By Lee Benson
Deseret News columnist

JASON HEWLETT ISN'T the Danny Gans of Utah yet, but he would like to be.
Danny Gans, as you're no doubt aware, is Las Vegas' hottest entertainer,
commanding a reported $60,000 a show at the Mirage - which may seem
like a lot of money until you consider that Gans has to split it up 375 ways, which is how many entertainers he impersonates. Jason would only have to split it up 50 ways. But he's only getting started.

Jason tried to fit the mold, he tried hard. He went to college for a while. He worked normal jobs. He sold golf equipment for his father, John. But inside there was always an entertainer bursting to get out. OK, lots of entertainers. During the salesman gig, he hustled golf clubs by day and then went home and worked on routines at night. Finally, he made a videotape of himself being somebody else and showed it to his dad. John was impressed. "You shouldn't be working for me," he said to his son, "you should be an entertainer."

"What he didn't know," says Jason, laughing, "is that for the last five months I hadn't been working for him." So a star was born, or at least released, and it wasn't long before Jason Hewlett was Ricky Martin. Martin was his first paid impression as a main character in John Stewart's traveling "Legends in Concert" show. Jason lived la vida loca for three months in Myrtle Beach, S.C., before moving on to Valley Forge, Pa., where he was Ricky Martin and Elton John.

He would start the show as Elton John, after which Whitney Houston and Tom Jones would take the stage, and then Jason would finish up as Ricky Martin. "After the show, I'd still be dressed as Ricky Martin and people would come up to me and ask where Elton John was; they had no idea it was the same guy," remembers Jason. He took that as a compliment.

Jason, who is only 24, could have stayed with "Legends" a long time - at least until everybody forgot about Ricky Martin and Elton John - but he left the show and returned to Utah because impersonations are just part of what he does. He also plays a number of instruments, imitates dinosaurs, horses and other animals, does comedy routines, displays a number of interesting facial contortions - it took him five years to learn which muscles to use to wiggle his nose - and whenever possible, he likes to try to motivate people to do as he's done and chase after their dreams. "Actually," he says, "I'd like to be Danny Gans and Zig Ziglar."

He's worked up a one-man show that hits all these chords and a few more he discovers every time he takes the stage. He's already performed numerous times for corporations around the country, and he recently performed three live shows in the town where he grew up, Park City. He sold out the Egyptian Theatre for his first show and drew sizeable crowds for the next two shows at the Santy Auditorium. The Jason Hewlett Show is family-friendly - yet another reason Jason thinks it should play well in Utah - and Jason's hope is that he can secure a steady gig at a location in Park City or perhaps at a venue like Thanksgiving Point, where he has a show scheduled for June. "Utah needs a regular entertainer, doesn't it?" he asks. And he can pretty much be whichever entertainer Utah would like him to be.