They Both Wanted to Be Somebody, and by Golly They Are

The dictionary salesman who this week walked into Book-A-Look, a celebrity impersonation business in Costa Mesa, did not seem surprised when he ran into Mae West and Elvira, Mistress of the Dark.

“Hey, you’re Elvira,” the salesman said. “I love those old movies you do on TV.”

Sporting a tight black dress, a push-up bra and a huge black wig, Kathy Flores responded in her best Elvira voice: “Ah, yes, those old movies: the typical boy-meets-ghoul situation.”

“Would you like to go out with me?” she asked the man. “I just love my men to death.”

Without missing a beat, Jobie Gilliam, wearing the Mae West feathered hat and silver wig, interjected, “Well you know, I always say: It’s not the men in my life, it’s the life in my men.”

As the salesman walked out, realizing he had mistaken the shop for a bookstore, Gilliam, in her Mae West voice, called out: “Now, you come back and see us again sometime.”

The colorful and sometimes wacky Gilliam and Flores, who next month will celebrate their first anniversary as owners and managers of the tiny one-room business on 18th Street, get a lot of calls to play the Easter Bunny or teddy bears for children’s parties. But the assignments they enjoy the most are playing the kinds of pranks they will be doing today, April 1.

“We will be doing things like going to parties and acting like a feuding couple,” Gilliam said. “We might throw each other into a pool or we might even shoot each other,” a gag which Gilliam said is a favorite at parties.

April Fool’s Day brings in some good business, said Flores, but the big increase comes during the summer, when people tend to throw more parties. At parties the pranks usually include a thorough roasting of an unsuspecting victim by that victim’s favorite celebrities.

“Sometimes they will order Dr. Ruth” Westheimer to do the roasting, Gilliam complained, “but they will say, ‘Don’t talk dirty.’ ”

Flores, a 35-year-old former hairdresser who does a near-perfect Joan Rivers and a very convincing Roseann Rosannadanna, and Gilliam, a divorced 39-year-old mother of one and former saleswoman whose specialties are Dolly Parton, Mae West and Barbra Streisand, met six years ago while working for an Orange County singing telegram company. They “liked each other’s energy,” Gilliam said, and instantly became good friends.

The two women, bored with their 9-to-5 jobs, moved in together in 1982 and began a celebrity impersonation and singing telegram business out of the garage of their Costa Mesa home. The early days of the partnership were difficult, said Gilliam, who worked part time as a substitute teacher while Flores brought in extra income by making and renting costumes. But as their reputation as entertainers spread, business tripled yearly for the past three years, she said.

The secret to doing good impersonations, they say, is never losing control of the audience. But the two women, who write and perform their own jokes and dialogue, do so many different impersonations that they say they sometimes forget who they are portraying.

“It’s hard to stay in character,” said Flores, who compared her job with being schizophrenic. “Sometimes you have to look down (at your costume) to see who you are that day.”

Although wearing the wigs and fancy dresses may seem glamorous, said Flores, who still makes and rents all her own costumes, the job does have its drawbacks. She said that she is usually called to work at odd hours, mostly on weekends, and many times with little preparation.

“It’s so true,” added Gilliam, who is working on a master’s degree in theater at Cal State Long Beach. “Last Sunday, from 1 o’clock to 2, I played Big Bird for 20 clamoring children. An hour later I was the Easter Bunny and an hour after that I was a teddy bear. This job really keeps you in shape.”

The duo, who both studied drama in high school and have ambitions for TV and stage acting, also contract out such celebrity look-alikes as Burt Reynolds, Elizabeth Taylor, Tom Cruise and Pee-wee Herman. The impersonators, most of whom live in Orange County, charge anywhere from $175 for the services of a Don Johnson look-alike to $750 for a near-perfect Ronald Reagan. Gilliam and Flores, whose routines usually include singing, dancing and a score of one-liners, charge a basic rate of $75 for a 25-minute performance.

“This job can be great,” said Flores, who practices juggling and belly dancing. “The other day I was driving down the freeway in my Dolly outfit and people were yelling: ‘Hey, there’s Dolly.’ And they would be taking pictures of me right there on the freeway.”

In 1982, both women demonstrated their talents to a national audience when they appeared on the “Merv Griffin Show,” portraying Dolly Parton and Mae West. A few years later, Flores was again on television when she entered, but did not win, a Joan Rivers look-alike contest.

Like all jobs in the entertainment field, the celebrity impersonation business has its heartaches. For Gilliam and Flores, the biggest one is not having enough time for a social life. “Most men get upset and lonely when their women have to work all weekend,” said Flores, who complained that her occupation sometimes scares away men. “They also can’t take a woman whose job it is to entertain other men and show a little skin.”

But regardless of the odd hours and the hectic life style, Gilliam and Flores said they will continue to do impersonations.

“I figure as we get older we can do older characters like Dr. Ruth or the bag lady,” Gilliam said with a chuckle.

“Right now I’m working on doing Tammy Faye Bakker,” she said with a Southern twang in her voice. “Hi there, Jimmy and I are with the PTL. That stands for Praise The Lord, Pass The Loot, Pay The Lady and Perpetuate The Lust.”