Bob Mankoff
Bob performed on stage for Seriously Entertaining at City Winery on June 23, 2014, speaking on the evening’s theme, “Falling for Perfection.” Watch it below.
A cartoonist and the cartoon editor of The New Yorker, Bob Mankoff is one of the nation’s leading commentators on the role of humor in American business, politics, and life. He speaks on the appreciation of humor, the creative processes required to produce it, and how humor works. Bob’s memoir titled How About Never — Is Never Good For You?: My Life In Cartoons is a New York Times bestseller. He is the author of The Naked Cartoonist, the first book to use cartooning as a means of exploring the creative process. Like his presentations, this entertaining journey through the art, craft, and Zen of cartooning offers a unique perspective on how to be funnier and more creative. Most recently, he edited The New Yorker Encyclopedia of Cartoons: A Semi-serious A-to-Z Archive.
A successful entrepreneur, he created The Cartoon Bank (now a New Yorker Magazine company), the world’s largest and most influential cartoon licensing business.
Bob edited The Complete Cartoons of The New Yorker, the best-selling coffee table book for holiday 2004, featuring all 68,647 cartoons ever published in The New Yorker since its debut in 1925. He has edited dozens of other cartoon books and published four of his own. He appears frequently on network talk shows, cable TV networks, and syndicated radio programs.
In his own words: “I say to them, I said, ‘Rejection will not only make your cartoons better, it will make you a better person.’ And they say ‘Really, it will make me a better person?’ I said, ‘Absolutely. Look how much better it made me.'”
Purchase this writer’s book via our virtual storefront on Bookshop.org, the bookselling platform that supports independent bookstores. A portion of proceeds from all book purchases will go toward helping support SpeakEasy’s nonprofit mission and our literary programs on stage, in schools, and on the road with The SpeakEasy Bookmobile.
BUY NOW