Professional keynote & seminar speaker using the wisdom & persona of Forrest Gump to inspire individuals and companies to self motivate and control own destiny.
Who wants to be a fake, an imitation, or simply one who mimics another?
I never like saying that. I never liked telling people that my job was an impersonator.
Somehow, I never wanted to be pretending to be someone (or something) else. I wanted to be me.
What are some synonyms for impersonate?
On the lighter side …
Stories of Gumption is a regular column that profiles individuals who admirably demonstrate Gumption as we define it. These are the stories of real people who exhibit gumption in overcoming personal challenges, and validate the spirit of Gumption during their journey. Let’s take inspiration from those who seize 100% personal responsibility and show us how to live a life that exhibits Gump-like character traits worthy of applause!
Glenn and Forrest ponder the universe
Last year at the Celebrity Impersonators Convention (CIC), I met a photographer. We friended each other on Facebook, and I started seeing the interesting photographs he’d post regularly on his wall. First he posted the pictures of the celebrity look-alikes he shot at the 2010 CIC. Next he posted pictures from a trip to Alaska and I saw the very same train depot in Anchorage that I visited almost 20 years earlier. Then I viewed pictures from the roads of America with highways, bridges, and road signs. A few weeks later I saw pictures from Bosnia, Graceland, the Guadalupe Shrine in Mexico City, and finally Old Jerusalem. This guy seemed to be everywhere.
Do you remember the scene from Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid when Butch and the Kid are being chased by the six lawmen? Every time the duo thinks they’ve outsmarted the lawmen, they’d rediscover the outlaws’ trail. When this happens, Butch repeatedly marvels, “Who the heck are those guys?”
Well, that is how I started to feel about this photographer. I’d see his pictures from both really exotic and simply ordinary places over and over and over again. I started to ask myself, “Who the heck is this guy?” How is he traveling to all these places? Doesn’t he work? Or have a job? Or even spend any time at home?
Last week I saw Glenn Campbell again at the 2011 CIC. I wasn’t going to let the opportunity pass. I asked, “Glenn, who the heck are you? How do you manage to travel from interesting place to interesting place, taking all these great photographs?”
Here is what Glenn told me.
Steve with his 3rd place Vegas Tribute Idol statue and his Best Actor Reel Award
Last week I attended the 11th Annual Celebrity Impersonators Convention (CIC) in Las Vegas. It’s the event started by Janna Joos that brings together look-alikes, celebrity impersonators, tribute artists, agents, and producers from all over the world. Attending has become an important part of my year as I renew friendships, make new friends, and learn from the other professionals in this lively and always interesting business.
For more details about Janna, the CIC, and the impersonator/entertainment business, please read last year’s “Report from the CIC”. And if you don’t already know, read about the differences between a tribute artist, a celebrity impersonator, and a look-alike.
In 2007, the CIC joined with The Reel Awards, giving tribute artists and look-alikes two great events in one amazing place. The recently renovated Golden Nugget in downtown Las Vegas was a fantastic venue for both of this year’s events. We all had the chance to perform on the Gordie Brown Theater stage. The 20th Annual Reel Awards show featured singing, comedy, impressions, and celebrity impersonators. Seeing the best of the best on a single stage is both an entertainment treat and a ‘how to’ lesson for any first-time attendees. The Reel Awards is the Academy Awards for the best lookalikes and tribute artists in the business!
Guess what? I was fortunate enough to be honored with awards at both the CIC and the Reel Awards. Here are the details.
I was interviewed on a radio show last week. I’m grateful for the experience. Was it all just a coincidence? Or maybe destiny? Or maybe each of us simply making our own luck?
Do you remember the scene in the movie when Momma Gump is on her deathbed? She and Forrest are having a conversation about dying and destiny.
Momma: “I didn’t know it, but I was destined to be your momma. I did the best I could.”
Forrest: “You did good, Momma.”
Momma: “Well, I happen to believe you make your own destiny. You have to do the
best with what God gave you.”
You can sense a good deal of gratitude in Momma’s words here and in her attitude throughout the movie. You feel that she always had pride and thankfulness for the life she lived – and was pleased and grateful for her son.
“Feeling grateful or appreciative of someone or something in your life actually attracts more of the things that you appreciate and value into your life.” - Christiane Northrup
“Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all the others.” - Cicero
I’m grateful that I met Mary Foley and Susie Galvez.
Do you believe in luck? Destiny? Being grateful?
Agent Friendly is a term used by both Speakers Bureaus and Agencies that book entertainment such as tribute bands, tribute artists and impersonators. (Let’s just refer to both distinct groups as Agents going forward.) The term Agent Friendly specifically refers to the promotional materials (i.e. web sites, one-sheets, headshots, etc.) that the speaker or tribute artist provides to the agents so that they can better promote and sell the speaker or tribute artist (hereafter both referred to simply as Talent). Agent Friendly promo materials intentionally omit the talent’s specific contact information. Rather, it has the contact information of the agent.
The reason behind this? The agent is acting as the principal dealmaker between potential clients and the many talent options. Agents have the difficult job of sending out many unique talent proposals to a single client for any single event. After the client does an initial screening, the agent may help the client select the talent that will best fit their specific needs. For example, an agent may send one particular client proposals for 5 different speakers. The client then selects the one or two they like best, then the agent may give additional advice on the specific speakers that client has selected. Now expand that task to potentially a hundred different clients with hundreds of proposals with thousands of different talent options and you can easily see a complex management task that the agent must deal with on a daily basis.
Agent Friendly promo material is an efficient way to keep the communication between the client and agent (i.e. broker) and not get the talent involved during this initial screening process, and frequently not until the specific job is booked.
Besides making an efficient process unnecessarily confusing, a client calling the talent directly and bypassing the agent raises a specific ethical dilemma. When clients and talent decide to do business directly, eliminating the agent who was the original dealmaker, a valuable link is removed and devalued. This would be similar to a manufacturer who decides to sell directly to the public after a previous agreement has been made to sell through a channel of wholesalers and retailers. How would the middlemen feel in that situation?
Fast forward to 2010 and a world where Google is king, when it’s possible for anyone to find anyone else in seconds with a simple internet search and clients can find the talent that want almost instantly; you now leave the scenario screaming for some clarification and new common sense guidelines.
Does this make agents obsolete? Unnecessary? I say, “No!” Speakers Bureaus and Agencies still have a vital role to play going forward. Understanding the role of agents and operating from a foundation of integrity will make it both practical and beneficial for agents to broker deals between clients and talent.
Here are the key issues as I see them and the principals that I believe are necessary for clients, agents and talent to work together productively and ethically in a Google dominated world.
Steve as 'Forrest' with other Tribute Artists at Sunburst 2010
The art of being ‘genuine and authentic’ is characterized as being real, truthful, not phony or counterfeit, not copied. So how can a Tribute Artist , someone who is impersonating, pretending to be, and imitating someone else, be genuine and authentic? Do you see the irony? The dichotomy?
How does a new parent, the day they take their first child home from the hospital, be genuine and authentic? After all, they have no experience at parenting, they’ve never done it before. They probably read some books but they have no real experience. In a sense, they are ‘impersonating’ a parent at the beginning. It’s no doubt awkward. But with time, hard work, trial and error, they figure it out and it happens – they parent genuinely and authentically.
How did you feel the first day you started a new job? Did you know what you were doing? Did you immediately take the bull by the horns and wrestle him to the ground? Of course not, you were most likely ‘impersonating’ someone competent, and in some cases pretending you knew what your were doing. In reality, you didn’t have a clue and secretly hoped that others didn’t discover your phoniness. But after a few days you started gaining some comfort with your new surroundings and co-workers; with hard work and dedication you figured it out. Your genuineness and authenticity bloomed.
Here is my list of 7 things a Tribute Artist (or anyone) can do to be genuine and authentic in the role they are impersonating.
This past weekend I attended the Sunburst Convention of Celebrity Tribute Artists in Orlando Florida. Greg & Jackie Thompson are the hosts and producers of this outstanding event that brings together look-alikes, tribute artists and celebrity impersonators from around the world.
Some of you may be asking yourselves: What is the difference between an impersonator, a look-alike and a tribute artist? Aren’t they all the same? Do the terms all mean the same thing or do they all have specific and different meanings?
Let’s admit they all have very similar meanings and they are frequently used interchangeably. It’s been confusing for me and I’ve been working in the business for 14+ years. So to begin my 3-Part Report this week I will define each term for you, with my own description and explanation.
During this 3-part report from the Sunburst Convention, I’ll be including pictures of a few of my impersonator and tribute artist friends. The people who attend Sunburst the very best and it shouldn’t be a problem to recognize their characters. Can you?
406.396.4611 | steve@speakinggump.com 
Forrest Gump is a fictitious character created in the book Forrest Gump, Winston Groom (1986) and the movie Forrest Gump, Paramount Pictures (1994). Steve Weber has been a Tribute Artist portraying Forrest Gump since 1996. Although Steve Weber has worked for the Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. under license as Forrest Gump since 1996, nothing herein is intended to imply sponsorship or affiliation with either Paramount Pictures or Bubba Gump Shrimp Company.
