WHO'S THAT MAN?: Willie Nepomuceno doing his many impersonations (above) and as himself. -- PHOTOS: COURTESY OF WILLIE NEPOMUCENO

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But he was stumped when asked his age. After some mental arithmetic, he finally concluded that he is 59 - and not only is he a married man with four grown-up children, but he also has four grandchildren.

'I'd rather think of myself as ageless,' jibed the Filipino entertainer, who looked a decade younger, sporting a trendy pair of rimless glasses, an ornate silver necklace, and a gemstone stud in his left ear.

'When I turned 25, I started disregarding my age, because I decided then that age should not matter in what I do.'

Casually attired in a black striped shirt and denim jeans, Nepomuceno was interviewed by Life! recently at 7,107 Flavours, a Filipino restaurant at Marina Square.

He was on a short trip to Singapore to survey Raffles Hotel's Jubilee Hall, the venue of his two-night comedy performance this weekend.

Born in Manila to a police officer father and a beautician mother, Nepomuceno would imitate his friends in school for the fun of it.

'Soon, I was impersonating personalities like Pat Boone and Frank Sinatra,' he said.

After graduating from the University of the Philippines with an arts degree, he worked as a book designer and a trainer for a government agency, but consistently did theatre work and commercial voiceovers on the sidelines.

When offers started to pour in for him to perform as an entertainer and impersonator about 30 years ago, he decided to enter the world of showbiz full time.

'I used to paint, but now my face is my canvas,' he said. 'When I impersonate a person, I would start off with a caricature of that person in my mind and proceed to make him larger than life.'

To show how serious he is about his craft, he revealed that intense research goes into each character he mimics - from the person's professional background to his preferred tailor or fashion brand. He would also study the person's speeches or performances on video, and read up on trivia through magazines.

He does his own make-up, but pays specialists to design wigs and prosthetics to complete the various looks.

But he almost never does drags out of respect for women, he explained, because he is 'broad-shouldered and flat-chested, and (does not) possess the beautiful curves of a woman'.

He has no problems with lampooning politicians, however, and recalled how he was impersonating former Filipino President Ferdinand Marcos at a town fiesta in Iloco in the 1980s, when the presidential couple showed up unexpectedly.

'When I impersonate Marcos, I tend to exaggerate his habit of clearing his throat, the way he spoke and paused and slipped nursery rhymes into the speeches,' he said.

'I remember Marcos and the First Lady were laughing so hard at my act that they were hitting each other playfully. When I was later invited to Marcos' residence, the president pulled me aside and said to me, 'You're Marcos No. 2!''