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Quinn Katherman: A Few Of My Favourite Things
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The ArtClass director shares the murder weapon, the microphone and the miniature rug that keep things on the right side of strange.
After 15 years as an agency creative director making "award-winning work you probably fast-forwarded through", Quinn Katherman decided to move behind the camera herself.
Now an ArtClass director, she brings that same eye for character, dialogue and human behaviour to comedy that tends to be funny, smart and a little bit weird.
For her Favourite Things, Katherman pairs sharp wit with a sharp knife, and gives an iconic toy the most inappropriate of props.
The Murder Prop
When I shot a Progressive spot with adorable vegetable puppets, I became obsessed with finding a huge chopping knife.
Like, comically big.
I wanted it to contrast so wildly with the cuteness of the puppets that their “murder” became funnier.
My friend and production designer Meghan McClure knew how weirdly attached I’d become to that big, shiny murder weapon, so she had it framed and gave it to me after the shoot with a note that just said, “CUT!”
I cried when I opened it.
The Desk Tweezers
These are my desk tweezers.
I also have car tweezers.
And purse tweezers.
If I need to explain why I have all these tweezers, then congratulations on having a hairless chin and jawline.
The “Microphone”
I once served as a panellist at a women’s comedy festival where they handed out mini vibrators at one of the shows.
I threw mine in my bag, forgot about it, came home, and my kids immediately found it.
When they asked what it was, I paused, looked them dead in the eyes, and said, “It’s a Barbie microphone!”
So now the Barbies in our house put on live performances.
With a vibrator as a microphone.
And I live in a constant state of fear that they will one day figure this out and I will have to explain it.
The Shoe Art
Staying on the Barbie theme... this is my Barbie shoe art.
When I was a kid, I had a habit of chewing Barbie shoes like gum.
Something about the way the plastic burned between my teeth was so delicious and disgusting at the same time.
It was horrible, and I loved it.
Now I find myself drawn to work with contradiction at its core: delicious-disgusting, ugly-pretty, funny-sad, old-new.
Maybe because the best things make you feel two things at once.
Or maybe because I ate Barbie shoes as a child.
WE WILL NEVER KNOW!
But this art is a reminder of where my taste started, and that my body is probably 88% microplastics now, so another Diet Coke isn’t going to kill me.
The Not-An-Area Rug
I bought this rug on Etsy many, many years ago when the internet was even squirrelier than it is now.
I thought I was buying an area rug.
Turns out, I was buying a rug coaster.
I’ve kept it on my desk ever since.
Partly because it makes me laugh and partly because I refuse to let myself forget anything I’ve ever done wrong.
The Charm Bracelets
These are my grandmother’s charm bracelets.
They’re about 80 years old now, and each one maps a different era of her life in tiny, weirdly functional objects.
The key unlocks the heart, the little harmonica still plays, the whistle still blows.
I was obsessed with them as a kid.
I loved the idea that one woman could live a life big enough to collect all these little treasures and then just wear the evidence of it on her wrist.
She came from a generation with a pretty limited imagination for what a woman’s life could look like, but hers always felt enormous to me.
She still sneaks into my writing because I’m endlessly interested in women with secret inner worlds that are bigger and stranger than anyone realises.
Also, I wore one of these bracelets on set once, and the camera department called me “Bracelets” all day.
Nice.
