# I get to interview Brooke McEldowney -- help **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 22, 2006, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-get-to-interview-brooke-mceldowney-help/349467 "2006-03-22T18:52:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![teela\_brown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d9b06d/32.png) [@teela\_brown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teela_brown)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2006, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-get-to-interview-brooke-mceldowney-help/349467/21 "2006-03-24T16:43:52Z")
(slight hijack regarding today’s strip) Is that Amos as Quince? If so, someone else is going to be Bottom. ---
**Author:** ![OttoDaFe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ottodafe/32/356_2.png) [@OttoDaFe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OttoDaFe)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2006, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-get-to-interview-brooke-mceldowney-help/349467/22 "2006-03-24T17:02:59Z")
(Continuing the hijack) Having the “rude mechanicals” female should make things . . . interesting. Especially when Titania is infatuated with Bottom. ---
**Author:** ![ddgryphon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/8c91f0/32.png) [@ddgryphon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ddgryphon)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2006, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-get-to-interview-brooke-mceldowney-help/349467/23 "2006-03-24T20:25:46Z")
[QUOTE=teela brown] (slight hijack regarding today’s strip) Is that Amos as Quince? If so, someone else is going to be Bottom. [/QUOTE] I don’t think so. He looks similar, and of course many of his characters aren’t well differentiated. I believe this is Quince. He doesn’t really have to cast to completely cover the rolls, so I think some of the lesser roles are going to be new characters (like this Quince). ---
**Author:** ![JonScribe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/3be4f8/32.png) [@JonScribe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JonScribe)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2006, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-get-to-interview-brooke-mceldowney-help/349467/24 "2006-03-24T22:06:03Z")
I’d ask Brooke about his occasional “silent” strips, where it’s just Edda in a ballet move or the cat stretching, or something similar. They don’t move the story along, but they’re pretty to look at. What’s his intention? ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2006, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-get-to-interview-brooke-mceldowney-help/349467/25 "2006-03-24T22:17:23Z")
[QUOTE=ddgryphon] I don’t think so. He looks similar, and of course many of his characters aren’t well differentiated. I believe this is Quince. He doesn’t really have to cast to completely cover the rolls, so I think some of the lesser roles are going to be new characters (like this Quince). [/QUOTE] Naw, that’s Amos. Ten bucks worth of quarters fitting in the nose, remember? We’ll know for certain if and when he ever takes off that hat. It’s defnintely Quince (it’s Quince’s line he’s speaking, after all). I kind of thought Amos would make a good Flute, but Quince also suits him, visually, anyway. Anyway, I don’t think I’d like seeing him with the personality he’d need to be Bottom. ---
**Author:** ![ddgryphon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/8c91f0/32.png) [@ddgryphon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ddgryphon)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2006, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-get-to-interview-brooke-mceldowney-help/349467/26 "2006-03-24T23:32:33Z")
[QUOTE=kaylasdad99] Naw, that’s Amos. Ten bucks worth of quarters fitting in the nose, remember? We’ll know for certain if and when he ever takes off that hat. It’s defnintely Quince (it’s Quince’s line he’s speaking, after all). I kind of thought Amos would make a good Flute, but Quince also suits him, visually, anyway. Anyway, I don’t think I’d like seeing him with the personality he’d need to be Bottom. [/QUOTE] Personality-wise the best choice for Bottom is definitely Burkhardt, however he isn’t necessarily casting to type. Something about the overall physicality of this Quince makes me thing it isn’t Amos, but I’ll happily be proved wrong in the matter. ---
**Author:** ![lawoot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/35a633/32.png) [@lawoot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lawoot)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2006, 6:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-get-to-interview-brooke-mceldowney-help/349467/27 "2006-03-25T06:56:25Z")
Sure looks like Amos to me. Amos with a pencil-thin mustache. ---
**Author:** ![teela\_brown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d9b06d/32.png) [@teela\_brown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teela_brown)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2006, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-get-to-interview-brooke-mceldowney-help/349467/28 "2006-03-27T16:25:53Z")
[QUOTE=OttoDaFe] (Continuing the hijack) Having the “rude mechanicals” female should make things . . . interesting. Especially when Titania is infatuated with Bottom. [/QUOTE] You called it, **OttoDaFe**. We’re going to have a female Bottom. I didn’t mean that the way it sounds! And, yeah, that’s Amos. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2006, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-get-to-interview-brooke-mceldowney-help/349467/29 "2006-03-27T22:29:44Z")
And a male Titania? Or… And who the heck is this “Nicola Bottom” supposed to be? Is that Oognat under that awful hairdo? ---
**Author:** ![The\_Punkyova](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@The\_Punkyova](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Punkyova)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2006, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-get-to-interview-brooke-mceldowney-help/349467/30 "2006-03-27T22:36:47Z")
**JonScribe** , that’s an excellent question. It gives him an opening to talk about his “philosophy of comics,” for want of a better phrase. Obviously, he doesn’t think that every strip has to move the story along. It looks to me like he doesn’t think that he has to have a “gag-a-day” either. What does he think he needs to do? Does he plan when those “visual” strips are going in? Or does he have a stack of them, and use them when he has the flu or something? Or do they replace strips the syndicate doesn’t like? Or is there a plan, and when we see 100 of them together we’ll suddenly realize they are all connected? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-get-to-interview-brooke-mceldowney-help/349467.md?page=1)