PHOTO AT LEFT: Pete Wagner caricaturing at "Campus Carni" at the University of Minnesota to help raise funds for charity.
When we started offering caricaturing as entertainment at parties and events in the 1970s, we were called a "NOVELTY ACT." What we were doing was totally new. It was unheard of.
Today, when there is a huge glut of out-of-work illustrators and portrait artists calling themselves "professional caricature artists," it is tempting to think of us as a dime a dozen. While more and more "artists" may be great at faking it by coming up with a few nicely crafted, neatly drafted samples to impress you with on the Web, what really matters is what they can do as PERFORMERS once they are at your event.
We do this because our hearts are in it and because it is truly how we naturally relate to people and have fun with them, and because we always loved to make people laugh and had an instinct for it.
Artists are supposed to be CREATIVE. If you are searching for a caricaturist and you find some who brags about being "TRAINED," please bear that in mind.
As our friend Max Espinosa, caricaturist extraordinaire in Los Angeles often says, "You train monkeys, not artists!"
We were the first to innovate caricaturing as entertainment at parties, and we are still innovating every day, coming up with ideas and ways to make your next event as successful as it can be.
