Comedian on rise with celebrity impressions

Caliendo wants people to notice the quality of the writing in his impressions.
By JOHN BENSON
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
Take a look at any political blog these days and you'll invariably read about how comedian Steven Colbert, of Comedy Central's "The Colbert Report," bombed at this year's White House Press Correspondents Dinner.
However, what you probably won't learn is how comedian Frank Caliendo killed at this year's Radio and Television Correspondents Dinner, which took place a few months earlier.
"I had a great time," said the comedian, calling from outside of Columbus. "I had a standing ovation and people went crazy for it."
Perhaps that's to be expected when you're a comedian giving an impression of John Madden as the secretary of defense while Vice President Dick Cheney is in the audience.
As for Colbert's supposed bomb on stage that many pundits are calling brilliant and groundbreaking, Caliendo offered, "I think he has incredibly biting jokes and it's just very hard to go into that situation and do that. Silly is always going to beat biting. It's just hard to pull it off. I do give him credit for doing it that way, and I thought the jokes were especially funny."
Celebrity impressions
The nationally renowned Caliendo, who is from Milwaukee but just bought a house in Avon Lake (his wife is from Lorain), is quickly rising on the comedy club circuit as the master of impressions with the likes of Chris Farley, Adam Sandler, Jerry Seinfeld, David Letterman, Robin Williams, Bill Cosby, Jay Leno, President George W. Bush, President Bill Clinton, Al Pacino and John Madden in his repertoire.
Despite such diversity, it's the latter personality that he's best known for, having crafted a sports-loving fan base out of his dead-on impression of the NFL coach-turned-television analyst.
"The whole thing is you have to pigeonhole yourself so people know who you are and then you fight the rest of your life to get out of it to do other things," Caliendo said. "It's what I do the most and what people remember me for first. So, is it annoying? No. Does it hurt sometimes? Maybe. But does it end up paying the bills? Definitely."
Stresses the writing
Caliendo said his current set varies from 25 to 50 impressions but he stresses it's the joke writing rather than the impersonation that makes the difference. For example, he said his Dick Cheney intonation sounds more like the Penguin from Batman but he's hoping it's the jokes, not the voice, that acts as the laugh catalyst. Even though his material is oftentimes politically based, it's far from divisive.
"There's a lot of Bush/Clinton comparisons and it's all silly stuff," Caliendo said. "Not really anything anyone is going to learn anything from, and it's definitely not presidential bashing, per se."
Having performed in Cleveland last year, Caliendo returns Thursday through Sunday at Hilarities with plenty of new material.
"It's not really about new impressions for me," Caliendo said. "I usually change the material. It's all about evolving characters and impressions and finding more about them and different angles to go on."
The comedian's future appears bright with a new baby on the way and a new house in Northeast Ohio that Caliendo hopes to use as a summer getaway to be closer to his in-laws.
He joked, "A lot of people get a house in Maui. I got a house outside of Cleveland. But I like it here. I think it's pretty fun."