Applauze Magazine
by Jed Highum
A humble mail carrier by the name of Karl
Commers walks through a door behind a stage
and comes out a few minutes later in a
comprehensively sparkly shirt, the spitting
image of a certain famous
musician. Firing up the
fog machine and an
expression of modest
greatness, he hops up
onto the stage and let
loose the voice of a sixtyfour-
year-old megastar in
all his glory. The sights,
sounds and magic of a
one-of-a-kind star with a
feeling for a certain
“Sweet Caroline” are all
here.
Commers is one of very
few Neil Diamond
impersonators in not just
the state, but the entire
country. First having
success doing Diamond
songs at local metro area
karaoke bars, Karl
decided to take it a step
further, and a few years
back decided to start a
touring Neil Diamond tribute
show. Commers recalls his first show at
Arizona’s in Shakopee. “It was three hours
long with forty songs. It nearly killed me,” he
recalled.
He hopes to be able to quit mail carrying
within two years and, like anyone
contemplating a career change, he’s gone
back to school – the school of Neil
Diamond, that is. Not only does Commers
listen to Diamond’s music regularly, he
studies videos of the Solitary Man and
other Diamond impersonators. He
figures he studies the facets of
Diamond at least an hour per day,
sometimes while he’s walking his
route.
Vocals are his ticket, but similar
styling also helps.
“Diamondwear” (if you know
Neil, you know what I mean)
is not readily available off
the rack. With that said,
Commers bought two Calvin Klein shirts and
painstakingly glued sparkles on them, one
“bling” at a time. He figures if he’s going to
do Diamond, he’s going to do it right.
Karl Commers and his charismatic styling's of
Neil Diamond will be on display in a two hour
tribute show at the Kato Ballroom in Mankato
on Friday, January 13 at 9:30 p.m. in our latest
installment of the High Note Series,
spotlighting unique artists in various locations
across southern Minnesota. For more
information, check out
www.neildiamondshow.com. For tickets, call
the Kato Ballroom at 507-625-7553 or log
onto www.katoballroom.com.
