TORONTO — Famed Quebec impressionist Andre-Philippe Gagnon has imitated hundreds of singers, all in the name of good-natured fun. But he was still worried when he came face-to-face with one of the biggest stars he’s mimicked: Frank Sinatra.
It was the mid-1980s, at a fundraiser concert in Switzerland, and Gagnon had to sing New York, New York in the voice of Sinatra — as the crooner watched from the front row.
“The Swiss host had to ask him: ‘Monsieur Sinatra, what do you think of Andre-Philippe’s impressions?’ and I went, ‘You don’t want to ask that of Frank Sinatra — please! I want to walk. I want to keep my legs,”’ Gagnon recalled with a laugh in a recent interview.
“And he said: ’C’est merveilleux, it’s marvellous — now get him out of here,’ stealing the show.... It was nice to have this kind of comment. Now I can quote him. It was really generous of him.”
After years of performing around the world, Gagnon (a.k.a. “The Man of 400 Voices”) is making a Canadian comeback with his Canada-wide tour, The One-Man Hit Parade, running Dec. 1 to 5 at the Canon Theatre.
Gagnon slips into over 100 different voices during the show, singing tunes from the 1950s onward and impersonating celebrities from various eras. His targets include Jean Chretien, Susan Boyle, Justin Timberlake, Gnarls Barkley, Kid Rock, Elvis Presley, the Beatles, James Brown and Ray Charles.
“We try to have the spectrum, from very, very, very low,” he said before spontaneously mimicking Barry White and James Earl Jones.
“To something that’s very high — the Bee Gees, Michael Jackson. I try to reproduce them with a certain accuracy where people will go ... ‘It brings back memories.”’
Developed over 14 months, the show includes four large video screens with motion sensors, allowing Gagnon to interact with the onscreen images.
Gagnon also banters with audience members, affecting their voices and allowing them to choose a tune they want to hear him sing.
The dialogue is penned by a group of comedy writers, including Gagnon’s long-time collaborator, Stephane Laporte, and George Reinblatt (The Strombo Show, Just for Laughs).
Gagnon says he got into impersonations as a child when he made his older brother laugh by mimicking Tweety Bird.
“Instead of punching me like an older brother, he was like, ‘Mom, Andre does Tweety Bird,”’ he recalled.
“I thought, ‘Oh my god, I must be onto something if he reacts like that.’ I was basically a shy kid but those impressions helped me to get more friends and to make grownups laugh.”
Gagnon skills brought him widespread acclaim in 1985 when he sang We Are the World, accurately imitating the voices of every artist in the tune, on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.
He’s since performed sold-out concerts in over 11 countries and had two, multi-year engagements in Las Vegas.
Gagnon attributes his skills to his five-octave range and an uncanny ability to quickly memorize and then put on different tones.
“I think about the singer and I become that character for 30 seconds or a minute or so,” he said after bursting into the chorus to Against All Odds (Take a Look at Me Now) in the voice of Phil Collins, followed by What a Wonderful World in the rasp of Lois Armstrong and You’ve Got a Friend by James Taylor — all in less than a minute.
“Then I switch to someone else, and when I think about the singer and it comes out.”
And though he’s a skilled singer himself, Gagnon isn’t sure if he’d ever try to record an album with his own voice.
It’s too hard to resist slipping into other personas, he says.