Billy Birmingham

Australian entertainment history was effectively rewritten over a decade ago by a clever Australian conceptualist with a wicked wit, a predilection for playing with words and an astounding art for mimicry. This clever entertainer was Billy Birmingham.
Billy Birmingham is a man who's been described as a deadset comedy genius though some might just call him a trouble-maker. Billy, also known as The 12th Man, has been stealing people's voices for years and has managed to make himself famous for it.
As The Twelfth Man Billy Birmingham became one of the most successful spoken word recording artists Australia - if not the world - had ever known.
The icon he lampooned was, and still is, cricketing legend Richie Benaud, who became the thematic centrepiece of a string of phenomenally popular comedy masterpieces.
Cricket fans love him for his witty take-offs of the Channel Nine commentary team.
Billy Birmingham is also able to mimic voices of over a dozen other famous legends.
During the Sydney 2000 Olympics, Birmingham also recorded a series of mock-commentaries on Olympic events as the "Wired World of Sports", featuring such characters as the American track-and-field representative "Chuck D'Wobblee" ("chucked a wobbly" - meaning to throw a tantrum) and the Ukrainian pole-vaulter "Olga Bedjanodgonnagedova" ("bet you're not gonna get over"), while also releasing the single, "Bruce 2000", featuring an impersonation of Bruce McAvaney during the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games.
Other people he has mimicked include Richie Benaud, Bill Lawry, Tony Greig, Mark Taylo,r Ian Chappell, Alan Jones, Ray Warren, Darrell Eastlake and former Australian Prime Minister John Howard plus many other iconic people.