# Any Frank Caliendo Fans?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-frank-caliendo-fans/635270
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [September 20, 2012, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-frank-caliendo-fans/635270 "2012-09-20T15:12:10Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)
#### Post date: [September 20, 2012, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-frank-caliendo-fans/635270/1 "2012-09-20T15:12:10Z")
I am way late to the Frank Caliendo party, but damn this guy does amazing impressions. His John Madden is perfection, his Jim Rome is hysterical…and his George W Bush is incredibly good.
Here’s a bit with him on Mike and Mike rolling through his better impressions: [Frank Caliendo on ESPN: Mike and Mike in the Morning - YouTube](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5XOvJW9xGk)
Which also leads me to ask: what other impressionists do you recommend? Its seems that there aren’t a whole lot of them out there.
Post videos of your favorite impressions(ists) here. Or just post Frank Caliendo.
Here’s Caliendo’s Madden on David Letterman…its brutally hilarious: [frank caliendo - YouTube](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBW7ysPcbT0)
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### Author:  [@Drunky\_Smurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drunky_Smurf)
#### Post date: [September 20, 2012, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-frank-caliendo-fans/635270/2 "2012-09-20T15:52:46Z")
I love Frank. He was great on MadTV. Here’s a clip of him as Madden hocking a popcorn maker.
[ ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1v52f1TrWg)
and here he is hocking Vagicil.
[ ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivO0j9feBok)
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### Author:  [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)
#### Post date: [September 20, 2012, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-frank-caliendo-fans/635270/3 "2012-09-20T15:54:32Z")
> [@Drunky\_Smurf](#):
>
> I love Frank. He was great on MadTV. Here’s a clip of him as Madden hocking a popcorn maker.
>
> [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1v52f1TrWg&feature=related](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1v52f1TrWg&feature=related)
What did he do on MADTV? Voices? That’s a cartoon, right?
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### Author:  [@Kimballkid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimballkid)
#### Post date: [September 20, 2012, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-frank-caliendo-fans/635270/4 "2012-09-20T15:57:58Z")
No, it’s live, he’s just heavily made up to look really strange.
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### Author:  [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)
#### Post date: [September 20, 2012, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-frank-caliendo-fans/635270/5 "2012-09-20T16:08:01Z")
> [@Kimballkid](#):
>
> No, it’s live, he’s just heavily made up to look really strange.
Weird. There must be two MadTV’s because I am certain my sons watch a cartoon called that…and its quite funny.
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### Author:  [@obfusciatrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/obfusciatrist)
#### Post date: [September 20, 2012, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-frank-caliendo-fans/635270/6 "2012-09-20T16:12:18Z")
I am incredibly impressed by Caliendo’s talent at impressions.
I am also incredibly confused by why impressions are considered funny (I’m not saying people are wrong to find them funny but that they just are so unfunny to me that I can’t understand it).
My primary exposure to him was from the Fox NFL pre-game show (don’t know if he still does that) which perhaps wasn’t a prime gig for showing of his comedy chops.
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### Author:  [@Gagundathar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gagundathar)
#### Post date: [September 20, 2012, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-frank-caliendo-fans/635270/7 "2012-09-20T16:14:22Z")
I appreciate you ‘turning me on’ to this wonderful voice artist.
The switching the voices in the middle of the stream is very funny.
And his GWB was remarkable.
The crawler at the bottom was amusing in a ‘wow that was five years ago’ kind of way, with Michael Vick reporting to prison among other sports notes.
Thanks.
Funny guy.
---
### Author:  [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)
#### Post date: [September 20, 2012, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-frank-caliendo-fans/635270/8 "2012-09-20T16:26:11Z")
> [@obfusciatrist](#):
>
> I am incredibly impressed by Caliendo’s talent at impressions.
>
> I am also incredibly confused by why impressions are considered funny (I’m not saying people are wrong to find them funny but that they just are so unfunny to me that I can’t understand it).
>
> My primary exposure to him was from the Fox NFL pre-game show (don’t know if he still does that) which perhaps wasn’t a prime gig for showing of his comedy chops.
Well, in Caliendo’s case, many of his impressions are of people that for one reason or another, are already funny themselves. George W Bush for his stupidity and penchant for making up words, Madden and his man-crush on Brett Favre and his inexplicable ramblings, Bill Walton because of LSD, Barkley because he doesn’t give a fuck…
> [@Gagundathar](#):
>
> I appreciate you ‘turning me on’ to this wonderful voice artist.
> The switching the voices in the middle of the stream is very funny.
> And his GWB was remarkable.
>
> The crawler at the bottom was amusing in a ‘wow that was five years ago’ kind of way, with Michael Vick reporting to prison among other sports notes.
>
> Thanks.
> Funny guy.
Yeah he’s freaking great. His Madden is so very, very good.
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### Author:  [@Iggins](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Iggins)
#### Post date: [September 20, 2012, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-frank-caliendo-fans/635270/9 "2012-09-20T16:26:58Z")
Good to excellent impressionist. I liked him on MadTV, but I couldn’t stand him on the FOX NFL show, for some reason.
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### Author:  [@sparky\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sparky_1)
#### Post date: [September 20, 2012, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-frank-caliendo-fans/635270/10 "2012-09-20T17:18:21Z")
He’s great.
I have one of his albums (Make the Voices Stop) and it’s quite good.
I wouldn’t mind catching him live someday.
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### Author:  [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)
#### Post date: [September 20, 2012, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-frank-caliendo-fans/635270/11 "2012-09-20T17:41:59Z")
I was wondering why he isn’t doing the Fox pre-game this year. The guy they replaced him with isn’t too good, IMO.
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### Author:  [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)
#### Post date: [September 20, 2012, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-frank-caliendo-fans/635270/12 "2012-09-20T17:58:19Z")
> [@FoieGrasIsEvil](#):
>
> Weird. There must be two MadTV’s because I am certain my sons watch a cartoon called that…and its quite funny.
Two different shows. [MADtv](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MADtv) was a live action sketch show on Fox from 1995-2009 and [MAD](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mad_(TV_series)) is the animated show currently airing on the Cartoon Network.
They’re both based on MAD Magazine, though.
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### Author:  [@Kimballkid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimballkid)
#### Post date: [September 20, 2012, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-frank-caliendo-fans/635270/13 "2012-09-20T18:21:03Z")
> [@obfusciatrist](#):
>
> My primary exposure to him was from the Fox NFL pre-game show (don’t know if he still does that) which perhaps wasn’t a prime gig for showing of his comedy chops.
He’s no longer on the Fox NFL pregame show. He talked about it on The Bob and Tom Show once, but I don’t remember what he said about why he left.
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### Author:  [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)
#### Post date: [September 20, 2012, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-frank-caliendo-fans/635270/14 "2012-09-20T19:29:45Z")
His Pacino is great too.
[ ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_XfQeDjjZR4)
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### Author:  [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)
#### Post date: [September 20, 2012, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-frank-caliendo-fans/635270/15 "2012-09-20T19:44:39Z")
The impression (get it?) I always got of Frank Caliendo is that he’s one of the breed of impressionists who are excellent mimics, but short on talent beyond that-- i.e., good at delivering prewritten lines in character but not especially funny in their own right. Other examples being Darrell Hammond and Pablo Francisco.
Contrasted with someone like James Adomian, who not only delivers great vocal impressions but is extremely quick and hilarious at improvisation.
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### Author:  [@Iggins](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Iggins)
#### Post date: [September 20, 2012, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-frank-caliendo-fans/635270/16 "2012-09-20T20:02:13Z")
> [@VinylTurnip](#):
>
> Contrasted with someone like James Adomian, who not only delivers great vocal impressions but is extremely quick and hilarious at improvisation.
OT, but I love his Jesse Ventura! I hung out with him for a few minutes at a bar during Portland’s Bridgetown Comedy Fest - Cool guy, too.
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### Author:  [@GrandWino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrandWino)
#### Post date: [September 20, 2012, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-frank-caliendo-fans/635270/17 "2012-09-20T21:20:28Z")
> [@VinylTurnip](#):
>
> The impression (get it?) I always got of Frank Caliendo is that he’s one of the breed of impressionists who are excellent mimics, but short on talent beyond that-- i.e., good at delivering prewritten lines in character but not especially funny in their own right. Other examples being Darrell Hammond and Pablo Francisco.
>
> Contrasted with someone like James Adomian, who not only delivers great vocal impressions but is extremely quick and hilarious at improvisation.
> [@Iggins](#):
>
> OT, but I love his Jesse Ventura! I hung out with him for a few minutes at a bar during Portland’s Bridgetown Comedy Fest - Cool guy, too.
Fucking love Adomian. Met him several times and actually work with him a bit now professionally. Really cool guy and an amazing impressionist that brings his own angle to each character he does. His Gary Busey and Paul Giamatti’s are brilliant.
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### Author:  [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slow_Moving_Vehicle)
#### Post date: [September 20, 2012, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-frank-caliendo-fans/635270/18 "2012-09-20T21:58:30Z")
Can’t find the clip, but there’s a great interview he did where he talks about working on a Obama impression. He tells the interviewer that the key to Obama is that he starts a sentence slowly, but ends in a rush; a great way to read a phone number. Then he does three different voices in about twenty seconds:
[Obama] “Uh…Eight six seven…uh,fivethreeohnine” [George W. Bush] “That’s Jenny’s number!” [Bill Clinton] “You bet it is!”
Really impressive.
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### Author:  [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)
#### Post date: [September 20, 2012, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-frank-caliendo-fans/635270/19 "2012-09-20T22:25:58Z")
> [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](#):
>
> Can’t find the clip, but there’s a great interview he did where he talks about working on a Obama impression. He tells the interviewer that the key to Obama is that he starts a sentence slowly, but ends in a rush; a great way to read a phone number. Then he does three different voices in about twenty seconds:
>
> [Obama] “Uh…Eight six seven…uh,fivethreeohnine” [George W. Bush] “That’s Jenny’s number!” [Bill Clinton] “You bet it is!”
>
> Really impressive.
That’s great! Would love to see it. I just re-watched my OP’s Letterman/Madden bit and its so freaking funny. “When you think about Brett Favre, things start to move around inside, and you feel like dancing, then you realize there’s no real reason to dance.” Brilliant.
I disagree with **Vinyl Turnip’s** assessment. Caliendo isn’t just funny for spot-on impressions, its the ridiculous things he makes his characters say that’s just as funny.
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### Author:  [@a35362](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/a35362)
#### Post date: [September 20, 2012, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-frank-caliendo-fans/635270/20 "2012-09-20T22:47:10Z")
> [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](#):
>
> Can’t find the clip, but there’s a great interview he did where he talks about working on a Obama impression. He tells the interviewer that the key to Obama is that he starts a sentence slowly, but ends in a rush; a great way to read a phone number. Then he does three different voices in about twenty seconds:
>
> [Obama] “Uh…Eight six seven…uh,fivethreeohnine” [George W. Bush] “That’s Jenny’s number!” [Bill Clinton] “You bet it is!”
>
> Really impressive.
[About the two-minute mark.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQ1M_LtHj5A&feature=related)
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