SPARKS – IN OUTER SPACE

I don’t know if any of you reading this have ever had the joy of throwing a cream pie in someone’s face but, as an art director, I have. This is beyond a doubt the funniest photo shoot I ever directed in my 47-plus years in the business. I art directed and designed four album covers and several single sleeves for sparks. Ron and Russell Mael always like to meet at the farmer’s market at 3rd and Fairfax in L.A. to discuss new projects. This time the concept was that Russell would remain perfectly still and have no reaction to Ron being hit in the face with a cream pie. Jim shea was the photographer on this project. We all met at the photo studio – the hair person, makeup, clothing stylist, photo assistant, etc. I had a stack of 10 cream pies to make sure we’d get a good take. Everyone was in position as i threw the first pie and, bingo!, a perfect shot. Myself, Ron, Russell and the entire crew literally fell on the floor crying and doubled up with laughter. Then we had to clean up Ron, recompose ourselves and I threw the next pie, again with the same results. The shoot took forever to finish, what with all the laughing and cleaning up, but it was worth it.