If you think you have a weird family, meet Pat McCurdy`s cousin Maurice:
”He went to France and fell in love with a bowling pin.” Then there`s Aunt Edwina, the ”Shifty-eyed Lady,” who sings Louie Louie at family picnics, older brother, Wally, who was born with a silver TV remote control in his mouth, and four other flaky characters immortalized on cotton via McCurdy`s new line of T-shirts.
”It all started about a year ago when my sister asked me to draw some invitations for her party-favor business,” says McCurdy, best known to Chicagoans for strumming a guitar and singing goofy songs Mondays at Lounge Ax, 2438 N. Lincoln Ave. ”So I came up with `Uncle Al,”` who is described in the card that accompanies each T-shirt as ”the guy with the fork who carries his own eating utensils with him everywhere.”
McCurdy continues: ”When my sister went out of business, and I thought, instead of just doing your typical `I ”(heart)” Pat` T-shirt for my fans, maybe I could put Uncle Al on a T-shirt.”
And so the world was introduced to Uncle Al, soon followed by Maurice, Edwina and the rest. Trying to pin down McCurdy on how much of this extended family is reality-based and how much a figment of his imagination, McCurdy replies with a laugh, ”It`s all pretty much a crock of lies.”
Pat T`s ($16) are available at Xenophobia, 3449 N. Sheffield Ave.