Steve Gadlin wants to draw a cat for you. He’s even willing to sing and dance to prove it. I Want to Draw a Cat for You, Gadlin’s project for which he draws and mails stick-figure cats to customers around the country, is based in Evanston. He recently appeared on an episode of ABC’s “Shark Tank,” which was filmed back in January, and earned a $25,000 investment from Mark Cuban. In January, Gadlin told the daily that the future of his cat cartoons depended on the reaction to his “Shark Tank” appearance. Since then, he has drawn an additional 3,000 cats, bringing his total to about 4,400 since he began in late 2011. Now, The Current has brought Gadlin back to catch up with him about his cats, “Shark Tank” and comedy.
Excerpts:
The Current: Can you describe what you do?
Steve Gadlin: I have a day job. I manage a web team for Weigel Broadcasting. On the side, I run a comedy production group called Blewt and through that group I spend enough hours to pretend that’s also a full-time job except it doesn’t pay like one. I produce strange comedy experiences, be they shows or little short films or online shopping experiences, and every once in awhile one of those blows up and consumes my life for a little while, which is what’s happening right now.
The Current: How did you start drawing cats?
SG: It was kind of a joke. I wanted to pull a stunt and see if I could sell stick-figure cats for $10 apiece. But it’s a little deeper than that, too. I wanted to play business man. It was kind of like a dare to myself.
The Current: Do you like drawing the cats?
SG: Yeah, I’ve definitely gone through periods when I hate drawing the cats, but right now I’m kind of in a Zen mode. I can sit down for a few hours and do 50 cats. For the most part, it’s fun. To me, and this will sound super pretentious, it’s more than just this stupid stick-figure cat. It’s a pen-pal experience. It’s really about opening your mailbox and getting a response to something you said.
The Current: How many cats do you draw per day?
SG: The goal on Sunday is if I can bring my parents 200 to 250 to ship out, then that’s a good week.
The Current: What was it like being on ABC’s “Shark Tank?”
SG: It was awesome. It sucks that it’s done because it was so fun. It’s the kind of experience you want to repeat over and over and over again.
The Current: Were you nervous about giving your pitch?
SG: No, I was really nervous for the rehearsal. I lost the words to my song in my head, so I just stood there dancing for awhile. It was a humiliating and terrible experience, so by the time I got to do it for real, I had been through so much, so I cannot imagine being more ready.
The Current: Where do you see I Want to Draw a Cat for You going in the future?
SG: If it doesn’t grow beyond people order[ing] stick-figure cat drawings and draw[ing] them, then I’ll probably have to one day say, ‘Hey guys, I’m not taking any more orders,’ because I have to say it does consume a lot of my time right now, pairing it with a day job. I’m kind of giving it a year to play out.
The Current: What does your family think about it?
SG: My kids are going to grow up weird. My wife is just a rock star. I don’t think anyone was surprised that I bring this into my life, I guess.
The Current: Where do the ideas come from?
SG: I don’t know. They don’t really stop coming. The ideas probably chemically come from a mixture of caffeine and sugar. I can’t claim any sort of intelligence behind what I do. It’s really probably all a chemical response to my awful diet.
In addition to I Want to Draw a Cat for You, Gadlin’s other Blewt projects include the game show “Don’t Spit the Water,” live shows “Impress These Apes” and “The Nairobi Project,” as well as the shopping experience Two Film T-Shirts.
–Simone Alicea
