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Impersonators of Judy Garland, of both genders, have been a staple of New York nightlife and the international cabaret scene for over four decades. The legacy began with Jim Bailey, whose replication of the legend placed him on a national level when he appeared on "The Carol Burnett Show" in 1972. This was followed soon after by the late Craig Russell, both in the film Outrageous! and his stage appearances all over the globe. Julie Sheppard was sold out for well over two years, when she brought her Garland show to Don't Tell Mama in the mid-1980s,and ultimately landed a spot in Las Vegas in the acclaimed show Legends! Elaine Horn has made a career out of impersonating Garland in shows and at events for the last twenty years. Teri Paris scored a hit not only by her impression of Garland, but by being the only woman demanded to headline in drag clubs.
Richard Skipper gave Garland a valiant try and succeeded brilliantly before grabbing his true calling as the premier Carol Channing lookalike and soundalike. Jane Horrocks landed the chance to stun London's West End with her impression in Little Voice, and then later in the film, which was played later still on Broadway by the equally-stunning Hynden Walch, who received a Drama Desk nomination for her efforts. And one can't help but think of Tommy Femia, who has garnered seven MAC Awards and countless worldwide acclaim.
However, they all have a true new contemporary in the unlikely form of eighteen-year-old African-American, Illinois native Lindon Warren, who, in the age of internet showmanship and the ability to snare fame by broadcasting oneself upon the information superhighway, has quickly become a prominent celebrity, with talents so outstanding, as to grab such giants of music as Billy Stritch (Liza Minnelli's longtime musical director) and Marc Shaiman (the award-winning composer of the score to Hairspray and specialized numbers on the Oscars and Tony Award broadcasts), for both have seen fit to link his YouTube clips to their Facebook pages.
Warren is currently a senior at Round Lake Senior High School, with eventual plans to attend Columbia College in Chicago as a Musical Theatre major. Naturally, the big question at the forefront becomes, "How does someone so young have such an appreciation for a performer like Judy Garland?" "Well," he tells me, "I first found out about her on February 25, 2001. I was nine and in the third grade, and "Me And My Shadows: Life With Judy Garland" came on TV. I already loved entertainment history, but until then I really didn't know who she was, so I thought it would be interesting to watch. I came in late that night, so my folks wouldn't let me watch TV, as a punishment, but I snuck. I missed a lot of the first night, but I loved the second night and watched it all, with Judy Davis playing her. Then I tried finding it in a video store, but it wasn't available. So I said, 'What the heck? I'll look for the real Judy Garland.' That's when I became hooked."
His path into live performance began shortly after. "I started to sing when I was about ten, in fourth grade. Then, when I was in sixth grade, my music teacher wanted us to write a poem about medieval times and entertainment, so I asked if i could write a song instead, and she said yes. I named it 'Troubadour,' and I made it into a sort of a jazzy ballad. About a week later, the teacher said we were going to have a talent show, so I asked if I could sing the song I wrote, and she said I could. So the day I performed that song was the first time I ever sang by myself in front of an audience. Which was the WHOLE school," he laughs. A thirst for performance also runs though the Warren bloodline. "My brother Jeff is already in Hollywood doing extra roles," he says. "He's been on TV in "Numb3rs" and "CSI," and a few music videos."
In due time, Warren discovered that he not only loved performing for an audience, but that he could do other celebrity impressions and character voices. "It sort of came to me at once," he says. "I didn't really recognize that I could do impersonations until I was a freshman in high school. I knew in fifth grade that I could do the voice of the older Judy, and by seventh grade I could do the younger Judy, but it was freshman year that I found I could also do Carol Channing, Ethel Merman and Louis Armstrong. And it's only very recently that I discovered I could also impersonate Liza Minnelli. But I also started doing voices like a church pastor, or an old man. I did the announcements at school on the loudspeaker with my pastor voice, and I would say, 'Hello, everybody, this is Pastor Lindon Warren and I want to tell you the announcements for today.' That made the whole school know who I was. I can remember being outside after school to get on the bus and someone was asking people, 'Who's Lindon Warren?' and I said 'I'M Lindon Warren.' Then, that year we had a variety show that I wanted to be in, and I was figuring out what I was going to do that would be memorable. I said, 'I'll sing and do impersonations of people!' So I practiced, and got in the show." He continues, "That night was one of the greatest nights of my life. I started out singing 'Blue Moon,' then went into singing 'Taking A Chance On Love.' I then did Ethel Merman singing 'There's No Business Like Show Business.' Next was Louis Armstrong singing 'On The Sunny Side Of The Street,' which I'd never even heard him sing before. Lastly, I did young Judy singing 'Over The Rainbow,' and the crowd went wild. Now, this talent show was on February 9, 2007, and that was the day after Anna Nicole Smith had died. And I wanted to give a little memorable tribute to her, that I thought about before I went on stage. So I said, 'Since I'm giving tribute to the movie stars of yesterday, there's one star that we lost twenty-four hours ago, Anna Nicole Smith. We will never forget her movies, her shows, and we will never forget her saying 'TrimSpa, Baby!' Then the crowd went crazy with laughter and excitement, and I got my first standing ovation. It was the only standing ovation that night, and the loudest applause of the evening. That's what motivated me to keep going, and adding more impressions to my resume."
That talent show would serve as Warren's impetus to begin "selfcasting" on YouTube. He tells me, "I met someone who saw me performing that night, and she said 'I'm your biggest fan! I saw you at the variety show, and I recorded it!' I asked her if I could have a copy of it, so I gave her my e-mail address and she sent them to me. I created a YouTube account under the name 'puffpuffy' and posted them, and those were my first videos. I don't broadcast anywhere else," he says, "but I had a podcast show during freshman year. It was only three episodes, but I'm thinking of starting back up again."
Besides his impersonations and mimicry, Warren seldom misses an opportunity to enter talent competitions even as a straightahead vocalist. "I'm a baritone in choir," he says, "and every year we do the IMEA (Illinois Music Education Association) Music Festival. About twenty schools in our district try out, and every individual person has to go and audition for this festival; you have to be very good and know music very well. I made it in for two years in a row, and was written up in the newspaper my first year. I also attend solo and ensemble contests, which are almost the same thing, except there is no festival but there are prizes. I've done that for three years and I seem to win the blue ribbon a lot. This year I happened to get three, because I did three songs; I did a solo in Italian called 'Il Mio Bel Foco,' then a duet, then a song with our choir, under the leadership of Kristin Moroni, who is wonderfully talented. She even helped me enter an opera competition in Elgin, which is about forty-five minutes from where I live with my folks in Round Lake. This competition was very hard, and you had to be really great at singing. It was called Elgin Opera. I kept winning every round and advancing to the next one every weekend, and she kept driving me there during June of '09. I finally tied for second place, and won $250.00. I made the papers again, and was very happy. And I can't thank her enough for the opportunity," he concludes.
However, they all have a true new contemporary in the unlikely form of eighteen-year-old African-American, Illinois native Lindon Warren, who, in the age of internet showmanship and the ability to snare fame by broadcasting oneself upon the information superhighway, has quickly become a prominent celebrity, with talents so outstanding, as to grab such giants of music as Billy Stritch (Liza Minnelli's longtime musical director) and Marc Shaiman (the award-winning composer of the score to Hairspray and specialized numbers on the Oscars and Tony Award broadcasts), for both have seen fit to link his YouTube clips to their Facebook pages.
Warren is currently a senior at Round Lake Senior High School, with eventual plans to attend Columbia College in Chicago as a Musical Theatre major. Naturally, the big question at the forefront becomes, "How does someone so young have such an appreciation for a performer like Judy Garland?" "Well," he tells me, "I first found out about her on February 25, 2001. I was nine and in the third grade, and "Me And My Shadows: Life With Judy Garland" came on TV. I already loved entertainment history, but until then I really didn't know who she was, so I thought it would be interesting to watch. I came in late that night, so my folks wouldn't let me watch TV, as a punishment, but I snuck. I missed a lot of the first night, but I loved the second night and watched it all, with Judy Davis playing her. Then I tried finding it in a video store, but it wasn't available. So I said, 'What the heck? I'll look for the real Judy Garland.' That's when I became hooked."
His path into live performance began shortly after. "I started to sing when I was about ten, in fourth grade. Then, when I was in sixth grade, my music teacher wanted us to write a poem about medieval times and entertainment, so I asked if i could write a song instead, and she said yes. I named it 'Troubadour,' and I made it into a sort of a jazzy ballad. About a week later, the teacher said we were going to have a talent show, so I asked if I could sing the song I wrote, and she said I could. So the day I performed that song was the first time I ever sang by myself in front of an audience. Which was the WHOLE school," he laughs. A thirst for performance also runs though the Warren bloodline. "My brother Jeff is already in Hollywood doing extra roles," he says. "He's been on TV in "Numb3rs" and "CSI," and a few music videos."
In due time, Warren discovered that he not only loved performing for an audience, but that he could do other celebrity impressions and character voices. "It sort of came to me at once," he says. "I didn't really recognize that I could do impersonations until I was a freshman in high school. I knew in fifth grade that I could do the voice of the older Judy, and by seventh grade I could do the younger Judy, but it was freshman year that I found I could also do Carol Channing, Ethel Merman and Louis Armstrong. And it's only very recently that I discovered I could also impersonate Liza Minnelli. But I also started doing voices like a church pastor, or an old man. I did the announcements at school on the loudspeaker with my pastor voice, and I would say, 'Hello, everybody, this is Pastor Lindon Warren and I want to tell you the announcements for today.' That made the whole school know who I was. I can remember being outside after school to get on the bus and someone was asking people, 'Who's Lindon Warren?' and I said 'I'M Lindon Warren.' Then, that year we had a variety show that I wanted to be in, and I was figuring out what I was going to do that would be memorable. I said, 'I'll sing and do impersonations of people!' So I practiced, and got in the show." He continues, "That night was one of the greatest nights of my life. I started out singing 'Blue Moon,' then went into singing 'Taking A Chance On Love.' I then did Ethel Merman singing 'There's No Business Like Show Business.' Next was Louis Armstrong singing 'On The Sunny Side Of The Street,' which I'd never even heard him sing before. Lastly, I did young Judy singing 'Over The Rainbow,' and the crowd went wild. Now, this talent show was on February 9, 2007, and that was the day after Anna Nicole Smith had died. And I wanted to give a little memorable tribute to her, that I thought about before I went on stage. So I said, 'Since I'm giving tribute to the movie stars of yesterday, there's one star that we lost twenty-four hours ago, Anna Nicole Smith. We will never forget her movies, her shows, and we will never forget her saying 'TrimSpa, Baby!' Then the crowd went crazy with laughter and excitement, and I got my first standing ovation. It was the only standing ovation that night, and the loudest applause of the evening. That's what motivated me to keep going, and adding more impressions to my resume."
That talent show would serve as Warren's impetus to begin "selfcasting" on YouTube. He tells me, "I met someone who saw me performing that night, and she said 'I'm your biggest fan! I saw you at the variety show, and I recorded it!' I asked her if I could have a copy of it, so I gave her my e-mail address and she sent them to me. I created a YouTube account under the name 'puffpuffy' and posted them, and those were my first videos. I don't broadcast anywhere else," he says, "but I had a podcast show during freshman year. It was only three episodes, but I'm thinking of starting back up again."
Besides his impersonations and mimicry, Warren seldom misses an opportunity to enter talent competitions even as a straightahead vocalist. "I'm a baritone in choir," he says, "and every year we do the IMEA (Illinois Music Education Association) Music Festival. About twenty schools in our district try out, and every individual person has to go and audition for this festival; you have to be very good and know music very well. I made it in for two years in a row, and was written up in the newspaper my first year. I also attend solo and ensemble contests, which are almost the same thing, except there is no festival but there are prizes. I've done that for three years and I seem to win the blue ribbon a lot. This year I happened to get three, because I did three songs; I did a solo in Italian called 'Il Mio Bel Foco,' then a duet, then a song with our choir, under the leadership of Kristin Moroni, who is wonderfully talented. She even helped me enter an opera competition in Elgin, which is about forty-five minutes from where I live with my folks in Round Lake. This competition was very hard, and you had to be really great at singing. It was called Elgin Opera. I kept winning every round and advancing to the next one every weekend, and she kept driving me there during June of '09. I finally tied for second place, and won $250.00. I made the papers again, and was very happy. And I can't thank her enough for the opportunity," he concludes.
Warren considers both opera and jazz particular passions besides impersonation. "Jazz started with me liking Judy Garland, so I had that down," he says. "Opera came when I joined the choir at the high school. In freshman year I was singing in my jazzy voice, until I realized I had to sing in a classical tone. Once I started to do that, was when I learned how to sing opera. Which is really easy to get down, in my opinion. I didn't really take it seriously at first, because its just like doing an impersonation to me. But since its mostly what we sing in choir and at the competitions, it becomes serious. Singing opera has given me insight into opening my mind to other things, and usually teenagers don't really do that stuff. Now, besides jazz and opera, I can also sing R&B, rock, songs in Spanish and Italian, you name it.
Aside from his eventual plans to attend Columbia, Warren is already setting firm goals for himself. "I hope to move out the house to get my own place, soon," he laughs. "And then to go out to different places to get myself known. I have an addiction to performing for people." And if he in fact has a five-year plan, he sums it up by saying, "I hope to be well-known for what I do, and hopefully be in the movies and on stage for doing all the kinds of music I sing. I think, and I hope, I could make a lot of crossover albums. I also want to go to California with my brother, to try to get things done out there while he's doing his thing and I'm doing my thing. Then, hopefully, I can also one day be an Oscar-winning actor." He concludes definitively, "I have aspirations for many things, and I hope to become a great star!!"
It's never anything less than refreshing to acquaint oneself with someone so young and yet so focused. Suffice to say that those of us who are already devoted fans of Lindon Warren will be standing by, waiting and watching for the stardom that may very well be his in the very near future.
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