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Frank Caliendo to juggle Monte Carlo and Fox football jobs
Comedian Frank Caliendo.
Photo: Kirvin Doak Communications
The first thing to know about Frank Caliendo’s surprise 10-year comedy impressionist headline show at the Monte Carlo is that he isn’t giving up his weekly appearances on the Fox football show where he found fame and fortune!
Frank’s going to juggle his schedule to continue those tapings every Thursday, and then perform the other four nights here on the Strip. He also plans on commuting back and forth from his Phoenix home so as not to disrupt his children’s schooling -- and then might move here after a year.
The staggering multimillion-dollar deal caught many by surprise, but in fact Frank revealed to me that it had been in discussion and negotiations over the past two years. Here’s our candid conversation:
Robin Leach: How does it feel to land a 10-year gig at the Monte Carlo right there on the Strip?
Frank Caliendo: Pretty good. When we first started talking about it with my manager, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to do TV or go live. So I went and met with the people at the Monte Carlo, and they were fantastic. It seemed like a good opportunity, so I am really looking forward to doing a bigger show, having a band and messing around with video and stuff like that. It is a merge between what I’ve done on TV and what I’ve done in stand-up. It is a happy medium between the two.
RL: In a sense, are you stepping into the shoes of Danny Gans on the Strip impressionist scene because he unfortunately left us?
FC: No. Some people will see it that way. We had been negotiating this before he passed away. Even before we were negotiating, we talked to some people out there, and Danny Gans, I guess it is public knowledge, he had a no-compete clause, so I couldn’t even go into the hotel or work at certain hotels. When he went to the Wynn, we started talking about this, and it seemed like a really great opportunity with CityCenter being right there and the tram going to CityCenter, a very high traffic place.
RL: This is an easy commute for you. Coming from Arizona, it’s almost as if you live right next door.
FC: I live in Phoenix currently; I am going to look into eventually getting a place in Vegas. My wife really likes where the kids are going to school right now in Phoenix, so we are going to make sure they go to school in Phoenix for a year. Then we will discuss what happens after that. When the kids are out of school, we want to be in Vegas a lot. We haven’t made all of those decisions yet, the negotiation process to do something like this … it takes forever, and then at the last second, everything gets done. Even though I have been talking to people about this for months and months now, it all came together in the last two weeks, and then you have to make decisions that totally change your life.
Frank Caliendo as former President George W. Bush.
RL: I remember when I walked the property before it was built with Lance Burton. I said the good news is that you got a deal for 14 years; the bad news is you have to go to work every night. I will ask you the same question. You have landed the gig of a lifetime, but also doesn’t 10 years look awfully long and daunting?
FC: Not really. It seems like everything has gone by so fast. I think about when I started doing stand-up and I was going to tell someone it was eight years, and it turns out it was 12 … almost 13. The time goes by so quickly. If you enjoy what you are doing, you don’t worry about that kind of time commitment. It doesn’t scare me. When I was doing TV, it was 10 to12 make-ups per week, so this is fun for me. We are starting out with four days a week – Monday, Tuesday, Friday, Saturday -- then next year it will go to five shows a week. We are easing into it, doing it smartly. I have been doing four, five, six, seven, eight shows a week sometimes … traveling all the way to the East Coast and back to Phoenix. This definitely is a lot better.
RL: Do you describe yourself as a comic, impressionist, entertainer or something else?
FC: I think I am a comic. I think a lot of people would describe me as an impressionist. There is a difference between an impressionist and an impersonator in my vocabulary. Think Elvis impersonators, and Vegas has been known for singing impressions. I don’t do a lot of singing impressions, unless I do Dr. Phil singing Elvis, which wouldn’t be a long tribute song. I think of myself as a comedian doing impressions. Comedy is first with me. The singing is secondary. I admire Terry Fator. I think his show is about the mimicry, ventriloquism and the singing. He is funny, but you don’t walk out of there going he’s a comedian. I grew up watching Jonathan Winters and Robin Williams; it is that, going from voice to voice. I always felt that most impressions were doing longer bits. I have a style that might have Jack Nicholson as a bartender and you go why? Al Pacino is always yelling in movie scenes, so I cast him as a librarian.
Frank Caliendo - from YouTube.com
RL: Is the number of voices you can go to shrinking? Doesn’t everyone wind up doing the same Nicholson, the same Pacino?
FC: I think you have to hit some of the broad strokes. If you are entertaining a big audience. It is funny because I talked to Kevin Pollack once, the same things happened to him that happened to me. People start hearing the impressions ,you doing impressions of you doing impressions. It is like watching Dana Carvey from the ’80s. If you are going to hit a specific audience with specific voices, you have to go to a broader audience. If you are going to hit specifics, don’t dwell on it too long. That is what I get from Jonathan Winters and Robin Williams. Judge the audience; if something is hitting, stay with that for a while. And I also think, to add to your question, finding a different take on the person is important to making the impression your own. For example, if you watch someone doing William Shatner from 1975 to 1980, but now he has a raspier voice … find the take. When Bush was first in office, they wanted me to do it like Will Ferrell, but he already does that Bush. I have the more laid-back version. It evolves, and you get a take, and it becomes more comedic.
RL: In Vegas, we have Gordie Brown, we have Rich Little, we have Terry Fator, we have Rich Natole -- and it is a fair amount of competition you are already coming into …
FC: Yes and no. I think that’s not all the competition; you are competing against everything. I think Gordie is a fantastic entertainer, but he is more in that Gans school. He is incredible at mimicking the singing. I’m known as the comedian first.
RL: How many voices can you do?
FC: I haven’t counted. I would say between 50 to 100 that are usable in a show. I have heard people say they can do 200 to 300 voices? There are some you throw in for nostalgia purposes, but part of the game is finding new people to do. It is hard, but when you stumble upon it, it can hit and make a lot of people laugh.
Frank Caliendo - from YouTube.com
RL: So your show will be different by virtue of the comedy and different by virtue of your background of comedy sketches on Mad TV?
FC: Yes. My goal is to keep you laughing constantly. I want to get the laugh faster. I love the Jonathan Winters and Robin Williams machine gun. That is what I love and always have. I thought maybe I could do that someday, and I’ve been lucky.
RL: Final question, the same question I asked Rich Little once, which is, “What happens when Frank Caliendo gets a cold?”
FC: Nine times out of 10, the mic cleans it up pretty well. If you start losing your voice, you are in trouble. I have been sick with the flu and managed to get through shows. I have had almost no voice and been able to pull it off. People might notice it a little bit, but what people actually like is if you give it your all, people accept it. They say, “Oh, you have a cold, but you came out and did the show.” To me, again, it is not always about being right on the money with the voice. My goal is to be funny. There are some impressions I can nail, and you will think the person is there; some are cartoonish that show the person as a caricature. That is to get the laugh. It is adding voices, jokes and characters in there. You can really pound it out. I really believe I do the show for the people. It is an art. If I didn’t do a John Madden because he retired, a lot of people would be mad. It is like a band not playing your favorite song. If you do a mix, you entertain everybody.
RL: Your success has somewhat arisen from the NFL pregame show on Fox?
FC: That was a big part of it. I’m not giving that up for Vegas. I have two more years of that on the current contract. It will be simple to juggle both. We shoot every Thursday -- mostly in Los Angeles and sometimes on the road -- so that’s another easy jump from Vegas on my day off from the Monte Carlo. It will work well, and I’m really excited to be coming to Las Vegas finally.
Robin Leach has been a journalist for more than 50 years and has spent the past decade giving readers the inside scoop on Las Vegas, the world’s premier platinum playground.
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