Whitaker plays Eddie Presley, a former successful owner of a chain of pizza restaurants who, against the wishes of his father (
Joe Estevez) and mother (Whitaker's real-life mother Barbara), decides to sell his business in the pursuit of living his dream of becoming an
Elvis Presley impersonator, going so far as to legally change his last name to "Presley". After several years, he's living in his van and desperate for work. After his boss (
Lawrence Tierney) fires Presley from his night security job for sleeping (with the
Polaroids to back it up), he finally lands a gig in a seedy Hollywood bar (managed by
Roscoe Lee Brown). After a technical malfunction, he proceeds to bare his soul to the audience in an improvisational
one man show, where he admits to spending time in a
psychiatric hospital after suffering a
mental breakdown (
Bruce Campbell and
Quentin Tarantino make
cameos as orderlies at the hospital). Meanwhile, in his personal life, Presley has to deal with a cheating girlfriend who ends up working in
pornography, while remaining oblivious to a co-worker who truly loves him. ==Release==