Sketch O’The Week
November 20th, 2024 | Posted in Sketch O'The Week
Brad Pitt makes his second appearance in our “Famous Movie Moments” series as Tyler Durden from the 1999 film “Fight Club”. This sketch is all about exaggerating body posture and physicality. In sharing last week’s sketch of Rutger Hauer as Roy Batty from “Blade Runner”, I mentioned that film was the one I absolutely insisted we include in CLAPTRAP. “Fight Club” was the other one I really wanted to do, but it just missed the cut. It’s one of those movies that actually would be tricky to spoof, because it is already a satire of consumerism and toxic masculinity. But, figuring that stuff out that… READ MORE
November 13th, 2024 | Posted in Sketch O'The Week
When Desmond Devlin and I decided to do CLAPTRAP Des made a list of significant films that MAD never did a parody of for one reason or another. There was one movie I knew would be on that list, and it was the one movie I insisted we include in the book- Ridley Scott‘s 1982 sci-fi masterpiece “Blade Runner”. Actually I did not have to work very hard to convince Des to do it, the movie was high on his list as well. Why didn’t MAD spoof “Blade Runner”? No one knows for sure but it’s likely because the movie didn’t do all that well… READ MORE
October 23rd, 2024 | Posted in Sketch O'The Week
“You Shall Not Pass!” I’m not sure this movie moment stacks up to the Rosebud reveal in “Citizen Kane”, but it’s a favorite of mine. Sir Ian McKellen‘s casting as Gandalf in Peter Jackson‘s “The Lord of the Rings” films was pure genius. There are lots of stories about other actors who were considered for the part, including another KBE by the name of Sir Sean Connery, but McKellen made the role so much his own that it’s now next to impossible to imagine another actor in the part. I do a video of me drawing these sketches every week, and paid subscribers to my… READ MORE
October 16th, 2024 | Posted in Sketch O'The Week
This sketch is still available in the Studio Store! I don’t know if this qualifies as a “famous movie moment”, but it’s one of my favorites. “Airplane” was released in 1980, and quickly became the gold standard for spoof movies. Leslie Nielsen also found his calling as one of the great camp actors of all time. He’d go on to start in the “Naked Gun” series, “Spy Hard”, a few of the “Scary Movie” films and, of course, “Dracula: Dead and Loving it” where he teamed up with another great parody film master, Mel Brooks. I loved his take on Dracula so much, I had… READ MORE
October 9th, 2024 | Posted in Sketch O'The Week
Here we go with a sketch of yet another acting legend who has recently left us, and this one was a real witch. And a countess. And a nun. And an Oscar Winner (twice). And an Emmy winner (four times). Three Golden Globes. Five BAFTAS. A Tony. In other words, a true acting legend. She had an incredible career well before the Harry Potter films and “Downton Abbey” cemented her legacy in blockbuster films and high profile TV shows. Farewell, Dame Maggie. As always, Premium Subscribers to my Substack are able to watch me do my weekly sketch in real time, while I bather on… READ MORE
October 2nd, 2024 | Posted in Sketch O'The Week
This week’s sketch is a little something different since I was about 4,300 miles from my studio when I did it and thus without a scanner to scan a pencil sketch. I did this sketch of Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen as part of a talk I did on MAD movie parodies and caricature entirely digitally using my portable Wacom Cintiq tablet and Photoshop. I drew it live in front of a studio audience! READ MORE
September 25th, 2024 | Posted in Sketch O'The Week
In a rare break from tradition, the original of this sketch is still available in the Studio Store! This week’s “Famous Movie Moment” features Hollywood’s most famous chin, the late Kirk Douglas from the “I am Spartacus” scene from the 1960 movie of the same name. Well, actually this is not from THAST scene, but is just Kirk in the role. The film was directed by a young Stanley Kubrick, who took over after original director Anthony Mann was fired only a few weeks into the shoot. Douglas’s production company was producing the film, so they brought Kubrick on board after Douglas’s work with Kubrick… READ MORE
September 18th, 2024 | Posted in Sketch O'The Week
Admit it… you know this one was coming one when the passing of the great James Earl Jones last Monday at the age of 93. Jones of course had an incredible career on both stage and screen, but will probably be best known as the voices of Darth Vader in the “Star Wars” movies and Mufasa in “The Lion King”, which doesn’t credit him properly for the many other memorable performances he did over a long career. Personally, I remember him scaring the crap out of me as “Thulsa Doom” in the original 1982 “Conan the Barbarian” movie opposite Arnold Schwarzenegger. He was evil but… READ MORE
