The drunk, 'Al', needed to be designed first - he's the one we see the most, so he needs to fit the bill. I initially thought of him as a pretty grubby, seasoned alcoholic, seen by the previous sketch. I toyed with the idea of making him younger, but came back to the original idea (if not quite design) after seeing images of Sir Ian McKellen in 'Waiting for Godot'. Something about McKellen's voice seems to fit the way the Djinn speaks, and that juxtaposed with a shabby, blootered patron was funnier to me. The other designs looked a little more 'together' - I want 'Al' to be likeable, but also appear to have definitely lived a hard life so the fact this bout of drinking finishes him off seems plausible. He's a strange one though, as he's less a character and more a device to drive the story. He's a comically tragic character, in that sense (if I want to be pretentious).

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