‘Your Face Sounds Familiar’–win some, lose some

ESTRADA AS CHAKA KHAN. Surprisingly “stratospheric” singing.

The premiere telecast of ABS-CBN’s new impersonation tilt, “Your Face Sounds Familiar,” was a notable success, so we hoped that the follow-up show last Saturday would be an even more winsome and winning viewing proposition. Practice does make perfect, right?

—Alas, it was not to be. The first celebrity impersonator, Melai Cantiveros, “dared” to look and sound like Britney Spears—and fumbled badly. One of her performance’s drawbacks was her misguided attempt to also milk her impersonation for comedy.

It’s tough enough to just focus on looking and sounding more or less like such a strongly “branded” star like Britney, without having to waste precious energy and concentration on getting a few laughs, as well—so, she shouldn’t have bothered.

The first week’s winner, Jay-R, was up next with his Stevie Wonder tribute, and he did better, thank goodness. He was followed by Jolina Magdangal as rocker Sampaguita, and this time the big problem was the substantial disparity in both age and girth between Jolina and Sampy.

Impersonators should try harder to physically suit the stars they’re “Xeroxing,” like Karla Estrada so effectively did with her Sharon Cuneta impersonation last March 14.

If Jolina’s take on Sampaguita didn’t really rock our world, it was at least much better than Maxene Magalona’s impersonation of Pilita Corrales, which was a near-total mismatch and botch.

Too inexperienced

Maxene is simply too young and inexperienced to pretend to be the much more mature and “knowing” Tita Pilita, so the impersonation came off as pilit na pilit—but, not in a good way!

Maxene’s performance also evinced precious little analysis of what makes Pilita unique as a performer. Even on point of simple appearance, she came off not as a young Pilita, but more like a young Delia Razon!

The last impersonator last Saturday, Tutti Caringal, made up for his phlegmatic and unfocused depiction of Freddie Aguilar in the show’s premiere telecast, and whipped up a convincing bare-torsoed approximation of Adam Levine, tattoos and all.

The following night, three more contestants performed —Nyoy Volante as Yoyoy Villame, Edgar Allan Guzman as judge Gary V, and Karla Estrada as Chaka Khan. In general, this batch did better than the previous night’s performers, and thus figured strongly in the show’s subsequent judging and voting process.

Except for Nyoy, however, the impersonators’ “total performance” impact was hampered by physical infelicities, like Karla’s being too big to really come off as Khan, and Edgar Allan’s being too young and small to pass for Gary V now.

Still, Karla came up with an impressive performance due to her surprisingly “stratospheric” singing, while Edgar Allan did his best to compensate with some “fierce” Gary V dance moves and signature Gary “enunciations.”

Thus, it was no surprise when, after the initial three-way tie, it was Karla who ended up as the tilt’s second weekly winner!

In the future, however, the tilt should try harder to physically suit the impersonator to the star he or she is assigned to personify. No more far-out flights of unproductive fancy, like forcing Melai to do a Britney—please!