On this blog, I talk a lot about one of my favorite actors who is famous for playing a certain character: Ken Curtis played "Festus Haggen" on television's longest-running Western, Gunsmoke. Curtis essentially created Festus, modeling him after a few people he knew in real life, and letting him evolve over the years.
But long after Gunsmoke's final episode aired, and Ken Curtis passed away, Festus' legacy lives on in a fun way.
Meet Mark Staggs, comedian and celebrity impersonator.
Although Staggs impersonates over a hundred people, he found that his Festus routine is a favorite with audiences everywhere. "Sometimes they feel like they met Festus," he says. "I can see it in their eyes."
Mark started his creative ventures at the ripe old age of four—"That's when I did my first impersonation, according to my mother," Mark stated. "And the next big breakthrough was about at nine years old, two things happened. One is, I went to see a John Wayne movie with my buddies. Back in the sixties we used to go to the movie theater and stay there all day and watch as many movies as we could. So I went and watched The War Wagon (1967) with my friends, and when we come outside, I started doing John Wayne. Their eyeballs got big, and they said, 'You sound just like him!' Of course, as much as a nine year old could, you know. I had all the voice inflection down.
"And then also, that same year in my third grade class, they had like a talent contest. I had an album of Bill Cosby's. And I had watched Bill Cosby on TV, and I had memorized his routine, so I put his record on and I did all the faces, and acted like Bill Cosby. Well, the teacher stopped me right after I got started, and I thought I was in trouble. But she went out of the room, and she got all of the other third grade teachers and all the students and they all came in and watched me do Bill Cosby. They laughed like crazy, and that's when I became a comedian."
For several years, Mark served in the United States Marine Corps and wrote comedy material in his spare time. He performed occasionally up until 2015, when he became a full-time comedian. He recognizes it as a gift from God to be able to impersonate. "And every now and then I realize what kind of effect it has on people," he says. "Especially Festus. It's not every time, but a few times people come up (to me after the show). One fella said, 'You know, I've been diagnosed with terminal cancer, and I haven't laughed in years, because there's nothing to laugh about. But you made me forget everything and laugh so hard.' And that's what touches my heart."
He adds that most of what he loves about performing is just making people laugh. "It's kind of addicting. It's kinda like a control thing. You get 'em started laughin', you keep 'em laughin', and you got their whole attention. Not just their ears, or their eyes, but you got their whole brain. They want to see what you're gonna say next, and it's just neat to be able to deliver to them what they wanted."
When asked what makes Festus special to so many people, Mark replied (in a Festus voice, of course), "Well, he wasn't the sharpest arrow in the quiver, ya know. He was actually, but he didn't play one. He was a good deputy. Everybody just loved him pretty much more than anybody else on that show. He was a sidekick, but it just wouldn't have been the same show without him. And I didn't know until I started doin' him, how much people did love him."
"Eliab's Aim" (Season 10, episode 23) is Mark's favorite Gunsmoke episode, and he often gets asked to do a skit called "A Little Lot" from another episode ("Whelen's Men," season 18, episode 20). "There's a lot of people who play the Doc part for me. Matter of fact, I'm going to Wichita in March. I'm a keynote speaker . . . . And they're gonna hire an actor to play the Doc part, and he has to memorize that scene, so that we can do it in front of everybody."
In September, Mark received two awards at the Sunburst Convention of Celebrity Impersonators—"Funniest Male" and "Most Unique Act." "The thing that got to me most from that" Mark says, "is that people in their twenties and thirties, who have no idea who Festus was, they love the act. So they didn't know who Festus was, but the way I present it, they still laughed like crazy. I'm pretty tickled about that, I didn't really think I could reach a younger crowd."
And he has an international "followin'" too. "In England, they play my videos in pubs and different places. People over there love Festus. People in Canada love Festus. I haven't heard anything from Mexico, but over in Europe, he's pretty popular. They love the Old West in Europe."
Of course, as I mentioned, Mark has over a hundred characters in his repertoire, including Clint Eastwood ("Clint Eastwood's real easy"), Robert De Niro, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Walter Brennan, Bill Clinton, Liam Neeson, and Forrest Gump ("I like to do Forrest Gump. He gets a lot of laughs").
He practices all the time, and he enjoys watching other impersonators on Jimmy Fallon's television program. "That's kind of my goal, too. To get on Jimmy Fallon and sit there and do impersonations with him. That would be fun."
And with his popularity rising, you never know when he might just show up on your TV screen. "(My business) is getting better every week," he says. "Like this time last year, I had maybe one or two gigs, and this year, I have October and November filled up. I'm makin' a whole lot more money, but that's not the reason I do it—I do it 'cause people love it."
One of his most-loved videos is the routine he did with another actor who impersonates Barney Fife, and another one is his Festus-Christmas poem: "Twas the Night Afore Christmas." (See it here on YouTube!) He says his Facebook Page is the best place for people to follow him, "'Cause if I do somethin', I'll put it on there first."
As a final word, Mark attributes all of his success to his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. "I don't believe I'd have this ability without Him, and trying to find exactly what He wants me to do with it is fun. I'm just blessed to have Him provide this for me. I've always wanted to do it, and He waited until I was almost sixty years old before He showed me that I can. Right now these are pretty much the best days of my life right now—almost, except for having kids and grandkids."
Thank you, Mark, for the interview!