The Cultural Centre has tracked down the King and invited him to put on a show — well, Ultimate Elvis Tribute Artist Dean Z, which is really as close as you can get to Elvis himself.
“One Night With You,” starring Dean Z is a show meant to honour the legacy of the King of Rock n’ Roll, and the tour will be stopping here on Apr. 6 to bring a piece of Las Vegas to the prairies. Dean Zeligman, stage name Dean Z, has never been to Saskatchewan to perform and is excited to be bringing his tour to Moose Jaw for the first time.
His love of Elvis started when he was just a kid, and he remains infatuated with performing and bringing the magic of Elvis to audiences across the world.
“Being on stage is a feeling I don't know how to replicate off stage. It's a special sort of feeling you can only get when you're entertaining people,” said Dean. “Because of Elvis, I was opened up to a whole world of music — music that, frankly, wouldn't even exist if it wasn't for Elvis breaking down the barriers that he did.”
The show is completely live, with a 12-piece band, live singers, and a horn section, and is what Dean describes as “Elvis at his best, his best moments on stage.”
“Basically, we're covering all of Elvis's most exciting and electric performances from the 1950s, the movies, and the iconic 1958 comeback special,” said Dean. “It's going to be a really cool experience, even if folks don't know much about Elvis, everyone will really enjoy the show. It's one of these types of shows that you can kind of come in as maybe not even a hardcore Elvis fan, and leave understanding why Elvis was the King of Rock and Roll.”
The audience is encouraged to join in — clapping, screaming, having a good time. Dean finds that the best part of performing what he does is the way he gets to be with the audience.
“You kind of get to watch the years melt away from those people's faces because it brings back their childhood memories and their twenties, whatever year they were listening to Elvis. It kind of puts you mentally back in that place,” said Dean. “I love providing that escape for people, as a singer, getting to watch them forget about everything that's happening — any sort of trouble or anything that's happening in the world — and escape into their own memories and the music.”
The impact Elvis has had on North American culture is still important today, and it’s something that Dean says amazes him and also drives him to pay tribute to the King in this way.
“It's pretty incredible to think that Elvis had such a huge impact and it's lasted this long. There's no other this artist that I can think of that's lasted the true test of time like that,” said Dean. “And that's really what [tribute artists] do, we pay tribute to Elvis through our music. We're not trying to pretend to be him, we're just trying to be the conduit between him and the generations that might have not seen him and the ones that still miss him.”
Tickets for the show are still available on the Cultural Centre’s website, as well as on Dean Z’s website.
