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What can I say about this ad campaign that hasn't already been said about the wheel, penicillin... or a marriage healing banana slicer? How about a seal plushie for a friend (...or lover)? Extremely waterproof mascara? A symphonic pasta maker? An enameled dutch oven (and ersatz funeral urn), curling iron (and portal to a parallel universe), a life-changing heated mug, the dog's gonads of salad bowls, terrifying elf on a shelf, (newish) rubber ducks to collect, and even a candle (scented, we presume, since it eliminates "natural odors"), not to mention the most sensual massage gun ever to be rated 5 stars?
I chose to make this part of my character portrait series, rather than the one of Adam as himself, because this is kind of a matryoshka doll of a role, a part within a part; Adam is playing a semi-fictional version of himself as he performs theatrical renditions of actual 5-star reviews. It's absolutely brilliant, with Adam using the clues he's found in the names and writing styles of the reviewers, his own imagination, and his fiercely honed acting skills to bring those words to vivid and hilarious life. I know Amazon is evil, but please go laugh yourself silly watching them; he plays each with a completely different persona and physicality, even though he remains seated the entire time, and his comedic genius absolutely shines in every one of his choices.
The review that had many of us wondering, yet again, just how much of our internet shenanigans his publicist shares with him (as well as the social media handle of the intern who chose the reviews for him to read) was the one for the massage gun, written by, you guessed it, cornfedbigdaddy, and featured Adam giving us a sultry reading of that review, complete with some fairly frank finger porn on the armrest of chair as he gripped and pulled at the rolled edge with the tips of his fingers before releasing it abruptly and then blowing buzzing raspberries with all the seriousness of someone with an entire wikipedia page dedicated to documenting his award nominations and wins.
Reader, I died laughing. As good as they all are, that one is the overall winner for me, the perfect blend of what makes him so much fun to watch; sexy, serious, AND silly in equal measure.
Here he is, during the intro to the massage gun review, in a classically pensive pose. The camera pans across his face and his eyes slide from their faraway stare to focus directly at the camera. It's hard to say for sure, since his hand is effectively covering his mouth and chin, whether he's wearing a small smile or not, but I suspect he was fairly amused and doing his best to not show it. The way his lower eyelids are pursed, his right eye slightly narrowed, is very reminiscent of many of his "I *am* smiling" photos on red carpets, and even a fair few of the earlier HOTMD stage door selfies.
Small details I appreciated along the way include that white mole on the left side of his nose that's been getting more prominent lately (though I can say with authority that you absolutely do not notice it if you're lucky enough to speak to him in person), and find it interesting how the one above his eyebrow gets a little lighter in color every year. I also love the way his silver strands are glinting at his temples-- there's even a few in his eyebrows-- and it was fun to get to do what essentially ended up being a portrait of his palm, even if this is the one without the mole at the base of his thumb.
The reference for this one was a screencap from one of Amazon's "5 Star Theater" ads, which started airing on 20 Nov 2024.
About 22.5 hrs of painting time, which was a lot more than I was expecting, given that this was a screencap! There ended up being all kinds of wonderful skin textures that were visible, and I rather fell down a bit of a rabbit hole rendering them. This was meant to be a quick, rather blurry, brushy piece, so the canvas is rather small & there's not much point to making zoomed in snippets, so I didn't.
I chose to make this part of my character portrait series, rather than the one of Adam as himself, because this is kind of a matryoshka doll of a role, a part within a part; Adam is playing a semi-fictional version of himself as he performs theatrical renditions of actual 5-star reviews. It's absolutely brilliant, with Adam using the clues he's found in the names and writing styles of the reviewers, his own imagination, and his fiercely honed acting skills to bring those words to vivid and hilarious life. I know Amazon is evil, but please go laugh yourself silly watching them; he plays each with a completely different persona and physicality, even though he remains seated the entire time, and his comedic genius absolutely shines in every one of his choices.
The review that had many of us wondering, yet again, just how much of our internet shenanigans his publicist shares with him (as well as the social media handle of the intern who chose the reviews for him to read) was the one for the massage gun, written by, you guessed it, cornfedbigdaddy, and featured Adam giving us a sultry reading of that review, complete with some fairly frank finger porn on the armrest of chair as he gripped and pulled at the rolled edge with the tips of his fingers before releasing it abruptly and then blowing buzzing raspberries with all the seriousness of someone with an entire wikipedia page dedicated to documenting his award nominations and wins.
Reader, I died laughing. As good as they all are, that one is the overall winner for me, the perfect blend of what makes him so much fun to watch; sexy, serious, AND silly in equal measure.
Here he is, during the intro to the massage gun review, in a classically pensive pose. The camera pans across his face and his eyes slide from their faraway stare to focus directly at the camera. It's hard to say for sure, since his hand is effectively covering his mouth and chin, whether he's wearing a small smile or not, but I suspect he was fairly amused and doing his best to not show it. The way his lower eyelids are pursed, his right eye slightly narrowed, is very reminiscent of many of his "I *am* smiling" photos on red carpets, and even a fair few of the earlier HOTMD stage door selfies.
Small details I appreciated along the way include that white mole on the left side of his nose that's been getting more prominent lately (though I can say with authority that you absolutely do not notice it if you're lucky enough to speak to him in person), and find it interesting how the one above his eyebrow gets a little lighter in color every year. I also love the way his silver strands are glinting at his temples-- there's even a few in his eyebrows-- and it was fun to get to do what essentially ended up being a portrait of his palm, even if this is the one without the mole at the base of his thumb.
The reference for this one was a screencap from one of Amazon's "5 Star Theater" ads, which started airing on 20 Nov 2024.
About 22.5 hrs of painting time, which was a lot more than I was expecting, given that this was a screencap! There ended up being all kinds of wonderful skin textures that were visible, and I rather fell down a bit of a rabbit hole rendering them. This was meant to be a quick, rather blurry, brushy piece, so the canvas is rather small & there's not much point to making zoomed in snippets, so I didn't.
