Hi Dan

Your character, Sylvester the Jester, has obviously been a very succesful for you, picking up a huge number of awards, but Sylvester simply is a charchetr, even if it does come from some exageration of ypart of your personality.

I was really wondering if you had any other ambitions as a magician, and may choose to leave Sylvester in the proverbial closet at some stage, to allow your slef to do other things within magic(or outside)

Nick

P.S. Whos your favourite cartoon charachter?

Well as far as awards go...I've only won a few. Ive had lots of nominations and been on a bunch of TV shows but Ive never really had a lot of commercial or monetary success. I am still undiscovered in my opinion and still hoping to find success with this charactor. Id still like to have my own tv show or at least a comedy special...I just don't know how to get those things.
The worst part is that this has been the only thing Ive gotten anywhere with. But then maybe I should try sky diving or drug addiction. I hear a lot of folks have become alcoholics with little skill or effort so maybe there's still hope for me in a direction like that.

DS.

Dan, what would you consider to be commercial or monetary success? (if you ever achieved it?)

Read the new Genii and see what the young man from Ireland did to get where he is... all schmoozing managers and folks in the biz.

I guess Id feel that I was a commercial success if I could live at a level that my parents or any of my relatives do. In that I could afford to by a house or a new car or afford to get an opperation if I needed one. And that I was not always struggling and wondering what bills I could afford to pay now or where my next show would come from.
I have had success in other ways and have not had to loose my self respect or do anything dishonest, or mean to others while creating my own act with my own magic and comedy. And It has taken me all over the world and to places I never even dreamed of. So maybe that's all I can ask for.

Dan Sylvester

I am interested in the above "neglected" question,
Dan, what would you consider to be your favorite cartoon character???

I went to YSU when you went, I think.

I would consider the world traveling part very successful. Most kids I teach in school now rarely leave the state.

Dan if you want a comedy special maybe you should contact Comedy Central.

I am interested in the above "neglected" question,
Dan, what would you consider to be your favorite cartoon character???

Sorry, Sorry! Id have to say the undisputed heavy weight champion of mayhem would have to be Daffy Duck. There are others who are great but he really invented all the great moves and takes. Every kind of behavior that we associate with cartoons came from Daffy. He was a pioneer really and a mavaric who did it all first and best. Of course Buggs Bunny is more loved and more famous. He became the big star while Daffy grew more and more bitter. But it was all racism. Face it Daffy was Black and they would only let him climb so high. Consider that no talent white Duck over at Disney studios, Donald Duck! He became a huge star and made millions riding on Mickey's Coatail.. Literally! But that's andother story. That's why Daffy's Charator seemed to changed around 48. He just wasn't getting lead bill anymore. Even Buggs would admit that. He never would have made it with out Daffy to blaze the trail before him. Buggs Basically ripped off most the Black Ducks material. But look at Daffy in his prime! Back when he waas the star, like in 1938, as a heavy weight fighter in "Porky and Daffy" or "Baby Bottleneck" in 46 and who could forget "the Great Piggy Bank Robery" that same year. You gotta give that.
An other favorite of mine was the Great Child Star, Tweety Bird. Hillarious when he was young but then he got older the baby bird thing just didn't seem believable. But Ill always remember him in his 1942 Debute in "A Tale of Two Kitties." or "Grewsome Twosome," and "Birdy and the Beast" in 44. Two years later he was just a shadow of his former greatness.

Who in the @#$%&# do you think you are?
It is NOT racism that makes me and millions of other cartoon lovers who made Bugs the star he is.
There has never been and never will be a greater actor than Bugs Bunny.
That nasty little black "bird" with the lousey personality and speech impediment would have never made it anywhere without bugs.
How many times have you ever had someone ask you to pull a "duck' out of your hat.
I had hoped that your visit here would be pleasant.
But now, sir, the battle has commenced.
Irratated,
Parson

Shouldn't that be..."Ill have you know this means war?"

It was a joke Sir a Joke! You didn't get it. Also you apearently don't know that Daffy was an instant hit with audiences when he first appeared in 1937 and Buggs Bunny didn't come on the scene until 1940. Of course you couldn't know this because they conceal such facts in somethng called books. But there are pleanty of folks in the animation studios who can back me up on this, experts who have drawn and studied these charactors all their lives, know that though I may have been joking, Buggs actually did act, sing and talk just like daffy in his early shorts before 1940. That is why historians don't call him True Buggs bunny until 1940. But even the earliest version do not predate Daffy's 1937 debute.

So There!

Fight!! Fight!!

I've tried sky diving and alcohol abuse... neither does much for your fame unless you land while traveling at terminal voelocity or are named Kennedy and go for a drive while under the influence.

Don't lose faith and keep plugging. One day you will wake up to find you are an "overnight" success.

Regarding the issue of racial/species discrimination...

Every so often I light a candle for Chuck Jones. His issue wasn't prejudice, it was that he played favorites with Bugs. While he didn't give Daffy free reign (and thus kept the Duck down), he goosed the popularity of animation to mainstream America. No poultry achievement for any animated individual...

While each of the Looney Tunes characters had their own personality, even those personalities would differ depending on which era the cartoon was made, and who was directing. Porky Pig, for example, was often portrayed as the neurotic foil, but in later cartoons with Daffy Duck he was often the calm voice of reason. Daffy also differed greatly in personality from his early days under the supervision of Bob Clampett when he truly lived up to the name "daffy" to his eventual evolution into the selfish but lovable duck most people know him as today. Tex Avery introduced the world to Daffy in "Duck Amuck," who is a wild and zany screwball, bouncing around the screen with cries of "Hoo-hoo! Hoo-hoo!" but it was during the 1930's and 40's Bob Clampett redesigned Daffy, making him taller and lankier, and rounding out his beak and feet. By the early 1940s, Robert McKimson tamed Daffy a bit, redesigning him yet again to be rounder and less elastic. It was is in the cartoons of Chuck Jones during the 1950's that Daffy becames fully realized.

Sylvester -which version of Daffy do you most identify with?

One of my favorite WB characters is Pete the Puma, though he never really got a chance to shine on his own., and only appeared in two real cartoons (and some assorted TonyToon shorts). I think that both Bugs and Daffy realized that they needed to short-circuit his career bigtime or they would be left in the dust (either that or Frank Fontaine sued WB- not sure which).

Mr. Sylvester,

Clearly, you have some kind of bird fetish.
I am old now and can't remember the name of the rooster that you stole the, "It's a joke, son, a joke" line from. But it was a BIRD.
I have personally seen your eyes pop out of your head and I think that it was when you were looking at a BIRD.
Why you even seemed to lust over Tweety Bird.
Here in the real world, we all know that rodents, i.e. rabbits and mice, are the real heroes of the cartoon world.
It is the big stars like Jessica and Roger Rabbit who have brought cartoondom the status that it currently holds.
Have you not heard of the BIRD FLU?
It is illegals like Daffy and Donald Duck who are the real problem here. Just listen to the way they talk. They are not like the rest of us and should be caged.
Bring it on,
Parson

Marvello,
You know your toons. But speaking as Dan Sylvester, its really more the directer who makes the cartoon. Basically I love anything done by Bob Clampett. I like like other think he was a Genius and created the most wild, magical cartoons of all time. He was a decent artist and magician too. The best artist at Warner Bros was Bob and Tom McKimson was the best artist there and cerated the classic warner Bros styles but each director reined him in to there taste as far as the over all look. By the way not Duck Amuck was done by Chuck Jones in 53. The first Daffy Cartoon was Porky Duck hunt done by of course, Tex Avery but, his cheif annimator at the time, and the guy who first drew Daffy was Bob Clampett.
In those days after Avery left warner Bros. The top Position was given to Bob Clampett. Who when on to direct, what I think are the funniest cartoons of all time. Meanwhile Chuck Jones felt sleighted that he had not been promoted and a Jellocy brewed. that's why Chuck alway made bugs a smaller rabbit at that time. Cause that's how he felt. And when Clampett left to do Beany anc Ceasel, Daffy became Jones' id. Expressing the Jellocy he had for the Trixter Bob Buggs Bunny who was really, Bob Clampett.
I think all these guys were great and they all had there foibles but that's what made them interesting. Incidently Pete Puma was voiced by a very great voice guy who is still alive. I cant remember his name though. He never got credit for it though because Mel Blank was the only one who ever got voice credit.
All the wierd intrieg behind the cartoon is often a glimps into why these Charactor were so damb funny and Loved by so many people.

But Speaking as Sylvester the Jester, I have personally gone to the old toons home to meet and interview the Cartoons. And most of them hated the directors there. Daffy for instance wanted to do more Classical work. He was in real life a Black man named Willis Johnson who was a Lindy hopper and a genius at prostedic make up. Tired of not having any work he and his wife and Dance partener, stiched togeather a bunch of old feather dusters and some paper mashet and created the very first Daffy Duck costume. Odd looking folks were always walking on and off the Warner bros lot back then. So he was able to walk right passed the guards to Termite Terrace, where he went in and auditioned as Crazy Duck Leon Schlesinger was flabbergasted and wanted to throw him out but Tex Avery said, "Kid Ya'got something there! But I think that DAFFY is a better name." He wa cast opposite a studdering Pig named Porky in "Porkys duck hunt." And the rest as they say is History.
I got all this information first hand from the guy who was and still seems daffy. He said he also played buggs Bunny a few times when buggs was at the hospital. Which was pritty often cause his wife was always having kids...37 of em Im told. But that's another story.

Sylvester the Jester

Your Jestership,
I was very pleased with your last post as it held proof positive that "Daffy" aka Willis Johnson was in fact a sneak.
Thanking you in advance for your humble apology.
Elated,
Parson

BTW:
I just remembered another "sneaky" BIRD actor... The Roadrunner.
The Roadrunner was clearly one of the most evil of all the actors.
One time I remember him painting a tunnel on a wall, running through it and then causing severe pain to someone else.
These BIRDs are nothing less than criminal and how you could support them is beyond me.
Confused,
Parson

Ok Ok Ill admit it my father was a canadian Goose!! There I said it are you happy now! He wanted to be a cartoon star but he never could he had a family to raise. And that is realy tough thing for a guy with no hands. He actually got fly for Her Magesties Royal Canadian Fliers in war but was shot doun. Not by the enimy either but by a near sighted duck hunter. Waaa Haa Haa I cant go on.

DS.

Mr. Jester,
I am so very sorry.
I did not know that your father was a BIRD.
While we are being honest... My own father was a rodent.
I did not want to publicly admit that, but as you have been so noble, what else could I do?
My father, God rest his soul, was born without a spine.
Now, he is just rollin round heaven all day.
We all must live with the ancestors that we were given.
I love your work and now better appreciate your love for BIRDs. Hang in there, you have much to live down.
Understandingly,
Parson

Comedian Stan Freberg did the voice of Pete Puma, which was based on Crazy Guggenheimer (frank Fontaine's character). He also did the voice of Tosh (one of the Goofy Gophers)and Junior Bear, Lennie and many other WB one-offs. He was also the voice of Cecil the Sea Monster from Beany & Cecil, and also the puppeteer for that show, which you mentioned in regard to Bob Clampett.