Not the Real Thing : Impersonators: The November elections brought Pat Rick a whole new career--as a presidential look-alike. And like Bill Clinton, he’s looking forward to a 4-year run.

Salesman Pat Rick first noticed the stares last February while walking through airports .

“People would frequently stop and ask me if I was Bill Clinton. Or people would say, ‘Gee, you look like Bill Clinton,’ ” says Rick, whose job as a medical equipment salesman requires him to travel a lot.

He realized his facial features were “extremely close” to Clinton’s. His combed-back, salt-and-pepper hairstyle “is practically identical,” they share the same coloring and blue eyes, and they’re close in age--he’s 44, Clinton’s 46.

“I could see it,” he said, “and I quickly decided to capitalize on it.”

His first step “was to interview with some celebrity look-alike agencies here in Southern California. I was advised to have some professional photographs taken. I did that. I began to distribute those photos to various talent agencies locally.”

It paid off.

On Inauguration Day today, Rick will achieve something of a peak in a fledgling career as a Bill Clinton look-alike: He’ll appear as the “surprise guest”--and master of ceremonies--at an inaugural ball at George Washington University in Washington.

Like Clinton’s march to the White House, Rick said his second career has been marked by “slow, steady progress.”

He has appeared at private parties and corporate functions for companies such as International House of Pancakes in Los Angeles. Some gigs require him to speak, others to merely “show up and wave and shake hands.”

During the campaign, he also teamed up with George Bush look-alike Archie Kessell of Huntington Beach. They engaged in a mock debate for a liquor company function and appeared on TV’s “Hard Copy” in a spoof entitled “Bushman Returns.”

Rick even marched in the Doo Dah Parade in Pasadena with Liz Taylor look-alike Carol Reed of Orange County and other celebrity impersonators. During the election, he also did “a modest amount” of stand-up comedy, performing as Clinton at the Cannery Restaurant in Newport Beach.

Rick won’t say whether he bears a political similarity to the Arkansas Democrat (“I plead the Fifth”). And he declines to say how much he has made off his resemblance to Clinton, although he concedes, “I’m getting paid good money.” (A good presidential look-alike can earn $30,000 to $50,000 a year in appearances.)

The mild-mannered salesman acknowledges that he’s not a perfect double for the new President. His nose isn’t as bulbous, and Clinton is taller and heavier. But, as Rick sees it, “It’s how you pull it off. And it’s a situation thing. Most people have never been up close and in person with Bill Clinton. So quite often the differences in size and weight are completely ignored.”

Besides, it’s often little things that put the likeness across.

In studying Clinton’s mannerisms, Rick has noticed that the left-handed politician has what Rick calls “the famous left-handed credit-card thrust”: He holds his left hand as if he were handing over a credit card to someone, sort of a thumb-over-fist gesture.

Rick has mastered what he calls Clinton’s “slight smirk, like he knows something we don’t know.” The East Texas native also adds a slight rasp to his voice and puts “a little cowboy twang in it: It’s kind of like an educated Southern sheriff.”

Like Clinton, Rick has high hopes for the next four years.

He’s looking forward to making more personal appearances. Television and the film industry frequently use look-alikes, he says, and discussions are under way for humorous speaking engagements on the university circuit.

His Bill Clinton is a work in progress--and even after Clinton’s inauguration, he’ll be taking notes.

“Clinton hasn’t really revealed himself to us yet,” Rick says. “Ten minutes after he’s in office . . . the real Bill Clinton will emerge and he’ll offer me and others much more material.”