A week of what
Sign up for my caricature workshop!
A week of what.
This is a newer version of this letter. I have to correct some details. My friend Steve mentioned it appeared that I was insinuating that I was mooching off of his comedy class by getting all his notes etc. after he got back. I just want to make very clear that that is not the case and I tried to elaborate farther down the letter about what I meant. He is not passing on lessons to me. I mean, wait until you see how awful I am if I ever try an open mic! It will be abundantly clear that not enough people told me “don’t do it!”
Molly's birthday went as well as we hoped. It turned in to a birthday week with various friends popping in throughout the week. One of her closest friends made reservations at a nice restaurant and we ate and drank almost too much. I didn't get a whole lot done for myself. I did a larger wall of faux finishing as my present to Molly.
I'm heading upstate near Poughkeepsie, NY to visit my buddy Rich and hope to do some landscape painting for a day or two. Fortunately the show at the car club got bumped back a month so that gives me a little breathing room to get the monster looming above my drawing desk finished. I think the thing that will help me finish the painting quicker is figuring out what it will be about. Part of my process to figure it out is to not work on it. While I paint landscape the monster will be turning over in the back of my mind as I go.
I went to an art supply store near “Forbidden Planet” comics. I hadn't been in there in a while and of course as soon as I went in I was immediately overwhelmed with art and the longing to be immersed in making a comic book. They have all of these great special edition oversized books and I want to make an amount of art that would fill one. The one I fixated on first was a Ray Bradbury collected comic book stories. It was on a top shelf so I couldn't look through it but I stared at the cover art which was in the style that looked from the 60's or so. I didn't recognize the artist but it oozed creepy and surreal in that deceptive innocent at first glance way.
I'm writing more jokes. My friend Steve is taking a comedy writing class out in Long Island and then when I talk to his wisdom gleaned from life. Not literally what his lessons are! He has been one of my friends I talk about comedy openly. Meaning, he’s actually tried to do an open mic and I can talk to him about it without weird advice from someone who hasn’t done it. This has been going on for years and we both toy with the idea but it’s only been this year that we are admitting it to our “non-interested in comedy” friends.
That said, I think taking a comedy class is a great way to get yourself involved in it. You paid to be there, there is a small group of you who also want to try stand-up or joke writing, and then the last day of the class you get your 5 minutes of stage time in front of all the other students who you just went through the class with. Some of the premises (premi? premisi?) I want to turn into something are:
Headlines: Mississippi police officers plead guilty to torturing black men with stun guns and sex toy. I have questions... Dinner plate sized device found inside woman 18 months after cesarean. I thought a bunch of things here but haven't really found the funny parts yet. She didn't die by the way... Kim Jong Il's sister is apparently next in command. I don't think Kim has anything to worry about until she starts gaining about 200 pounds. Then she'll be the right size to take over. That's pretty much the whole joke. Not long, also I don't think it's funny now.
I like the idea of using headlines and making observations, but I also love comedy when it just gets abstract and weird. I feel very satisfied when my friends laugh at my jokes but those are not pre-planned jokes. There's something about doing it with purpose that messes me up. If I never get to a stage and tell jokes I'd be fine with that because I really kill sometimes when I'm among a few drunk friends.
Here is a link I forgot to add last week for my workshop I'm teaching at Art Students League November 1-3 (Wed-Fri) I'm only super nervous about it. I rarely teach, although today at the gym I showed a guy how to do an arm exercise and he seemed to get it. I guess I got this? Please forward this to anyone in the NYC area you think might enjoy learning an approach to making caricatures. I need at least five pupils minimum for them to go ahead with it.
I'm working on my warts!
Great human flaws can make great jokes. Warts and all.