Jeffrey Zwartjes
The Statement
I first saw HELP! I thought it was incredible, and I
loved how integral a part of the show the audience
was. I turned out to be so much a part of the
performace than I could have expected, however, when
Maia singled me out for a series of rapid fire
questions about what horrible death I would prefer,
and I promptly toppled backward in my seat over a
faulty chair railing and off the raised seating
platform. It was a magical moment. I was doing a lot
of design work around town (I majored in Illustration
at SCAD) and Adam thought to ask me to provide the
comic-style artwork to be used in CARTOON. They gave
me an amazing amount of creative freedom, and I went
wild. They loved it, and it started to become clear we
had a good match. When they actually asked me to be a
part of the cast in Nobody Here but us Chickens, I
felt like I had won the Lottery. And it's been heaven.
I love constantly being encouraged to push myself
physically and creatively, and I love working with
people who seem to especially treasure the fact that I
am a complete wierdo.
Interview
Hometown: San Antonio, TX
Likes: Pixar, Zombie, & Christopher Guest movies, Nina
Simone, Folgers coffee, the comics of Roz Chast,
Daniel Clowes, Ben Katchor, and Chris Ware, plastic
toys (especially PLAYMOBIL), hiking burly National
Park trails, mammals (favorite mammal: the
thirteen-lined ground squirrel), Accordion music,
vintage Sesame Street skits with Grover in them
Dislikes: Hippocrites, being cornered, dumb people
(unless they're SO dumb they are incredible,
fascinating, and amazing), traffic, strobe lights,
U-Haul, Maxwell House, Pass the Dutchie, scary dogs,
people pointing and screaming at me like they are in
Invasion of the Body Snatchers.
Shows
- MEDS - Performer, Creator
- Nobody Here But Us Chickens - Paul, Set Designer
- Cartoon - Dictator Designer