Mike Nesmith impersonator/lookalike

Somebody mentioned to me earlier that some guy had been impersonating Nez for several years and even got away with appearing on some talk shows. This is the first I've heard of it, does anyone have more details?

 

Interesting.

 

From Wikipedia:

"An opportunistic lookalike from the US cashed in on his similarity to Nesmith by appearing on talk shows and doing interviews in Australia during the 1980s. The scam was successful, the lookalike being far enough from America to avoid detection as a fraud (which is less likely in the US, where the real Nesmith has made many media and show-business acquaintances). An entertaining interviewee, the impersonator's charade was not discovered until after he had vanished from the public eye. The imposter, Barry Faulkner, who had pulled various fraudulent scams for forty years, was finally apprehended and sent to jail in 2009"

 

Surely there must be some video of this guy....

 

It's in the Total Control book, but I don't remember details.

 

Google images of Barry Faulkner

 

Hmmm. That guy looks nothing like Nez.

 

Which one is Zappa?

 

A couple more.

 

I think this guy got his then-current or recent picture in a 1980s magazine called "Hey Hey We're The Monkees" alongside current photos of the other three (this was just as they were doing the first reunion tour). At least there's a picture of a guy in there identified as Nez who I don't think is Nez. If I find the magazine I'll scan it...

 

Didn't his appearance spark the famous "Mike is dead" rumors that ran rampant in the late '80's?

There were allegedly clues about this hidden in the cover photo for Pool It.

 

I have that "Hey, Hey" book/magazine and the photo is clearly not Mike. It leapt off the page to me when I first picked it up, as the only resemblance the guy in the book has to Nesmith is that they both have beards. Ace proofreading job there...

 

My memory of the photo in the "Hey Hey" book is that the misidentified guy doesn't really resemble Faulkner, though.

 

I wonder how many years one gets for impersonating a Monkee.

 

If I remember correctly, it depends on how much time you spent singing versus putting anybody down.

 

Well played Dasjr