5 Best Celebrity Impressions – By Non-Stars

by Joe Galbo • There are literally millions of celebrity impersonations on the Web. It seems all it takes these days is a webcam, boredom and a little booze for someone to think they got what it takes to be the next Darrell Hammond, but it takes a lot to impress us. We’ve trolled the web, and herewith are four-star impressions worth your YouTube time.

1. Miles Fisher as Tom Cruise

To be fair, Fisher has done a number of small movies and television shows, but if you ran into him on the street I bet anything you wouldn’t recognize him except to confuse him for actually being Tom Cruise. In this performance, a clip from the most forgetful movie of all time (Superhero Movie), Fisher reenacts Cruise’s classic Scientology interview nailing the staggered speech pattern and exaggerated body movements. His performance was so good it actually found its way onto a few celeb news shows. Fisher’s latest endeavor was releasing an EP that featured an amazing cover of the Talking Heads’ "Naive Melody" and a music video where he performs another pretty good impression of American Psycho‘s Patrick Batemen.

Fisher’s video for This Must Be The Place (Naive Melody)

2. Kjell Bjornestad as Elvis Presley

There might be no other man on the face of the earth more impersonated than Elvis Presley. There is an entire industry of men devoted to making sure the King sings forever and ever more. Elvis will never die simply because no one will let him… literally. It’s fairly easy to impersonate the King’s voice on many songs, but The Ghetto is certainly one of the toughest and Bjornestad doesn’t disappoint as he damn near convinces this crowd that Presley is standing before them.

3. Arie Spears as L.L. Cool J, Snoop Dog, DMX and Jay Z
Arie Spears is a fine comedian. He’s done a bunch of stuff and been all over the comedy circuit including radio and BET. His finest moment? His rapper impression routine. It’s perfect, and as the comments on YouTube say, his flow sounds better than some of the actual rappers themselves. Listen to his Hova, it’s off the effin chain.

4. Brandon Hardesty as Christopher Walken and Jack Nichelson performing a scene from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory
Brandon Hardesty is one of the few YouTube sensations that’s actually worth watching. He’s made hundreds of videos and some of his best work is celebrity reenactments. This re-imagining of the famous office scene from Willy Wonka just gets better as it goes on. While his Jack Nicholson could use some work his Christopher Walken is spot on. His line delivery at 1:09 gives me goosebumbs and I hear him say "MOUN-tain" in my sleep. Brandon has gotten some small parts in a few films thanks to his YouTube antics, but as of yet hasn’t hit his breakout role.

5. Dave Coyne does Christopher Walken, Jack Nicholson, Joe Pesci, George W. Bush, and Steve Irwin
One of the best celebrity judge parodies in forever, comedian Dave Coyne took American Idol to task with his variations on some of Hollywoods most elite and obscure personalities. While we’ve seen the Walken and Crazy Jack impersonations before, Coyne’s Irwin, Bush, and Cheney are some of the best the internet has to offer. The Irwin audition song in itself is worth listening too and Joe Pesci hasn’t been this entertaining since… well, maybe ever.