Stevie Riks
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Stevie Riks (born 3 September 1967) is a British comedian and impressionist. He mainly releases material via the Internet video viewing web site YouTube. He took part in Central Television's New Faces in 1988 and has featured on the BBC television magazine programme Inside Out.
Riks' specialities are impersonations of musicians from the 1960s and 1970s although he has branched off into other areas such as impersonating football personalities. Based in Chester, England, he records his comic video sketches in his home with a digital camera. He often uses split screen technology to perform dual roles. Apart from performing various accents such as Cockney and Liverpudlian, Elvis Presley's typical slur and imitating typical facial tics and mannerisms, Riks is the first impersonator to imitate all members of the Beatles, The Bee Gees, The Rolling Stones and Queen. His singing voice is notable for its range, from David Bowie's low crooning timbre in "Wild is the Wind" to Gene Pitney's high-pitched creaky voice. One creative way of avoiding infringement of copyright (which cost him his YouTube account twice) is to subtly change the lyrics of famous pop songs or to imitate the way pop celebrities talk and demonstrate droll dance steps (Bowie, Freddie Mercury, Cliff Richard ) or even cook as in "George Harrison Makes A Curry". In this capacity, Riks has been making a come-back with a new YouTube account from 3 August 2009 onwards, which has been viewed over 13,000 times in a fortnight. A recent gimmick has been the sudden appearance of various rock stars in videos of songs they never performed in the first place for comic effect, or odd pairings such as Elvis Presley with David Bowie.
