ISCA Past Convention Recap
Article Transcript
Anything can happen at an ISCA Convention. ANYTHING! During 19 Annual Conventions, and close to a dozen minicons in various places around the world, there certainly have been a number of strange and unusual events. Many of them have been immortalized in the pages of EF by the likes of Sam Klemke and Lar de Souza. Some are weirder than others, but ALL of them are memorable!
The awards banquet has long been a source for some of the strangest occurrences. How many of you remember the talent shows that used to happen during the banquet? They consisted mainly of skits, with the occasional burlesque dance thrown in for good measure. One of these skits showcased the “Blind Caricaturist,” who groped and pawed at his subject’s face. Another such escapade featured a diaper-clad ISCA member playing the part of a crying infant who didn’t want his caricature drawn (of course, in recent years, some convention attendees have chosen to wear a costume to the awards banquet even though they WEREN’T performing on stage). The banquet was also used by an outgoing president to issue a series of “presidential pardons” to various ISCA members. One member was pardoned for “impersonating a tree,” due to the large number of drawings he had received depicting him with shrubbery and foliage around his long neck.
Our guest speakers and other
notable visitors have also helped to
create some classic moments. Poor
Sebastian Krueger was reluctantly
goaded into drawing live caricatures
on a giant sketchpad during his seminar.
The one-and-only Mort Drucker
had been slated to be guest speaker
one year, but had to bow out at the
last minute. So the board members
arranged a video conference call
with Mort, during which one awestruck
and overjoyed ISCA member
broke into tears right in the middle
of the call. Sam Viviano’s very first
stint as guest speaker saw his plane
arrive merely an hour or so prior to
his scheduled seminar. Short on
time, the resident and vice-president
treated Sam to lunch courtesy of the
drive-thru at McDonald’s. Actor Patrick
Warburton, known for Disney’s
The Emperor’s New Groove and
TV’s Seinfeld was once invited to
join us for a fundraising event, and
Teller, of Penn & Teller, stopped by
to see the artwork while we were in
Vegas. A documentary film crew, a
magazine reporter, and a university
professor conducting research
have, at various times, interviewed
convention attendees.
Even when you spend most of the
week indoors, weather could still be
an issue. Grey skies and rain clouds
at one Convention made for a leaky
roof in the ballroom, causing many
of the artists’ gallery spaces to get
wet. An “unseasonably cold spell”
during another Convention led one
musically inclined ISCA member
to write a ballad about that year’s
competition.
Along with a name change (from NCN to ISCA), there have been more than a few changes over the last 19 years. The competition ballroom wasn’t always open 24 hours a day. EF wasn’t always printed as a full-color magazine. The use of photo reference to create caricatures during the Convention was much less common. And the number of people attending these events has grown exponentially since the first one in 1992. So now we come to a major milestone: the 20TH ANNUAL ISCA CONVENTION!! If you’ve never been, or if you haven’t attended for a few years, now’s the PERFECT time to see what all the fuss is about! What will people be talking about after this one? Who will get drawn the most? What ingeniously creative pieces will artists come up with this time? And who will take home the coveted Golden Nosey? Please join us in St. Pete Beach, Florida this November and help create some memories!
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