Bob Mankoff at the Museum of the City of New York

I wanted to let you know about an upcoming event I plan to attend. Bob Mankoff, Cartoon Editor of The New Yorker, will speak at the Museum of the City of New York on Thurs. Sept. 8 at 6:30 pm. The program, titled "New Yorker Cartoons Past, Present and Future with Bob Mankoff," should be a great evening of laughter and cartoons. I've attended many of these New Yorker cartoon events and they're informative and a lot of fun.

For ticket information go to the museum's website: www.mcny.org.

Hope you can make it.

A Few Thoughts at the Beginning of August

I think that a fundamental quality of a gag or comedy writer is the ability to see the humor in the world around us. You have to be able to see through the arrogance, phoniness, pomposity...you get the idea...and see the "funny" in what people say and do right in front of you. I guess you could call it being critical, having a skewed way of looking at things, or just having a sense of humor. You just have to be able to see how funny people are. I write a lot of gags about myself and those closest to me. The conversations that go on in my house - right in front of me - between me and my husband and our children are funnier than a lot of stuff on TV. Maybe I should be writing for TV. My motto continues to be: Anything is possible.

The other night I was having dinner with my extended family and someone asked me about my sales to The New Yorker (where the cartoon contained my gag). Of course I had copies of these cartoons in my bag which I promptly circulated around the table for all to see. I was asked how I work - how I come up with my ideas. I told them I read a lot and write down words and phrases that can be used in my captions. As those in attendance looked at these cartoons and asked wonderful questions like, 'That's yours?' I was so proud of what I helped produce. Someone remarked that the cartoons were "timeless" and "classic" and would make people laugh for many years to come.

Isn't that what we're doing this for?

Any comments? Send me an email at: gagsbyhelene@gmail.com.