City News

Electicle Dysfunction: A Coloring Book for Adults

At least somebody's having fun with this madness

Providence Monthly Magazine ·

This election has been exhausting and no matter who wins we’re all going to be in for a very long four to eight years. Luckily some locals are trying their best to have some fun with it, even if the home stretch of the campaign gets scarier by the day. Take Rhode Island Comedy Hall of Famer and political cartoonist Charlie Hall, who has offered up his two cents with the adult coloring book Electile Dysfunction. It pairs his illustrations with poems that chronicle a political comedy that’s been stranger than fiction from day one.

How did this book come together?
I’m a pretty good artist, a pretty good comedian and a pretty good song parody guy. I went home and did some research and in the Amazon top 20, eight of [the book] were coloring books. The New York Times top ten had four of them in non-fiction. It was insane. I’m an artist, I’ll throw comedy in there and it will be a perfect marriage. The election of a lifetime is happening.

Is satire a challenge when this election has already been a living Saturday Night Live sketch?
I just had to kind of report things. Did I have to parody Governor Christie being kind of overweight? I didn’t have to, but sometimes I just amuse myself. Some things were already parody. [Trump’s] small hands... “I just want you to know that there’s no problem there.” I can’t believe he said that.

Did Lincoln Chafee make the cut?
He did! He’s in there [saying] “Let’s go metric! Yes, we gram!” to a room of two people.

Is there a particular shade of orange you’d suggest for Donald Trump?
That’s one of my jokes. You only need three colors for this book: red, white and orange.

Assuming Trump wins, what’s greater: your excitement as a comic for the material or your fear of him actually being president?

I don’t know. I don’t know who I’m going to vote for or if I’m going to vote. I was maybe going to go Libertarian but I really don’t know. My next cartoon will be [Hillary and Trump] after a debate with Pinocchio noses.

Available at Books on the Square, 471 Angell Street. BookSq.com; Barrington Books Retold. 176 Hillside Road, Cranston. 432-7222, BarringtonBooks.com

Charlie Hall, adult coloring book, electicle dysfunction, donald trump, hillary clinton, saturday night live, lincoln chafee