Page 24 - OO_2019

FEATURE
Always a joker
Simon Pearsall (G 81) tells Mark Moore (Sc 68) how he has become a cartoonist with Private Eye
Simon Pearsall has always been a joker. That’s how he became a cartoonist. “I’ve always drawn,” he says. “I was always quite chatty and trying to get laughs. Becoming a cartoonist is a natural progression from that combination.”
Pearsall says even when studying A level Art at the School, he was still mainly interested in jokes. But that doesn’t mean he was an idler or dilettante. “I worked hard at the art, but I always preferred the jokes,” he recalled.
Simon’s main cartoon series currently is the First Drafts series in Private Eye. The series shows writers struggling to produce the work that would later be published. The humour is in the contrast between the first and published drafts.
From A level Art Simon went on to drama school and from there into acting. “I acted for years, but I was always drawing, always creating cartoons and visual gags,” he said. Eventually, friends suggested he send some of this work to Private Eye.
“But I was scared of doing that,” Simon remembers. “What if it was no good? The rejections would be a real indicator that I wasn’t any good. And I didn’t know if I wanted to find that out. For any artist, there’s a difference between what you think of your talent and what other people do. Sometimes the difference is tiny; sometimes it’s huge. I was worried it’d be huge.”
But in 2002 he did send some work to Private Eye and they took it. It was the original First Draft and showed Shakespeare stumbling through an absurd first draft version of King Lear. That began the First Drafts series that Simon has been working on ever since.
Private Eye remains the prime publisher of Simon’s work. But he also takes commissions. “Anything really – birthdays, weddings,
Simon Pearsall with a selfie
retirements, corporate commissions,” he reveals. “I work live at conferences and events – anything that requires drawing and humour.” Anyone interested in commissioning Simon should check out his website, www.pearsallcartoons.com.
In the age of the furore over the Danish cartoons of Muhammad and the attacks on the Charlie Hebdo office in Paris, what does Simon think of censorship? Does anything go in the world of the cartoon? Is the cartoonist now in the shooting gallery too?
“You’re very conscious of that these days, of offending people,” he replies. “I’ve always felt that we have a proud tradition of giving offence in Britain. But I think most of us feel we need to be sure we’re punching up, not down. It’s good to challenge power. As for me, I generally don’t think of too many jokes that would be hurtful; I’m
Sparrows - one of Simon’s cartoons
more, er, whimsical. When people start taking offence at whimsy, then I’m stuffed. Talk to me then.
“You’re always conscious of your audience as a cartoonist. It goes back to the offence thing. You think ‘Am I on the right side here?’ I think there are a lot of types of humour that we’ve matured away from, thankfully. And there are new pitfalls. But really, ultimately, it’s ‘Is this funny?’
“The point of a cartoon is to deflate pomposities, to show up absurdity and make you laugh. I also think that one simple joke or drawing can distil a point down to its core. I do that a lot in business situations. One drawing can get the point over quicker than 10 minutes of talking. They’re an essential tool to prick the bubble of self-importance, but they also unite us... cartoons can make us feel less alone in our own absurdity”.
Simon puts himself at the gagster end of the spectrum, rather than the satirist. “At the same time, the thing that hurts people most is being laughed at,” he explains. “Remember school? But I would hope we laugh at and question what people say and do, rather than what they are or what they look like. People have the right to be respected. But we also have a right to disrespect. We just need to think things through a bit.”
One advantage the cartoonist has, Simon says, “is that because it takes quite a while to produce the work, you’re unlikely to send out some raw first-thoughts piece that you might later regret – like dashing out a thought on Twitter that you regret immediately.”
Simon had a good time at Oundle. “The key thing I think was that no matter what you were interested in, you would always find someone there who would help you do it,” he recalled. “That’s what a school is for. And I was lucky – I was surrounded by people I liked.”
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THE OLD OUNDELIAN 2018 –2019