"The world’s greatest online impersonator of professional basketball players." Talk about a niche profession.

As AI takes over more and more jobs, people are going to have to get more and more creative when it comes to making a living. 

And it looks like one Maxim Peranidze - "who may be the world’s greatest online impersonator of professional basketball players " -  has gotten a jump on the game. Or is it a jump ball?

Whatever. Peranidze, an LA guy originally from Moldova, has certainly carved out an interesting professional niche for himself. And I guess it's working out for him, as his Insta account has one million followers, a cadre that I've read he has figured out how to monetize quite nicely.

Who does he "do?"

The greats. The near greats. The current. The former.

Peranidze impersonates Larry Bird. Shaquille O'Neil. LeBron James. He's gotten a request from Dennis Rodman to do him. (No surprise that showboater would want in on this.)

The New Yorker reporter caught up with Peranidze when he was praciticing his Ivica Zubac moves. 

“Zubac easy,” Peranidze said, referring to Ivica Zubac, the seven-foot Croatian center. “I’m good with slow white guys.” He noted his mastery of the reigning M.V.P., Nikola Jokić, and of the likely future M.V.P. Luka Dončić. He noted his mastery of the reigning M.V.P., Nikola Jokić, and of the likely future M.V.P. Luka Dončić. Peranidze pulled on his Zubac jersey and a white sleeve. (Source: The New Yorker)

He'd also been working on his James Harden. (That's who's in the picture.) 

For one thing, Harden is left-handed and Peranidze is better with his right. For another, it’s difficult to grow a beard like Harden’s, which overtakes the face. Peranidze had ordered a fake one from Amazon. “Like, nine dollars,” he said. Soon, he’d put up a new post on his Instagram account, @MaxIsNicee (a million followers), captioned “Harden Floaters Be Like.” Peranidze nailed Harden’s loping and off-kilter lethality, which he described as “He nice.”

As an aside: Peranidze may be good with slow white guys, but Harden is not exactly a speed demon but, rather, a slow Black guy. Having successfully captured Harden in motion, he can add that to his repertoire. 

He also remembers the ladies, and has done impersonations of some WNBA superstars. Chicago Sky's Angel Reese was apparently not amused - wearing a wig, he had her in heels and a skirt - but Breanna Stewart of the NY Liberty got a kick out of his impersonation of her. 

For the NBAers, he buys knockoff jerseys:

....which he alters with scissors and safety pins if needed. “When guys are traded, I arts-and-crafts their names onto the new team’s jersey,” he said. 

Enterpising young man, that's for sure.  

I'm quite sure that as long as there have been celebrities, there have been impersonators. Elvis has been dead nearly 50 years and from AI-generated Google I saw that, worldwide, there are an estimated 250,000 to 400,000 Elvis impersonators. (They can't all be making a living, can they?)

Years ago, my husband and I were having a drink in a hotel bar when a whole slew of Chers came in. Turns out we had crashed a convention of Cher impersonators.

What Max Peranidze does is, of course, more complex in that he doesn't specialize in just one person to impersonate. And he has to rely on his movements, rather than just doing a look-and-sound alike (even if he does wear those knockoff shirts and don wigs and beards as needed).

Anyway, whenever I read about someone like Peranidze, I'm reminded of something my father would always say when there was some circus act on Ed Sullivan. A plate spinner. A guy who juggles bowling balls. A fire eater. "How does someone figure out that they have that particular talent?" Good question then, good question now.

And a question for Max Peranidze: can you do old-school Celtics like Bill Russell and Bob Cousy?

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And speaking of my father, today is his 113th birthday. (He only made it to 58...) Still miss you, Al!