It was a culmination of all the ideas I had.” If a really good idea hits you, you’ll know.ĭevereaux’s winning idea “hit me all of a sudden. Her process, however, is similar to Snoderly’s: Think of more than one caption and choose the best. She doesn’t consider herself qualified to give advice to other entrants after having entered so few times.
She included winning the contest in her resume when applying to appear in an upcoming comedy festival. In addition to her artwork, Deveraux does standup comedy. “I didn’t think it was a big deal until I found out what a big deal it was (upon learning how few who enter ever win). At first she didn’t realize the significance of her achievement. Her caption, for a cartoon of a man commenting to guests on what he was barbecuing, was, “It sends the other rats a message.”ĭevereaux, 36, is a Boise State student who is finishing an art degree, already having earned a degree in Spanish. Wait for that moment when something good hits.”ĭejah Devereaux of Boise won the contest last summer – on her second try. When I came up with that one (the one that won), I just knew it was the one.” When I first look at the drawings, nothing comes to mind so I let it stew for a few days and then something hits. “Typically I’ll have a couple of ideas that I’ll bounce between and then choose the one I think is best. His process for writing captions is straightforward. And I could see it when I come home to visit.” “It would be a better keepsake for them to have. He says he’ll probably give his to his parents. The New Yorker sends winners copies of the cartoons with their captions, suitable for framing. He wondered whether it was a contest that many people entered.” “I did a screenshot of the page so I could prove it happened. He learned that he was a finalist in an email from the New Yorker, but was not notified that he was the winner.
He said he’d been entering the contest about every other week for a year. I interviewed Snoderly in Bangkok, via Facebook Video. His caption: “I wish we’d seen that before we ate Dave.” The cartoon that inspired his winning caption was a drawing of a couple on a deserted island, looking at another island strewn with candy canes, ice cream and other desserts. He has spent the last five years working as an English teacher in Thailand. Snoderly, who turned 30 shortly after winning the contest, is a BSU graduate with a degree in marketing. The latest Boise winner, whose successful caption was published in the March 25 issue, is Zak Snoderly. So he could be forgiven some muttered expletives or airborne manuscript pages to learn that the only two Idahoans ever to win are thirty-somethings who had entered infrequently. Film Critic Roger Ebert, a smarter than average guy with a talent for putting words together, didn’t win until his 107th attempt.Ī friend who has authored or co-authored ten excellent books has been entering the contest for a decade and has neither won nor placed. Most winners – and far more non-winners – have entered multiple times. They’re published as the finalists, with the winner selected from among them. The odds of winning are roughly twice as good as those of being struck by lightning.Ī cartoon assistant reads all 6,000 entries and chooses the 50 he thinks best to give to the editors. Some 6,000 captions from around the country and the world are submitted every week. Each week, the magazine publishes a cartoon (drawing only, no caption) and invites readers to enter the contest by submitting captions for it.Ī simple process, but I can assure you that the contest is anything but simple to win.
Indicative of its range, its contributors have included John Updike, James Thurber, Joan Didion, Annie Proulx, Phillip Roth, Ogden Nash, Garrison Keillor, Joyce Carol Oates and Groucho Marx, to name a few. The New Yorker, for readers unfamiliar with it, is a weekly magazine that publishes, among other things, commentary, journalism, essays, fiction, poetry and cartoons. Or the New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest. It’s quite another to win, say, the Pillsbury Bakeoff, an essay contest, the National History Day Contest … Winning a karaoke contest or the office March Madness pool is one thing. There are contests, and there are contests. Two Idahoans have made cartoon history in one of the nation’s prominent publications.
0 kommentar(er)
