The One Man Living Cartoon Factory

This isn't new, but a quick search finds no prior mentions of Ennio Marchetto on Boing Boing and I'm sure many of you will appreciate the One Man Living Cartoon Factory. This clip is from a show in Amsterdam in 2004.

Thanks, Susan!

(Shawn Connally and Bruce Stewart are guest bloggers)

• [Jane Kansas]

  Made me laugh out loud – first and last time this year. Jut in the nick of time.

• [Anonymous]

  @2 Yeah, but if you have an erection that lasts for more than four hours, be sure to call a doctor. :)

• [Antinous]

  When you see Ennio live, it’s much clearer that this is all done with a big roll of paper. It was one of the funniest, most brilliant shows that I’ve ever seen.

• [anticonnor]

  It’s funny that he’s called a Cartoon Factory, as I’ve always seen drag (most drag) as a horrible caricature of women. But, to each his/her own, eh?

• [ttcfcl]

  @3

  Drag is a caricature of pop divas, not women. There is a difference.

• [Anonymous]

  I saw arlo barlo at the hackney empire around the mid 1980′s. Top of the bill was Craig Ferguson with his ‘money in the sock’ catchphrase.

• [mightymouse1584]

  haha, very creative.

• [usonia]

  Even a horrible caricature is still a cartoon. Outside of military “South Pacific” revues, I’ve always see drag (moist drag) more in line with envious tribute (to wit: my ex, who wanted more than anything to be his fabulous Heburn-like mother). But I can see how something as emasculating as donning a dress & lip-synching to Etta James could be seen as a mocking assault on women in a twisted Rove-logic kind of way.

• [Pantograph]

  (to wit: my ex, who wanted more than anything to be his fabulous Heburn-like mother)

  Audrey or Catherine?

• [sammich]

  He’s brilliant =) – I’ve seen him before on the telly, but seeing him posted here had me googling “Arlo Barlo(w?)” – another brilliant physical comedian with props I remember from the late 80s. Turned up very little, but curiously the 3rd google link took me to hunkystrippers.com where one of the folks reckons Arlo Barlo and Ennio Marchetto are one and the same! Can this be true? Does anyone else remember Arlo Barlo(w?)?

• [Daemon]

  Somewhat amusing… but I’ve seen a stage magician who did the “living cartoon” thing a thousand times better – by actually doing a ton of standard cartoon gags live, on stage.

  Wish I could remember his name, but his act was absolutely incredible.

• [Anonymous]

  Bugger me! I remember “Arlo Barlow”!!!!! Skinny, possilbly bald dude with a bowler hat, who made his long, elastic arms and legs slowly disappear into his “body”! Something of a “one trick pony” I think…. Saw him on one of the alternative comedy shows sometime in the 80′s – almost certainly on Channel 4 (probably about the same time as the infamous “Red Triangle” experiment!) :-)

• [vettekaas]

  That was pretty darn good. The Titanic part actually made me laugh.

  @ 3 anticonnor,

  Drag isn’t so much a caricature of women as a parody of the whole idea of discreet genders– go read some Judith Butler and you’ll see what I mean.

  I didn’t see this as drag really anyway, just a real-life, lip-sync paper doll.

• [Wingo]

  Extraordinarily creative. Reminds me of Michel Gondry movies.

• [devophill]

  “didn’t see this as drag”

  I don’t remember it being marketed that way when his show was in LA, but now that I see it, that’s pretty much what it is.

• [alikzam]

  @9 Daemon: The magician you are talking about is “Sylvester the Jester – the real life cartoon”.

  His website:
  http://www.sylvesterthejester.com

  Demo Video:
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_zTB3R1-aU

  Enjoy!

• [businessclass]

  The flouncing breasts are kind of overkill…but fun.

• [Takuan]

  wonderful

• [wolfiesma]

  yeah, it made me smile for six minutes in a row which is like an internet record for me