Hell yes, it works. My grandfather was from Dublin, and when I was little I developed a very good imitation of him. He thought it was cute and encouraged me to talk like that, much to my mother's chagrin. I didn't keep the accent, but I can turn it on at will. Even today I still use a lot of his old sayings in his voice.
Quite a few years back we did a festival in Austin and after our first night one of the guys asked me to talk like that if we meet some ladies after the gig. Sure enough I did and the women started flocking around me. That was a good night.
So we started testing out Dud's theory of accent engagement, and on that trip I spoke just like Granddad and scored big time. To me I thought it was hilarious because I could only hear me sounding like this old Irishman, but the Southern women loved it.
But reading Viking's post I wonder how much better it would have been if Gramps was from France.