Nyuck, Nyuck…YUCK!

This is an embarrassing blast from the past. A few days ago I received this email through my website:

From: Brian

Re: 3 stooges sketch

I have a framed drawing of the 3 Stooges that looks like was done in pencil and ink. I have had it for 20+ years and never taken it out of the frame. Can see a signature in bottom corner of Richmond. Was hoping to get more information about it.

Thank you, Brian

I thought maybe it was an old theme park sample I had done, so I asked Brian to send me a picture of it. He sent me the above.

Not a theme park sample, but something from a long-ago freelance job I had completely forgotten about.

A comedy club in Minneapolis called “The Funny Bone” contacted me in 1988 to do a series of caricature illustrations of classic and contemporary comedians to use for decor in their club. I think I did about a dozen. I remember some of the classics were Laurel and Hardy, Bob Hope, and George Burns, and some newer ones were Robin Williams and Louie Anderson. I can’t remember the rest. I quoted them a price and they paid me about 1/2 in cash and the other half in “club credit” (I was 22 and kind of dumb), so I took my future bride The Lovely Anna and some friends out to see comedy and get free drinks several times.

That club eventually closed up and that art disappeared. Many years later I was visiting my theme park operations in St. Louis and our crew was out looking for something to do one afternoon (I think it was when we were still setting up the park for the season) and for some reason we stopped in to a “Funny Bone” club (it was a chain) only to find a lot of those illustrations in the lobby!

I’m not sure what happened to them after that, except for this one. A guy named Brian owns it. That painting is 32 years old and they guy who did it didn’t know how to draw hands. Or shoulders. Or a whole lot of other stuff.