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Making copiesChino Hills impressionist is leaving an impressionV.ronlca Jim ••For lhe Dally Bulletin

. You may know him ill Mr. PresidentIf you listen to mornm, radio, but he'sreally jWlt a local reaident on the road.., stardom throuib his uncanny abilityto Imitate others,Chino Hill. reeident Stave Bridges ia

a weekly regular on the morning talkahcw, Ken and Barkley (KABcn90,from 6-9 a.m.), often imperaonatinaPresident Clinton or other publicr•••••.e•."It'. a blast," said the 30-year-old

impressioniat. "'When Bush was gone, Ithought, 'bummer: becauee I had aaood Bush impreeoion down. ButClinton hal proved to be, probably forme aa an impreuioniat, one of the beltpresidents ever becauH I can do his••oico and plus he'. ju.t alway. gotaomething going on. If it'. not an••lleged alTair, it'. a botched WhitaHo"",, tbIna, this thAt or thA other. It'.areat.•The .how'l hOlte, Ken Minyard and

Roger Barkley, marveled at Bri.''Wlllingnea. and ability to dounrehearsed interview ••• Clinton,Bush and/or Roes Perot, lometimeasimultaneously during the electiona. In.• thank-you note to Bridie. they wrota,."We have agreed that you are not onIJtalented, but dAring. The amuinathing I. you never olipped out ofcharacter or miaoed a beat (or a joke).·In addition to the Ken and Barkley

show, .Bridies hu been featured inmany television commercial. and radioprograme such 88 -Adventure. inOdyssey," a national children'.program. He also performa a mix ofcomedy and impreeolons at clubs aucheo The lca House, The La/T Stop (now

BridgeS/from06

the Comedy Express) and The ComedyStore.Recently, Bridges waa cast in the

comedy aeries "Nurses," where heco-starred with Loni Anderaon. Heplayed the role of Mr. Torrance, apatient requesting adenoid aurgerybecauae he sounded emctly like JackNicholson.For Bridges, a relative newcomer to

the entertainment Industry, landingthe role was both a surpri •• and a bigaccomplishment. "There were a lot orJack Nicholsona in the hall," he said,recallmg' the audition which pitted himagainat Icorea of more seaeonedprofesaional •. ·1just got there and gotmy .ign and started reading It andpracticing and they liked me and said,"Yeah, you're !food. Fine, _'11 go withyou.'"Working on the aet of a prime-time

television show wal a good esperiencefor the fledgling actor. '"Ibey were funpeople," he said. '"Ibey were ellioyableto work with and Loni (Anderson)_med like a really friendlydown- to-earth penon on the set,·Bridges' background is different from

moot of the actora he competed with forthe spot on "NW'8"" Hia entireeducation Will apent preparing for theminiotry. He holda a maater'a degree inChristian education from TalbotTheological Seminary and worked as ayouth minister for several yeara at aFullerton church. Although he lovedthe work, after aix yeans Bridaes waaready for a change."I wao ready to go and It waa kind of

an ideal time for me to try IIOmethingnew. So I did.·Bridges, who began doina

impressions in junior high. had alwaysbeen funny growinll up, although he

was never the class clown, His HowardCosell, Sylvester Stallone and VinScully impreooiona were reserved foronly the closest of friends."I'm what I guess you'd call a lata

bloomer in that respect," he said."Where I felt comfortable waa with areally small group."So it wao a ahock for many who knew

Bridgea in his younger days to find outhe waa comedian. He recalled meetingan old high achool acquaintance afterdoing a show in Northern California,where he (l'ew up. "(She) came up tome afterwards and juot laughed andlaid, When someone told me you werea atand-up comedian. Isaid, "no wayf- I

And it'. true. It just isn't what youwould have thought I'd do."I don't know if it's what J'1I do for

the reat of my life" he continued. "Ihave a paeaion for other things. I havea very aerioua side, especially when I'mtaaching or bringing up a diacuasionwith kida. I like to really get into goodheartfelt diecussicn." .That serioua aide can sometimes be

aeen in Bridges' comedy. Along with afew frienda from Clean Comediana,Bridge. bringa a meaaage on peerpreaaure and good morale to acbool•• sembliea."It's fantastic," he aaid. "It'a very

rewarding and a lot of fun - greataudiences, usually. High school kidaand junior high audiences like that,you have to win them within the firstminuta. They've got to dig it. The bestthing i. to be funny the whole time andthat WHy they're a lot more receptive toyour measage, to ony kind of a talk, toany kind of a serious point, but yougotta make that connection, becausethey've heard It all."

See BRlDGESlD7

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Steve Bridges has a talent for Impersonating such celebrities as Howard Cosell,Sylvester Stallone and Vin Scully. He Is a regular on a morning radio show.

Whenever he performs,Bridges' message is usuallypositive or nt loaat clean. "Forme, jt'~ a matter of what am Icomfor-table doing ns ucomedian," he suid. "WhatACCOlR to come natur-al to me ...usually turns out to be clean.I'm not pninting myself AS 8saint or anything like that. but Ithink every comedian does whatcomes natural to him or her.""" In fact, Bridges shuns labels:4>cC8USC they're very restrictive.:If I say I'm a 'clean comedian,':one thing comes to one person'smind nnd another thing comes. to another person's mind. Forsome. you're clean means youdon't any certnin words. Forothers it mean!'!you're goin~ tot('11jokes ubout MmH~~and .1t·SUB

•

out golfin!1. It creates a lot ofdifferent ideas."Nevertheless, Bridges has

found that the concept of cleancomedy is appealing to somepeople. Hecnlfing a hugh CleanComedians concert that almostpacked out Knott's Berry Farm,he said. "I think it shows thatthere are 8 lot of people if youjust tell them. "The comedy'.gonna be clean: then they'reautornaticnlly interested, almostwithout even knowing- who's onthe hill.

"I think saying you're gonnabe 8 clean comedian is great onthe one hand but it's also aset-up for just being judged. Forthe most part I've found it veryworkable. I've found that mymaterial is funny; it crack}!people up and I don't offend toomany people,"Bridges' routines revolve

around ordinary, everydayexperiences. much like the earlycomedy of Bill Cosby. "I talkabout growing up, having anolder brother and the two of us

trying to kill each other. One ofmy favorite routines, and it'strue, is about me and mybrother in the backseat of thecur on family vacations drivingmy mom and dad insane thesecond we pull out of thedriveway asking, 'Are we thereyet? .

WI mean, we're not out of ourown hometown and we've got to

go to the bathroom and we'refighting cause we're. playingpick-up sticks in the backseatand Dad keeps hitting all thepotholes. People CRn relateto that with their kids. That'show I come up with mymaterial, stulT that I thinkpeople can r-elate to."

working on his first comedyalbum about the president andthe White House. "It involves alot of characters and lot of myvoices and impressions," he said.

Meanwhile, Bridges is

Bridges' future plans includemore stand-up comedy,impressions and schoolaasernbllee. hut he also hopes todo more acting. .