The Artist and the Model – painting a mustache on the finished painting? A clown skit for 3 speaking clowns – a quick blackout sketch
The Artist and the Model – painting a mustache on the finished painting?
The Artist and the Model is a one minute drama, aka. a quick blackout skit, courtesy of The Red Skelton Hour episode, “A New York Stripper is not Always a Steak“.
Cast: Three clowns. One is dressed as an artist, one is dressed as the model whose portrait he’s painting. For traditional clowns, the artist and model would probably be whiteface clowns, and the third either an Auguste or hobo/tramp. Feel free to change that to suit your needs.
Props: An artist’s smock and hat for the artist, although it isn’t essential. An artist’s easel, with a painting of the model on it. It initially has its’ back to the audience. Also a paint brush and some paint. Also a large, comic beard and mustache.
The Skit
The skit begins with the artist on stage on one side, and the model on the opposite side, with her back to the audience. The artist’s easel is between them. The artist is pretending to finish the model’s portrait. He has to leave for a minute …
While he’s gone, the third clown walks in, behind the model and the easel. He looks at the model, and then the easel. With a mischievous grin, he turns the easel around. The audience can see that it’s a portrait of the model. With a wicked smile, he paints a mustache and beard on the model!
Then, the artist returns. “What have you done? You’ve ruined my painting!”
The third clown replies, “What do you mean, ruined it?”
The model looks at the painting. She then turns around and reveals to the audience that she’s wearing a fake beard and mustache! “Yeah, what do you mean, ruined it?”
Notes:
For the “painting”, one modern solution is to take a digital photograph of the model (without beard and mustache, of course) and use a utility to convert it into a drawing, and then print it out and tape it to the easel. Another solution would be to simply have a large smiley face as the “portrait”.