Mark Anthony can clearly recall his first brush with Elvis Presley’s music, when an older cousin sat him down and told him to listen.

His eyes fix on the corner of the ceiling as he remembers, as if transporting himself back to the moment his five-year-old self dutifully listened to a 1973 recording of Promised Land.

“The song was just like nothing I’d heard before,” he says. “The sound of it, the way it made you feel from another planet.”

As an adult, the man born Mark Andrew Piantadosi does more than listen to “The King” – he embodies him.

His velvety vocals are unmistakeable, flowing out through his curled lips. He effortlessly oozes rhythm, style and magnetism. With every swing of his hips, the audience is wrapped tighter and tighter around his finger.

Anthony’s impressive track record dates back to 2007, when he won his first of three South Pacific Ultimate Elvis Competitions.

In 2017, he travelled to Presley heartland in Memphis to place second at the Ultimate Elvis Tribute Artist Competition, and again in 2019 to take out Images of The King, an international tribute artist festival.

He acknowledges the job has taken him places he would otherwise never visit, from Britain to the US and beyond.

“Airport, tour bus, hotel, backstage, on stage, backstage, hotel, airport,” he says of the peak of his touring schedule. “All me, full two hours, 40-odd songs”.

Faithfully recapturing the sound and spirit of the rock’n’roll icon was often a feat of endurance. To prepare for the stage, Anthony says he used to run laps around Adelaide’s Payneham Oval while belting the setlist – and ignoring the stares of passers-by.

“Once I got to the point where I could run for two hours and sing it at the same time,” he says, clapping and pointing finger guns. “I’m ready.”

Sometimes, it was hard not to get swept up in the experience himself – like one show in Queensland that proved a costly lesson in stagecraft.

“It was so good I actually launched my cape out into the crowd – $1800 cape, bye-bye, whoosh. And as soon as I did it [I thought] ‘Oh, what have I done that for?’.”

Despite dedicating years to impersonating another performer, Anthony still found ways to let his own personality peek through each well-rehearsed set.

“It all starts with the walk – if you can walk like the guy you take on everything else,” he says, leaning in his chair to demonstrate. “His right hip would curve out a bit … and you can just fall into it so easy.”

Sometimes, audiences seem unable or unwilling to distinguish Anthony from the real thing – occasionally, he’d spot a fan weeping as they clutched at his clothes.

He’s matter of fact about the ways his Elvis act has “helped and hindered” his broader performing career, while also taking a toll on his personal happiness – not unlike his idol, who in 1956’s The Truth About Me admitted, “I get lonesome in the middle of a crowd”.

“The end of the night comes and you’re by yourself,” Anthony reflects. “Wide awake because you can’t calm down … and you’re just alone.”

That sense of isolation was only compounded once he stepped back from performing – after playing what he thought would be his final show in “nowhere, Victoria”. He warns that showbiz can “drag you down really fast and you can lose everything if you get carried away with it”.

“I’ve lost so much, all for the enjoyment and the love of being on stage.”

Even at his lowest, however, it’s the music that keeps Anthony going – and he “still can’t get enough” of Presley’s catalogue.

“There’s something about it. It still feels to me like … medicine music,” he says.

The final show was his manager’s idea. After 22 years of commitment and success, he could not let Anthony walk away without a proper send-off.

On August 15, he performed The King in Concert one last time at Thebarton Theatre, in front of the home crowd that saw him evolve into an Adelaide success story.