Happy Birthday, Wendy Liebman!

Some time back I wrote a post in reference to a documentary called The Boys: The Sherman Brothers' Story, which was all about the longtime Disney songwriting team, Bob and Dick Sherman. The documentary was created by cousins, Jeff and Greg Sherman, the sons respectively of Bob and Dick. While the doc covered much of their wonderful songwriting legacy, it was also notable for its rather shocking revelation that these two talented brothers were estranged from each other outside of their professional career, and avoided each other in their personal lives. I'd had no idea of this before seeing the film, nor did the majority of their fans I'd reckon, so it was rather sad to find this out.

However, there was also another revelation that I discovered while watching the film, but this was a very happy one. It so happens that Jeff Sherman is married to Wendy Liebman, the very cute and funny comedienne! Sometime after I'd posted my thoughts on the film, Jeff Sherman actually took the time to set some points straight in the comments section of my blog regarding my impressions from viewing the documentary. In my response, I mentioned how I was pleasantly surprised to find out his wife was Wendy Liebman, as I've long admired her comedy routines. I love her unique style of humour, where she continues a sentence past the point you assume it's ending, allowing the punchline to trail off under her breath. Her timing and delivery are impeccable. (In fact, I even have a clip of her from a routine she performed some years ago at Montreal's Just For Laughs comedy fest that I include in a montage of video clips that I have my Sheridan animation students sketch from, as Wendy has such a wonderfully expressive face.)

Not long afterward, I received a very nice email from Wendy herself saying how much she enjoyed the caricature of The Sherman Brothers and thanking me for my kind words regarding her comedy act. I was thrilled to hear from her and wanted to do a caricature of her someday. Though it's been awhile since that time, I have purposely waited until now to post this recent caricature of Wendy Liebman, so that I may honor this very sweet and talented lady on her birthday. So, Happy Birthday, Wendy, and keep on making us laugh!

Here is a clip from YouTube that shows Wendy at her best: