Comedian Frank Caliendo is heading back to Tucson this weekend and he’s bringing along a high-powered political guest.
Caliendo, the master of celebrity impersonations of everybody from Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton to sports figures Charles Barkley and John Madden, is towing along his new favorite subject, Donald J. Trump. The billionaire Republican presidential candidate has been Caliendo’s on-stage sidekick since Trump announced his presidential run last summer.
But don’t expect Caliendo to get into the weeds with Trump’s politics — his stance on immigration issues, the economy, free trade or law and order.
Caliendo sticks to the funny stuff.
“He makes up his own facts, which a lot of people do but he does it better,” the 42-year-old comedian and father of two says. “He’ll say something” — and here Caliendo slips into his Donald Trump voice — “ ‘and I’m not the only one saying this.’ So people will go out and say, ‘Did you hear about that?’ ‘Yeah, Trump’s not the only one saying it.’”
The other Trumpian fallback: “And everybody knows it,” Caliendo, a longtime resident of Tempe, adds, again assuming the billionaire’s voice.
“It’s brilliant how he does it,” he says, adding that he met Trump years ago at a show where Caliendo impersonated the business mogul. “I just talk about the silliness of where he’s coming from. I don’t get into the policy and stuff like that.”
Caliendo views the Trump run as an extended reality show, something of a takeoff of Trump’s “Celebrity Apprentice.”
“That’s the first line when I get up on stage. ‘I am really enjoying this new reality show, ‘The Presidential Election’,” he says, adding that no one should really be surprised by the entertainment value of a presidential campaign or presidential politics in general.
“Listen, the president currently goes on Jimmy Fallon and slow jams the news. I mean, what’s the next step?” he says. “It’s sad but that’s where we’re at. People get so mad about Trump — I don’t hate him as much as other people; I don’t like him but I don’t like anybody. ... But politicians are on TV constantly now. In the office of the president, you used to not see anybody. You wanted them on the TV shows, but they wouldn’t do it. Now they do all the TV shows and to me it’s kind of embarrassing. Can you imagine if (Trump) won? That would be even more embarrassing, the stuff he could do.”
A Trump presidency would be a gift to comedy “if he acts the same way he’s acting now,” Caliendo says. “But they all do act differently in campaigns than they do in office. But I’m not sure he can turn that off.”
Of course, Caliendo is not one to speculate on how this wacky 2016 presidential election will end up. And lord help you if you are turning to him for direction.
“If you listen to me for political advice, you’ve got a problem.”
