Bono impersonator has fans fooled at Old Town Chicago bar
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Twin Anchors Restaurant & Tavern in Old Town has hosted all manner of Chicago local celebrities over the years – and the bar touts that Frank Sinatra was a visitor on stops in Chicago from the 1950s to the 1980s.
So would it be that big a surprise to find another celebrity there on a random Thursday night? Some U2 fans spent the evening thinking they were hanging out with Bono in the flesh and blood – and singing Christmas carols with him.
But as it turns out, it wasn't Bono. It was an impersonator – an Andy Kaufman to Bono's Elvis Presley, one might say.
It all started when a Chicago woman, Liz Garibay, posted a video of a man she thought was Bono singing "O Holy Night" with her friends. She also reported on X, formerly Twitter, that the presumed Bono ate a slab of ribs at the bar – located at 1655 N. Sedgwick St.
But Garibay said the man she originally thought was Bono later contacted the bar to say he was a Bono impersonator.
"Folks, can confirm this was an impersonator. He called the bar today to apologize for the tomfoolery which fooled us all!" Garibay wrote. "But has been fun to read how much people seem to know about Bono's physical attributes, his schedule, likes/dislikes, diet, astrological chart. Sheesh."
Garibay wrote on X that "Fake Bono" was really a man named Pavel Sfera, who also contacted her personally to apologize and tell her about himself.
"He's in town for a Serbian film festival which featured a doc about him," Garibay wrote. "So, fake Bono is sort of famous too."
On his website, Pavel Sfera says he has been "making great efforts to have the current and modern looks of Bono throughout Bono's last 30 years," and has "doubled for Bono himself on several occasions."
Sfera wrote that he has appeared by solo as Bono and has also participated in U2 tribute concerts.
The real Bono played with U2 at the Sphere in Las Vegas Wednesday and Friday night, and provided a recorded reading for the funeral for Pogues frontman Shane MacGowan in Negagh, County Tipperary, Ireland earlier Friday -- as he was not able to attend the funeral.