DROPPIN' NAMES LIKE GALILEO DROPPED AN ORANGE

Since I live in LA, people sometimes ask me if I ever see anyone "famous".

They also ask me why I can't use a fork and knife properly.

But I quickly dodge that question by changing the subject to
whether I've see anyone "famous".
And sometimes I do.
Like last Saturday.

First off, I have the distinct pleasure of living next door to
Stanford Blatch and Mozzie.
If you don't know who they are, they're characters played by actor Willie Garson in SEX IN THE CITY and WHITE COLLAR, respectively.


Willie rocks pretty hard and his son Nathen and my little vikings get together all the time to rock even harder.
(And louder.)

So while Willie and I were on the front lawn
discussing important topics of the day...
(car repairs, dead opossums, who's lightsaber is in who's yard)
who should walk by with her baby girl than singer/songwriter Lisa Loeb?


Willie knows her well, but neither of us knew she lived in the neighborhood.
So we hung out and talked for a while.
She's sooper nice and has a new picture book coming out soon.

Then it was off to a birthday party for our good friend Jon Stern.


He's a big shot comedy producer and works with most of the guys from ye olde comedy troupe, THE STATE.
Nowadays they're making stuff like Adult Swim's CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL, NTSF and WAINY DAYS.
The fabulous Mrs. Warburton and Jon's wife met in NYC when they were both pregnant with first kids.
And then we both ended up moving to LA around the same time and live around the corner from each other.

The usual comedy rabble was at the party.
Folks like Ken Marino:


And Rob Huebel:


Hanging out with these people is, obviously, always good for a laugh.

So then after THAT party, it was off to ANOTHER party.

This one for the National Cartoonist's Society.


Hilary Price, creator of the comic strip RHYMES WITH ORANGE (and fellow Mo Willems sooper pal) invited me to come.




Hosted by cartoonist and former Simpsons and Seinfeld writer Tom Gammill, it was an AMAZING party!


Beautiful house, great food, plenty of root beers and, of course...

The place was lousy with cartoonists:

Robb Armstrong, creator of comic strip Jump Start:





Mell Lazarus, creator of comic strips like Momma and Miss Peach:





Illustrator Carol Lay:


Simpsons creator Matt Groening:


Penn Ward, creator of Adventure Time:


And one of the guys instrumental in animating the Simpsons since day one, David Silverman:


Mr. Silverman and I talked about animation for a long time.
And since he was so involved with the Simpsons, I told him THIS STORY.

And guess what?
He admitted to being the guy who did it.

Jerk.

But we laughed about it and had a good time talking shop.

Anyway, I met a ton of really great, really nice, and REALLY talented people.
The National Cartoonist Society really put on a great show and I definitely want to go to more of their events.

I'm just bummed I didn't bring my sketchbook.
Not that that stopped me from getting a drawing or two:

One by Carol Lay
(with offensive word crossed out by my son)


And the other by Hilary Price:




So that was my Saturday.

Tough life, right?