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Portrait of an Elvis impersonator

Darren Lee plays Dusty's on Saturday
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The life of an Elvis impersonator is not exactly an easy one.

There are more Elvis impersonators than any other tribute act on planet earth. But when you've been titled the best Elvis tribute artist in the world, things become quite a bit easier. Darren Lee knows all about it.

"Once you achieve a certain level of success, like winning the competition in Memphis and the 11 years in Vegas, it puts you at the top of the heap," he says. "Once you're there, there are maybe 10 guys who are the best at what they do, and they get paid the best for what they do."

Lee is one of these guys. Between 2000 and 2011, Lee was Elvis at the once-popular American Superstars show at the Stratosphere Hotel in Las Vegas. Comprised of impersonations of all the major performers — Michael Jackson, Madonna, et al. — American Superstars was a highly entertaining ode to the American greats that would appear to be a prize gig for a tribute artist of any kind. Lee played to over a million people in thousands of shows in the 11 years in Vegas.

He remembers only a blur. It was not pleasant. It wa, ultimately, a huge mistake.

"I look back on the 11 years as a major disappointment in my life," he says. "Other people look on it as, 'Wow, you did 11 years. That's great,' or whatever but it was not fulfilling."

Lee's former manager was an Elvis impersonator himself and that resulted in frequent clashing of egos about how the show should be — and would be — performed. He had limited artistic control over the set — they wanted the '70s Elvis, so he wore a gold lemay suit six nights a week, every week.

This was certainly not what he got into show business for, but the money was good and it came easy. He never had to go out looking for work. He bought a house with his wife on the wages that he earned doing Elvis and by 2003, he was making decent business on the side entertaining weddings, which allowed him the creative freedom that American Superstars refused to offer. By 2007 he was ready to leave the Stratosphere for good.

Then, in 2008, the recession hit, destroying Vegas' economy. The wedding chapel that linked him up with most of his wedding business lost its license and he was hooked on to the Stratosphere wages, which had been cut significantly, to make ends meet. It took another four years before the Stratosphere cancelled the show altogether, relieving Lee of his contract and allowing him the freedom to carry on as he had before Vegas ever happened.

He relocated to Vancouver immediately, playing gigs whenever they come up. They come up often around Vancouver. Business, it seems, is good for an Elvis impersonator.

"Ever since I've been back (in Canada), I've appreciated things more," he says. "It's given me an enjoyment just going through that."

It started, as everything does, in his childhood. His mom had Elvis records in the house and he sang along throughout his youth, mimicking the style, the cadence, all of it. As a teenager, he entered an Elvis contest in Edmonton and placed second. He landed a gig immediately afterward, playing the leather clad singer circa 1956 in a travelling Elvis show based out of Winnipeg.

Lee says that by the time he began doing Elvis professionally 1988, the craft had been tainted by the "Elvis is Alive!" rumours, by the cheeseburger jokes (Presley apparently had a prodigious appetite for cheeseburgers), and by the swath of talentless shmucks riding the Elvis-impersonator gravy train that had been, in the years after real Elvis's death, very popular.

And yet, Lee stuck with it because, he says, "Once you're in the bubble, it's like nothing else matters. All that matters to you is everybody in the world has come to see you that night and it doesn't matter that down the block Tom Jones is playing, or Kiss is playing. You're in the middle of this bubble and that's all that matters."

In 1997, he won the World Elvis Contest, making him at the time the best Elvis impersonator in the world. The competition has been documented countless times by countless networks and production houses: hundreds of Elvis's of all shapes and ethnicities competing for the world title in Elvis's hometown of Memphis.

Winning the top spot holds serious sway for Elvis impersonators. For Lee, it opened doors to bigger venues, bigger money, to better cities...including Vegas.

But we all know how that turned out. Doing Elvis — it's not easy.

Lee's concentrating on his new show, which he says is never the same from night to night. He dips into every era, from the hip-swinging "Heartbreak Hotel" days of the early '50s to the sweaty balladeer phase of the '70s.

Lee created videos for every song in his repertoire, creating a different visual experience each night. Like the finest DJs, he creates the party as the show progresses, pulling from Elvis's entire oeuvre to rock the show.

This guy might as well be Elvis. But he's not.

He's Darren Lee.

"When you do a Beatles tribute, you have to talk like the Beatles, you have to look like the Beatles. When you do KISS, you have to wear the make up," he says. "Doing Elvis has been so stretched that you don't have to look just like Elvis. The best tribute artists are the ones where you don't act just like the artist but the artist shines through."

But the spirit of Elvis — everything that made Elvis the electrifying character that still holds our attention nearly 60 years after "Blue Suede Shoes" hit the radio, is channeled through Lee, as if he's a conduit for the King himself to speak to the world of the living.