Caricature: Billy Connolly

Posted on September 19, 2013 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Billy Connolly has made numerous trips to New Zealand, with sell out stand up shows, recorded a TV series entitled A World Tour of New Zealand and roles in films such as The Last Samurai, and a dwarf in The Hobbit series. In spite of recent cancer surgery and being treated for the early stages of Parkinson’s disease, Billy plans to undertake an extensive theatrical tour of the country next year.

I drew this caricature in the early 90’s which he signed after one of his shows. See my previous Billy Connolly post here.

Drawing: Emma Thompson in Sense and Sensibility

Posted on August 25, 2013 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Emma Thompson has won two Academy Awards and apparently keeps both in her downstairs bathroom because she’s embarrassed to place them in a more prominent place.

She is the only person to have won an Oscar in the acting and writing categories. After winning the Best Actress in Howard’s End (1992) she won again for Best Adapted Screenplay for Sense and Sensibility (1995).

Producer Lindsay Doran spent ten years looking for a suitable writer to adapt Jane Austen’s 1811 romance novel into a screenplay. After reading some of Emma’s earlier comedy skits, she hired her, stating that she had the right balance between satire and romance.

“It’s a story of love and money – some people need one more than the other,” Emma said. She spent four years writing it and continued to refine during actual production.

This was Emma’s first screenplay, and a risk for any studio. The selection of Taiwanese director Ang Lee to helm his first major film was also a surprise. Initially not considered for an acting role, Emma was convinced to join Kate Winslet to play the Dashwood sisters. Both received Oscar nominations for their performances. Any concerns proved unfounded as Sense and Sensibility went on to become a major commercial and critical success, cited as the best adaption of Austen’s work, garnering seven Oscar and twelve BAFTA nominations amongst a myriad of other awards.

An interesting anecdote occurred when Emma was a guest on the TV quiz show QI, hosted by her friend Stephen Fry. It was revealed that Stephen had saved her Sense and Sensibility script when her computer malfunctioned and turned her writing into hieroglyphics.

After 7 hours the script was restored. Fellow participant Alan Davis questioned Stephen’s technical skills and suggested he probably rewrote it. Emma candidly agreed to that possibility and said she would drop the Oscar around to his home.

Emma signed my sketch at her London office in 1996.

Drawing: Lenny Henry in Fences

Posted on August 11, 2013 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Lenworth George Henry, known as Lenny, and better known as a comedian and co-founder of Comic Relief is now a ‘serious actor’.

Back in 2009 he dived in the classical deep end, taking on the titanic role of Othello as a Shakespearean novice to critical acclaim. He now takes on the massive lead role in the Pulitzer Prize winning drama, Fences in the West End.

Fences is the sixth in a series of ten plays by August Wilson on the Pittsburgh Cycle, that explore the African American experience in each decade of the twentieth century.

The story centres around 53 year Troy Moxson and his struggles with providing for his family and cheating death. He was a great baseball player in his youth but couldn’t make a living due to the colour barrier. Imprisoned for an accidental murder during a robbery, he now has a menial, but respectable job as a garbageman.

It previewed in March 1987 on Broadway at The 46th Street Theater and ran for 525 performances. James Earl Jones played Troy and won a Tony Award, along with Best Play, Best Direction and Best Actress (Mary Alice) nods. A revival in 2010 at The Cort Theatre featured Denzel Washington and Viola Davies in the lead roles. Both won Tony Awards for their performances and the productions won Best Revival of a play, after receiving an impressive 10 nominations.

In early 2013 Fences was revived by Theatre Royal Bath in the UK, starring Lenny in the lead role and directed by Paulette Randall, before transferring to the Duchess Theatre in London in June. Critical reception has focused on Lenny’s performance which has attracted wide acclaim. Paul Taylor from The Independent said, “the performance cements Henry’s status as a serious actor.”

Charles Spencer from The Telegraph said of Lenny, “He is, and I don’t use the word lightly, magnificent.”

Drawing: Victor Borge

Posted on August 4, 2013 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Victor Borge was considered one of the world’s great comedic geniuses. Dubbed ‘The Clown Prince of Denmark,’ he had no significant rivals in a career that spanned more than 7 years. His comic persona and stage routine was tailored to his personality quirks, musical gifts and extraordinary sense of humour.

“Laughter is the shortest distance between two people,” he would say. Victor publicly ridiculed Adolf Hitler in his native Denmark just before WWII. When the Germans invaded, he managed to escape to America, obtaining a visa due to his American-born wife. He learnt to speak English and gained an understanding of American humour by watching movies; quickly rising to prominence with The Victor Borge Show on NBC from the mid 1940s. At one time he was the highest paid entertainer in the world.

Victor’s Comedy in Music one man show on Broadway reached 849 performances – the largest solo run in the Great White Ways history. It was based on a routine that became synonymous with his style, announcing that he was going to play a piece, but seldom actually getting around to doing it because of his hilarious interaction with the audience.

Ironically, his most famous pieces aren’t musical. Phonetic Punctuation recites all of the punctuation marks as exaggerated onomatopoeic sounds. Inflationary Language uses the incremented numbers embedded in words such as “once upon a time” becoming “twice upon a time”, “wonderful” – “twoderful”; “tennis” – “elevenis” and so on.

He toured New Zealand on many occasions. I can’t recall the exact year, but I sent him this caricature and some copies at Dunedin’s Regent Theatre either in the late 1980s or the early 1990s and received these two copies back signed. He kept the original. Not sure what the inscription is all about…

Victor performed to the end. After returning to his Greenwich, Connecticut home from a December 2000 concert in Copenhagen, he died the next day aged 91.

Cartoon: Billy Connolly

Posted on July 29, 2013 by Mark Winter / Chicane

In February 2004 “The Big Yin” Billy Connolly played a gig in my home town of Invercargill, New Zealand. I was involved in Koru Care, which was an organisation established by Air New Zealand staff to provide holidays for terminally ill children. One of my pet projects, incorporating my ‘graph-ic vice’ was asking well known people to produce a doodle using a circle. The intention was to produce a book, entitle Celebrity Circles to assist our fundraising.

Anyway, back to Billy. He’s staying at the Ascot Park Hotel. On the day of his show, The Southland Times published this toon:

I thought I would drop a copy of it to Billy to sign for me, along with a blank circle and an invitation to participate in the Koru Care project. The show was brill, and a couple of days later I received a package with my signed cartoon, and a drawing for Koru Care.

Buoyed by this success, I was spurred to try again and to ask him to write the book’s intro as well. Soon enough, this arrived in the mail, which made my day: Continue reading →

Caricature: Barry Humphries

Posted on July 16, 2013 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Barry Humphries has a face destined for caricature. I was visiting Sydney in early 1991, actually I was visiting Sydney every year since the late 70’s … but on this particular occasion Barry was performing his solo show, The Life and Death of Sandy Stone – his third most recognised alter-ego behind Dame Edna, the Melbourne housewife with a rampant ego and Sir Les Patterson, cultural attaché to the court of St James. Sandy Stone is the ‘returned gentleman’ – a digger from WWI.

I saw this great pic of Barry in a local rag, so I drew this caricature. I thought, he could keep the original and sign a copy for me… so I sent 4 copies for good measure. I could donate one or two to my favourite charities.

I dropped it off at the Theatre. I’m not sure which one, I think the Philip Street Theatre where Barry had connections since the late 50’s.

Anyway, a week later a parcel arrived back in New Zealand with the copies all signed… as you would expect with a witty twist. This one is simply his sig. On the others – remembering it was a copy of the same sketch – he wrote “I like this one,” “this one’s not me,” and “not a bad likeness”.

I couldn’t get a ticket to his show – sold out – but he is doing a farewell tour, which is headed for London later this year and includes Sandy Stone. So here’s hoping!

Drawing: Catherine Tate

Posted on June 20, 2013 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Comedian and writer Catherine Tate appeared in Season’s Greetings at the National Theatre at the end of 2010 and early 2011.

It’s the Alan and Ayckbourn’s 1980 black comedy about a dysfunctional family Christmas. Tate’s character is always flapping about the house and constantly decorating the Christmas Tree.

I remember one time filming Catherine signing at the National Theatre stage door and she said I should have asked her permission, which was a first. However, I apologised but said it was good to see talent taking the time to sign for fans. It was all very convivial, but I decided to leave my Season’s Greeting’s sketch for her to sign and post back, instead of another in-person encounter. That was December 2010. I received it the following October! But better Tate than never.

Drawing: Randy Newman

Posted on June 11, 2013 by Mark Winter / Chicane

‘Short People’ was a surprise and controversial hit in 1977 for Randall Stuart ‘Randy’ Newman and one of my favourite tunes-a kind of an anthem for us vertically-challenged types. Randy always maintains it was written as a joke, like a number of his satirical pop songs. He has also produced numerous film scores and has the dubious distinction of having the most Academy Award nominations (15) without a single win. In 2002, when he eventually picked up the Best Original Song Oscar for ‘If I Didn’t Have You’ from MONSTERS INC,he received a standing ovation. He reacted with the opening joke to his acceptance speech, “I don’t need your pity.” He did beat an impressive line-up: Sting, Enya and Sir Paul McCartney. He picked up his second Oscar after his 20th nomination in 2011 for ‘We Belong Together’ from TOY STORY 3 and quipped, “My percentages aren’t great.” He does have a way to go to match his uncle, Alfred Newman,the dean of Hollywood composers. He was nominated 54 times for nine wins,including one for THE KING AND I in 1956. Randy has also won a handful of Emmys and Grammys and was inducted into the Rock-And -Roll Hall of Fame in April this year.

In February 2012 Randy played London’s Royal Festival Hall, but I missed meeting him to have my sketch signed in person, so sent it to the Carre Theatre in Amsterdam, where he had a gig on 12 March. Sending items to venues is always a hit-and-miss affair,but I have a high success rate with the Dutch and they continued that trend.

Drawing: Eddie Izzard

Posted on June 8, 2013 by Mark Winter / Chicane

A quick, minimal lined indian ink portrait with letraset spirit-based marker of comedian, actor and sometimes transvestite Eddie Izzard (without eyeliner). I’m seeing his Force Majeure show tonight at London’s O2.

I met him at the British Film Institute in December 2011, when he did a Q&A after the screening of his film Lost Christmas. He said, “you know, I usually sign drawings on the back,” and did so. A quick, moderately line ‘graph in blue sharpie