Impressionist hire in Australia: the complete guide

An impressionist works with the voice. No wig required, no costume change, often nothing but a microphone and a good ear. They shift from one recognisable voice to another mid sentence, and the pleasure for an audience is in how fast the switch happens and how little the performer seems to do to make it.

The prices under this page come live from the impressionists on this site. Before you look, sort out one thing: an impressionist does voices, a lookalike does the appearance, and the two are separate listings here for good reason.

This is the confusion that wastes the most time in this category. An impressionist may be dressed in a dinner suit and look nothing like anybody, and that is fine, because the act is entirely in the ear. A lookalike or a character act works the other way round, from the appearance outward, and is booked from a different page.

Describe the moment you are picturing instead of reaching for a job title. Guests queueing to be photographed beside a familiar face means you want the lookalike listings. A room laughing because a voice they know is coming out of a person they have never seen before means you are in the right place.

The live city figures are below. This is one performer hired for a fixed slot, which keeps it a long way under band territory, and the length of the set is what shifts the number most. Travel comes next, because the field thins out quickly beyond Sydney and Melbourne.

The other variable is how much of the set is written for you. A performer working their standard act is a straightforward booking. One researching your industry, your executives and the year you have all had is doing preparation you never see, and it shows up in the fee for a reason.

Most of this work is corporate. Awards nights, conference dinners, end of year functions, where an impressionist is the after dinner spot that gets a seated room laughing without needing a stage set or a soundcheck that interrupts anything. It sits beautifully between the speeches and the dance floor.

The other half is cabaret and club work: a longer show, often with singing in it, built around a run of voices rather than a single joke. Clubs, cruises, theatre restaurants and fundraisers all book that version. Be clear which of the two you want, because a twenty minute corporate spot and a full cabaret hour are very different pieces of work.

An impression only lands if the audience recognises the original. That sounds obvious and it is the thing most often got wrong. A performer with a repertoire of voices from forty years ago will do beautifully for one crowd and mean nothing to a room of graduates, and the reverse is just as true.

So tell them the age range in the room and the mix of people. A working impressionist has a much wider repertoire than any one set uses, and they will build the list around your guests if you give them the information. Asking after the event which voices they did is the wrong end of the conversation.

The strongest version of this booking puts your own people in the act. The chief executive's turn of phrase, the manager who says the same thing in every meeting, the voice everybody already imitates in the tea room. Done with permission and affection, that is the part your guests will repeat for a year.

It needs a proper brief and it needs the individuals to be comfortable. Clear it with them first, tell the performer what each person finds funny about themselves, and agree that anyone not on the list stays off the microphone. And give the whole brief in writing a fortnight out rather than in a hurried conversation on the night.

What does the set run to, and is it comedy, singing or both? Which voices are in your standard act? Will you tailor material to our organisation, and what does that need from us? What microphone and lighting do you want? And is there footage of you at a corporate dinner rather than in a theatre?

Ask what happens if the room does not recognise a voice. An experienced performer will tell you how they set up an impression so it works even for the people who missed the original, which is a craft detail and a good sign. Vagueness there suggests an act that relies on the audience doing the work.