Jamie Pruden is a testament to the unconventional life well lived. With 25 years touring as Sebastian Steel in his hypnotist show and 10 years honing his craft as a pop-culture artist, Pruden has followed his heart to Bonnyville for his partner Penny Zaraska, and is launching another new show as an entertainer “The Great Goofy Game Show.”
Pruden dawned a glitzy blazer, a coiffed wig, and his 70’s game show host persona, Guy Daily, to shoot a demo video of his new act. Glendon Ag. Society welcomed Pruden to use the RCMP hall, and people came to enjoy the show while Pruden got some promotional footage of the game show.
“It was a lot of fun. It gave us the chance to do it in front of an audience after creating it, and getting it show worthy...I’m going back in September to do a show and help raise money for the ag. society,” said Pruden.
Pruden was born and raised in Edmonton and spoke about the difficulty he had fitting into the public school's version of success, and how several guiding opportunities lead him into the life of an entertainer and artist.
“I learned hypnosis in a Psych 30 class in high school. A hypnotherapist came to do a demonstration, and I was blown away. I talked to him after class, and he told me to get the books from the institute of L.A. to study it. I just thought it would be a hit at house parties,” said Pruden.
Pruden said his parents rolled their eyes when he told them he wanted to become a hypnotist, yet once his father saw how successful his show was, he said he wanted to be his manager.
Pruden is a big advocate for encouraging young people to believe in their artistic dreams and sees a career in the arts as viable.
Pruden said he grew up with ADHD and dyslexia during a time when no one knew what it was, and he was just labeled “stupid”.
“So many times I was told I was never going to amount to anything with all my daydreaming and doodling. They said ‘everything's a joke to you, you need to take things seriously.’ Years later I’m making a very nice living off of daydreaming and doodling and not taking things seriously.”
Pruden remembers getting in trouble in school and having to write lines as punishment. Sitting in his office, signing a stack of limited-edition prints, Pruden laughed at the parallel.
“Writing those 500 lines after school for daydreaming sure worked out for me.”
As a young rambunctious child, Pruden decided to draw a picture for his teacher to win her affection. He traced a picture of a puppy from a coloring book and presented it to her saying ‘I drew this for you’.
The teacher responded by making an example of him in front of the class, holding the paper up and telling the class “This is not a drawing, this is tracing.”
“I got laughed at, but that night I had a dream – there used to be this brand of shoes called Hush Puppies and the mascot was this basset hound. In my dream, I was drawing that dog. I had the paper in front of me from my perspective, but there was this voice narrating and saying ‘Don’t do this, do this. Don’t draw in shapes, draw in textures,’ and all this.”
The dream was so vivid that Pruden sat down at the breakfast table the next morning with his cereal, and he drew the dog.
“I could suddenly draw detail. So, when Easter rolled around and they asked us to draw something for Easter at my catholic school, everybody was drawing Easter eggs and I thought, ‘I can draw now, I’m going to do Christ on the cross’.”
Prudens tragic depiction of Jesus landed him in the principal's office, where he was forbidden from drawing anything dark or peculiar. That was until The Hilarious House of Frightenstein aired, and his parents deemed them harmless enough to draw.
“On the art side, that show had a huge impact on me, and as an entertainer going out and doing improv, one of my biggest influences was Billy Van [an actor from The Hilarious House of Frightenstein]. He could just get right into character like that. Head to toe he’d be acting a character and could turn it on and off. And his characters were so diverse.”
One of his recent art pieces depicting the characters of The Hilarious House of Frightenstein, ended up going viral on social media.
“It was originally a commissioned piece this guy paid for and then never picked up. I put it on social media and said, ‘If anyone knows this guy, I have his art ready.’ and they started sharing and sharing and sharing it until it was on the radar of the show. Now they’ve released a graphic novel for it, and my art is going to be the [chapter art] for it.
Art has created some wonderful moments of kismet and opportunity for Pruden, and he has many stories about the places his art has taken him, and the interesting people it’s connected him to, including creating art for celebrities and a Hollywood science fiction museum fundraiser.
Pruden said he hated school so much, at one point he had made a plan to leave once he turned 16. One day as he was waiting for his brother who was auditioning for the school play, the drama teacher told Pruden he couldn't be there unless he was auditioning.
Pruden turned to storm off, but the drama teacher told him “Why don't you drop your coat, drop your attitude, take a script, go on the stage, and read a few lines. Then you can stay.”
The drama teacher helped Pruden go over his lines over and over, and though she later did not cast him in the play, she found him amidst the crowd of students looking at the cast list, by standing on a chair and scanning for him. When she found him, she beckoned for him to come over and asked if he would be willing to design the programs and posters.
“I told her, ‘Thank you, but I’m not going to be here. I’m dropping out.’ She told me she was very sorry to hear that but asked for a favor. She asked if I could give her three months coming in at lunch and after school to work on the sets and such, and if she couldn't talk me out of dropping out, then I could go. But, if she talked me into staying, I had to take drama next year.”
Pruden said during every rehearsal for three months the drama teacher would take some time to talk to him, ask him about his home life, and how he was. She was successful at encouraging him to stay.
“If she didn’t stand on that chair, I don’t know where I would be,” said Pruden.
Pruden has enjoyed being continuously surprised by Bonnyville and has been delighted to have his art supported by the community.
“Nick and Nora at the Lakeland Grill are great supporters of the community, and they have my art displayed on the walls inside the restaurant. All the other art is landscapes, often reflective of agriculture. The first painting I sold out of there was of a werewolf. When I came to town I was told that no one would be interested in my sci-fi, pop culture type stuff, but I’ve sold a lot out of the Lakeland Grill.”
Pruden feels that broadening one's horizons with art can not only lead to people expanding their own experience, but also fosters more understanding for others who might want to pursue a more unconventional path as an artist.
