The Comedy Wisdom of Chardonnay Moms

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By Jane Kendall

From left, Jane Condon and Bobbi Eggers pose with their new book, Chardonnay Moms. (contributed photo)

“Friendship,” said C. S. Lewis, “is born at the moment when one person looks at another and says, ‘What? You, too? I thought I was the only one.’” So it was with Jane Condon and Bobbi Eggers. They laughed, they clicked, and in a heartbeat formed a creative partnership that has lasted some 17 years and shows no signs of slowing down.

Their newest offering is Chardonnay Moms, a self-published compilation of some 80 cartoons exploring, with wit and a gentle charm, all aspects of suburban life, from family and kids and in-laws, keeping up with those pesky Joneses and bringing the best snacks to soccer games, to that well-earned glass – or two – of Chardonnay at day’s end.

They were introduced by a mutual friend, former Selectman Lin Lavery, with whom both had worked on various projects. Lavery brought Eggers to Condon’s show in the Parish Hall of Christ Church. “A very patrician man came up to me after and said, ‘You are so funny I almost laughed out loud,’” Condon remembers.

“I thought she was hilarious,” said Eggers, who was juggling a major advertising career with a husband and three kids. “She spoke to me about my Greenwich parenting life. At the time, I was drawing storyboards all the time and I knew I could do illustrations against her jokes.”

Condon is a comedian who has performed at every seminal Manhattan comedy club; her TV credits include Last Comic Standing, The View and The Today Show and she is currently touring with The Ladies of Laughter (coming soon to a theater near you, if you’re lucky). Egger’s advertising background includes executive creative director positions at Saatchi & Saatchi, J. Walter Thompson, McCann Worldgroup and Revlon, over her years as a “Mad Woman” spearheading numerous award-winning campaigns.

They started around the kitchen table, and for 12 years produced cartoon calendars and bi-weekly cartoons for The Greenwich Post.  “We sold the most calendars at Diane’s Books!” exclaims Jane. “She’s been our guardian angel, our fairy godmother. She and her staff believe in supporting local authors. Or maybe she just thought we were funny.

“Bobbi and I would work on the phone,” she continues, harkening back to the pre-Internet era. “Eventually we worked online but the most fun was working in each other’s kitchens. The kids, the husbands, the dogs, would walk through. I saw her kids grow up.”

As for the impetus behind the book, Jane says, “We just wanted to give the best-of-the-best a happy home.” They began by spreading out “literally hundreds” of cartoons on Jane’s capacious dining room table. “We both had to like the cartoon for it to be selected, and they inspired us to do new cartoons.”

Bobbi, who likes to say she was born with crayons in her hand, spent a solid year re-drawing everything, segueing from pen and paper to the iPad Pro. “It changed my style dramatically and I am learning more and more as I go,” she says. “I love that it can look like paint or pencils or markers or watercolor at the touch of my magic pencil.”

That being said, is this the end for Chardonnay Moms? Will there be more cartoons? “It’s hard to stop,” says Jane Condon. “The funny lives on in Greenwich.”

Condon and Eggers will be signing Chardonnay Moms at Diane’s Books from 3 to 5 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 2. The book is also available from their website chardonnaymoms.com or at Amazon.com

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