Real Fakes Take Over Vegas at Celebrity Impersonator Convention

LAS VEGAS -- "Sarah Palin" is a little wigged out at the moment in more ways than one. She's darting around her hotel room frantically searching for her drop earrings, which, she says, she simply cannot go out without. And, also, the bump of chestnut hair on the top of her head is a little off-kilter, so she tries a few more times to adjust her hairpiece.

"There, how do I look?" she asks after sliding on the rectangular glasses and slipping into the red blazer with the oversized cubic zirconia flag pin. "Do I look like her?"

You betcha. In fact, Debbie Cavalier of Ponce Inlet, Fla., appeared quite Palinesque even before she put on the makeup, the clothes and the accessories that are the visual trademarks of the former Alaska governor and Republican firebrand. But with all of that in place, she was ready to make her debut appearance among the other real fakes at the four-day 11th annual Celebrity Impersonators Convention, which concludes today.

Even in a place like Las Vegas, where plenty of job descriptions include dressing up as Elvis or Cher, folks such as Cavalier are turning heads by gathering by the dozens at the Golden Nugget Hotel and Casino for an industry conference.

It's hard not to look twice when you peek into a seminar room where a motivational speaker is urging listeners to "be the best self you can be, or the best whoever," and the crowd includes Johnny Depp, Ozzy and Sharon Ozbourne, Kenny Rogers, Christopher Reeve, Jack Nicholson and George Michael.

Still, it's a business, and the folks who do this sort of work are here to exchange ideas, feel a camaraderie and learn how to turn their likeness into a paying hobby or a full-fledged career.

"I'm very new at this, so right now I'm just looking to expanding my market," said Alexander Rae, 26, of Bloomburg, Pa., who won a Christopher Reeve look-alike contest in Metropolis, Ill., last June and then buffed up his body so he could do justice to Superman's tights.

"It's a little more comfortable knowing that a lot of other people have been doing this for a while and have had fun with this. When I go home, I'll say I ran into Johnny Depp and Joan Rivers, and I'll ask my friends, 'What'd you do this week?' 'Oh, I did laundry.'"

For most of the impersonators, it all starts with other people asking if they'd ever noticed how much they resemble so-and-so. After Dale Clark, 42, of Louisville, Ky., went to a 2006 costume party as Captain Jack Sparrow, Johnny Depp's "Pirates of the Caribbean" alter ego, he began getting requests to appear at birthday parties.

"I gave it a shot and did really well with it, but I was clean-shaven back then so I had to actually glue the individual hairs on my face, and that took two hours alone," said Clark, who quit his job last year in tech support for a local phone company to go full time. He gets about $500 an appearance on average.

"Then I grew it out for real, and everyone kept saying it all the time, 'You know who you look like? You look just like Johnny Depp!' I thought, 'OK, I can make a living doing this,'" Clark said.

Yes, there's real money in this gig if the person you resemble is in demand. Dee Dee Hanson of Orange, Calif., has been a full-time Joan Rivers impersonator for two decades, appearing as the brassy reality-TV star and fashion critic all over the world. Mostly, though, her business is centered around appearances at corporate functions where she sings ditties about the company's products, or at conventions where she'll be hired to draw interest to a booth or a speaker.

"Most of the actual celebrities, even if you get them to appear, are so guarded," Hanson said. "With us, you get to mix and mingle, and people get excited."

Cavalier's path to doppleganger-hood is similar to Clark's. She's a Daytona, Fla.-area real estate agent whose niece suggested she go as Palin on Halloween 2008. She won a costume contest that night, and the next day she stopped by the Daytona Republican Party headquarters to encourage volunteers in the waning days of the 2008 election when Palin was running for vice president.

Palin and GOP presidential nominee John McCain lost the election, of course, but Palin's star continued to ascend. Cavalier attended a Palin book signing in costume, to the real Palin's delight. She even got a compliment on her flag pin.

Cavalier isn't giving up her day job, in part because political impersonators have a harder time getting work than show business imitators. Conference organizer Janna Joos, owner of the booking agency International Celebrity Images, said Elvis and Marilyn Monroe remain perennially popular, as are Depp, Angelina Jolie and Joan Rivers. Lady Gaga has started garnering interest too. But political figures are a trickier piece of business beyond political party functions.

"The country is so diversely split, and because of the politically correct stuff nowadays, people are really shying away unless they have one of each," Joos said. "A Clinton and a Bush or a Bush and an Obama, that's fine, both sides are covered. But just doing one is really not happening that much."

In this way, though, Clark is grateful he resembles a pop culture star like Depp, who "is really a stand-up kind of guy, because that makes it a whole lot easier to do this." By contrast, George Michael look-alike Bill Pantazis of Vancouver, Canada, finds himself hearing from his friends and co-workers every time the singer gets arrested.

It's also important, Rae has learned, to know as much about your character as possible. During an early appearance as Superman, a woman told him she was wearing pink underwear. She was making a reference to a famous scene in the first Christopher Reeve "Superman" film when Lois Lane asks if he's got X-ray vision and he tells her what color her skivvies are. But Rae didn't know that, partly because he was born seven years after the film opened.