Aislin: Political Cartoonist

[Music] well I'll tell you about the moment I became a cartoonist I was sitting in Ben's Delicatessen and an angel walking and walked in the door and said you are going to be a cartoonist and from that point on I knew that I was going to be a cartoon I knew I was blessed [Music] thank you [Music] all right I'll give you the story I was kicked out of high school because I took a project they gave me very seriously I was assigned a project on they wanted a thorough examination you know they're just kind of training you for University this is the idea where you go into a subject so I went into the subject of dope trafficking and I must admit I did a very thorough study and I thought it would be very dramatic at the time to pick up interest in the speech so I decided that I would hold up one cigarette and say this but and then I would hold up another one and say this is a marijuana cigarette fun so I got a hold of a joint and uh on Monday morning I showed up in class and they called me down and it was kind of delicate anyway I was out of high school so I ended up in art school you won't believe this but I grew a beard I I screwed off once I grew a beard in Quebec City and I came back and I they said well no you can't have a beard in this article so I shaved it off I thought about it for two weeks and I quit and that's when I took off and that's when I began to learn how to draw up until then I had really had the technical kind of knowledge of what I took off for about a year a year and a half and I run anytime I could find a napkin piece of paper anything I do Drew and Drew and Drew and I really enjoyed it and I get the dollars in New Orleans I stretch canvases sleds in a bathtub snuck my way into Mexico oh yeah it was a lot of fun a fantastic fantastic time [Music] thank you [Music] this is an interesting thing that uh I don't think cartoonists Cara got dressed in particular giving off credit to caricature has developed with photography caricature in the 19th century was was was very wooden perhaps uh a caricatures had one photograph or one chance of seeing a man in his life and that's all I had to work with no I am in the position where any caricaturist is in the position of uh looking at hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of photographs of any particular individual but you must remember it with the in political cartooning or caricature or whatever we're talking about drawing is one Element it's a very important element but then no but then the secondary Factor comes in and this is very important political cartooning it's a standingly important all right I can draw something but it becomes a question of bending a thing a certain way to create a psychological impact in within the design to give a message and so on and it builds like that and that's that's where the real creative process comes in it's not in the drawing itself it's more so in the uh and something that that I enjoy that I I I get an evil kind of charge out of because I know I'm getting that point across to myself and I hope that God that someone else is getting it even if it's the angle of a tooth even if it's I don't know it did all sorts of things and you you stick them in quite often you get them past an editor he doesn't even see it you know poor guy you sneak it in you do whatever you can [Music] no it's not a personal thing you know that this is something that a lot of people don't understand it's not a personal thing you're you're really going after the public figure more than the the private individual and uh it depends so much on their public stance so you'll leave somebody alone for months but then suddenly they will a situation will develop in the way they will handle it you're uh you're really laughing at them and their arrogance essentially that's what the political cartoonist does again you can translate it in that yes I have political winnings and I'm I suppose very left in my personal point of view but quite often I don't let that interfere with the cartoon because the leftist can be just as foolish as as you know your your biggest virtue uh but some people will make you angrier than others uh it depends so much on how a situation develops arrogance you know is is arrogance in anyone it annoys me completely I also really despise any kind of uh authoritarian attitude [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] there's an associate an association of political cartoonists and they had a convention in Ottawa in any case but I remember as the celebrities came in and this really impressed me because they had a display of Canadian cartoonists and uh and they all gave speeches and everybody laughed and applauded and it really bothered me it really bothered me but I remember in particular when Trudeau came in and it came winding around looking at the display and I ran away I ran away because I didn't want to meet that guy but you see the problem is that I might like to go out personally because I have no doubt he can be Charming when he wants to be but nevertheless he's uh he is an astounding hypocrite now Lewis is a hypocrite there's no doubt about that but on the other hand he is a guy who has paid his dues he wasn't a rich kid who grew up in Ultraman and I'll give him that privilege when I do the drawing of him it's it's astounding how difficult uh the process of adapting a political cartoon to television is but but someone is going to come up with it okay let's put it this way animation is an astounding medium and I'm fascinated by it but no one has yet done any kind of effective caricature and animation some of the most effective animators have not been guys who spent nine months you know drawing a full face trying to a profile they've been guys who've been creative and done it the way they have to within a limit you know the deadline is so terribly important and if you've got a deadline you work for and you do the best you can [Music] thank you [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] because I might come in sometimes with an idea straight other times I'll come in and I'll scan the papers uh if I'm still kind of hanging in air then I'll I'll consult that at that point I'll consult the auditorial page people just to see what they have on the page if I'm still hanging then I'll go to a stock idea in other words a file full of ideas that I've got that'll we'll go anytime oh yes of course there's a definite deadline I mean with the Gazette I consider the deadline five o'clock they can stretch it later than that I know they can but I don't like to give these guys extra work or have them panicking upstairs and downstairs you know it's not fair to them [Music] [Music] I really should uh should point out something about political cartooning you're dealing with a mass audience and I like the limitation myself I really enjoy it it's not like I'm off in a garage doing a painting that only I am going to enjoy and you know the old cliche 50 years from now I can try it downtown and have a show the art itself is as much of a joke as politics it's politics I mean art is politics everything is politics and uh you know it's all a joke God damn and our system thrives and all this nonsense it's nonsense [Music] foreign my cartoons over the last five years have become far more vicious than they were originally a few years ago I knew very little about the system I was a naive painter if you will who came out of Quebec City and I oh geez I'm enjoying it you know cracking the damn stupid hypocritical system [Laughter] [Music] [Music]