I was never an Elvis fan. Too much fringe, too much jowl. Then I heard about Shmelvis: Elvis is Jewish (And Nobody Cares), a documentary that follows a band of characters through Israel and Tennessee in search of his Jewish roots.
When I learned the King’s grandmother, and therefore The King himself, was a Jew, I pictured him in a yarmulke, mumbling Kaddish and snorting down the entire seder plate—shankbone and all. Goyish Elvis had always been bizarre, but Jewish Elvis actually seemed kind of sexy. I decided to find out just how many middle-aged Jewish men were already thrusting their hips on-stage to “Hound Dog.”
Dan Hartal is actually a Canadian Lubavitcher who says that “if Elvis was Hasidic, he’d look like me.” He’s known for performing “Siman Tov, Mazel Tov” with a Memphis drawl.
The least schlocky, most dedicated Jewish Elvis out there — the one who makes his act his art and takes it beyond small town simcha — is Martyn Dias. His shtick is “a serious act, as Elvis would have performed it.” When wearing his $800 rhinestone-studded suit (especially tailored with gold Magen Davids around the waist and “kosher” emblazoned on the cape), Dias says, “I really believe I am Elvis, and the people watching me act as if I am, too. It’s great.”
In addition to regular performances at Dunstable’s Man-Ho Szechwan restaurant, Dias has taken Elvis Shmelvis to both the Stagecoach Pub in Tel Aviv and the Four Seasons Hotel in London. “My two boys love the fact that their dad is famous, and my wife loves the money,” he says. Then he admits another highlight: “The girls go wild every time I enter the room dressed as Elvis Shmelvis. I regularly get bras and knickers thrown at me!”
Dave Tuckman primarily pays tribute to the fat,medicated version of the King at Bat Mitzvahs and weddings. His songs include “Shake Your Waist Until it Dislocates,” “That Was Your Daughter?” and “Love Me like a Gentile.”
Willard Morgan is a comic performer in Los Angeles who started his act at his own 50th birthday party with songs like “All Meshugahed Up,” “Don’t Step on my Blue Suede Yarmulke,” and “Little Shiksa Don’t You.” He’s made them giggle at both L.A. clubs and old-age homes, where some audience members were “sedated and demented enough to enjoy it— but the ones off their medication wanted more dreidel songs.”
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