‘Your Face Sounds Familiar’s’ strengths and weaknesses revealed

ESTRADA AS PSY. Relatively high level of performance from week to week.

After five weeks on the tube, “Your Face Sounds Familiar” has more clearly revealed its top strengths and weaknesses:

On the positive side, the presence of gifted singer-impersonators like Jay-R, Karla Estrada, Edgar Allan Guzman, Nyoy Vilante and Jolina Magdangal has assured viewers of a relatively high level of performance from week to week. The expertise of its stylists, make-up mavens and prosthetic craftsmen is also bracingly evident.

On the other hand, some consistently weak and uncreative competitors bring down the tilt’s cumulative level of achievement. Why were they chosen in the first place?

Another emerging liability is the resident jurors’ tendency to be too nice and complimentary in their comments on the contestants’ performances. Viewers would really prefer jurors who tell it like it is, so the show’s eight players can be more aware of their flaws and strive harder to overcome them!

A third problem is the choice of the celebrities whom the contestants are assigned to play. On the show’s first week, there was a perfect match between Sharon Cuneta and her impersonator, Karla Estrada, so Karla’s performance was a big hit.

On the other hand, Jay-R was not at all a look-alike of his assigned star, Joey “Pepe” Smith, but aging makeup and prosthetics were cleverly used to cancel out the liability, and Jay-R ended up winning the competition that week, due to his ability to surmount the “degree of difficulty” that the off-beat assignment posed.

Assignments

Both Karla and Jay-R exemplified the tilt at its best, in instructively differing ways! Unfortunately, other assignments have turned out to be less felicitous, like Karla being tasked to impersonate the thinner Chaka Khan. Karla’s vocal prowess saved the day for her, but she was visually “off.”

Other contestants have also had to struggle with inappropriate assignments, like the relatively small Edgar Allan having to approximate Gary V, John Travolta and Ricky Martin. Edgar Allan may be a gifted singer-impersonator, but his talent can only go so far in canceling out the inappropriateness of some of his assignments. Even last week’s winner, Nyoy, was “off” as Justin Bieber, because they look so inherently different. He focused on the teen Bieber—but came off more like Enrique Gil!

It’s instructive to note that, when “Saturday Night Live” spoofs Bieber, he’s portrayed by a woman (who does very well, by the way).

So, if the tilt wants to really improve, it has to work much harder at suiting the impersonator to the star being spoofed both vocally and visually. If it relies too much on makeup and prosthetics to do the trick, it comes up short of total success—so, a change of tactics is decidedly in order.

Just look at this week’s assignments: We can expect Jay-R as Tom Jones, Nyoy as apl.de.ap and Tutti as Steven Tyler to do believably well—but, Karla as Mariah Carey, Edgar Allan as Toni Gonzaga, Jolina as Manny Pacquiao, Melai Cantiveros as Cyndi Lauper, and Maxene Magalona as Vhong Navarro? —What has the tilt’s think tank been ingesting?