique Scottish brogue, in a 500- channel universe, Ferguson can be a TV star with only a slim market share. Someone could imitate him, but not everyone would know him.
A few years ago, a producer in L.A. made the rounds pitching a game show that revolved around impressionists. The networks were quite keen on the idea, and the producer sensed he had a hit on his hands. But the show never got off the ground. The producer wasn’t able to find enough impressionists!