RV Travels With Huggy

On Thursday, Aug. 31st I attended another show with Danny Vernon presenting his "Illusions of Elvis" show in the large bingo hall of the Northern Lights Casino near Anacortes, WA. This is my second time seeing his show and it was as enjoyable as the first time, but I did like the smaller room that it was in back in May better as it was a lot more cozy. This room was just too big, the seats too uncomfortable, no table in front of each of us and there were too many people (around 600.) This time I took my camera along and I learned it is hard to take photos with stage lighting of moving performers. Getting good focus was hard and they tend to move enough that there is some blur introduced from their movements. I have selected about nine photos that kind of cover the event and are for the most part fairly sharp. These are all with just the stage lighting, no flash. Flash would have been a lot sharper but I think it looses the feeling of the performance.

This show also had two other performers, one as Buddy Holly and one as Ritchie Valens. I have a photo here of the Ritchie Valens singer but the other was not on long, I didn't go up front near the stage while he was singing and so I don't have any decent photos of him. There are a pair of dancers, "Double Trouble," who are good and dance along with some of the Elvis songs. Danny's wife, Marcia, also performs on stage with him singing backup. Now off to the photos, with a brief description of each:

Here is Danny in his portrayal of Elvis in his middle years. He breaks the show down into three eras- early Elvis, the middle years and the final years. That is his wife, Marcia, in the background singing backup:


Danny is performing with the dancers, "Double Trouble" in this photo:


Here they are again. The nearest dancer reminds me a lot in appearance of SW, except SW is not a blond:


I am sorry that I don't have the name of this performer who is in the role of Ritchie Valens, but he was good & really got the audience participating:


This is Danny's late Elvis part of the show, with Marcia in the background:


Danny's whole show is a high-energy performance:


Elvis loved the ladies in the audience and Danny seems to also. Here he is presenting scarves to some of them while singing. My DIL was in this position at the show we attended in May but Danny came to her in the audience, plus she also got a kiss:


Danny does get pretty emotional during his performance. You get the feeling he loves doing this and really gets into his role:


This is the conclusion of the show with all the performers on-stage. This is the only decent photo I have of "Buddy Holly" and it does not include the drummer nor the two guitarists. The musical backup was by live performers and it was good:


I have included a link above to Danny's offical web site. You can hear some of his music there and check out his performance schedule as well as see more photos. Most of his shows are in the northwest but I understand he has performed in Las Vegas and other places. If you have a chance to go see him, do it, especially if you are a fan of the music of Elvis Presley.

It was a learning experience for me as far as the photography is concerned. I deleted four times as many photos as I kept due to them not being up to the quality I prefer and really none of them are really great. But, I am learning.

Edit: 5 Sep 2006 - "Buddy Holly's" actual name is Ray Sanchez. "Ritchie Valens'" actual name is Ray Anthony.

Labels: Danny Vernon as Elvis, Entertainment