My Impressions!

This weekend, I'm going to do an impression of Christopher Walken doing and impression of me. I might just be able to pull it off.

I started doing impressions in the mid 80's. That's how I got started in this wacky world of stand up comedy. I had no desire to do stand up. In fact, I had never even been to a comedy club. It never even crossed my mind.

I worked for Circuit City at the time and although I had always been funny, I couldn't expect what happened one day. We were finishing a two week seminar to new employees and we were having a graduation ceremony with 350 participants and most of the executives from the corporate office.

The Los Angeles Times was supposed to be there to take photos, and the photographer was late. The participants were rapidly getting restless, so one of the executives pushed me out in front of the crowd and told me to tell some jokes. Jokes? Are you kidding me?

I couldn't think of anything to say, and then I remembered some Rodney Dangerfield jokes from a record my sister had given me for Christmas. So, I started doing the impression, and they loved it! The only other impression I could do well was of a preacher who was on tv.

His name was Ernest Angley. He ran a church in Akron, Ohio and had a very peculiar voice and cadence. So I did that impression as well and the audience went wild. Following the ceremony, I was approached by a man named Harvey Pepper. Harvey had just retired from show business as a comedy writer.

Harvey asked me if I had ever thought about doing stand up for a living. I said no, of course. He told me his background and said I had the talent to make it in the business. I thanked him and went about my business.

The following Tuesday, Harvey called me and told me that I was on the schedule to perform that night at The Laugh Factory in Hollywood, and to be there before 8 o'clock. I was certainly going to blow it off. After all, what did I know about doing stand up? And what if I bomb?

The more I thought about it, the more I became willing to go. After all, I didn't know any of these people, so who cares if I bomb? I'll remain anonymous and go home. So, I went on stage and did the same thing I had done at work. The show turned out to be a talent contest and I won! I know!

So, over the years, knowing that crowds love good impressions, I found I could mimic a lot of well known people. One night my buddy and fellow comedian Ron Ruhman got tickets to go see the television show, "Coach". We brought our girlfriends and were enjoying the warm up comedian, who was very funny.

I had been toying with a Forest Gump impression. The comedian asked the crowd if anyone had a talent they wanted to show off. Ruhman's hand was up in a flash. He pointed to me and said "He does." I decided to kill him. Nevertheless, I decided to do my Forest Gump impression, but to really make it funny, I needed to put a twist in the bit.

Necessity is the mother of all invention, so I came up with a twist. I asked the crowd if they liked impressions. They obviously said yes, so I told them I was going to reenact my favorite scene from Apollo 13. I said that the scene was after the problem with the space capsule and there was one scene where Tom Hanks turned to Kevin Bacon and, pointing to Bacon's shoes said in the best Forest Gump voice I could do, "Those look like comfortable shoes." And went on from there.

It was a hit! A new bit was created! From then on, I began to study different celebrities and soon I could do Gump, Tom Brokaw, Bill Clinton, Walter Brennan, Regis Philbin, Jack Buck and Hank Stram and several others, including the warden from the movie "Cool Hand Luke".

I still do every impression except for Walter Brennan. No one recognizes him anymore. It's a lot of fun and the audiences love it.

Come on out to a show and you can hear them live. If you'd like, you can click here to see my Forest Gump bit.

See you tomorrow.

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