Portrait of Ming the Merciless, 2009, marker
From my thoughtful villians series of drawings.
The second show i ever saw at UCB was “REAL Real World”, an improv show that depcited the “lost” season of MTV’s Real world “so extreme, so outrageous MTV wouldn’t air it. It had people like Andy Daly, Terry Jinn, Rob Riggle, Andy Secunda, Dannah Feinglass, and Aaron Bergeron and many other great people. That show was probably what made me start doing improv in the first place. So years later when Paul Scheer put together a new incarnation of it, and i got to be in it, was a dream come true. It had some amazing performers and great friends like Sean Hart, Eric Appel, Ben Schwartz, Ben Rodgers, Bobby Moynihan, Jeff Hiller, Gil Ozeri, Lennon Parham. It ran about two and a half years, and for the first year of that i played Zorn The Ruthless, and intergalactic conqueror who accidentally got stuck on MTV’s show, but still tries to follow thru with his dreams of world domination.
Zorn wore extravagant rings, make-up and capes, primarily because everything that was considered masculine and miltaristic on his planet, was totally feminine on earth. For instance he would storm into battle wearing sequined evening gowns, and would apply his “war paint” - lipstick and eyeliner. Zorn also had seven penises and nine vaginas, though he would rarely say where.
Zorn was, without a doubt, my attempt to live out a dream to play Ming the Merciless, with a little Dr. Frank N. Furter thrown in.
This is probably my favorite drawing i’ve done in a long time.
“I shall crush your planet under my high heel stilettos!”
