SF @ SF

Today, I attended the Satire Fest, a conference where cartoonists, artists and writers mingle and special guests host seminars to discuss their work and methods on creativity, at the Marines' Memorial Theatre in San Francisco. I would have taken pictures, but the camera on my iPad has terrible quality. I stayed for an event presented by Lalo Alcaraz and David Silverman.
Lalo Alcaraz is an award-winning artist, cartoonist, writer, and the creator of La Cucaracha, the first nationally-syndicated, politically-themed Latino daily comic strip. His work has appeared in the New York Times, the LA Times, Variety, Rolling Stone Magazine, LA Weekly and many international publications. He has also been featured on CNN, CBS, ABC, NBC, Univision, Telemundo, PBS and other media. Lalo is currently a faculty member at Otis College of Art and Design, teaching illustration and communication arts. He has written books and co-hosts an LA satirical radio talk show.
Lalo first talked about La Cucaracha. Although it has been one of the most controversial in the history of American comic strips and received mixed feelings from readers, La Cucaracha is still going since its syndication on 2002. At the same time, he showed samplings of his previous work in editorial cartoons. During the second half the discussion, he talked about how he got a call from Fox network to talk to the show runner of Family Guy, Seth MacFarlane. Lalo said yes, but asked why. What he didn't know was that the phone call was a job interview for Bordertown, a new animated show MacFarlane is executive producing with creator Mark Hentemann. The show is about two racist families in "Mexi-fornia," a fictional Texas desert town on the US-Mexico border starring Hank Azaria as Bud, a border agent, and Nicholas Gonzales as Ernesto, a Mexican immigrant. Alex Borstein is voicing Janice, Bud's wife, and remaining cast include Missi Pyle, Judah Friedlander, Jacqueline Pinol, and Efren Ramirez. Alcaraz is one of fourteen writers, only five of them are Latino. He auditioned "for four voices, but didn't get" any of them. The sitcom is set to premiere in spring 2015. It is the first show with a half Latino, half Mexican-American cast and being part of this project has had him feeling awkward since he had no human contact as a cartoonist for twenty years. Culture Clash was said to be his first primetime writing job and once developed a show for Disney Channel, but didn't get green-lit.
David Silverman has been with The Simpsons since the beginning and has directed numerous episodes and The Simpsons Movie. He also co-directed Monsters Inc. and is recently playing in a jazz band Vaudevillains. He discussed about how he got started with The Simpsons back in 1987 when they were just shorts for the Tracey Ullman Show. He went to UCLA with Gary Baseman and graduated with a master's degree in animation. Gary seemed like he was doing great as an artist, while David thought he was not getting anywhere. He wasn't even sure if he should stay with The Simpsons. During that time, he thought about getting into commercial art and had a brief stint on a show produced at the old studio where Bob and Sody Clampett did the Beany and Cecil Show that didn't even last a month. Silverman presented a montage of the old Simpsons shorts set to music. He also showed clips of a new Simpsons episode being developed. It's about Bart becoming a jazz drummer; one of the clips is Krusty the Clown announcing several jazz performers. The artists had fun designing caricatures for the musicians and Richard Sakai, one of the names Krusty announces is a Simpsons producer. I really loved what he showed us; I was laughing so hard and can't wait to see the full episode when it airs. During the Q&A, David noted that Matt Groening still attends almost every table read, giving creative feedback and design notes. The crew really lost his input when he was too busy with Futurama. During the early seasons, all of the cast members use to record their lines together, but, as time went by and technology changed, they now do their lines separately. However, they still do it together when they choose.
Satire Fest continues tomorrow. Check the website for the program and buy your ticket. It's for cartoonists, satirists, and just creative people who love art. (Between you and me, I was able to sneak into this event for free!)
http://satirefest.com/