Frank Caliendo is an actor and comedian, but he’s perhaps best known for his impressions. They’re spot on, hilarious and revealing, opening windows into famous (or infamous) characters, art by way of sincerest form of flattery. With Super Bowl LVI fast approaching, Sports Illustrated spoke with Caliendo about one particular sub-genre in his collection of impersonations: football coaches, those clipboard-holding, whistle-blowing, 23-hour-workday creatures of habit who love nothing more than taking themselves, their sports and their teams as seriously as possible.
Sports Illustrated: Why are football coaches so ripe for impersonations?
Frank Caliendo: A big part of it is we see them in emotional situations. O.K., let’s simplify that a little bit. Let's … let's say you got a coach at the podium, right? They’ve won or lost, and they’re either exuberant, they have a ton of energy after a win, or they’re kind of trying to hide the devastation from the loss. So you’re seeing them put on a face after that loss, right? It’s almost like a character, right? It’s clothing they’re wearing in that instance, that they’re putting themselves in.
SI: Right, and they have this character they’re playing during the week, at least publicly. It’s like, in those moments you’re describing, they’re closer to their truer selves.
Caliendo: Or they’re trying to hide behind that character. You watch Belichick in a loss, and he’s Belichick times 1000, right? It’s just brutal. He doesn’t want to be there, and you know he doesn’t want to be there. But he’s got to be there. That’s one aspect of it. We see them in those situations. We see them on the sidelines. We know what their job is. So you already have a set of parameters or criteria for a person. What are they. Who are they? Now? How does that person’s personality fit in there? That’s the basis of most of these things that I do.
