Caricature Masterclass: Monty Python Special
The Importance of Obsession in Capturing Persona
It’s my conviction that the best caricature, like any art, grows out of obsession…
My fascination with Monty Python began when I was 11 years old. Back then, when the world was young, we Gen X-ers frequently availed ourselves of video rental stores, and on one visit to our local outlet, my father suggested I give the first series of Fawlty Towers on VHS a try. It was love at first sight. John Cleese’s performance as Basil Fawlty, and the show’s exquisite writing, spoke to me on a cellular level. Hungry for more, I soon progressed to the comedic anarchy of Monty Python’s Flying Circus, and found it gloriously habit-forming.
Over the intervening years, and by way of personal but inadequate tributes to these titans of comedy, I have dabbled in caricatures of Cleese and his colleagues, from time to time. This has included bashing out a rough sculpture of Basil Fawlty in clay at Spitting Image when I was twelve years old, under the tutelage of the show’s head caricaturist. I sent a photo of the sculpture and one of the preparatory drawings to Cleese via his agent, and I was delighted to receive the handwritten reply that you can see below from the man himself. Class act that he is, he even took the time to select a postcard bearing an illustration by the great cartoonist, Ronald Searle.
Much more recently, a caricature study of Cleese/Fawlty that I posted on Twitter caught his eye, and he retweeted it to his followers (again, below). I have also begun work on a painting of Fawlty and his dogsbody, Manuel, (also below), although other duties have delayed its completion over the past several months.
