The show 'Nixon's the One' gives a visual to the audio recordings that Nixon himself had recorded in the oval office. Shearer plays Nixon himself. If just the audio were listed I, and a few others would have listened while painting or do other projects. The way he handled these recordings has made it accessible to a much larger audience.
What I love about Harry Shearer and this specific project is that it shows Nixon as human. He's not some larger then life deity. Mr. Shearer doesn't need to exaggerate Nixon-- Being human is strange enough. With this project, and others like it, Mr. Shearer does what we can only do faced with such absurdity- find a way to laugh.
In the U.S. no distributor would release this show. Lucky for us, Harry Shearer cares more about getting his project out there then making a penny. Check it out on Youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9HtoWea72A
I did these sketches. The first ones are waiting for the show to start. The others are of the man himself. Unfortunately I don't think any of these sketches look like Mr. Shearer. But we all know that isn't the point to them-- at least that's what I'm telling myself. If you don't know the point (and I need to remind myself), it's to capture the feel of the moment. Someone said 'the product of life filtered through human is art'. If you know who said it please let me know. Oh, the other point of the sketches is that for some reason I absorb whatever I'm listening to better if I'm doodling then if I don't. One day I heard on the radio that some scientist proved it in a study.
My only complaint for Mr. Shearer is that he doesn't have any answers. It's also a blessing because he puts the issues (listen to this to understand what issues I mean: http://harryshearer.com/le-show/ ) out there and it is understood that it is much more then most anyone else is doing. The world is so awful sometimes all we can do is laugh.
