Episode 48: Matthew Diffee

Writers' Bloc Podcast

Matthew Diffee is a very funny man and an excellent artist, which makes him perfectly suited for the world of cartooning. Matt has been contributing cartoons to The New Yorker since 1999 and he now has a fantastically entertaining book out called “Hand Drawn Jokes for Smart Attractive People.” We start, as usual, at the beginning, discussing the mutual love of art and comedy that eventually "drew" Matt to cartooning. (See what I did there?) Matt talks about an early attempt at stand-up comedy that proved he could write jokes, but didn't seem equally capable of telling them, so he made the adjustment. We find out what influenced his decision to pursue cartooning and how he eventually landed a contract with the The New Yorker. It's worth noting that Matt is also the editor of volumes one and two of “The Rejection Collection: Cartoons You Never Saw and Never Will See in The New Yorker” and is the recipient of the 2013 National Cartoonist Society’s Silver Reuben Award for single panel cartooning. But for now, he's simply "Writers' Bloc Podcast Guest #48".