Drew Friedman does likenesses in the tradition of Drew Friedman. Suggesting he is Vermeer in the Catskills has witty, ironic ring, but his classic depictions of famous and forgotten Jewish comedians is more like da Vinci, if you ask me. If you ask him, he shrugs. If you ask Kevin Doherty, the director and writer of the long-awaited documentary Drew Friedman: Vermeer of the Borscht Belt, he talks glowingly about Friedman’s craftsmanship, but even more considered is the way he captures the essence, heart and soul of his subjects. The film is a human portrait of a humane portraitist. A special screening and interview with the artist and his chronicler is scheduled for June 27 at the Society of Illustrators in New York City. I asked Doherty to wax about his cinematic debut, which he does below.
Kevin, you’ve been working on this film about Drew Friedman since before COVID. What is your motivation for devoting so much time, effort and emotion to this project? And how long has it been from conception to completion?
Obviously, I’m a big fan of Drew’s work. He has a really unique aesthetic and a body of work that goes from the sacred to the profane pretty easily. His craftmanship is amazing. A portrait of Shemp Howard is not typically what you think of when you’re thinking about a beautiful piece of art. It’s kind of mysterious how he breathes life into people on the fringes of show business and does it with a kind of respect. But it’s still kind of absurd at the same time.
I have been working on Vermeer for close to seven years. It never seemed like a side project or something I was doing in my spare time. I had a lot of other things career-wise that probably got neglected along the way, but it’s hard to get excited about doing animation for an internet startup selling flavored popcorn when you know in your heart it’s kind of a dumb idea, but you have bills to pay. I had a lot of support and encouragement from Drew and (his wife) Kathy and all kinds of amazing people. I got to hang out with Mike Judge! Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski wrote Ed Wood and The People vs. Larry Flynt—two films I adore—and they are huge fans of Drew’s work and they were really excited to be in the film. I got to watch R. Crumb eat a sandwich in the Jewseum and talk about Drew’s work and old records. I had so much fun along the way.
As the title claims, you’ve captured the specialness of the Vermeer of the Borscht Belt and his passion for comedians, comics and cartoons. Did you capture everything that you set out to explore?
I hope so. There really is a lot going on in Drew’s work and his background. His dad, Bruce Jay Friedman, was a great writer, and you can trace a lot back to him. I mean, if your dad takes you to meet Groucho when you’re a kid and you’re still drawing him decades later, that says a lot. But you can see how Drew filtered all that stuff into his own unique take.
Tell me what makes him Vermeer-esque. Is it the amazing ability to capture the light that enlivens his characters? Or is there another distinct quality?
We probably didn’t give you enough credit for tagging Drew as the “Vermeer of the Borscht Belt.” It’s something we went back and forth on. Is it accurate stylistically? I’m not sure. Seurat is another artist people always bring up. The pointillism, all those little dots. Drew’s evolved away from that approach over the years but there really is a quality of light that Drew’s work captures. It looks very vivid, realistic and solid but his process is actually pretty delicate, with layers of thin washes done with dyes. It’s almost like watercolor but it certainly doesn’t look like what you think of as watercolor. People probably don’t realize that Drew usually works much smaller than his work appears in print. Typically, cartoonists and illustrators do their work on pages that might be twice as big as the printed page. It makes it easier to cram a lot of detail in there. But Drew’s work can start almost tiny and gets enlarged to a poster size and still looks amazing.
How would you characterize his portraiture? Is it comic, documentary, expressionistic, or what?
It’s easy to tag Drew as a caricaturist. I think that’s a bit of a loaded term. Like the guys who do portraits of your family on the boardwalk. But I think that’s fair for what people like Mort Drucker and Jack Davis did. And they did it exceptionally well. But Drew’s in a pretty unique place now where he is not worrying about drawing some sitcom star on a deadline anymore. It’s the culmination of all his history and prior work and it’s like nothing else out there.
Did you accomplish your goals?
I really wanted the doc to be funny. I stacked the deck with a lot of obviously funny people, like Merrill Markoe and Patton Oswalt. They really delivered. But Eddie Gorodetsky is a writer with a zillion amazing, intimidating comedy credits who was not all that crazy about being on the other side of the camera. And he was hilarious and tack sharp. My first question to him was, “Where do you get your crazy ideas from?” I was pretty sure he wanted to strangle me for a second. And Marc Maron just went off on this great stream-of-consciousness riff about old movies and comedy and all the weird darkness in that world. I just let him riff and rip and it was amazing. When he was done, I was sort of awestruck. And Gilbert Gottfried was really my ace in the hole. Gilbert and his podcast partner Frank Santopadre were really the backbone of this thing. They were there from day one and always supported the project. I met Gilbert through Drew years ago. Even before I met Gilbert, I thought he was the funniest person who ever lived. Working with him was like a dream. And he always delivered. As soon as he got in front of a camera, he just went for it.
Are there any documentary witnesses that you wished were captured on your film that couldn’t be found or bothered?
I’m really glad we interviewed Bruce Jay Friedman. I knew he was not in the best shape health-wise at the time, but he was great on camera. When we were done with the interview, he casually mentioned it was probably going to be his last interview but it’s not something I really parsed until later. And we had all kinds of people, big names and old friends of Drew’s that we just never got around to. But I really feel bad we never got to Mark Newgarden or Art Spiegelman. They were around since Drew’s salad days but it was just dumb logistics on my part that I never got around to them. It’s like I did a Yankees documentary but skipped over Maris and Mantle.
What did you learn about Friedman that was a surprise to you?
I was kind of surprised he said he agreed to do the documentary. We have known each other for a long time and we have worked together on projects before but I knew this would take a lot of time and a lot of work with a nebulous upside. But he’s been extremely patient and really leaned in hard. It’s his name above the title, after all.
What did you learn about his subjects that was a revelation?
Just because Drew does a portrait of (for example) Eddie Cantor, that doesn’t mean he’s a fan of Eddie Cantor. He liked drawing Eddie Cantor. But actually liking him was not a prerequisite. And it doesn’t mean he’s going to take a shot at him, either.
What do you hope will be the outcome of this film?
I just want people to see it and like it. I want fans of Drew’s work to think we did him justice but I also want people not familiar with his work to enjoy it and seek out his stuff.
Do you have another film planned or on your bucket list?
Oh yeah, a bunch of stuff. There is another documentary in the very early stages that covers territory that would not be unfamiliar to anyone who watches Vermeer. It’s not about an artist but it’s very much comedy related.