Impersonator hire in Australia: the complete guide

An impersonator is a performer who becomes someone else for your event. Sometimes that is a lookalike working the room and posing for photos. Sometimes it is a comic impressionist doing voices from a stage. Sometimes it is a character who stays in role for three hours and never breaks it. None of those jobs necessarily involves singing a note.

That last point causes more booking mistakes than anything else in this category, so it is worth settling before you look at a single price. The acts and figures below are live from the site. Read the next section first, then go to the profiles knowing which of the two things you are actually after.

An impersonator performs the look, the voice, the mannerisms and the personality. A singing impersonator does all of that and then performs the songs. They are separate listings on this site for a reason, and booking the first when you wanted the second is the single most common error people make here.

Work backwards from the moment you are imagining. If the picture in your head is guests laughing and taking photos at the door, or a character mingling through canapes, an impersonator is exactly right. If the picture is a room going quiet for a performance, you want the singing version, and there is a separate guide for it. When in doubt, say what you want to happen rather than naming the job.

Rates here sit well below most band categories, because you are booking one person for a defined block of time rather than a group for a full evening. The table below shows the spread by city. The bottom of the range is typically a short appearance. The top is a longer booking with a developed act, elaborate wardrobe and prosthetic or makeup work that takes hours before anyone sees it.

That preparation time is real and it is in the price whether it is itemised or not. A performer who spends two hours in makeup for a sixty minute appearance is billing five hours of their day. Knowing that makes the numbers make sense, and it explains why a short booking is rarely as cheap per hour as you expect.

Walk-around is the most booked. The character arrives, moves through the crowd, poses for photographs, and creates a running joke that lasts the whole event. It needs no stage, no sound system and very little from you. For a corporate function or a themed party it is the highest impact per dollar in this category.

Stage work is different. A set piece with written material, timing and a microphone, usually somewhere between fifteen and forty minutes. It needs a proper sound setup and an audience facing one direction. The third kind is the meet and greet: a fixed spot, a photo backdrop, and a queue. That one is a straight numbers game, so give the act a guest count and ask how long the queue is likely to run.

The performer is not the person they are portraying, and the best acts play with that openly. The comedy usually lives in the gap rather than in a perfect deception. Guests know, guests enjoy knowing, and the photograph is funny precisely because everyone is in on it.

There is a practical side too. If your event is being publicised or ticketed, describe the act accurately in the wording. Melbourne and Sydney carry the deepest choice of these performers, so you can usually find someone who matches the character you want without overstating what is being supplied.

Is this a walk-around, a stage set, or a photo spot? How long is the appearance and when do you arrive to prepare? Do you need a private room to get ready in, and do you arrive in costume or change on site? Is any of the act scripted around my event, and do you want details about the guest of honour? And do you sing, or is that a separate performer?

Ask for photographs taken at real events rather than studio portraits. A studio shot with good lighting is the easy half of the job. What you want to see is how the character reads across a function room with the house lights up.