The Man of 1,000 Faces

It's a wonder that Dana Carvey can recognize himself in the mirror each morning. Ever since he joined "Saturday Night Live," Carvey has taken over various personas from the Church Lady to President Bush, to Garth of "Wayne's World" fame.

Ironically, in Movin', an awful Richard Pryor movie some years back, Carvey played a schizophrenic who haunted Pryor. There are probably a couple of reasons for the unique pattern in Carvey's career.

For one, SNL has had a history of odd characters who become overnight celebrities: Buckwheat, Ed Grimley, Jon Lovitz's compulsive liar, the Samurai Butcher, to name a few.

But Carvey has occupied more of these roles than any previous actor on the show. The answer lies somewhere within Carvey himself. In essence, he looks like a lot of people. Carvey can pass (with the appropriate dress and makeup) for a woman without seeming too freakishly androgynous. He possesses George Bush's dull All-American look with just enough malleable nerdiness to invite ridicule.

Nevertheless, the question remains: Shall we call him George, Church Lady or Garth? Maybe the best thing is to wait for Carvey's next splashy role.