Being John Edwards
LA Times July 25, 2004

The similarities are a little spooky.

They were both born in the Carolinas to working-class parents. They're both graduates of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. But one of these blue-eyed, brown-haired guys is not Sen. John Edwards - he just likes to pretend he is.

Stand-up comedian Frank King is honing his imitation of the Democratic vice presidential candidate in the hopes of cornering the Edwards impersonation market.

The Grass Valley, Calif., resident is listening to tapes of the North Carolina senator and polishing his countrified twang. Although King is a native of Raleigh, Edwards' current home, King's suburban Southern lilt isn't as pronounced as Edwards'.

King is spending several thousand dollars on hairpieces, and on prosthetic cheek and chin pieces to round out his face.

"There's a reason why there is no Edwards impersonator," King said on his way to perform for an insurance agents' convention in La Crosse, Wis. "Either nobody thought of it and went to the trouble to do it … [or] there's not a market for it."

King says a Bush impersonator can command up to $10,000 for a public appearance. King will appear on Comedy Central's "Daily Show With Jon Stewart" early next month, and is hoping to make "somewhere between a bucket of spit and 10 grand" as Edwards.