Award-winning Elvis ‘talks and makes silly noises’ in Rankin Inlet
With Corny Rempel, Jammin’ on the Bay gets Elvis and Johnny Cash in one person
Corny Rempel as Elvis Presley performs at the Jammin’ on the Bay tribute festival in Rankin Inlet in early August. (Photo by Arty Sarkisian)
Elvis Presley walked on stage at the Agnico Eagle Arena in Rankin Inlet surrounded by tough-looking bodyguards in dark glasses, to the cheers of the audience.
“Let’s scream like teenagers in the 1970s,” host Al Simmons urged the crowd at the Jammin’ on the Bay music tribute festival earlier this month.
And they did.
The screams and cheers continued for several more minutes after the King of Rock and Roll stood on the stage and let the bodyguards go.
“Johnny Cash yesterday was amazing, right?” he asked. The crowd cheered.
“But so ugly,” he added, drawing laughter from the audience.
“I can say that because I was Johnny Cash,” he said.
Corny Rempel as Elvis Presley convinces volunteers from the Agnico Eagle mine to play the role of his bodyguards when he enters the stage at the Jammin’ on the Bay tribute festival in Rankin Inlet recently. (Photo by Arty Sarkisian)
Corny Rempel is an award-winning Elvis tribute artist from Steinbach, Man. He was at the Jammin’ on the Bay festival from Aug. 2 to 5, at different times performing and wearing the wigs and iconic apparel of both Cash and Presley.
Elvis was a bigger hit with the crowd. Women, kids, even men were running up to Rempel to get a scarf from his neck, a trick The King himself used in his shows.
Rempel brought dozens of scarves, putting them on one by one only to take them off and hand them to someone in the audience.
Some ran up to Rempel to receive an Elvis-like kiss on the cheek.
Rempel is now 12 years older than Elvis was when he died at age 42 in August 1977.
“I’m past the best-before date,” Rempel said.
Rempel was named Grand Champion at the 2017 Penticton, B.C. Elvis Festival, the same year he competed with 20 other Elvises at the Ultimate Elvis tribute artist competition at Graceland in Memphis, Tenn.
He got his start in Manitoba, where he said he was always teased in school because of his first name. Corny is short for Cornelius.
Corny Rempel as Johnny Cash performing at the Jammin’ on the Bay Tribute Fest. (Photo by Arty Sarkisian)
“There are only two words in the English language that rhyme with Corny,” he said.
“And they were not calling me forney.”
He was loud, talkative and inattentive sometimes, at a time when people did not yet widely understand ADHD, or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, he said.
“Now I talk and make silly noises for a living,” Rempel said.
At the end of his performance in Rankin Inlet, he sang some gospel music, which got even louder cheers than his wacky entrance.
After he left the stage, he spent about an hour taking selfies and signing T-shirts, hoodies and sneakers for fans.
Rempel didn’t need the bodyguards for that. Anyway, the bodyguards were actually volunteers from the local mine who Rempel asked to help with his dramatic entrance.
“This is the same thing my teachers used to give me detention for, and now people are paying to see me do it,” he said.
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