That’s the same feeling you get in Madame Tussauds Wax Museums.  See for yourself when visiting Madame Tussauds Las Vegas, New York City,  or Washington D.C.  The historic and contemporary figures are so life-like, for a moment you forget they aren’t.  What’s more, by interacting with your favorite celeb as you step into their world cleverly created through high tech accouterments, intellect and fantasy somehow get all knotted up.  You know they’re just wax figures, but for a moment you believe!

Why are we so fascinated by these figures, especially the contemporary ones of alive people?   Because we’re groupies.

Just maybe by hanging out in the Oval Office with Barack, hugging Michelle, putting our arm around Bill, singing for Simon, standing between Angelina and Brad, dancing with Beyonce, or just being near the Jonas Brothers (omg!), we get close to our fantasy.  As I mentioned, it’s a little twisted.

Speaking of real, there really was a Madame Tussaud.  She learned the art of making life-like figures from wax in Paris in the late 1700s!  Her first wax figure was of Voltaire in 1777, and she created one of Benjamin Franklin, who first arrived in France in 1776 and stayed 9 years in search of aid for the Revolutionary War from the court of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette.  France was very taken by the affable man, as was Madame Tussaud.

As Madame’s collection grew, she displayed these true to life figures in a traveling show throughtout Europe.  One at a time new figures were added, including a rather morbid group based on figures she copied from French Revolution corpses and exhibited in the Chamber of Horrors of her first museum which opened in London in 1835.  People queued up then just as they do now for today’s version of the Chamber of Horrors - Chamber Live!

Today’s Madame Tussauds London flagship museum and the ones in major major cities throughout the world continue to fascinate with their incredible liknesses of the rich and famous - historic and contemporary, sympathetic and monstrous, dead and alive.

Waxen images of pop culture icons of music, movies, sports and politics are a big draw, undoubtedly due to an obsession for proximity to celebrities –  real or not!  Set in realistic sets, surrounded by real props and wearing authentic costumes, the wax figures come alive through high tech magic, mood lighting, appropriate music, recorded real voice and special effects.

So, how do they do it?  The art of creating waxworks is an age-old technique used as far back as the ancient Greeks who made portrayals of gods from wax.  Ancient Roman nobles had their likenesses created to be stored with them posthumously, a tradition passed on to Europe.  In the early Catholic Church, wax was used for making faces of statues of saints.  Sculptors such as Michelangelo would not think of attempting a figure in marble without first creating it in wax, and in the 17th century in Europe, having your portrait done in wax was the rage.

Today waxwork figures go through a number of stages before coming out.  Artists study hundreds of photos and watch video footage to create an accurate likeness – one that’s really on the mark.  The first step to creating a life-sized figure is to make a metal armature, a skeleton, if you will, in the pre-determined pose.  This supports the next step, the clay.  The sculptor builds up the entire figure by modeling clay around the armature from which a plaster mold is created.  Hot wax, containing a variety of compounds for accurate skin color, is poured in the plastic mold and allowed to cool and cure.  The mold is then chipped away to reveal the body.

The head is a bit tricky as the head and facial expression is either ”on” or it’s not.  Once the details are exactly as the sculptor wants them, a plaster mold of several pieces is made from the clay head.  The pieces are removed and reassembled to receive the molten wax.  When the wax has cooled, the plaster pieces are carefully removed.  Then, with input from dentists, hairdressers, tailors and dressmakers, realistic details are applied.  Hair, real hair, is put in one piece at a time!  Then come the teeth, the glass eyes, the make-up.  Costume designers dress the figure in iconic attire, preferably something once worn by the individual, purchased or borrowed.  The figure is then ready for placement in a scene distinctly theirs.

The secret is to capture the individual nuances of body language, facial expression and hand placement.  If these are right, we believe.  If they aren’t, our critical eye bursts the bubble.  For a preview of just how real these waxworks are, check out the photos on Flickr, especially those in Sebastian Niedlich’s Madame Tussaud Berlin Set used in this article.

Madame Tussauds list of notables is amazingly long and the figures don’t stay still.  They keep up with the times. High profile celebrities with star power are cleverly placed in changing scenes mimicking the real life situations of their globe-trotting flesh and blood counterparts interacting with each other at news-making events.

You, too, can have a paparazzi moment.  Walk Oscar’s red carpet with A-list stars, play pick up ball with Shaq, stand with Johnny Depp if you dare, or marry George Clooney (bridal gowns provided)!

You’ll see.  The the line between reality and fantasy is really blurry - just what Madame had in mind.