Calling all Elvi: Seattle’s annual Elvis impersonator contest
Aug 11, 2016, 5:41 PM | Updated: Oct 11, 2024, 9:58 am
A Seattle Elvis impersonator poses with a box of Bacon Maple Elvis Bar doughnuts.
Earlier this week I had not just one Elvis impersonator — I had three in the studio.
“I’m sorry, Elvis Tribute Artists,” Tony Colinares jokingly corrected me. At least, I think he was joking.
Colinares is one of the three Elvis Tribute Artists I interviewed, who are all competing in the 21st Annual Seattle Invitationals: The search for Seattle’s best Amateur Elvis Impersonator at the Crocodile Cafe this Saturday.
This is his third year competing, but his love for Elvis started young.
“I started probably when I was just a wee kid. My babysitter, way back in the late ’60s or early ’70s, she would say, ‘Hey, let’s watch Elvis! Elvis is on!’ One of Elvis’ 30-something movies, she sat me down and there he was singing ‘Clam Bake.’ And then many years later, in high school, we’re singing Elvis in the parking lot. We should have been in third period.”
I asked him why the idea of an Elvis impersonator is so common. Elvis seems to be the most impersonated celebrity.
“I think in his earlier years, that timbre of his voice was fairly attainable for guys,” he said. “A light tenor and he could get down to the baritones. So you’re going, okay, I can get that, before he starts going into the stratospheres with his voice. I think lyrically, you could follow the songs. You ain’t nothing but a hound dog. Yeah, I can follow that. In the shower. With your mom, if you’re in trouble, you can get out of the trouble. ‘Hey ma!’ Colinares starts to sing, ‘You ain’t nothin’ but a hound dog!’ You know, that kind of stuff.”
Chris Mathews has been an Elvis impersonator since 1998.
“I’m the one who does the songs that nobody ever does,” Mathews said. “I do the characters that nobody ever does. I’ve done Elvis as a vampire, Elvis as a zombie, as a superhero. After I’d been doing it for years, I dragged my son into it. When he turned 21 we did Elvis as if his brother Jesse, who was a stillborn twin, as if Jesse had survived. They were conjoined at the butt. So we were the Pelvis Brothers and we did this thing where we had to turn back and forth to be able to sing.”
Nathan Alidina says he’d be homeless and alone without Elvis. He met his wife while competing in the invitational 13 years ago, and bought his house from the woman who does PR for the event.
“I’ve got this wild aunt in Colorado and she grew up in the era of Elvis,” Aladina said. “For my sister’s high school graduation, she sewed the entire family Elvis costumes. So me and my mom, my aunt and a family friend all came dressed as Elvis. We worked out a dance. We had a four person Elvis conga line at the ceremony. I felt bad for the valedictorian speaker.”
The 21st Annual Seattle Invitational is this Saturday night at 8 p.m. at Seattle’s historic Crocodile Cafe.
