5 Questions With A Comedian: Emily Flake [FREE POST]

How much does The New Yorker pay you for a cartoon?

Here she is… the fantastic Emily Flake. Credit: Mindy Tucker

You’ve seen Emily Flake’s cartoons in The New Yorker, and other places, too, but mostly in The New Yorker. As a stand up, she comes at the audience hard and hilarious, sharing observational and personal comedy. In addition to being a cartoonist for the New Yorker, and a performer, she’s also a writer who wrote on Steven Soderbergh’s recently-released Command Z series, and her essays and illustrations appear in publications all over the world. She is also the author of several books, most recently Joke in a Box: How to Write and Draw Jokes (Andrews McMeel). If that’s not enough, she founded the St. Nell’s Humor Writing Residency in Williamsport, PA. She, her husband, her daughter, and a cat she describes as “alarmingly large” (surely pay a small fortune to) live together in Brooklyn.

1. How many comedic illustrations of yours have run in The New Yorker? 
It’s ok to call them cartoons! Which I only say because illustrations are a different animal - illustrations accompany and complement a written article, whereas cartoons are stand-alone entities. Look at me, being That Guy. But to answer your question: I’ve had a bit north of 300 single-panels in the magazine, plus longer comic pieces, since 2008. 

2. How much does The New Yorker pay you for a cartoon? 
I am on contract, which means The New Yorker gets first right of refusal for any comic I produce; you get paid more if you’re on contract. I get $1450 per accepted cartoon, but there is no guarantee you’ll sell out of any given batch (we all send in a batch every Tuesday for consideration, usually between 5 and 10 roughs). 

3. Were you surprised to be able to raise the money to start St. Nell's? 
Absolutely. The way that came together was very, very lucky.

4. Outside of your family members, who is your #1 fan? 
This feels like a Misery trap.

5. What is a theme that you keep coming back to in comedy? 
I’m less of a “punch up vs punch down” joke person and more of a “punch in.” I use a lot of my own foibles and insecurities, including body image, aging, social weirdness, etc. I also just like a bit of gentle absurdity from time to time.

Today’s Musings:

• A recent one of Emily’s | The New Yorker

• The Lair of The White Worm starring Hugh Grant | Wikipedia

• What’s The Deal, SNL? | Vulture

• Interested in getting your comedy related ad in front of the 9000 subscribers of The Museletter? Your ad here: $10/day, $40/wk | jess delfino at gmail. 

• What do you love about comedy? Please answer this very brief survey

Cheerio, monsignor. See you next week.