MR BINGO - SUPERBAD
From the perpetual drawing of cartoon genitalia to inspiring Brexit-fuelled death threats, the man known as Mr Bingo could never be considered faint of heart. Indeed, committing High Treason and photographing strangers naked is all in a day’s work...
A commercial illustrator for 15 years, working regularly for clients such as The New Yorker, The Guardian, TIME, CH4, The Mighty Boosh and The New York Times, or that’s what his bio says anyway, Mr Bingo is an artist you aren’t likely to forget.
Hailing from Leigh, near(ish) Tonbridge, the illustrator enjoys a life sailing close to the wind, which really grew to hurricane proportions during the 2015 Hate Mail project, where people could request to be verbally abused by postcard while also receiving rewards such as being trolled online, taken out on a date to Wetherspoons and being told to f*ck off on Christmas Day. While some of his work has drawn comparison to the phallic-obsessed work of Jonah Hill’s character in the movie Superbad, there are so many more pieces packed with cynicism, irony and a wicked sense of humour. We got in touch to find out more.
Who do you draw for mostly? Do you draw for social media?
I draw for the admiration and acceptance of strangers.
Almost everything starts its life on social media. Some of it just lives there and is forgotten about the next day and some of it turns into actual art that people can buy.
For me, social media is this amazing free* focus group where you get to test ideas and get instant feedback and decide which ones are worth pursuing.
*Yes OK, I know nothing is free, they sell your data and in return you get a free platform.
Your work often includes delicate parts of the human body… is this a fascination, a muse or is it just quite funny to see people’s reactions?
I think however much we grow up and pretend to be adults, c*cks will always be funny.
You can pretty much add a c*ck to anything and it makes it funny (IMHO).
I am fascinated by nudity and human bodies, though, which is clear from the Advent Calendar project (returning this year!). I get to meet 25-30 strangers and photograph them naked – can you think of a better job than that? Maybe you can, but it sure satisfies me.
Were your schoolbooks covered in pictures of t*ts and d*cks? Like the guy from Superbad?
They were. I feel like most people I hung around with were drawing a lot of genitalia on their schoolbooks, but looking back and thinking about it, I guess I was pretty prolific in this field. I think some of my most comprehensive work was in the school textbooks. We had a French textbook called Tricolore, which featured lots of black-and-white photos, often involving people in a scene. I developed a technique where I would erase a section of the photo with a rubber to create the shape of the penis I wanted to add and then I’d draw the outline and the shading. When I was 11 years old, one of the teachers (Mr Barker) was so concerned by my classroom drawings, he confiscated a small collection of them and phoned my mum. To his disappointment, she casually replied “Oh, he always draws stuff like that, we’re not worried about it”. So, thanks to her, I carried on and it now pays my mortgage.
We understand you grew up in Tonbridge. Did your inspiration to draw genitalia have any correlation?
I grew up in a village called Leigh, which is near(ish) Tonbridge.
But no, as far as I know it wasn’t an inspiration for my c*ck art.
What are your favourite/most formative memories of Kent?
I have fond memories of getting the train from Leigh to Tonbridge, buying a CD from Our Price, going to McDonalds, buying a Mars ice cream and coming home again. That was pretty much the perfect day in the early 90s.
I used to like smoking fags in the village train station or the public disabled toilets when I was a teenager. I remember being afraid quite a lot, drinking cider in parks at night and wondering if I was going to get started on.
If you liked Kent, why don’t you live here any more, big shot? If you hated it, then what’s your problem, big shot?
I live in London because I’m a big shot.
Kent is a nice place, but I associate it with being a bit of a bored teenager, surrounded by countryside and not appreciating any of it. Because of that, I don’t really have a big desire to live there.
Have you ever got into trouble for a piece of work? For example, your Dirty Queen pieces, perhaps with an angry royalist postman?
The Dirty Queens all managed to get through the postal system without any trouble.
A lot of people make a fuss about it online. It’s called High Treason, which is an “act of disloyalty towards your crown”.
The work that’s got me into the most trouble was the Brexit Tea Towel.
Nigel Farage tweeted about it, the Daily Express ran an article on it and I got a lot of death threats.
The good news is that I sold enough tea towels in one day to buy four Eames dining chairs, plus I get to read out the emails on stage to an amused audience. It was a bit weird at the time, though – my advice to anyone who becomes a public hate figure by mistake is to lie low for a week or two and wait for it to pass, because it always does. Internet hatred travels pretty quickly.
What has been your favourite response to one of your projects?
Probably the response from NHS workers to my FUCK THE NHS poster.
They absolutely loved it and queued up (online) in their hundreds to try to get one.
That was a great moment.
How easy is it to persuade brands to bend to your will? For example, with Camden Hate Ale... that wording is a bold move! Was it your lead?
I guess it depends on who you are and how powerful your audience or fan base is.
With the Hate Ale, Camden were a young brand and weren’t as big as they are today, so in a way they could afford to take more risks. I’d worked with them since the beginning and was very matey with the founder Jasper, so I didn’t have to send an email to an unknown person – it was more “Mate, what about this?”. With that one, there was some luck involved. Jasper was on holiday with advertising legend John Hegarty when my email came through. He showed John and John immediately gave it the thumbs-up, so the idea was approved by someone who Jasper really respected.
I don’t have a massive following, but I’m lucky to have a very loyal following, so when we collaborated recently on FUCKING HELL I’M BORED OF COVID lager I really used my audience to put pressure on Camden to make it happen. The response on social media was so strong I think Camden felt they just had to do it, to keep everyone happy!
Do you class yourself in the punky or alternative side of art? Am I a knob for even asking that?
No. If I’m punky or alternative, then the world must be so dull it doesn’t bear thinking about.
I’m just a guy doing some drawings and making some jokes. If you think I’m edgy or pushing the boundaries, you need to get out more!
INSTA: @mr_bingstagram
INFO: https://mr.bingo/
