Californian livin' on the Etch

There's a sketchy character hanging around the Children's Festival this weekend.

Lee Zimmerman, a.k.a. the Etch A Sketch Guy, bills himself as the world's fastest artist when it comes to twiddling the knobs on the classic baby-boomer toy to produce a remarkably impressive drawing.

"Most people think it's a limited art form," admits the goofy entertainer.

Zimmerman, 46, lives in Hollywood and often entertains at celebrity parties, sketching the likes of Pamela Anderson and Hugh Hefner. The art-school graduate is a virtuoso at "etching" a cartoon-like portrait on the retro toy in the space of about eight minutes.

He's aware of 20 to 30 other serious Etch A Sketch artists in the world, but says he's the speediest. "And I'm funnier than all of them," he says.

In Tent 37 at the Kidsfest site at The Forks, where he's got a workshop table equipped with many Etch A Sketches for kids to try, he demonstrates by whipping up a skilled caricature of rocker Frank Zappa.

What if a kid comes along, turns the toy upside down and shakes it, erasing his work?

"That is the greatest part about it. I love that!" he says. "I love the idea that (the images) are really volatile; really vulnerable."

At home, Zimmerman does permanently preserve some of his most painstakingly detailed works by drilling a hole in the back of the toy and tapping out the fine aluminum powder inside. You can also vacuum it out, he says.

"You glue the knobs down. I sometimes spray some fixative inside. But I hate (doing) that. I think it's a betrayal of the entire principle behind the thing."

He has a few Etch A Sketch works hanging in California galleries. He claims, with delight, that an earthquake partially erased two of them.

Most people can only manage to etch boxy patterns of straight lines onto the toy's "magic screen." That's because they don't know how to coordinate the knobs, one of which creates the continuous line horizontally, and one vertically.

Zimmerman had it figured out from about the age of six. "I don't remember not being able to do it well," he says.

He has no trouble making curved lines, but says a perfect circle is the greatest challenge. Shading effects can be created by lightly shaking the toy so the line is faded, but not erased.

Zimmerman is primarily a puppeteer with a set of rock 'n' roll marionettes depicting stars such as Jimi Hendrix and Tina Turner. In 1999, he was in Singapore in a "panic situation" because his marionettes were lost in transit. He fibbed to the promoter that he had done an Etch A Sketch show before, ran out and bought 10 of them, and winged a crowd-pleasing performance. The Etch A Sketch Guy was born.

He says the only occupational hazard is occasional finger cramps from gripping the knobs. Then he confesses that the primary hazard is "being mocked... for doing something as ridiculous as this."

As he arrived in Winnipeg, he says, chuckling, "I was rehearsing on the plane. I walk to Customs and the guy says, 'Why are you here?'

"I said, 'I'm entertaining at the Children's Festival.' He sees I'm holding an Etch A Sketch and he goes, 'You know, they have laptops now.'"

alison.mayes@freepress.mb.ca

Festival Preview

The Etch A Sketch Guy

Today from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.; Sunday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Winnipeg International Children's Festival, The Forks

Festival tickets at the gate, $14 ($48 for a family pack of four)

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition June 12, 2010 C12