VALIDATION

So is this validation that I am on the right track? That my ideas have some worth at least in a kernal of a concept?

Yesterday I finally got to sit down and watch the new Jeff Dunham special, "Minding the Monsters" that played on Comedy Central. It was ... as usual very good. This seemed to be made just as a limited venue show with the purpose of a TV special/DVD-bluray release. Filmed in Savannah, the theater was magnificent ... full of character and the sets were awesome. They even had a remote car for Peanut. But the theme for the show was pretty much spelled out in the title

It was a Halloween show with the various figures dressing up in costume as their favorite monster or character. Walter was Frankenstein's Monster. I like how they left patches of flesh showing through the makeup. Peanut and Jose were dynamically duoed inspired with Little Jeff in a Riddler styled costume. Achmed was in drag as American women are what he finds most scary. But Bubba Jay was dressed as a red necked Vampire.

About two maybe three years ago I got the idea for Halloween of doing a red necked Vampire. I have perhaps not the best display in our neighborhood ... but maybe a close second. And it keeps growing every year ... with something new. My idea was to convert a Mortimer Snerd vent doll and add fangs. He would of been more blatant as he would of worn a tuxedo coat over overalls. He would drink "toe mater" juice rather than blood because he would faint at the sight of blood. I even got as far as ordering a Mortimer off of eBay and looking up where i might purchase a tux in a T2 size. However my skills at building and doing ventriloquism curtailed this venture.

So I have to admit it was a little disappointing looking at Bubba Jay. It wasn't the same as what I came up. Bubba Jay was after all in costume. My vampire would be ... well a bumpkin vamp. Still if I did it now ... would people go, "Oh, I saw Jeff Dunham do that." I have over the years come up with ideas and seen other versions pop up. Several comic book/strip ideas have gone this way. Most recently I did some photoshop work for a pick box cover for my wife's Christmas present. (I was trying to get her interested in an Appalachian folk instrument that I like, called the dulcimer.) I put a dulcimer in the Mona Lisa's arms.  Four years later, Don Pedi, dulcimer great, did the same thing on prints to sell. Everyone thought, "Oh, how clever." Even though I showed the same crowd, none remembered mine and I have been accused of copying him. In truth, I remember an episode of the TV shoe "Bewitched" where they put a tube of tooth paste in Mona's arms. So actually neither of us were that clever.

And no I am not accusing anyone of copying me. I have no such false ideas. This is a case of similar lines of thoughts. I won't go as far to say, "Two great minds." It's not like I was ever inventing the artificial heart.

Still it is an interesting pair of emotions. A certain satisfaction and frustration.