Each week we will bring you articles on your neighbors.

Interesting people from different walks of life who live in our Bayonne Community.

They could be Artisits, Musicians, Politicians, Sports Figures, People with Interesting jobs and interesting Hobbies.

If you would like to feature yourself or know of  someone that would fit our criteria for this section please send your suggestions to:

Editor@insidebayonne.com

This Week we  feature Wayne Novelli - Wayno Draino

Fine Art - Graphic Artist -Comic Strip Illustrator-Television Series Producer; Mural Painter- Wayne has many talented facets to his character.

Complete Wayno Draino Biography

The Bio of the Wayno Draino…… (WRITTEN BY COMEDIAN X)

You can say artist Wayno Draino had a unique life. As a child he grew up on the East Side of Bayonne, 75 feet from a chemical container tank. He played on the tank and ice skated on the fire moat around it. Later in adult life, when he did stand up comedy, he dressed in a heavy metal post nuclear warrior costume and joked about living in Bayonne near that tank. Jokes like “We used to play hide and seek on top of the tank. It’s really tough to hide when you’re glowing. People think I’m a product of my environment. Living near the tank, I’m more like a by-product.”

Wayno has used the tank farms as apocalyptic inspiration for his many paintings and films. He is truly a renaissance artist. In his twenty year art career, he has done it all. At 19, he worked on comic books like Marvel and Mad Magazine. At 20, he was running around the East Coast expounding his humorous tales and singing heavy metal songs he wrote and  performed in a rock and roll parody act IN THE VILLAGE N.Y.C.. One could say that he was the Marilyn Manson of comedy. He also made films with Arnold Schwarzenegger, David Keith (Officer & a Gentleman), Mike Anderson (Twin Peaks) and Jim Florentine (Howard Stern show). Film-making was in Wayno’s blood (just as much as toxic waste and Jack Daniels) because his father was a film editor for CBS for 30 years.

If you do not believe this statement, please go on You Tube.com and search under “Wayno Draino” for his 22 films (it was 23 but one had gotten banned). The best ones are:

1. “Wayno’s Greatest Hits” where there is a scene of him surfing on top of a car in his costume on the New Jersey Turnpike brandishing a medieval battle axe and holding on to nothing else. He was the original “Jackass” (1984).

2. “The American Anti Smoking Commercial”. A short film, written and directed by Wayno, shot on black and white 16mm film. It depicts actor David Keith giving a  sardonic lesson to his fictional son on why smoking is hazardous to one’s health. The piece is just loaded with black humor. Wayno shot it like a 1950’s commercial(Wayno produced and directed it with legendary Manhattan bar owner Patrick Fahey. Pat was the guy with the money and he was friendly with David Keith.  After seeing Wayne’s script, Pat and Dave called Wayne at 3oclock in the morning to tell him he had 8 hrs to produce and or create the piece that is on youtube (until they ban it). Pat was the only co- director in history that was 6 hrs late to his own shoot. The original piece was written  by Joe Digiorio and Wayno. The original story was told to Wayno in  by joe in the bar Digiogio’s   it’s about joe’s real life..

3.“Arnold Schwarzenegger signs Wayno’s board” is pretty much what the title says. One day in his original apartment in J.C., Wayno had gotten a call that Arnold was in town and because Wayne had worked on some Conan illustrations for novel covers yrs ago he was asked to have Arnold sign his infamous 13ft yellow surf board signed by many artists, writers and celebrities including Grace Jones (Conan).  Because Wayne didn‘t have a car at the time (20 yrs ago), so Wayne went on an odyssey and had taken the mystical board on the Path Train to get to 34th Street in Manhattan. Then with the board on his head Wayne carried it to 57thst.where Arnold signs the board in front of one of his original business ventures, Planet Hollywood(clip on youtube).

 These three films and most of the other 19  were originally created 20 yrs ago for Wayne’s old Manhattan cable heavy metal talk show he did out of his basement apartment. at the height of his show and his stand up act in 1984, Wayne and his partner comedian x were noticed and asked to do a screen test to get a show on MTV(clip is on youtube “Waynos Greatest Hits”). Unfortunately not only did the network not give Wayne the show but months after the audition one of the original V J’s  who witnessed Wayne’s audition told him in a bar on Bleecker Street that people from SNL saw Wayne’s  public access show. These same people also worked for MTV and, to make fun of Wayne, they did the now famous Wayne’s World skit to clown on him.

The Wayne’s World debacle is not the only run in with the Saturday Night Live people.  Ten yrs later, Wayne was hired to be an animation and scene producer for the “Dan Aykroyd’s Out There” show. Wayne worked side by side with Dan Aykroyd and other SNL producers. When Wayne had gotten the call one night, he couldn’t believe his luck. He thought for sure he had won the lottery, since Wayne had lived most of his life like a character in the movie Animal House, who would be more perfectly suited to be a side kick to the surviving “Blues Brother”. Wayne had envisioned going to work and having meetings with crazy comedy writers (which he was one himself) and they were all going to be sitting around a big table to go over show ideas while they do beer bongs and shoot paint ball guns at each other. As usual, in the creative no fun world of making fun t.v. making, Wayne wasn’t that lucky.  In wayne’s movie reality instead of going into the animal house show he lived for his whole life instead wayne walked into the “X-Files” for real. You see, Dan Aykroyd has a foundation where he and a bunch of  Harvard professors go to Incan Mayan ruins in South America and set up beach chairs and coolers of beer, of course and they wait for aliens from outer space to land (no I am not kidding). Dan seriously wanted to interview  people who were abducted by aliens. Unfortunately everybody else on the show including Wayno didn’t want this to be the format and as a result. the show was canned in 6 weeks because Dan didn’t want to take the suggestion to make the show funny Dan was to busy trying to form his own little l ron Hubertlike religion..

At this point in his career, Wayne never wanted to work with a celebrity again. He’d rather drink with  them. For twenty yrs now Wayno has been compileing compelling stories of his partying with celebrities(because of his access of working in the business). One of his favorite stories is when he was living in Manhattan and working late in his loft in Tribecca. At 2 o’clock in the morning he went to a local Irish pub expecting to see the same four drunkards who were there every night, but in addition to the loser locals, Keith Richards was hanging out at the bar(by himself no entourage). Long story short, nobody none of the local patrons paid attention to Keith (because he wasn’t a regular) until he offered to pay for all the drinks. At that point, Wayno and  the other 4 became his best friend and kept up with him until day break..Wayno drank with several celebrities at intimate loft parties in Tribecca. He even drank with Keiffer Sutherland a couple of times and Wayne didn’t get head butted.  One year at a big loft Halloween party Wayne thought that there was going to be hundreds of people and everyone was going to be in costume because it was a movie rap party for some stupid picture Kieffer and Woody Harollson were  in. Out of touch again he was wrong, and in the end there were only 10 people at the party including Keiffer and Woody Harollson and Wayne was the only person who showed up in his heavy metal costume from his old act including real sharpened  battle axe. Wayne wasn’t worried about Keiffer head butting him. Actually, Keiffer was worried Wayne was going to chop him into pieces.

These days, it seems like Wayne’s celebrity encounters are coming to an end. He currently quitely resides in a small place in Bayonne NJ. where he is still an artist but he just doesn’t work in TV or magazines. He currently has his own clothing line called LONGSHOREMAN SURF GEAR which consists  mostly hoodies and  t-shirt designs. Wayne goes all around the world and surfs with  his photographer bud Frank Forsino and his wife Sharon who snaps pics of them surfing. Wayne uses the pics as reference for pop comic book surf paintings and gets them printed on shirts. He’s sold over 5000. Performers and artists from the old days successful and famous or not, when they see Wayne, always ask “You were so creative and so many times you were with celebrities or close to being one your self what happened? Didn’t you want to be famous?” Wayne always replies with a paraphrased quote from his old “New Underground” mag. Partner, James Warhola.it’s from something  His uncle, ANDY WARHOL said,“When it comes to fame I want my 15 minutes at least but unfortunately all the minutes are being sucked up by the already famous not the almost famous so I’m out luck for today maybe it’ll happen tommorow.”

To see Wayne’s films go on Youtube or Facebook and search WAYNO DRAINO. If you’re a member of Facebook, become one of Wayne’s friends. All his friends know about his live shows and he posts new art work every couple of days.
Here is a little disclaimer for anyone viewing Wayne’s work as some of it is very commercial, some can be a bit political and some can be a bit controversial(he did stuff with Jim Florentine from HOWARD STERN years ago what do you expect), so it’s not for children or the overly p.c.

AS A FINAL THOUGHT HE ARE SOME OF THE IMMORTAL WORDS OF THE WAYNO DRAINO “I’LL SEE YA IN THE MOVIES AND IF I DON’T SEE YA AGAIN ROCK ON !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”


       

Energetic and eager to create Wayno Draino has a huge portfolio of work to his credit  that dates back to the early 80s. 

If you go to the Big Apple  Sports Restaurant on Broadway and sit outside in the outdoor dining area, and look at the mural painted on the wall -that's a Wayno Draino creation. He has created toys for children, games, worked for Dan Ackroyd of Saturday Night fame and has added his creative talents to many genres of art.

Wayne Novelli is also know throughout the metropolitian area for his comic book creations, and along with his wife Sharon they are  a fixture on the Bayonne Art Scene. She is a talented photographer.

Pictured below is a Wayno Draino photo/ art; depicting the artist coming through the mural he created for the Big Apple

This is just a brief summary of Wayne Novelli aka Wayno Draino we will be updating this article so please check back.