He was driving through Florida when the cell phone in his car began to ring. He was tired, but Rich Little, who gets paid handsomely to talk, picked it up and said, “Hello, there, I have been playing some senior centers down here. The blue hair is blinding me.”
Little, 60, is a practitioner of what some may consider a dying craft, the graying king of one of stardom’s most esoteric realms. He is an impressionist, able to become other people, not only taking on their voices but their mannerisms and, if possible, their looks.
“At first this was basically just guys who stood in front of a curtain and did other people’s voices,” said Little, who is performing in Chicago for the first time since 1995, scheduled for four shows Friday through Sunday at Drury Lane Theatre in Evergreen Park.
Sammy Davis Jr. was one of the first and best of those guys — and an inspiration for Little, who grew up in Canada and started doing impressions of the neighborhood barber when he was 8.
“Sammy was great, and then I opened things up, forming entire comedic routines around the voices,” Little said.
He and others of his generation made good livings and even became stars doing impressions during the 1960s. Little and colleagues such as Frank Gorshin, George Kirby, John Byner and David Frye were frequent guests on television and steady fare on the club circuit, mainly doing impersonations of movie stars such as Humphrey Bogart, Kirk Douglas and Peter Lawford, and politicians, with Richard Nixon a favorite.
“But then the nightclubs closed and the shows stopped booking impressionists,” Little said. “Now I suppose we are not as fashionable as we once were. But we are flourishing in spots.”
Chicago is one of those spots.
“Chicago’s always appreciated what I do,” said Little, who has performed here many times over the last 30 years at places such as the Empire Room and Mill Run Theater.
One local light is Skip Griparis, who with his musical impressions of stars such as Bruce Springsteen, Prince, Neil Diamond and Buddy Holly has been a pleasurable fixture on the local comedy club scene.
Another is Ron Hawking. He had a very successful run at the Mercury Theater with “His Way: A Tribute to the Man and His Music,” a respectful tribute to Frank Sinatra that also featured impressions of other Rat Pack members such as Dean Martin, as well as Johnny Mathis, Louis Armstrong, Carol Channing, Ray Charles and George Burns. The show likely is headed to San Francisco’s Theater on the Square in May.
But Hawking has been in the impressionism field much longer than the run of that production. A decade ago, Hawking had crafted a successful career as a commercial musician and voice when he created “The Lively Art of Impressionism,” a one-man show featuring more than 50 impersonations of stars and characters from his commercials. He performed the show around the country and still does a number of corporate engagements.
He too was inspired by Sammy Davis Jr.
“My dad used to try impressions in the car — Louis Armstrong, Billy Eckstine, Perry Como — when we’d be driving around somewhere,” Hawking said. “I practiced what I heard and got good at it.
“Later, in college, I was in a band and I heard the `Sammy Davis Jr. Live at the Coconut Grove’ album. That show was filled with impersonations, and I lifted his entire routine, word-for-word, and worked it into my jazz trio’s show.”
He is philosophical about his profession.
“Nobody wants me for me,” he said. “They want me for somebody else. This is the great anonymous show business area. It’s like doing a magic trick. There is your persona and then there’s Tom Jones coming out.”
But to get things right takes more than a facility for mimicking voices.
“It is an acting job,” Hawking said. “You’ve got to get into the skin of the person — the skin, the voice, the body language. And then write material for the character. Each character is a continual acting/writing experience. The best impressionists are really terrific actors.”
Some impressionists can still be seen on TV, most prominently on “Saturday Night Live,” which has a lengthy tradition of impersonating celebrities. But Little says television is no longer their primary outlet.
“It’s simply not true that this is a dying entertainment,” he said. “There just aren’t as many television variety shows on which impressionists can show their stuff. There are . . . I could name half a dozen great impressionists working now in Las Vegas.”
One performer he does name is Danny Gans, who is based at the Rio Hotel and is a singer-impressionist who does many of the old favorites — Frank, Sammy — but also can impersonate rock stars such as Eric Clapton. He’s a hot ticket, named Vegas’ Entertainer of the Year in 1998.
Little plays Las Vegas once or twice a year. The rest of the time he’s on the road at theaters, industrial trade shows and senior centers.
If his visibility is not what it once was, demand for Little is still high, and his repertoire is vast enough to satisfy all types of audiences.
“I’m not going to be doing my Elton John for crowds of seniors,” he said, still cruising down a Florida highway. “For them, it’ll be Perry Como.”
Depending on the audience, he can deliver old-timers (W.C. Fields, Laurel and Hardy, Maurice Chevalier), politicians (Ronald Reagan, Jimmy Carter, George Bush) or film stars (Bela Lugosi, James Stewart, John Wayne).
He also “does” such contemporary stars as Arnold Schwarzenegger, Clint Eastwood, and Sean Connery. But he says there’s less material to work with today.
“The big stars of the ’30s and ’40s were larger than life,” Little said. “What am I supposed to do with Val Kilmer, with Tom Cruise?”
About 40 of the 200-some voices in the Little repertoire can be heard on his new CD, “Rich Little’s Dumb-ettes: A `Little’ Tribute to Ol’ Blue Eyes” (Uproar Entertainment), an irreverent homage to Sinatra’s “Duets” recordings.
The CD features “Fly Me To the Moon” with the voices of Clark Gable, Cary Grant and Gary Cooper and “Pennies From Heaven” with Jack Benny, George Burns and Gracie Allen (voice by Kathy Walker, one of only a handful of female impressionists).
And there’s “Call Me Irresponsible” as sung by Bill Clinton.
“Clinton has been very good to me these last few years,” Little said. “He’s given me a lot of good material.”
Little’s ear is ever-tuned to voices in the news. He is currently working on possible future presidents Al Gore and Elizabeth Dole.
“Al Gore? To get him right I’m taking a lot of Valium,” Little said. “Elizabeth Dole? Now that’s going to be a real stretch for me. You really think she’s got a chance to win?”
