Chicken or the Egg?

We all are familiar with the old question, "Which came first, the chicken or the egg?" Recently, I have been having a similar discussion with my collaborating partner in our new cartoon venture.

Maybe I should back up and explain, in case you've missed the cartoons that have been running lately in Card Player.

I have a friend by the name of John Bonafede, who used to work for me when I owned a construction company. In 1988 when I sold my company, I put my friend and employee out of a job. John was at retirement age, so he began to collect his benefits. We remained friends, and soon John began to accompany me to some of the poker tournaments. It has worked out nicely for both of us. John on occasion plays a little small-limit poker, but mostly socializes with players and roots for me.

One small fact that I forgot to mention is that John also is an award-winning artist, working mostly with pen and ink. I have many of his works, and he really is a fabulous artist.

One day I was reading the morning paper and glanced at one of the cartoons in the Los Angeles Times Life section. Out of the clear blue sky, it hit me. We (John and I) could collaborate and do cartoons about the poker world. Hence, our little chicken or the egg controversy began, although it's somewhat different. The chicken or the egg controversy revolves around which came first. Our argument is about which of us is the most important element in the partnership.

John maintains that without him, I'm lost. I maintain the same thing; that is, thinking about what to draw and what to say is much harder, and that without me, there would be no "Vince and John" cartoon venture.

When I get stuck for an idea for a cartoon, I taunt John, saying something like, "Go ahead and draw one (a cartoon)." On the other hand, when I ask him to change something on one of the cartoons we are working on, he hands me a pencil and says something like, "You don't like it? You draw it."

In the last few months, I have spent a lot of time at Kinko's making copies of the cartoons, and almost every time I go to pay for the copies, the clerk looks at them and asks, "Did you draw these?" I have to confess that I always lie and say, "Yeah!" Then I hear something like, "Wow! You're really good."

One day I was feeling honest, so when the clerk asked the same question, "Did you do these?" I said, "No, but I'm the one who thought of the idea and the words." You can guess what kind of a reaction I got. Sometimes it's just better to lie.

I'm sure by now that you are probably thinking you've learned more than you really would ever want to know about our cartoon endeavor. Truthfully, the main reason that I undertook this column was to try to slip in a couple of thoughts that are important to me.

First, let me assure you that there is no chance that you (or any player) will open Card Player and, without any notice, find a cartoon about you. Card Player's policy is that any player who is parodied must approve the cartoon before it is printed.

Second, I assure you that I would never try to be mean-spirited when trying to get a laugh at someone else's expense. Lord knows, we all have characteristics about which we are more sensitive and would rather not be kidded. On the other hand, most of us are grown up enough to be able to laugh at ourselves. I hope never to cross over that line to the point that I might really hurt someone's feelings.

I know I am walking a fine line when trying to determine what someone is or isn't touchy about. My approach has been to feel out friends of the person I want to parody. They have, at least so far, known exactly what would or would not be acceptable to a person.

Of the five cartoons that John and I have done, four of them have poked fun at someone who is well-known in the poker community. In case you missed any of the cartoons, they were of Barbara Enright, John Bonetti, Phil Hellmuth, and Barry Shulman. I showed each of them a copy of their respective cartoon, and all of them were great about it. They all got a kick out of the cartoons, and I want to publicly thank them for being such good sports.

For what it's worth …