My Favorite Cartoonist - Ivan Ehlers

Have you ever drawn a cartoon so funny that you had to take a break just because you couldn't stop laughing?

Oh yeah, all the time.

Pasha, Pasha shut show. Hey, how's everybody out there doing today? It's me Daniel tosh by some funky Holdown music. Let me sing along hit Daniel. You guys remember when Sir mix a Lot used to do like some funny like hodown music. Yeah, buttermilk biscuit, butternup biscuit. He do them all. He was way before Beyonce did a country album.

He did.

Yes, you gotta give props to Sir mix a Lot. Not a lot of people talk about how great Sir mix a Lot was Seattle's finest as far as I'm concerned. Sure you you know you talk about the big butt songs, but passe on Broadway. There's no chance that I don't turn that song up, tell my kids to shut the fuck up, and we just enjoy the queen? Was he? I love Sir mix a Lot? Man, what's he up to?

I'm checking, I'm checking.

Let's get that guy on the podcast. Speaking of shouting people out that want no business with me, Let's do another Hello from Toss Show, all right, got David in Anaheim. Eh, this is a stone's throwaway. He used a car broker because of my interview with my car guy, Marty, and he said it was life changing. His car guy's name is Rudy. That's because they all said they sound reliable. Rudy, Marty all good people. Well, hello David, thanks for listening.

Nope, seen it, looked at it from South Korea.

You went to South Korea, went to the DMZ. Oh you were right there.

Yep.

Do you get a golf ball out and take a hack?

No?

I did not. I tell you what I'd like. I'd like to find out if my reps could get us on in North Korea. I'd also like to know if my reps would actually take my phone call. It's always it's always a big saying, Oh, they're they're currently in a meeting. Oh they're they're unavailable. Oh can I have her call you right back? Not call call my manager? See my manager answers the phone. You think she will? I do? I gotta say my name. Hey, this is Daniel Tosh. Can I talk to Christy for a second.

Yeah, I don't have her at the exact moments, so let me get her, let me get her off, give me one second.

Okay. They always say, oh, I don't I don't have her. I can't get her right now. It's like she's right next to him, just going this.

Going, Daniel, I can't get a hold of her.

But she is traveling, so if you want to try herself, she should be able to pick up there.

Okay, thank you very much.

You're welcome.

Let me try yourself. Yeah, you know you're gonna answer, all right, that's what an emergency gets you.

It's crazy.

Yeah, you mercer, I'll see if I get my agent on the phone, I'll try to Hey, it's Daniel Tosh returning.

Hey, Stacey's in a meeting right now.

But give me one second. Could you hold for a second.

Okay, you see that, you say returning. That's better. That's better than an emergency. You think she would jump out of whatever meeting she was in. Hi, Hey, I just want to see if I can get you on the phone.

Oh you never called through my office. Crazy, No, But I just want to.

Actually on a zoom call you I pick up.

Oh, you're the best representation in the world.

I always pick your call up.

That's nice. That's nice. Not Christy could never get her on a call. But you, Stacy, you run things all right. Hey, how are your conference? Hey? Yeah, get my ticket? Counts all right?

Bye?

Look at that William Morrison, Davor Stacy Mark just always hustling. Christy Smith Rise Management. I forgot I actually had a reason to call them, and I completely forgot. I was going to ask him who their favorite political cartoonist is. But I'm not going to call him back because Lord knows. I'm gonna get sixteen phone calls the rest of the day. Everybody's in a panic. I heard you had an emergency. What's going on? Ah, that's christy, look at that. That's so silly.

What's happening?

I was just seeing if I can get you on the phone.

You can always get me on the phone.

Ah, that's pretty good. But I couldn't. I couldn't. I couldn't get out. Hey, I was going.

Through security at an airport. In fairness, I had to. I didn't have my phone with me. As soon as I did, I was bad.

You don't. You're not like ushered through. You don't have some v P line. You don't doing that new thing underneath there yet?

Well I do.

No, I don't do that. I don't. I Also, I'm flying back from Houston.

I don't think they have you're in Houston.

I had it.

Yeah, I had to go to memorial service this morning, and I will come to back.

Haha.

How can I help you?

Who's your who's your hey? Who's your favorite political cartoonist?

Are they about to be on your on your podcast?

Yeah? Just just say Ivan.

Iran, everything knows Ivan, he's just freaking mass they see the one that was working in construction and then became the political cartoonist.

Don't ruin the interview. Enjoy Pasha. You might recognize today's guest from his doodles in Mad Magazine or The New Yorker, but not both, because there's no way that those two publications have any crossover. Please welcome writer, illustrator and humorist Ivan Ellers. Thank you for being here, sir, Hey, thank you. What do you tell people is your profession?

The most interesting thing I think is cartoonists. If you say humorists, you sound like a jerk.

I love calling you a humorist sounds more sophisticated.

It sounds absolutely sophisticated. But you know, it's hard to find something that doesn't sound super pretentious, you know, And I do a whole lot of things, but the thing I'm most well known for would be cartooning. Say cartooning, Yeah, I don't.

Know if I like that either. What about when you're going through customs and they ask what do you do?

Yeah? Usually artists sometimes writer. If you say artists that like it's an automatic drug check. You know they're gonna wipe you down. Do all this stuff. So anything that sounds like not like I'm a love drugs.

I despise aying comedian. Yeah, it's so embarrassing.

Well, you're even worse because if you say I'm a comedian, you get all these people that are like, oh, tell me a joke, you know, they try to put you on the spot and oh, say something funny.

And then I try to say writer because I always think that sounds really cool, but I'm like I can barely you know, they.

Say, write me something.

You grew up in San Pedro, which I always thought was just a made up city from grand theft?

Is that in grands grand theft? It just sounds like grand theft. I mean it acts like grand theft. Auto where is it exactly? So we're La proper, you know. So there's like the LA city like downtown and all this. Then LA continues down the freeway and then it's this little pocket at the end where the port is. So that's why we remain l a city, so LA can get all the tax dollars from the port.

Okay, it's a little bit crooked. I would say, how'd you stum blendo your world?

So this was as Trump was leading up, like as he started to make Noise to become a fourteen Yeah, twenty fifteen, and I was drawing a lot of cartoons. I was working in construction and just like on the side, just drawing stuff. And my now wife was like, what are you going to do with these? I said, I don't know, booking nothing like these would be perfect for Mad magazine. But I've always heard that they were a closed shop and didn't bring in too many people.

Well, you probably didn't do any real research.

You just heard that, like yeah, yeah, stuff that I heard when I was like thirteen, closed off, like that, it must be this way forever. And so she's like, just send them in. I was like, that's not how life works. But I printed out ten of them, sent them in and they bought one, and they're like, yeah, cool,

Are you still doing fresh ones?

No? Nobody bought them, so I was like I did. I was like, I'm gonna do them forever.

I don't care.

I still love it. And once you get to a certain point of doing like cartoon work or comedy, I'm sure if like people don't pay you, it's like not gonna do it.

I mean, you know, it's always funny is I used to think like, oh, you have to make money at this for it to uh, you know, I don't know, referred to mean anything. But then I realized pretty soon on that so many people do this as their pastime. It's much like a pro golfer makes a living golfing. Billions of other people just golf for the enjoyment. Like I knew people that just would perform comedy open mics just because that was there, much like doing karaoke it

Yeah, the karaoke part seems like more fun. But the people that just keep doing it, keep doing it, keep doing it, like never break through. It's like, oh, it bumps me out.

It bumps me out.

So many people doing cartoons because they love it so much, like this is the greatest thing in the world, Like, oh, what are you doing? Man? It's like it's miserable, Like they just never get better and like, look at they're still doing like weird like funny little puns.

Huh.

They would work like in the fifties, they're like, oh man, you gotta like you know, you could tell like people that love comedy. Yeah, it's like it's a lot, no, I hear it.

Do you post everything like on your own sites and stuff like?

No, no, you know a lot of people do so Okay. In the past, you would try. You would take everything to the New Yorker first, which is like the best, the most prestigious place.

And that, and you work with them a lot.

Yeah, sold the cartoon this morning, Oh congratulations, thank you. We're still doing that. I only do it when I sell, which is less and less these days. But yeah, you would take it there first, and then if they would pass on it, then I would take it to Mad Magazine.

Man?

Oh, gotta wait till you get paid for that. I'll hold on to I sold a cartoon that was like five years old that I just kept changing the captionh.

Is there a world where you don't even change the caption and you just resubmit it and somebody like, yeah, I'll take it now, and maybe they didn't take it six months ago.

Oh yeah, uh absolutely. And most of the cartoons that I sell, like for the New York they have the cartoons that they sell for print, and then they have daily cartoons, which are like something happened this morning or something happened last night, and you do it about something like that. So those ones you kind of have to draw that day and make it fresh and current. But the other ones I'll resubmit like every three weeks sometimes yea, once.

They're already published. Then do you promote the old worker.

No.

Usually when this is a great deal, like the New Yorker, when they buy it, they usually buy first rights. You know so, and sometimes they'll hold on to it for a while. I had a cartoon come out recently. They bought like five years ago. So I was just sitting there going, oh, they hated it. They regretted ever buying it, Like they hate me, why don't they do this? Then it comes out and the drawing style is completely different and the joke doesn't seem that funny anymore.

And they just sat on it for that long.

They have I mean they buy cartoon, They buy about fifteen a week.

Who's their gate keeper?

Well, they have The main cartoon editor is Emma Allen, a very intelligent, very cool young lady. I don't envy her job. She has to get like fifteen hundred cartoons a week and whittle it down to, like, oh my goodness, the top hundred, and then she takes the top one hundred or so to David Remnick, who's the editor of The New Yorker, and then he picks the final fifteen or so that they buy per week.

And I get it, But are you just thrown into the big pile with fifteen hundred where they're yeah.

Yeah, But other track people that have been there longer, that have sold a whole lot. They get a higher rate, and I think they buy more from them.

But if somebody were to come in and this they were just off the street and they submit one that they liked, what kind of money could they expect to make off of one publication?

So if you sell for print, it's like seven hundred and fifty dollars, and then once it goes out, then it gets licensed to a bunch of other stuff, so you could I mean, some cartoons can make like thousands. I always heard a story back in like the sixties and seventies this guy bought a house with one cartoon just because it got licensed house though I mean it was a summer house in like a small area, but still,

Do you have a union.

No, they've talked about it. It's been approached, But I think the magazine industry is in kind of sad shape.

Because what I like, what our unions will do is all those dumb residual checks that are ten cents fifteen. You can put a thing in your profile that's like, we're not going to send you a check until it totals one thousand dollars or some version of that, so you don't have to get nine thousand checks for eighteen cents.

You know, when I first sold to The New Yorker, they're like, do you want to do a direct deposit or do you want to check?

And I was like, oh, send me a check.

Was so stoked to get a check that says like the New Yorker on it, and it was just like some very tame the thing that said like advanced Publishing LLC this and that. It's like, ah, it's not fun. Can't frame that.

Are you allowed to put things in that they still have the rights to or no?

So the New Yorker they buy it first rights, so once it comes out, I think it's something like sixty to ninety days, then all rights revert back to me, so I could do anything, but like Mad Magazine buys it outright, so I couldn't put anything that they bought.

You're never allowed to use it again, never allowed.

But see that's part of the reason why Mad Magazine Now, it's uh, they're not doing too much new material. It's uh front cover at back cover and or not a back cover, but like the folding cover. They're doing new ones of those, and they're kind of colorizing old things because they still have the rights for it. They don't have to pay anything else for it. Every now and then they'll do it one or two pieces every six months, but they have full rights.

So do they call you and say, hey, let's let's churn out some new stuff or no?

Sometimes Yeah, Susie Hutchinson is a lady that's in charge that she's doing like the job of ten people to keep Mad Magazine going.

And so do you have to figure out all this shit on your own or did you?

Oh?

Yeah, like when you have no background into it all, you're just like all right, I was figure out how to yeah, get into this world. Well, especially Earl, like just your wife that figured it out.

Yeah, is with those things that I do. Yeah, But you know, like I'm very envious, Like she went to art school and like learned all the business aspects of it and like how to do all these things, and mine was just kind of like sending emails out and once I got into it, a lot of other cartoonists are really helpful and do kind of like give you pointers and stuff like that, but everybody goes through pretty differently.

Somebody describe some of your stuff or read back. Is that cringe worthy to you, because there's no way they can they butcher it so badly.

Absolutely?

Yeah, that's tough. I was trying to think of I won't quote, but the ones that we were talking about the concert and the ticket prices. Oh, yeah, that one's great. I'm not going what was the original quote of the cost of the ticket? A dollar fifty cents? Right, that's way better than a dollar.

But man, have you ordered any tickets lately?

Yeah?

No, the fees you you don't have someone do it for you.

No, I yeah, well I'll buy tickets secondhand and just pay through the nose, MiG whatever.

It really is crazy. It's like, oh, people get that shows twelve dollars. You check us like seventy seven dollars. How the hell did that happen?

I Mean, I have people tell me all the time that they won't come to my shows because it's done by Live Nation, and I'm like, well, it's it's just that they're really nice to me. What's your process? Just do text yourself? I text myself. I text myself a lot. It's like the notepad. I don't new function, I just you just text it text myself. Then it goes to an actual hard little notebook that I have. Then I write in there, and I'm supposed to flush those out

So you write two jokes per page, so you can leave room to I embellish it.

Right, well, actually flush it out at some point. But if I take it a stage before I flush it out and make progress live on stage, then I fucking bypass that.

Can you do that these days? Can you work stuff out on stage? Now?

I have to?

Yeah, I mean it seems like you'd have to. It seems like to be way better. But with like people filming stuff and yeah, no, I mean like it like it kills it's it's not helpful. Yeah.

I had a joke on a previous joking it it was so problematic in the beginning. It was you know, it was about slavery and how I was kind of impressed by it. But in its infant stages, it was like, oh you on nights things like that don't work. It's it's bad. Yes, please don't film this is this profitable? You can make a full living just off of the cartoons or do you have to do some other things?

I have to do other things. Yeah, I'd say at this point about half of my living probably comes from cartoons and like humor, humor writing, I would say, and then the other half I do like graphic design, copywriting, illustration.

Does New Yorker pay the best, Yeah, that's good.

Yeah for a while, Uh, Playboy paid better, but ri ip Yeah, because you know, Hugh Hefner really like loved cartoons.

He cared very much.

Yeah, he really did cartoons and boobs not bad combination. But yeah, it's it's harder and harder. You know, every day more and more people try to get into cartoons. There's a lot of people that would have in the past just been hobbyists. And oh I could do that, sure,

What do you care more about? For you on your work, the joke or the art.

I would say the joke is more important. I like that to be better. But I feel miserable if the drawing is not good.

Do you secretly want Trump to win?

No?

If you know, here's the thing. If I whenever I have to do cartoons about him, I have to stare at his face for like an hour at a time while I'm doing this damn drawing, and it's just like staring into the to the face of hell for all these little crummy details.

I mean, but it was he good for business for you?

Oh?

He was great? For business. Yeah, it's fantastic.

Yeah, I mean, say what you want about Trump. I mean one of the greatest political minds we've ever had.

Yeah, I mean he figured it out. He figured out what you can get away with, and just like kept.

Going me, you can get away with anything?

Is that?

Yeah, that's what he figured out.

Everyone else is like, oh, you can't do that. He's like, the fuck you can't watch this?

Eh?

Yeah.

Now I don't have any problem with Trump, none whatsoever. Just anyone that believes a thing he says. I just find just utterly fucking annoying.

Yeah.

You think Donald Trump ever seen any of your cartoons?

Oh?

I know that he's seen my cartoons. Yeah, I know, probably the only thing he reads. So I know because a friend of a friend worked in the White House, and part of the duties of like when the president is a sitting president, they have people print out everything on the day that is concerning them that has their

Yeah, that's great. Do you have anything in chamber for the re election?

Yeah? I have a bunch of stuff that didn't sell last time around.

Do you draw everything by hand?

I used to. I was really like anti technology for a while. Then I got into it and it's so much easier and so much faster. So usually, like, if I do a batch, I'll do it all digitally and then if someone buys it, then I'll do it by hand.

Ah.

So that way you have an original to sell.

Do all of yours visually? Have a style that's like it's recognizable that this is your work, Like, are do you ever? Are? Are you handcuffed by that? Or can you brand you out and big? No, I'm going to make this one look completely different.

That is a wonderful question and it's something I've been struggling with for a long time. I think that I have no style.

A lot of people like it doesn't sound good.

Yeah, well I would say that I don't have a distinct style. Okay, and uh I was an illustrator for a while. I would take a lot of illustration gigs and a lot of people would say like I want this to be done in this style. I want this

As everything, you're like, oh, I've got I've written one for that. They do associate everything with your comics at this point.

Yeah, there there is a lot of stuff like if anything happens, I'll sit down, write down a little note, and like that'll be perfect. We have a few cartoonists who we all talk to each other and like share batches and things and it'll always be back. Oh I did that one. Yeah I did that one, A very similar one. You saw mine? I did that.

How quick are you to pounce on people like I find comedy police so annoying?

Yeah, so I'm like, okay, yeah, never. I mean there's there's some stuff that if like clearly they saw it and remembered it, but don't know that they did it. It's like, oh man, I can't do that like exact joke. But most of the time, you know, there's subtle differences.

Is there is there people in the in your biz that you're like they're just known for being blatant?

Oh yeah, I shall name no name. No, Sure, they're out there.

A lot of these, uh cartoonists have been passed on for like generations. They they've they've owned their whatever, their their their their strip is. Yeah, when somebody does something problem mataker says something horrible and you know they're going to be ousted, do you like immediately like contact them and like try to get their space.

Is that well you're talking about like newspaper comics. Yes, so usually not like that, Like that's typically owned by like syndicates, and if there's no breaking into that world, it's very difficult. I mean that goes hand in hand with newspapers. So the more that the newspapers are going away, the less viable it is to make a living. Because before, if you do like a comic strip, that would be

A newspaper cost a dollar, how much trickle down money can there be?

Well that's the point. Is like an a if you bought a newspaper lately, huh, very expensive?

What are they called?

I thought? I wrote a very humorous article on the Wall Street Journal.

No idea what a newspaper cost?

You're gonna say, you have no idea what a newspaper is? Closed? So I had a piece in the Wall Street Journal, and so I went to go buy it. It was six dollars. Oh no, in the La Times is four dollars.

I would have never guessed six dollars for the Wall Street Journal, but four.

Dollars, Like I remember it was a quarter for the longest time. I remember opening up the taking seven of them. Well, no, I would just like go behind the person trying to do a quick crab. The reach around, Oh.

The famous reach around. Is there women in your business?

Oh? Yeah, is there women?

That was the question?

Yeah, yeah, I think cartoon is that I don't. I don't.

I'm yeah. It's usually tell me half of the Mare, But I don't know that.

You know, on the on the newspaper side, I don't think there's that many, But on the New Yorker cartoons there's more and more. So I think I would say maybe like forty percent.

Okay, is I just guessed ladies a nerdy guy thing? At first?

Historically it was.

Have you drawn forever? Have you? Or your kid that just was an artist?

Yeah, it was a real problem. I think a lot of times growing up, I'll just draw on everything, like the house. Not the house so much, but like schoolwork and everything like that. I wouldn't stop drying, like we're supposed to take notes and everything. All your folders, everything was covered. Yeah, you're that kid. Yeah.

I don't let my kids do a lot of art projects in my house. And I think that's I know that that's a bad parenting thing, but I just art. I never enjoyed doing it, So I'm like, oh, maybe maybe you maybe I can force that on you to not enjoy it.

Well, you don't like him doing it because you don't want them to like thrash up your house.

Yes, yeah, and well or I don't if he says, oh, let's get the clay out. I'm like, yeah, fuck, no kinetic sand. I don't even know what the fuck that is?

Like sand and like uh, slime, yes, it's like they fall in the same that. It's like slime with glitter.

So many arkers, so many dry erase boards, none of none of it works.

Very rarely good art comes out of it to you like a bunch of garbage, isn't it?

Agreed?

So did you never have a good as a kid, Like you couldn't figure it out or you just had no interest or both both?

Yeah, no interests, Like as soon as I pick up a pen, it's bad, I don't know how to draw.

Well, at least you didn't like it. It would be miserable if you loved it and you couldn't draw at all. Because I've seen a lot of people like this. Where'd you go to school? You went to school to become would you stay pre law? I went as a pre law majri. I went to Loyal and Marymount University and lost some money, costs a lot of money. And at the time of the second you get out of here, you're gonna be making so much money. I was like, you're right, I am, aren't I fucking wealthy as hell.

Again, did you get into law school? Where'd you get? Where'd you end?

Yeah? I took the l SAT and all this and that and got into Loyal Law School, and I was like sixteen grand a year. No, thank you.

I was like when people quit. But I also I appreciate people that were, like, you know what, I wasn't smart enough to do it, but yeah, I wasn't.

I think I find law very interesting. I would always like hearing my brother talk to clients and stuff like that, and over hearing like the little nuances and things. But I don't think that I would have enjoyed it very much.

Is sixteen grand a year back then? I'm gonna say, you're forty two?

Did you know that? No?

Oh?

Man? Am I right?

Yeah? That's some great that's some great maths. Yeah, well done. You're like a close up magician.

Where do you stand on magic? Do you ever watch a close up magic might be the most impressive thing you know in the world.

I used to hate magic, so annoying to me. And I was a pizza place in Lomita. This one guy that walked in just saw a crowd and was like, it's my cue and started doing close up magical. This this asshole. What the hell you're doing? Man? But he was doing no shame, no shame at all. He's like six people. That's the crowd. That's me.

If you started doing these things and I was like, so impressive, I couldn't agree with you more. It's so dumb and it's so mind blowing. Eddie, what's the name of that close up magician that used to be Johnny Carson's favorite that I like, I just baffled by what he can do.

I'm seeing Brian Gillis is like the one that.

I think is Brian Gillis.

It's so good. He got'ta be like such an asshole to get good at it. Yeah, but man, like, shit on it all up. When you see it, you go.

No, like like, he'll do this thing where you just ask me six questions and then yeah, by the way, your dog when you were six years old that died was named Yes, Cindy, and you're just like, what the fuck did you just do?

Yeah? I don't know.

Man makes me uncomfortable if there's a dry spell and you're like, oh, I'm sold any thing in a bit? Are you like I should have paid more attention in law school?

Oh yeah, like twice a day, I think, you know, for for a long time, for a few years after I quit the tire job, Like my main point of working there for so long was until I could pay off my student loans, so that took me fifteen years to do. And then I kind of went all in on art.

What's your wife do? Is she an artist now too?

Yeah? I met her when she was going to art school. She's a similar multi hyphen it. She's she's a model for a long time. Oh yeah, you know the cartoonists always get the models, pand model, But no, she's a model for a long time. She's a photographer and a painter. That's what she did for the longest time was a photograph and paint But now she's doing a costume design and styling.

And does she take photos of you? Oh no, Okay, there's nothing worse than getting a photographic I hate once, like I don't.

How do you feel about being styled? Do you like like ring closed clothes?

I don't care. I just I have a relationship with my stylist that's very aggressive. I scream at her and say I hate everything, and she's like, just wear it. I'm like, fine, yeah, but.

That's where I'm like three outfits that look okay on me and everything else I have, like a dope.

Do you skate?

I used to poorly.

You have taken a fall as an adult?

I recently I tore my achilles tendon playing soccer, and that style made any efforts to like look at a skateboard or do anything.

How did it feel when it happened like a gunshot?

Did it sound Yeah, when it first happened, it didn't tear all the way, and it just felt like my foot sunk into the ground and it just it was a little like a dull thud, And it really felt like my like someone kicked me and my foot was dipping and I turned around with my fist clench and I was like, what the did that? And there's nobody there and I was like what They're like, what are you doing? Like I don't know when I took a step from my just foot started going like that and

Was misdiagnosed.

Oh god, I was pulling it, pulling it, pulling it, and then it snapped and that was like, it sounded like black and worst pain I've ever felt. Yeah, and then it was fine, and I was like, Okay, this is cool. Walked on it for a month, just like really no, I looked like a zombie. Everybody I knew was like, what the hell is wrong with you? Go to the doctor. I was like, it's fine, it doesn't hurt. Yeah. Then when I eventually.

What happens if you just never treat it, would that you just have a gap and basically it doesn't connect, so you can't you can't do a lot.

With your foot, so you just have to like walk look like a pimp kind of. But eventually I got it fixed. I needed a nine centimeter cadaver tendon put in there.

You're you're half ghost? Do you believe in ghost? Ivan?

Ghost agnostic? I'd like to you sure, we'd all like to be pretty cool. It'd be amazing. The best day ever.

The day I see a ghost is the day like I changed my life completely, all right.

Because you're like, well against them, right, you like you think it's foolish.

To no, I don't. I feel like that's that's true. I'm fine with other people believe in him. I don't believe him because it's like, yeah, it's not real.

Yeah.

Have you ever drawn a cartoon so funny that you had to take a break just because you couldn't stop laughing?

Oh yeah all the time. Wait till you see what I brought you.

Let me see what you brought me.

So this is a special gift. I get to reveal bespoke this.

Look at this, God damn it. Do you believe in ghosts? How pretty is that?

And he's a ghost? You see? In fairness?

I find people explaining comedy to be very funny. I always have It's really good, by the way, I love it.

You're a difficult guy to draw. You're a good looking fellow. You have no like major noll formations on your face. You don't have a big bushy mustache, like easy as hell to draw Trump. But you're more difficult.

Now, what are some of your favorite comics growing up?

I was like the Far Side, you a read that. Calvin and Hobbs peanuts.

Why did Calvin and Hobbs transition into just peen on different truck emblems?

Pissing on forward, wasn't it.

I've always said I'd rather push a forward than drive a check.

Yeah. I do have the answer for that question. What is it is? He always refused to let his stuff be licensed for like stickers or plush dolls or anything like that, and so because he didn't do it, they filled in that void, you know. So people started making their own stickers, and then they started making like Calvin praying stickers, and then you know, the next natural step is Calvin pissing on things. So they started doing that and they tried to fight it, but it's just dudes like printing it.

So they've never profited off of these things.

Yeah, No, it's all just other people that figured out people wanted Calvin stuff under any circumstances.

I give everybody a gift on the show, just something from my house and I'm getting rid of. But this is what I thought my old shredder, Hey, thank you, will you do you shred stuff. Do you have problematic stuff that could be laying around your house? If things, if people.

Found that's a recipe to ask people to break into my house.

No, don't do that.

Well, thank you very much.

I think look at dirty there's still stuff in there. You piece that together. I guarantee there's jokes that I've written a few bad words on.

A friend of mine used to live with Jack Handy, and they said that after he moved out that they would find little note cards all over the house of all the jokes that he had like started to write and leave them around, is like hundreds of them.

I'm so embarrassed of exactly what you're saying. There's nothing nothing would upset me more than knowing somebody went through my journals of jokes. This is fucking garbage delivery. You have to understand, I was going to deliver it different. Talk shit about some of a newspaper comic strips.

You know, there's some absolute trash comic strips. So like in the morning, I read the newspaper and I read it on my computer, and my wife is sitting like twenty feet over over there in the living room, and she just hears me going, oh, why is this funny? Ah, this is a joke? What the hell is this? And like just talk trash about eighty five percent of the ones in the newspaper.

What do you hate most of the newspaper.

I don't know the names of these ones, Like there's a few like I read Jumpstart. That's a good one about Heathcliff, Like Heathcliff. Heathcliff is fantastic. Have you been reading that recently?

No, of course I haven't like that.

So I don't know the exact story, but it seems like the guy who did Heathcliff originally died or stopped doing it, and it seems like his nephew or someone like that is doing it. I don't know if he's trying to trash the trash the project, or if he's just trying to be like avant garde, or if he's just really weird. But every joke is like ha ha I love meat, and he will be wearing like a helmet that says meat, and then so it'll be like, hey,

And it is funny with these families like take over the previous generations work and then they're like wha, they would never sell this to television. And now somebody's what was the show? Like, was it Archie?

Yeah? Yeah, that became Jughead. Yeah they made like whatever that city is that they live in.

Yeah, what's that show called?

Right?

Like they the new owners were like, you know what, we're gonna make this young and hip? Fuck it.

Yeah. Well, when you're pitching shows, if you have like a known ip, even if it's something like archie're like we're looking at it's grim and gritty. Yeah, dark, everybody knows Archie, but not like this, you know, by the way, like Wednesday did it is?

How is Andy cap I can't still beating his wife?

I think he is, Like it's still he's still like a drunk guy that like screams that hes like ah, shut up and she hits him with like a bedpan. It's crazy that it's like, you know, it seems like that would have died out twenty four, but they're like, ah, he still got it.

Was still the Dilbert guy.

Everybody hates him, you know, even before he started doing like this stuff. I know a lot of comic people that that do uh newspaper stuff, like on the same syndicate, and everyone said, he's just like the biggest dickhead on the planet. Maybe not the biggest dick.

Sure whatever, but he's still but he's still getting print work or no.

Probably in some like weird hard right conservative newspapers ever known for being funny.

Yeah, how did you end up working with Childish Cambino?

That was a buddy of mine from dodgeball that I used to play in a dodgeball league with the real dodgeball league. Yeah, it was. It was a lot of fun. There was a dodgeball league in like West Hollywood, and it was a whole bunch of artists and writers and.

Just like like straight traditional rules, Yeah, grab a ball and try to hit each other.

Yeah, And like I think everybody was pretty drunk through most of the game.

Are you dodgeball?

I was pretty good.

Could you dodge a wrench?

Yeah? I could. Fifteen years later he hit me up and he was like, hey, do you know anyone that does cartoons for The New Yorker? And I was like, yeah, dude, I do, And.

He's like, do you really?

Donald Glover was looking for he wanted to do something with like a character, like do something in a New Yorker style. They were putting together a poster. We ended up doing something where whenever they would have tour a concert tour, they would do like a little pop up shop and make it look like it was a bootleg shirt being sold at the venue, and it was it was through him, so they would like put it together and make it up, but it would look cleaning up. Yeah,

Uh huh. And I've been told to do stuff like this in my past. I'm always like, no, no, that sounds horrible. I can make you a cool shirt, a god damn it. How'd you meet Al Franken? Dude hates Ted Cruz, Yeah he does.

I sent him a letter and I was like, hey, man, I think L. Frankin is so smart and so funny, like I love him, Like he's one of the few people that I'd be like, oh, man, like you go be president, Like I mean, you should never. We didn't talk about that, but I think he regrets his decision absolutely.

He really should know that's what held his brown and be like what I know there was the world fuck You's coming up.

People would have forgotten about it in eight minutes. And yeah. I sent him a letter and said basically like I can help with some posters anything you want, and did a zoom, and he mostly wants to talk about cartoons, and he's like, I got some great ideas for some cartoons for the New Yorker. So I was like, yeah, let's talk about like some politics stuff, like you want to do this. He's like, no, I don't want to talk about that at all. But he didn't have many funny stories about Ted Cruz.

I've never was. I was never a big SNL fan, but got it. I always respected the fact about myself. I was like that, I just loved Al Franken. Yeah, I was like This guy's the funniest person ever. He's so sharp. God, he's funny and a very good artist. He draws Ted Cruise very well, he really does.

I think he sells cups with a dry and he did of Ted Cruz when they were sitting in the chambers.

Uh huh.

And he's just sitting there like fucking asshole, like drawing so stupid.

Have you ever done caricatures that are like a bar mitzvah?

Oh?

Yeah you have.

Yeah that was a joke, question, was you know? I mean not at a bar mitzvah. But I used to. I used to do like indie comics, like to get people to come around. I would leave the cover blank and if you would be talking about I'm like, hey, let me let me draw you. Let me draw you, and I just I could spit them out pretty fast. I'm out of practice now, but I used to be pretty good. Get a lot of upset people.

You never worked at, like not Sperry Farms or anything.

No.

My my biggest fallback. I always figured if everything failed, I would get into cartooning. Uh huh, and uh, just how I got into cartooning. But if everything the best fallback, But if everything including cartooning fails. Then it's like Venice Beach, just like drawing caricatures.

Oh but Venice Beach today versus Vantage Beach like even ten years ago. It's just way more scary and fun. Now, is it all?

That's good? I haven't been speech. It's sad into president. I avoid Venice Beach in Hollywood and most places.

Ivan, thank you for being here. I appreciate it, and I look forward to laughing and reading all of your future work.

Thank you so much, Thank you. It was a real pleasure. Pasha.

I want to thank Ivan for being on the show. I appreciate the cartoon that he made for us. We're gonna hang that up here in the studio. Speak of cartoons. I even didn't bring up the fact that I, you know, one of the original executive producers of the hit TV show Brickleberry. You guys remember that three seasons three and a half, back when Comedy Central was a force, not the pathetic shambles that it currently lays in. What's going

You stop me, Yeah, you can't.

You can't stop me from saying get her done. I bet you he doesn't even have that website locked up. What do you think, Carl? You like my new catchphrase? Say up.

All of them, take them all.

I'm gonna take them all. Here's your sign. That's just all those guys. That's funny. That'd be funny if there was like new comics coming up that are like, you know, you got to come up with a catchphrase, have a catchphrase, doesn't matter. Get her done. Finally, my son one of his wonderful bedtime stories, see you next week.

When time in the sasal I said, drafted clean, dam you and they talk. They the pilot all the pilly one. What the pilot wanted to do was say up all night, but he triuldn't put. The team noticed that he might get tired, so he would. Then he made up a little bed in the wodden room so him falla made yourself told you, and maybe he would maybe just needs a riddle, more pillows. So what he needed to do? It it's samuid bed to the Martldia, but chance it.

Sorta the end.

But you can't say the end and then say but this is a two parter. Yeah, the end, Okay, The second part is just real short m