OK, so it's not really George Bush. This is me with our friend John Morgan, who is a professional George Bush impersonator. The picture was taken at his book signing just after he published My Life as a Bush... and My Heart for Imitating Jesus. I bought a copy for Thad's birthday, which was last week. It is inspiring, funny, and readable.
John is quite talented -- and world famous! But he's also a regular down-to-earth family man who has raised his children well. I've seen him perform "in character" once. Several years ago at our church group's Celebration conference, he did one of his impersonations of Bush for a visiting Cuban pastor who got quite a kick out of the experience when he was finally told the truth!
Here is a blurb from his web site:
Discovered at a “Bush For President” rally in 2004, Morgan suddenly went from selling appliances to performing at the President’s Inaugural. By 2007, John was bringing his big- time comedic impersonation to arenas all across America, appearing live before tens of thousands on Sean Hannity’s “Freedom Concerts” and before hundreds of thousands on “The Winter Jam Tour Spectacular,” where he amazed audiences with his guitar playing and singing. Millions more have seen him on The Family Feud, Headline News, Hannity & Colmes, E! Entertainment Network, ABC’s “The View,” and The 700 Club. Fans even voted him a finalist on ABC TV’s celebrity reality show, “The Next Best Thing.” John was awarded America’s # 1 Bush Impressionist along with two “Mirror Image” awards and a 2005 Cloney award for “Best Historical Impersonation” voted on by his peers.
And finally, heres's a snippet from the introduction to his book:
I guess I could say I'm a fake, a fraud, a sham. I pretend to be someone I'm not. A lot of people wear masks for a lot of different reasons, but I make a living walking in someone else's shoes.
I am a professional impersonator.
I imitate someone who for eight years was the most powerful man on the planet: the president of the United States of America, our "commander-er" in chief, George W. Bush.
It's the role of a lifetime... I look like the president and can sound like the president. I've imitated him onstage before thousands and on television before millions. I've invaded the Democratic Presidential Campaign headquarters in Boston, freaked out folks at CNN Headquarters in Atlanta, been cheered by American armed forces generals in Germany, and turned down an opportunity to be spanked by Marilyn Manson's girlfriend in a music video. I've even convinced America's first lady of journalism, Barbara Walters, that I was actually Dubya.
But none of this holds a candle to whom we are called to imitate: Jesus, the very Son of God.
People often look at me and my outrageous life and say, "Gee, I wish I looked like somebody famous." I have great news for you. If you are a believer in Christ, you do! You have been recreated in the image of God's Son and have His indwelling presence living through you.
Instinctively, we all know that we were born to do more, to be greater than we are, but we often settle for the mundane when the call to real significance rings in our hearts, awakening a longing that can only be satisfied in Christ. Let the truth be told. You were made to be like God. You were created to imitate the life of Jesus Christ and live the greatest adventure imaginable.
~*~*
Well said! You can find out more about John Morgan and his new book (with the forward written by Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee) at: http://www.georgebushimpersonator.com/.
Blessings,
Virginia Knowles
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