Ever since I saw Danny Gans perform in Vegas—I think it was sometime in the earlyish 90s, and Gans opened for Bill Cosby—I have had a deep, abiding respect for that underloved dark art, the Celebrity Impression.
Here’s film and voiceover actor Jim Meskimen with a monologue from Shakespeare’s Richard III. In the video, Meskimen mimics 25 celebrities.
Some of these are stock characters every impressionist seems to be able to do (Jimmy Stewart, Morgan Freeman, Walken, De Niro), but there are a couple unexpected doozies in the mix, too, like spot-on impersonations of Garrison Keillor and Paul Giamatti.
Reasons I love this video:
– It’s one take. He is able to switch voices on a dime.
– He does really good faces! A great De Niro Face will sell an iffy De Niro impression every time.
– He isn’t reciting the soliloquy with a script or prompter. Slick.
– In the 1980s, Jim Meskimen was a cartoonist for Thundercats.
overrated
Great!
Unbelievable that anyone can memorize a 6 min soliloquy…never mind have the presence of mind to switch it up with voices. Very talented man.
Pretty damn good. His Ricky Gervais and Simon Cowell I was a bit meh about, but that’s cos I’m a Brit and I’m a bit picky about the accents. Thought Walken was good and Woody Allen. Haha, and that’s how to do Droopy Dog.
I tried to do some impressions myself, not any near as good as this guy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJ0gMw-XF7k
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