So I fell asleep last night with the tv on, and woke up to that painting show with Bob Ross...which is entertaining enough, but made me remember that wonderful public access show we used to have here...Painting With Tali. So, a googling I did go.
He appeared on our public access, between the local pro wrestling knockoff show and Damon Zex, who deserves his own entry.
Tali was...specially talented. He set out to teach the world to paint...but was challenged by many internal and external demons along the way. You often wondered what medication he was supposed to be on, and why he refused to take it.
He would usually start off reasonably focused, but within minutes he'd be off on tangents where he'd be bitching about the suburban idiots who didn't buy his art...or the gallery owner who refused to carry his work. This would then discourage him and make him question whether the painting he was working on was any good.
This would usually disgust him and he'd finish the last several minutes of the show in total silence, because he was sick of talking and didn't have time to explain what he was doing anyway. But no matter how unhinged he became, he always signed off with his very best Norma Desmond impression.
Here's a brief sample of one of his more sedate shows. You've been warned.
Sadly, Channel 21 lost whatever meager budget it had, and stopped showing shows like Tali several years ago.
But his spirit lives on...In the world of TV painters, if Bob Ross was the Monet, Tali was the...well, let's just say he'll always be Tali.
5 comments:
i miss tali. i still love the classic episode you added at the end of a strangers with candy VHS tape you sent to me in Colchester. helped ease the homesickness! i wish i could find a tali dvd box-set. seriously.
I didn't think to tape them until I'd heard that Channel 21 was going under. By then he was all but gone.
Wow, I had never heard of Tali before and now I'm already sad to have missed him. I suppose video blogs are the new public-access cable replacement, but unfortunately Tali doesn't seem to have one. Yet.
I love how he'd make every show seem like such an imposition on him. You almost felt guilty, except you were laughing too hard to care.
I was a FAITHFUL viewer. The personal fave was the watercolor of a male ballet dancer stretching and admiring his ENORMOUS package.
Any one catch him at (I shit you not)the Public Access Awards? Bill Atherton-level smugness with a little more solar flare.
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