By Rob Salem
They're not the Blues Brothers, but an incredible simulation.
Even without the sideburns and Raybans, Wayne Catania is a dead-on ringer for the late John Belushi. Kieron Lafferty, if not quite quite a physical clone, sometimes sounds more like Danny Aykroyd than even Danny Aykroyd, does, echoing his ironic detachment and rapid-fire wit.
Put the two together on stage, under the lights in front of a band, dressed up in the requisite black suits and fedoras, and they are an uncanny evocation of Jake and Elwood, the Saturday Night Live duo's singing cinematic alter-egos.
And that's only where the story starts.
Lost in Las Vegas is the latest documentary from Canadian Paul Jay, the director of the acclaimed Hitman Hart: Wrestling With Shadows, a tragically prescient profile of pro wrestler Bret Hart (who only shortly thereafter lost his brother, Owen, to the sport).
Here, Jay's camera follows Catania and Lafferty on a pilgrimage from Toronto to Las Vegas to seek their fortunes with a big-league impersonators revue.
The often surprising, occasionally inspiring, frequently hilarious two-hour chronicle of their journey debuts tonight at 9 p.m. on A&E.
In no time at all, the boys are mixing and mingling with a motley assortment of Vegas denizens, primarily the impersonators of other celebrities, such as Tom Jones, Little Richard and, it almost goes without saying, Elvis Presley.
But here, especially, appearances can be deceiving, and their fellow performers' apparently comfortable, semi-suburban, pseudo- showbiz existences often carry an unexpected emotional edge.
No less so Catania and Lafferty, consumed with doubt almost from their arrival that success in Vegas will mean relocating their families, and Vegas would appear to be the last place on earth anyone would ever want to raise their children.
"Vegas," says directory Jay, "is such a great metaphor for where we all might be headed.
"There are certain kinds of themes that I'm always exploring. And this had the same kind of layers that the wrestling film had, in terms of pop culture aspect, plus the underlying social commentary issues.
"So it attracted me, and the more I got into it…I went down to Vegas and met the people in the show, and it just had all the right kind of elements."
Primary among them, of course, his two sometimes reluctant stars.
"Fortunately, they turned out to be articulate, with a good sense of humour. They told me all about the big show in Vegas, and that they'd never played it – this whole story was really there, about them wanting to go and make it big
"And yet, I suppose, in an interesting way, neither Bret not these guys were quite the heroes I wanted, either.
"In some ways, I guess, I would have liked for these guys to have made some great, big, passionate denunciation of Las Vegas and everything it stands for.
"But these are real people, and as much as they didn't like Las Vegas, on the other hand, they do need a career, and they were caught in the kind of dilemma that the one place they might have a long-term gig and be with their families is the worst to raise their kids.
"Anyway, I think in the end that it's probably a lot more poignant than something I would have imagined that would have been more dramatic.
"Well, stereotypically dramatic, anyway."