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Photograph by Sarah Gaffney
Quick on the Draw: Cartoonist and comedienne Jacqi Bowe is constantly creating, like her comic strip's heroine.
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Public Citizen
They're Playing Our Toon
Jacqi Bowe's alter-ego is her two-inch-tall cartoon creation, Pamela Pesto Perfect
By Sarah Gaffney
'She's a single Renaissance woman trying to make it on her own, so she's busy. She's happy from time to time. Temporarily."
Campbell comedienne Jacqi Bowe could be describing herself and a lot of us on-our-own-and-making-it Silicon Valley gals. But the woman she's talking about stands just under 2 inches tall and lives alone, albeit in Bowe's imagination. She's Pamela Pesto Perfect, a cartoon creation of Bowe's and a metaphor for life as a single woman in the '90s.
Bowe, a Salinas native, went to Los Angeles after graduating high school to study medicine at UCLA. A cheerleading tryout got her out of the halls of science and into dancing, singing, musical comedy, and eventually, acting classes with veteran actress Sally Kirkland. Pamela metamorphosed from a stage character Bowe created for an audition tape for the television show "In Living Color."
"I worked up this character, Pamela Pesto Perfect, who was based on the people around me going to work, being perfect, looking great, wanting to please everyone, and making themselves crazy," says Bowe.
The actress/singer/dancer didn't get a part on the show, but she did get a main character for her stand-up show "Emotional Garage Sale," a one-woman, 90-minute performance of comedy, music and dance. Bowe brought her show and her life to Northern California to live near family, where the terminally single Pamela eventually served as the inspiration for a self-produced cartoon strip.
"Someone came up to me after a show and said 'have you ever thought of her being a cartoon character?'" says Bowe, who bears a striking resemblance to her petite and energetic cartoon pal. "And I said, 'Yeah!'"
Bowe wasn't an aspiring cartoonist, but she is a constant creator. "It's so funny because people always say they have writer's block. I can't get writer's calm-down. I don't have very many dry spells."
She had no formal art training but lots of enthusiasm, and sometimes spent up to 12 hours a day perfecting Pamela's rhinestone cat-glasses and fishhook nose. A few art classes helped hone her technique and eventually she landed a gig as resident cartoonist for the now defunct weekly Santa Clara Vision. Bowe is now in the process of finding a syndicate home for wacky Pamela.
"It's been good. This whole thing has been a metaphor for me," says the cartoonist, whose Catholic schooling and New Age philosophy are evident in Pamela's musings on life. "One of the things about cartooning is that you need to be very concise and fit everything into little boxes. I have a real hard time fitting anything into a little box. I've learned a lot about patience, but not too much patience."
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Campbell, California
