Bill Clinton Look-Alike Banks On New Career
The Associated Press
The State Journal Register
Monday, September 5, 1994
AURORA - Tim Watters has traded his golden blazer and office cubicle for a tailored suit and an oval office.
Well, more like a mobile office.
The former Tampa, Fla., real estate agent, a dead ringer for Bill Clinton, spends a great deal of time on the road now, selling himself as "Mr. President".
And he was spotted posing with teh everyday Joe last month in Illinois.
"I had no idea who he was," Watters says of Clinton's beginnings in the national limelight. "I never saw him at the '88 convention."
But as the 1992 race heated up, Watters found co-workers leaving more newspaper-clipped photos of Clinton on his desk. He found it amusing, but never considered a career change until his son Brian, then 18 months old, pointed to one of those Clinton clips and said "Daddy."
"That was the clincher," Watters said. "That, and a co-worker telling me that impersonators can make a lot of money."
Watters had some photos take and started shopping for an agent. His first gig was at a party thrown by a wealthy strawberry grower for his wife's 40th birthday.
"She just hated Clinton, and he, jokingly, wanted to make the evening a living nightmare for her," said Watters, who was happy to oblige.
His engagements as Clinton picked up steam along with the Arkansas governor's presidential campaign. Since the election Watters has been on his own veritable show-biz bus tour.
His manager booked him at Zanies comedy club, with material by top national writers. The routine, touching on Whitwater, Gennifer Flowers inhaling, etc., was an instant hit, and greatly expanded Watters' act.
These days he appears before corporate groups, making speeches and one can assume big bucks. He hopes to make $100,000 a year, or about half the real president's salary.
Watters admits he had to resort to some tried and true show-biz techniques to get that perfect Clinton look: lifts in his shoes and gray and white hair coloring help create a likeness that can be uncanny. And though he has mastered both, Watters sasys perfecting Clintonn's drawl was more difficult than learning to play the saxophone.
Appearances on "The Tonight Show," stuffing an entire cheeseburger into his mouth when Jay Leno reminds him that regulations prevent even the president from bringing food into the studio, and "Good Morning America," among other television shows, have advanced the impersonator's career.
He also appeared with Leslie Nielsen in a sequel to the movie "The Naked Gun," and has done several pieces for Rush Limbaugh's television show. While continuing his nationwide appearances in malls, boardrooms and at corporate functions, Watters' current project finds him at Universal Studios in Florida, taping a new series for the FOX network.
"Of course, they want Clinton, not Tim Watters," he said.
And what happens when the real commander-in-chief vacates his office?
"I'll get to work on building my library, like all former presidents," he said.






