After more than 25 years of staying in the casket, with only the slyest of winking acknowledgments that he may be a little “light in the loafers” due to decomposition, Liberace is finally coming out as a hologram. The campy, piano-playing entertainer will add his name to a growing list of proudly holographic entertainers like Michael Jackson and Tupac with a tour set to kick off this year in Las Vegas, and your grandmother insisting that Liberace is not a hologram—that he just hasn’t found the right plane of existence to settle down with yet.
Of course, other, old-fashioned types will shy away from using the word “hologram” at all, preferring to say that Liberace’s holographic tendencies are just an “illusion”—a choice made by projection techniques and optical tricks that some call “Pepper’s Ghost.” Whatever denial or euphemism you prefer to hide behind, the fact remains that this new Liberace will be fully out there on stage, shimmering distractingly and making the audience oddly uncomfortable, in a way not seen since the old Liberace.
According to Forbes, the Liberace Foundation has pledged its support to Liberace in his new hologram lifestyle, promising that those who attend his shows will be able to “feel the warmth from his heart, the sparkle of his eye” as he interacts with audience members—proving that holograms are people, just like everyone else. Indeed, for those who believe that holograms are simply unnatural, it seems they are increasingly on the wrong side of history. Holograms are here, holograms are queer—get used to it.