In the days that followed that Donald J. Trump was declared a winner of the presidential election last year, Allison Reese began to have strange interactions with foreigners.
“”People of my coffee looked at me and approached me as if I was dead, which is a little funny for me, “said Reese, 32, an actor who lives in Los Angeles.
She was very lively, although things were certainly going to change.
A few years ago, Reese quickly found glory online with an impression of vice-president Kamala Harris. It raised hundreds Thousands of followers on Tiktok. National news interviews. A film role.
But now Harris had lost against Trump, which meant that Reese had professional mourning to do.
“If she won, there would be all these other opportunities and things that I would have potentially obtained,” said Reese. But there would probably be no appearance at the end of the evening in the near future, nor a chance to be on “Saturday Night Live”. (Reese played as Harris during a showcase for the show in 2019, essentially a hearing.)
This is the life of political impressionists, whose fortune rises and falls according to the decisions, careers and the fate of the people they represent. Since the November elections, those who launched Harris and former president Joseph R. Biden Jr. have found less request for their services.
Harris loss was a particularly bitter pill to swallow in some corners. Politics has long been an area dominated by men, as well as political satire.
“There are really few places right now for female political imitators,” said Rosemary Watson, 58, a voiceover that made an impression of Hillary Clinton. “Republicans really need to put their game back with women because they don’t give me anyone.”
Piotr Michael, an actor and voice artist, was recruited for Immilite Biden’s voice dozens of times on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” During his presidency. These reservations stopped a stop when Biden abandoned his re -election offerAlthough he obtained a final appearance shortly after the inauguration of Trump. Biden’s departure was “soft-love,” he said.
“”I feel sad because it was a new entity with regard to printing, ”said Michael, 36. “There are not many people who feel like Joe Biden.”
Most Biden imitators are sosies or their impressions are “very exaggerated,” said Michael, quoting Dana Carvey on “Saturday Night Live”. He said he was aiming to bring his impression as close as possible to the real thing.
With the departure of Biden of the public scene, Michael said: “A part of me is like:” Hey, you know, I had a corner on this market because I was known to do Joe Biden as a parody, but also seriously. ‘”
Carvey, who surely belongs to Mount Rushmore political impressionists – “No joke!” – briefly played Biden on “Saturday Night Live” Last year at the request of the program’s patriarch, Lorne Michaels. When Carvey received the call for the first time, Biden had not yet abandoned. But at the time Carvey went to the showHarris was the candidate, which meant that Carvey did not consider it a long -term concert.
Biden’s impression, said Carvey, was “very delicate” and where he had to “put on the needle”.
“The key was to make him funny and always be a little faithful to his verbal peccadilles,” he said. “So Biden was expelled, how you want to call it, then Lorne said:” Come on anyway. “It was the first time on television to do Biden without being a candidate for the presidency. So I think that it has relaxed the public a little.
Carvey had a record year in 1992, performing as Bush and as Ross PerotThe Texan who speaks fast who ran as independent. (He has already made both parties at the same time) But then, of course, Bush lost after a mandate against Bill Clinton. Carvey said in an interview that if Bush had been re -elected, his mandate at the show would have lasted longer.
“I would have stayed where I would have been and left,” said Carvey, 69. “I would have stolen it and I would have done it, probably. I was so identified with that.
Carvey finally became a friend with Bush, even interpreting the character For the president and his staff in the White House during the transition.
No impressionist was affected more deeply by a change of administration than Vaughn Meaderwho became a star of day overnight in 1962 with his act John F. Kennedy, immortalized on the record “The first family.” But after the assassination of Kennedy on November 22, 1963, Meader’s career crashed as quickly as she flowered. Meader, who Died in 2004has often called the assassination as “the day of my death”.
Some presidents challenge political gravity, the pleasure of their imitators. For Reggie Brown, former President Barack Obama was a lasting sufficient cultural figure for a constant demand for his impression since he started Do it full time in 2008.
Brown, a former blogger, was reserved worldwide: retirement parties. Mitzvah bar. Corporate meetings. Dozens of Fox News appearances. He estimates that 80% of his reservations come from the conservatives, although it remains mystified as for reason. He was another kick in an event at the 2011 Republican Leadership Conference in New Orleans for having pushed the pleasure – of character – to candidates for the republican presidential election.
Brown was caught up in the fact that his best year for business was in 2017, the first year of Obama which was destroyed.
“”I spoke to other impressionists and imitators. And after their president is out of power, phones have literally stopped ringing, “said Brown, 44. But Obama remains in the consciousness of the public, which means that Brown’s phone will probably still sound.
But Brown recognizes that Obama’s influence could finally decline. Reservations are broken down, although they often come in waves. Brown is also working as a functional breathing instructor.
For John Di Domenico, a Las Vegas voiceover artist who was Imitation of Donald Trump since 2004There was a opposite effect: Trump’s time was mainly bad For business, he said.
For Domenico, 62, who often occurs as Trump at corporate events, sometimes alongside Obama de Brown, 2016 was a high water brand. But when Trump began his first mandate in 2017, Domenico’s reservations gave up hurriedly with the president’s approval. The attack on the American Capitol on January 6, 2021 was the last “nail in the coffin,” he thought.
At the start of the presidency of Biden, his reservations started to increase, perhaps a first indicator of Trump’s political fortune. And then Trump won again, what Domenico said “the strangest thing I have to face”.
“I received so many texts, so many messages:” Congratulations. Four more years! You are back in business! ” Said Domenico. “And I wrote them and said:” I was never bankrupt “.”
Jim Meskimen, a 65 -year -old veteran actor and impressionist, said the presidents, because of their inheritance, have a longer shelf life than you might think. Its long body of Presidential impressions Understands Harry S. Truman in the film “The Monuments Men” (2014) and Jimmy Carter in “Elvis” (2022).
“Their sound, their decisions, all their statements are part of the historic file,” said Meskimen. “I had as much business to make presidents who have been dead for a long time as I have done.”