Singer a dead ringer for Diamond

At first, he thought Neil Diamond was just some dude from his church. This was long before he went bowling with Jimmy Kimmel, before "The Jewish Elvis" helped spare him from homelessness once.

Back when he was a kid, singing with the congregation on Sundays, Theron Denson constantly heard about how much he sounded like the fella who first belted out "Sweet Caroline."

"After the 500th person said that to me, I went, 'I better go find out who this dude is,' " Denson recalls with a big smile and a bigger voice that fills up the room. "I ran out and got the 'Jazz Singer' and listened to it over and over. I was like, 'This is who people think I sound like? He's a white guy from Brooklyn, N.Y., and I'm this black guy, with an afro at the time, living in Charleston, W.Va. It just made no sense to me."

These days, Denson has changed his tune -- literally. Sitting in Brendan's Pub at The Orleans on a recent Tuesday afternoon, where he keeps his voice in shape by singing karaoke, Denson demonstrates as much when he sings a few lines from Diamond's "If You Know What I Mean." His husky baritone is a dead ringer for Diamond's, complete with natural vibrato.

And so in a pinch nine years ago, after being fired from a hotel he was working at for refusing to quit singing to the guests upon check in and worrying if he was going to be able to keep a roof over his head, Denson created Black Diamond, perhaps the world's most unlikely Neil Diamond tribute act.

"It started out with me being broke and needing to eat, and so I would sing for my supper," says Denson, stout and bald, clad in a purple shirt. "I found that if you sang a Neil Diamond song, you got a steak instead of a hot dog. I was singing in shopping malls. At Outback Steakhouse."

Eventually, Denson would develop a full-fledged routine, and one time while he was performing in a pizza joint in West Virginia, a friend of the producer of "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" saw his act and recommended him for the show, which he would appear on last year.

It was Kimmel who encouraged Denson to come to Vegas during a group bowling session after the taping.

Having lived here since last fall, Denson is preparing to make his Vegas debut this Saturday at the Bootlegger Bistro.

He's an engaging guy, quite the ham, and he knows some will be quick to dismiss him as a novelty act.

"This is not a joke," Denson says. "There's no trick microphone. I'm not Milli Vanilli."

Still, Denson does look at it all as something of a punch line -- albeit a celestial one.

"It's proof that God has a great sense of humor," Denson says with yet another hearty chuckle. "I'm pretty sure when we do the show, he's up there going, 'Jesus, come in here, Black Diamond's on.' And then they high-five."

Contact reporter Jason Bracelin at jbracelin@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0476.