Saturday, Dec. 2, 2000 | 10:28 a.m.
He does it his way.
Impressionist Bill Acosta re-creates the moments, the memories and the voices of the Rat Pack, Jack Nicholson and George Burns, among other celebrities.
"I am the 'Man of 1001 Voices,' " Acosta said during a recent show. "The '1' is mine."
Acosta, who left the 350-seat Luxor Live Theatre Nov. 5, recently reopened his "Lasting Impressions" show in the Flamingo Las Vegas' Twilight Room, sporting a new hairdo and accompanied by 12 topless dancers and an eight-piece orchestra led by Joey Singer.
Acosta first performed in Las Vegas in 1970 as a lounge singer at Caesars Palace's Nero's Nook. He morphed to a singing impressionist in 1988 at the urging of his director and wife, Jeanne Bavarro.
He returned to Las Vegas in 1997 after a three-year run at Trump Plaza in Atlantic City.
The voices of George Bush, Howard Cosell and Jerry Lewis slipped easily into the conversation during a recent interview with Acosta.
Las Vegas Sun: You've dyed your hair, added six dancers and gone topless -- well, the dancers, anyway.
Bill Acosta: You gotta go with the flow. I've changed a little bit of stuff but I left it the same at the same time because I always wear a tux. I like that feeling because most of the people that I impersonate wore a tux. It fits the characters.
Sun: How do you like the new digs?
BA: The Flamingo stage is a piece of history in Las Vegas. It was maybe one of the first hotels on the Strip. The history, the ghosts, the spirits or whatever that have encountered that stage are just working with me. You can feel that.
It's a true showroom and more conducive to what we do. We had a bigger show when we came from Atlantic City, and we had to pretty much trim down to go to the Luxor. Now we are back kickin' the way we want.
Sun: How is this show different than other impersonators'?
BA: We have a real production, with dancers and the band. We have a real set, as opposed to me just standing up there doing impressions, which, there is nothing wrong with that. It's just different. I don't want to be a Danny Gans, I don't want to be an Andre-Philippe (Gagnon). Nothing against them, but we need to separate ourselves.
Sun: When did you begin impersonating celebrities?
BA: The first voice I ever did in front of anybody was Louis Armstrong. I was a kid, 5, 6 years old and we got our TV set in New Orleans, which is where I was raised, and my eyes turned square (from watching). Everybody was glued to the TV. It was a different world back then, it was a real golden age of entertainment.
Sun: So TV opened your eyes to your future?
BA: I didn't think I wanted to be an entertainer, I just enjoyed the process of it. It just felt like fun so I imitated anything I saw on television. My parents would just sort of stare at me and nod their head. Little did they know, or did I, that someday I would be in this business.
Sun: Why did you make the transition from a singer who does impressions to an impressionist who sings?
BA: I think financially I came to that point and it was interesting to me to become an impressionist, per se, who also sings, and Jeanne really prompted me to become a real act as an impressionist. She pulled me into the future.
Sun: Kicking and screaming?
BA: I was kicking and screaming a little bit (laughs). It was kind of hard because singing was my first love. There are certain things you gain, and at the same time, there are certain things you lose. All the singing that I did before is coming in handy right now.
Sun: How do you come up with your routines?
BA: In the show I do a thing called "vocal tones" where one voice sounds like another. This is how you come up with more voices. John Wayne, George Bush and Howard Cosell would be the same voice -- they literally slide into one another.
I like the combinations of one voice totally sounding different than another and using them together. Like Ricky Martin and Arnold Schwarzenegger -- it's two total opposites. It provides a comic relief.
Sun: Who is the most difficult to impersonate?
BA: Sinatra took years and years. Bill Clinton took about a week because he's just Elmer Fudd with an accent.
Sinatra is hard because he is very subtle, there's no extreme fix to his personality like Sammy Davis Jr., where you have the glasses, and the, "Hi, babe." There are a lot of ticks that you can work with.
Sinatra didn't have any of those. You have to really be able to sing him and appreciate the charts and the music. He's tough, and everybody has a special place in their soul for Franky.
Sun: What's in your tuxedo pockets?
BA: I've got handkerchiefs, I've got cigars, I've got jewelry. I've got Sammy glasses, I've got George Burns glasses "On Golden Pond" (Henry Fonda and Katharine Hepburn) glasses. If I'm doing George Burns, I know my glasses are in my right pocket on the top with one of the arms hanging out. I've got a lot going on, so you have to have timing -- good timing.
Kimberley McGee is an Accent feature writer. She can be reached at mcgee@las vegassun.com or 259-4096.
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