|
 For
anyone who ever caught “The King” frequenting
the Sahara, one of his favorite hangouts in Las Vegas, the
hotel has an exciting announcement: Some 35 years after he
left it, Elvis has returned to the building.
He has come back in the persona of “The Musical History
of the King” starring Trent Carlini, which opened last
December 29 for a year’s run. To add to the excitement,
Carlini recently won the $100,000 Grand Prize on the TV show
“The Next Best Thing” and one of the things that
makes him unique is the fact that his tribute early on attracted
the attention of Elvis’ “Memphis Mafia,”
including Joe Esposito, Elvis’ 17-year manager and close
friend, who appears periodically in Carlini’s Sahara
show.
“I don’t do a caricature of Elvis,” emphasizes
Carlini, who performs seven stages of Elvis’ career,
complete with an 11-piece band and costume changes. “I
don’t try to be Elvis. I just perform. I think I’ve
acquired the same technique that Elvis developed through the
years – he was always reinventing himself. I’ve
learned his vocal technique, his movements, his facial expressions.
It’s been a subtle thing that has happened, little by
little. After 16 years of doing this, it’s become second
nature.”
“I
met all of Elvis’ clan separately – Joe in 1995;
Al Dvorin in 1998 – he coined the phrase ‘Elvis
has left the building’; Jerry Schelling in 2000; J.D.
Sumner in 1990 (Sumner died in the mid-90’s); the Jordannaires
in 1989, and D.J. Fontana, who was Elvis’ drummer in
the 50’s, in 1990,” he continues. “They
had heard so much about me that they came to see my show at
different times and came backstage and introduced themselves;
I even performed with J.D. Sumner and the Stamps in 1992.
My goal now is to meet Priscilla and Lisa Marie.”
A while
back,, Carlini was invited to breakfast by Colonel Parker’s
widow, Mary Lou, along with Esposito and Schelling. He was
incredibly honored and flattered when Mary Lou personally
named him as the official ambassador to carry on Elvis’
music.
Despite
his uncanny natural physical resemblance to Elvis, to Carlini
it is all about the music; in fact, it is his passion for
it that he feels puts him on another level. Another thing
that sets him apart is that he performs every era of Elvis
in his 90-minute show, from the icon’s gold lame jacket
stage to his Army days to his movies, his comeback special
and finally his long-term stint at the Las Vegas Hilton.
“Elvis
actually went through 50-60 different stages in his career,”
Carlini notes. “In my show, I break down four or five
of them from the 50’s into one stage; his at least 30
movie stages – every movie he did was a different stage
– into three stages; his 60’s comeback into three
different stages, and the 70’s at the Hilton into two
stages. Elvis not only constantly changed musical styles but
he also changed trends insofar as his clothes and hairstyles
were concerned. There’s a lot of magic in my show and
comedy. Right in the middle of a song, I change into a different
jumpsuit. People don’t know how I do it.”
The magic
began for Carlini when he was eight years old. His family
moved to Italy when he was seven and the youngster found himself
captivated by his only link to America –Elvis’
records being played on Italian radio. He saw all of Elvis’
movies, listened to his albums and started mimicking him,
slowly perfecting his voice and persona, After staying in
Italy through high school and three years of college, Carlini
returned to the States performing with a Rockabilly band.
He then
began playing the carnival circuit in cities such as Chicago,
Los Angeles and Florida. In 1990, “Legends In Concert”
producer John Stuart saw a video of Carlini opening for Gary
Puckett in Chicago and called him and invited him to appear
in the show at the Imperial Palace. Carlini performed in “Legends”
for six years (he also performed with the show in different
cities) before moving on to doing his solo “The Dream
King” at the Holiday Inn Boardwalk.
“The
name for the show came from a dream I had that I was ‘The
King,’” Carlini explains. “It wasn’t
Elvis on stage; it was me, performing a show like his. I’ve
performed over 6,200 shows since 1990. It’s almost like
a dream come true.”
Carlini
says that, as a child, he saw Elvis as a big brother role
model. He calls Elvis genuine, a natural phenomenon who broke
through the barriers with his music and movements. Today,
he notes that Elvis was imbedded in his mind as he grew up
and that he feels a connection to the late icon. He believes
that it is a pure gift from God that he has been able to combine
the four elements of Elvis in his depiction of the star –
his looks, his sound, his movement and his charisma. He notes
that it has been a lifetime achievement to get down all the
stages of Elvis that he portrays.
“Somewhere
in the cosmos Elvis and I are soul brothers who share the
same passion for the music,” he states. “In the
beginning, the media called Elvis a no-talent performer riding
the crest in music, driving kids to juvenile delinquency.
In reality, Elvis was the first white performer to sing music
being sung by black artists – R&B, gospel, the kind
of music being performed by the likes of Chuck Berry and Little
Richard who weren’t being televised because of the racism
of the day. Insofar as his movements, some people tapped their
feet, others waved their hands, some swung their hips or shrugged
their shoulders. Elvis just happened to do all that at the
same time.”
It is
interesting that Carlini says that, in creating his portrayal
of the entertainer, he learned a lot through a few Elvis impersonators
(all from outside Las Vegas) that he looked up to. Each one
had his own specialties, some being as subtle as an eye movement.
Carlini felt that a gentleman from the Midwest named Doug
Church had an incredible vocal ability; Texas’ Johnny
Lee had Elvis’ natural range of gestures and movement
down pat, and Rich Saucedo, who hailed from Chicago, really
showed him the ropes and how to morph all the facets together
In tandem
with that, Carlini enjoys some of the other Elvis impersonators;
he only resents what he calls a lack of taste in a portrayal
or those who make a mockery of what Elvis represents. He feels
that he has worked very hard to perfect something and he believes
his portrayal to be very beautiful. He reiterates that this
is something he has dedicated his entire life and career to
and that it is not something that one can achieve overnight.
“The
minute I knew I had something distinctively different was
when I actually saw one of the members of Elvis’ clan
watching my show and wiping tears from his eyes,” Carlini
remembers. “I thought that I was going to cry. It is
almost like an amazing power and energy that you can feel
at that moment. You’re not afraid of it but it shakes
you up, too.”
 Carlini
says that can’t for sure say that he feels like Elvis
when he performs, having never met him or seen him perform
live in concert. However, he does feel that he relates to
him by virtue of the fact that he has experienced everything
Elvis experienced – love, marriage, divorce, kids, betrayal
from friends, great friends and people around him. A few of
the Elvis songs he most relates to are “I Want You,
I Need You, I Love You,” “If I Can Dream,”
and “My Way.”
“What
I like to see from the audience when they leave the show is
a sigh of fulfillment; that is the highest compliment ever,”
he sums up. “I was never able to see Elvis perform and
I would give my right arm to see him perform just once. But,
as I said, I have seen his friends in my audience sitting
there with tears in their eyes. That is my contribution to
this world – to give people the chance again to enjoy
the craft that Elvis created. If there is such a thing as
channeling, I hope that Elvis is doing it through someone
– me. – so that he can see what beauty he left
behind and that people really miss him.”
As for
Carlini, he’ll see you in his dreams,
Thank
you very much.
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ADDITIONAL
ARTICLES
BY
BOBBIE KATZ
HERE |
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Totally
"Hip" 
