Living vicariously through Neil Diamond's music

By GREG DIXON

It was a mean trick, but I thought I had him.

"Okay, trivia question," I said to singer Bobby Bruce, a Canadian who impersonates Neil Diamond for a living. "My starter for 10 is: what name did Neil Diamond seriously consider for his professional handle?"

Bruce giggled a bit, it sounded like a nervous sort of giggle, too. Got him, got him, got him ... "Well actually, he considered two. One was Eyce Charry. The other was Noah Kaminsky."

Bugger. That'll teach me.

But it turns out Bruce, who has been a Neil Diamond tribute singer fulltime for a decade, isn't actually obsessed with the guy he plays up to 170 times a year and has brought to New Zealand this month.

He knows these factoids because his wife Leanne, who is Bruce's manager and minister of finance, wrote a show for him called Songs Of Life, which was a story of Neil Diamond. Through that show, he learned a lot.

Bruce isn't the only Diamond clone, of course. While he tours as Nearly Neil and (gotta love the pun) the Solitary Band, there are other Diamond impersonators.

Bruce says he is enjoyed seeing some. Does he feel in competition with them?

"I do my own thing," he says from Vancouver. "But I'm a competitive person and if I saw anybody I felt was encroaching on a level I felt threatened by, I would step up my game even more."

Which means, I think, he's saying he's the best. But even if there are more than few tributes out there, Diamond is a long way from being the new Elvis, Bruce reckons.

"Honestly, I think Neil's a step deeper because he writes his own material, so it makes it one step more personal. But I wouldn't say that Neil is more important - Elvis changed the face of music forever."

Diamond does remain hugely popular. It is the simplicity and universality of his tunes that appeal. Which means Bruce's audience is, "literally, pack up the babies and grab the old ladies", he says. "At fairs and festivals you have a biker dancing next to a woman with a walker and there are little children all around.

"Social barriers seem to be eliminated when Neil Diamond's music comes on. It represents fun in their lives or fun in their memories."

His moment of Diamond epiphany was while working in an Australian-themed theatre-dinner restaurant in Vancouver 12 years ago. For one show, the house performers were asked to impersonate a character. Bruce opted for Tom Jones.

"Someone said, doesn't he sing Sweet Caroline? I said no, it was Neil Diamond. For the first time I just opened my mouth [he sings] 'Sweeeeet Carolinnnnne ... ' They looked at me funny and said 'Wow, you should do him."

But it wasn't until a year and half later that he was offered a job doing Neil - by an Elvis impersonator.

Bruce then became a strict Diamond impersonator as part of a Canadian legends show, which featured six artists impersonating famous people. Five years ago, he switched to a solo gig with his band.

"Eventually I came to the conclusion that the reason that Neil Diamond is so successful is because he's really being who he is on stage, he's sharing part of himself with a crowd.

"I thought until I do that, then I'm not really comparable in any way. So I shed the I'm-trying-to-convince-you-I'm-Neil-Diamond [schtick] and said, 'Hey, I'm Bobby Bruce, these are great songs, I'm going to share them with ya'."

He has refined the look over the years but he doesn't naturally look like Diamond off-stage, he admits, including missing the hairy chest.

"I sometimes get busted for that." He doesn't use a chest wig, however, don't worry about that.

But if he doesn't sweat over the body hair, he does over the set list. No matter which songs he does, people always come up afterwards and say, "Why didn't you play ... "

The other thing they always ask is whether he has met the man. The answer is no. "I look forward to the day I can change my answer to that question. I just always felt that if I ever tried to met him, because of what I do, it would be a stalking thing. And I don't even want to go in that direction. I figure if I do my show well enough, maybe he'll come along some day and appreciate it."

Whether that day comes or not, there remains that peculiar existential problem of achieving celebrity, even a modest sort, by impersonating another celebrity. Bruce says he struggles with that issue.

"Despite the fact that I try to look like him when I'm on stage and I sound quite a bit like him ... I do say I'm myself on stage and talk to them as myself.

"I think that's my saving grace, if you will - at least that's what works to convince myself. But I struggle with those demons. "I wish I could say it was fine," he says, "but I honestly don't know."

Performance

* Who: Bobby Bruce

* When: from tomorrow

* Where: Forum North, Whangarei, Sat Oct 4; Baycourt Theatre, Tauranga, Sun Oct 5; Aotea Centre, Tue Oct 7