The Elvis Cup & Renelvis to appear at King's Club in Raleigh, NC 11/12/05 w/Mexican Wrestling

Added: (Thu Oct 27 2005)

Pressbox (Press Release) - The Elvis Cup Tour will make a Nov. 12 cup appearance in Raleigh, N.C., one of the tour's first stops.
It will be at the "King's Club" in Raleigh,NC..

OPENING ACT will be Mexican Wrestling..

Kings Barcade
424 S McDowell Street
Raleigh, NC 27601

Bar - 919-831-1005
Fax - 919- 851-3208
email: kingsbarcade@mindspring.com

One or two guys have offered Wade Jones $100,000 for the cup made of plastic and, possibly, Elvis Presley's DNA. But, Jones admits, "they were probably cranks."

But just what is the value of a cup from which Elvis drank — just six months before his death? A 20th century chalice touched by the lips of the King. A Styrofoam version of the Holy Grail.

"I'm really not a weirdo," says Jones, 41, of Charlotte, N.C.

"If you had something you've kept since you were 14, like four-leaf clovers, you wouldn't throw them away, would you? Mine just happens to be an Elvis cup."

It's true. For decades, in an old shoebox, I kept a Butterfinger candy bar I bought in 1969.

If that worldly confection had been sanctified by the taste buds of the King, I might do what Jones is doing with his cup: Go on tour.

It's called The Guaranteed to Blow Your Mind Tour, after the lyrics from a James Taylor tune Elvis covered.

There could be no other name for it.

The accent's on E

Because "the cup can't do a lot," as Jones says, he's taking along an Elvis impersonator.



Wade Jones (right) of Charlotte, N.C., and Elvis impersonator Rene Escarcha (Renelvis) are taking the Elvis cup (foreground) on tour. Jones saved the cup from a 1977 Elvis concert, in which the King sipped from the vessel during the show.


Rene Escarcha, or Renelvis, sings with a Filipino accent, makes his own jumpsuits, and is a "humble man who is really touched by the cup," Jones says.

"By the way, our opening act is Mexican boxing."

Jones hopes to bring the cup to Mississippi one day. Here, in this state of worshipful Elvisonians, it's a booking just waiting to happen.

"If I knew the Virgin Mary grilled cheese sandwich was going to be somewhere, I'd go look at it," Jones says. "But I'd rather see the Elvis cup."

That sandwich started the whole thing. The world-famous dainty that revealed the image of the Virgin Mary was sold on eBay last year for $28,000.

That gave Jones an idea. ...

He had saved the cup in February 1977, following an Elvis concert his mother took him to for his 13th birthday. Searching for souvenirs that night in Charlotte, Jones asked a security guard for the cup he'd seen Elvis sip from during the show.

There was still water in it.

"I froze it as soon as I got home," Jones says.

It stayed in a freezer until 1985, when Jones transferred, to a glass vial, the three tablespoons of water that hadn't evaporated. And stored away the cup, its future unclear.

Until eBay.

Last year, after the Virgin Mary incident, Jones decided to see what he could get for the water. He got $455, from "a lady in Georgia who bought it for her mother."

Unable to part with the cup, though, Jones began auctioning off "appearances." The first went for $3,000. They can go for much less. So he's keeping his day job: salesman for an industrial automation company.

Still, he believes the cup has, as they say in show business, "legs."

First of all, there's Renelvis. "I never really cared for Elvis impersonators much," Jones says, "but this guy knows he's not Elvis.

"He just has a lot of fun doing it. And he sings his brains out."

Renelvis has recorded a song about the cup. Here's the chorus: "Come see the Elvis cup/ And ask Elvis what's up?/ He'll tell you that he loves you much/ And 'Thank you very much!' "

"If an Elvis cup song could be a hit," Jones says, "this could be the one."

DNA, Shmee NA

To skeptics who demand DNA or fingerprint tests on the cup, Jones replies that those are futile now. His proof of authenticity includes a photo of Elvis with the cup, many character witnesses and the vessel's serial number, which he says proves its age.

It is a generous old cup, I have to say, and worthy of its namesake. In one charity appearance, it raised money for research into a disease associated with (sorry about this, Elvis fans) digestive disorders.

The Elvis cup inspired a Texas radio station to raise money for breast cancer awareness by auctioning off cups signed by celebrities.

As for Jones' cup, you can book it by going to www.elviscup.com, or by calling (704) 891-0190.

Don't expect to buy it.

"If someone offered me $10,000 today I wouldn't take it," Jones says. "But I wouldn't tell my wife, because she'd be hounding me to sell it.

"If it's gone, that's it. Because you can't just sit around the campfire and tell stories about the cup.

"You have to have the cup."