As someone who has trouble even sounding like himself, I envy people who can sound like many people, let alone everybody. The fellow above, Bob Anderson, can sound like just about every great male pop vocalist — Frank, Dino, Tony Bennett, et al…even seemingly-impossible imitations like Mel Tormé, Otis Redding and (one at a time) the Righteous Brothers. He has also achieved the greatest feat an impressionist can achieve, which is to do an impression so well that other impressionists learn how to do the guy by watching you. Any time you see anyone do Sammy Davis, Jr., they're probably imitating either Bob Anderson or someone who learned how to do Sammy after seeing Bob Anderson.
You can see Bob Anderson if you're in Vegas the next few months and you go to the lounge at the Stardust Hotel. Admission is about a third the price of Danny Gans but the star is no less amazing.
We paid another visit last evening to the production of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum which we discussed here. And we had another wonderful time. That's all I have to say about that.
Over on Salon, there's a fine article by Keith Olbermann, who is probably known to many of you as a sportscaster. When he was on news-type cable (MSNBC, I think), he had what I thought was a very fair, informative interview show. He's now writing fine commentaries like this one for Salon. You need a subscription to read the thing so I'll summarize it for non-subscribers. Basically, it says that the notorious scold Bill Bennett and a new organization he's heading up have been too eager to brand as unpatriotic, not only anyone who challenges the White House on its Iraq policies but even those who don't support them fervently enough. Personally, I think this kind of tactic is going to backfire big time on the right-wingers who employ it. Why, it may even get some Democrats mad enough to say something.
