LOS ANGELES – Christopher Walken: Like the weather, it’s something everyone can talk about. We all have our references: mice churning milk into butter or The Deer Hunter, for example.
Then, what usually ensues is some sort of impersonation: “More cowbell” is a recent favorite or “I hid this uncomfortable piece of metal up my…” Whether your impression is good or not has nothing to do with your age, gender or race; it’s all in the voice. And the cast of All About Walken, a live comedy show featuring Christopher Walken impersonators, has got it down.
Director Patrick O’Sullivan started doing Walken impersonations as a theater student at San Francisco State in the late ’90s before starting the show in 2006. This month marked the second-year anniversary of the run of All About Walken, which is playing for two nights in San Francisco this weekend.
Its diverse cast chronologically renders Walken’s career from 1952, when he was still Ronnie Walken, to the pop culture icon he is today. It’s a full-on experience packed with not only scenes from Walken’s many roles, but also Walken doing a feminine hygiene ad, a Real World parody called The Real Walkens and even an improv section where the audience can “choose their own Walken.”
Cast members and Bay Area natives Dion Basco and Kenzo Lee say that no two shows are ever the same. “The show constantly evolves-we cut and add stuff every time we run the show,” said Lee, who has been with the production since its first show.
Prior to joining the cast, Lee and Basco had not done Walken impersonations-though you wouldn’t know it. At a recent show in Los Angeles, Basco appears on stage as “a lion with camel toe,” from Walken’s lion-taming days, as well as Frank Abagnale Sr. from Catch Me If You Can, not to mention Colin Farrell and Prince.
Lee plays Walken in one of his most memorable roles, Captain Koons in Pulp Fiction, and while reciting the line about “their greasy yellow hands,” he broke from character with a brilliant aside about being an Asian American actor. The scariest Walken came from Lily Holleman, a petite actor whose deer-in-headlights eyes and frighteningly good impersonation channelled both Children of the Corn and The Deer Hunter.
Both Basco and Lee are excited about performing in San Francisco. Like a true Bay Area native, Basco said, “I hella love the Bay. It’s nice to go back home.”
Yet both are nervous about performing in front of their families, given the balls-out nature of the show. Lee shows off his ample alabaster thighs when he plays The Rock at one point, and Basco plays a transvestite.
“I’m glad my grandfather is blind and can’t really see that far,” Basco said.
Lee, however, was not so lucky. “My grandpa is very, very alert, so this is going to be bad.”
Show Info:
ALL ABOUT WALKEN
October 25, 7 p.m.; October 26, 3 p.m. and 7 p.m.
The Clubhouse
414 Mason St. (5th Floor) @ Geary
San Francisco, CA 94102
$20.00 tickets at BROWNPAPERTICKETS.COM
