#356: "Real" New Yorkers, Outback Mistake House & Emergency Contact!

+ Mixed-Media Sketchbook & Morris Meets Aunty Leith.

Oct 25, 2023

I hope you’re having a wondrous Wednesday! Thank you for opening this email. I wonder if you could do me the small favour of letting me know where you typically read this here newsletter, so I can format it appropriately going forward…

1. Outback Mistake House

After nine years of living in America, I finally swallowed my pride (and a Bloomin’ Onion) and endured the culturally offensive theme park that is Outback Steakhouse. What happened next… I did not see coming.

2. “NAAAAAAAUUUUR!!”

For the past 5 years, I’ve run something called the “NO-vember Challenge”.
It’s one email every day of November to help you say NO to one thing for every day of the month. YES is easy. Learning how to say NO is hard.

If this is the kind of thing that interests you…

*Yes, I realize the irony of someone with an Aussie accent teaching people how to say “No”.

3. You think you’re a Real New Yorker?

The Most NYC Places in NYC!

A couple of weeks ago, forCAFÉ ANNE’s second anniversary, she released the results of her big survey on our favorite topic: What Makes a Real New Yorker? She even included a quiz to help readers determine their status…
Keep reading here…

(Longtime readers might remember Anne as our very first “Someone You Might Like” from earlier this year.)

Scott and I have a book coming out in Fall of 2024 based on my long-running stand-up bit. Click the link to sign up for more info when we can share it.

👂Now listen ‘ear…

The Illustration Department Podcast:
Giuseppe Castellano talks to Jason Chatfield, cartoonist, comedian, and president of the National Cartoonists Society, about what illustrators can learn from Jason’s multi-hat-wearing ways; how comedians and cartoonists are cut from the same cloth; how illustrators are not alone in the fight against art theft from AI-image generators; and more.

Artists mentioned in this episode include: Ed Sorel, Rube Goldberg, Michael de Adder, Rob Rogers, Barry Blitt, Thomas Nast, Herb Block, Etta Hulme, Tom Floyd, Pat Oliphant, Jeff MacNelly, Tom Richmond, Jack Davis, and Sarah Andersen

Listen to the Episode

Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, Spotify, Google Play, Stitcher, iHeartRadio, or whatever your pod-loving heart desires.

This week’s Sketchbook:

I tried using one of those rubber nubs on the end of a pen I stole from a steakhouse to draw on my iPhone. No dice. If anyone has any recommendations, I’ll take ‘em.

While I do love the convenience of a Wacom tablet/Xenselabs tablet/iPad pro or whatever you like using… I can’t ever replicate the joy of using analog tools. I’m starting a new Substack in 2024 called “Process Junkie” to explore all of the joys of the Process of making art. If you’re interested in that kind of thing, you can sign up here.

Digging up old sketchbooks, I’ve been finding old drawings from the year I first moved to New York (nearly 10 years ago!) I heard this guy having an argument in a diner in Inwood back in 2014.

I had to wait about 40 minutes for a prescription, which is way too much idle time to give my brain…

I walked past this guy at New York Comic Con last weekend and liked his shoes. And his hair. And his socks.
Anyway, I asked him if I could draw him and he seemed fine with it.

If you enjoy my work, there’s a hefty chance you might like the people I enjoy, too. Each week, I share a new person who tickles my fancy. This week’s person is…

Actually two people. At once.
And not just any two people: two of my favorite people in all of New York. And the Tri-state. Also, the World:

Anthony LeDonne & Lauren LeDonne

They just finished writing and selling a screenplay together, and the book version of it just came out!

The book is called Emergency Contact, and I’m not all the way finished with it: The galley has been sitting on Sophie’s nightstand for months and I’ve been deathly afraid to move it. One doesn’t remain married by removing books from their spouse’s nightstand. She has the discipline to peck at pages like a bird. I prefer to devour fiction like I’m at an all-you-can-eat pasta bar at Sizzler…

So… eventually, I just rolled the dice and put the divorce attorney on standby while she was asleep and started chomping through chapters under the covers with a torch— they really are very funny.
(The chapters, not the covers.)

Who knew pairing a romantic fiction author with a stand-up comedian would yield such well-structured comedic japery? Well-rounded, flawed human characters in a story that keeps you second-guessing, just when you thought you knew what was going to unfold on the next page.

Why would you like these people?

Lauren is a best-selling author of over 40 books (Writing under Lauren Layne), and my brain-twin on all things Process… I trust her judgement on systems, book recommendations, and creative tools more than anyone. I think you’ll really like her if you don’t already know her work.

Anthony is a comedian, chef, writer, actor, and friend… and he makes possibly the best negroni in Hell’s Kitchen. We* call it the Anthonegroni. And it would always get made in bulk before our visits to their apartment.

Bailey isn’t just a pomeranian. She’s the Pomeranian. She is chiefly the reason Morris is in my life. If there is one dog that appears in my iPhone camera more than Morris, it’s her. She is the boss. She runs the apartment. She whistles at the wall for no apparent reason. She really is the best.