That one time I drew Snorlax, pole dancing in a g-string, onstage in front of 100+ people. It happens.

Hey y’all! In this post, I mention a fellow cartoonist/artist who is way more talented than I am! Go look at her blog here! http://lollicondraws.tumblr.com/

One of my favorite things about living in Australia is my dorm, or as the Australians call it, my “residential college.” I’ve discovered that my college– the International House– is more than just a place to live. It’s a fully-functioning community. We have dances and sports tournaments and restaurant outings. The residents, despite their various backgrounds, are shockingly open and friendly. I feel so fortunate to be able to live in IH (getting a room is competitive– I had to write essays, send my transcript, and even do a Skype interview) since I’ve really been milking my time here.

One of our many events is an annual talent show known as iNight. Once a year, the IH residents organize a slew of videos, performances, and musical acts for everyone to enjoy. I know, I know: a “talent show” sounds so middle-school, but the IH is actually bursting with talent.

post 154 image 14

So, in August, a sign-up sheet appeared in our main bulletin board. Names slowly started appearing on the list: some kids were forming a band, some others were filming a video, another was planning to sing…

I should also mention, at this point, this website– my blog– was spreading around my close acquaintances. A small community means that news travels fast, I guess. Thus, one of my friends suggested:

post 154 image 15

And that’s that, I thought. But my blog really was spreading around the House…

post 154 image 16

Oh, screw it. I put my name down.

post 154 image 17

But all I know how to do is draw comics. I’m not some sort of art virtuoso. Um… what could I do?

post 154 image 18

Luckily for me…

post 154 image 19

This resident, a visual arts student, was not only interested in comics, but is also a very, very talented artist!

post 154 image 20

So we plotted.

And plotted.

And wondered… what could we draw live that people would enjoy? 

post 154 image 21

A few days before the iNight, I put this poster on the front board.

post 154 image 1

This box accompanied it.

post 154 image 2

And we promised that, on iNight, we would pick people’s suggestions from the box, and draw them in under one minute.

post 154 image 22

Well, it looked like we were going to have to. Because, before we knew it, we found ourselves backstage.

post 154 image 23

The rules were like this: Our host would pull a random suggestion from our suggestion box. We would have one minute to draw it. There were cameras mounted above both of our tables, so that the audience could watch us draw live.

Me on stage!

Me on stage!

Drawing in progress!

Drawing in progress!

And here’s a sampling of the things we came up with!

PROMPT: “Bryony riding a Gengar”

post 154 image 5

My drawing is on the right, and Bryony’s is on the left.

PROMPT: “Darth Vader wearing a tutu farting rainbows”

post 154 image 7

My drawing is on the right, and Bryony’s is on the left.

PROMPT: “Draw a dick.” (Yeah… it was bound to happen.)

post 154 image 9

For those unaware of Australian politics– the dude on the left is Tony Abbott, Australia’s current prime minister.

PROMPT: “An evil hamster fighting a man-eating burger with a piranha gun.”

post 154 image 11

PROMPT: “Snorlax pole dancing.”

post 154 image 12

It was a blur of markers and paper. I didn’t bother gauging the audience’s reaction– I was focusing too much on drawing. After 10 minutes of furious sketching, I stumbled off stage to regroup with my drawing buddy.

post 154 image 24

Obviously, I was a little overwhelmed. A little nervous. A little oh-my-dude-why-did-I-agree-to-this-again? 

But, you know what? 

It was really fun!

Despite being on stage, in front of a huge audience, with a high-pressure time limit, I had a lot of fun doing the act. I mean, I hadn’t even planned on doing an act. I didn’t think it was possible for me to do an act. I didn’t have the confidence to pull off a successful performance. Yet, somehow, we had made it happen. Not only did we make it happen, but people actually enjoyed it!

post 154 image 25

As a result, that night, I felt a wee bit better about myself. I’ve never been encouraged to learn how to draw; quite the contrary, really. So it was nice to see that my amateur skills were enough to entertain, amaze, and amuse. I’ll be forever known as that-one-girl-who-can-draw-weird-blobby-cartoony-things! 

post 154 image 26

Finally, I could sit back and enjoy the rest of iNight.

post 154 image 27

Somehow, I had not only been roped into organizing the fashion show segment of the night, but also modeling the Egyptian national costume. I’m not Egyptian. Long story.

post 154 image 13

Nope, definitely still Asian.

And that’s how I ended up strutting my stuff twice in the same night.

15 thoughts on “That one time I drew Snorlax, pole dancing in a g-string, onstage in front of 100+ people. It happens.

  1. Woah! Great that you two organiced that for iNight! 😀
    It shows that you have practiced a little at drawing fast. (at least I remember that you have mentioned that at some point in your blog)

    They do these kind of things at comic festivals and other comic happenings too usually at some point. Some people are chosen to draw the audiences suggestions and they draw them on a big piece of paper for the audience to see.

    And a fashion show too to add that. xD Oh boy.

    • Come to think of it, I did mention before that I can draw fast. I think it’s a result of drawing those 365 comics about weight loss. And from drawing this blog as well!

      I’ve never seen a speed drawing show before, but it sounds really cool– especially if a real pro is doing the drawing! I guess I need to attend more comic festivals and conventions. 😉

  2. Ha, hilarious! Drawing is officially a performing art!

    You know, I went to a nerdfest today called Epic Diem, and I saw a manga lecture by Queenie-chan, the manga artist. It totally reminded me of you! Some of the people got up to draw at the end. They were pretty good, too!

  3. Besides being very happy that you went outside your box, I am pleased to let you know that your drawings were better than the other artist’s in my humble opinion.
    Quit putting yourself down,
    Scott

  4. Pingback: In which I go long-distance for a long time. | I think in comics.

Leave a Reply to Rolf Bosse Cancel reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out /  Change )

Google photo

You are commenting using your Google account. Log Out /  Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out /  Change )

Connecting to %s