Meet Comedian Emma Willmann of Netflix ‘The Comedy Lineup: Part 2’

 The diverse mix of comedians bring a fresh take on life’s issues, big and small, in a series of solo sets and includes up-and-coming comedians Josh Johnson and Janelle James.

Backstory: Emma Willmann is the host of the comedy show, The Check Spot on Sirius XM. Emma is also co-host of the podcast Inside the Closet with fellow comedian, Matteo Lane.

As a stand-up comedian, she was featured as a New Face at the Just for Laughs Festival in Montreal in 2016.  Time Out New York has recognized her as one of the 10 funniest women in NYC. Emma performed stand up on the Seeso series, Night Train with Wyatt Cenac.

As an actor, in 2018, Emma joined the cast of the CW series, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend.

We got Emma to weigh in on what brought her to comedy and her experience with the Netflix series

From the outside looking in, who is Emma?

Just so I understand the question is this how do I think people see me? I’d hope as a friendly relatable person, who is really sharing their life for better or worse.

What brought you to the entertainment industry, comedy specifically?

I never watched comedy, but I always loved entertainment. When my parents divorced my dad got satellite tv (ohhhhh boy!) and it gave a window to a bigger world than my small town. I loved music videos! Specifically, rap and wanted to be a ghostwriter. I fell in love with Jermaine Dupri, Master P and Diddy as businessmen – how they cultivated careers, intermixed with their own – and continually used words as a product. That for obvious reasons wasn’t a super easy fit, so when I discovered comedy, and already was always the class clown and joking around – that version of words as a product made a lot more sense!

 What is it about daily life that inspires your commentary?

I actually pull most material from looking back on life – things that felt weird, were embarrassing, or I’ll notice about other people. It’s usually something that seems wrong, off, hypocritical or painful then build from that. If something is already funny then it’s figuring out how to twist it and make it more…

I feel like I mess things up a lot and am always trying to improve myself, but constantly hitting roadblocks I create – so I’m regularly generating material because I’m regularly creating problems. Oy!

Tell us about your experience with your first Netflix outing!!!

It was so great! From start to finish they were proactive, respectful, and so aware and nice of my time. Everything was just great. Similar to my experience with CBS, they really worked with me to be the best me, manage expectations, and do my thing – they know how to work with comics over there and are all consummate professionals – right away I was like “this is the real deal!”

It takes quite a bit of intestinal fortitude to bare yourself, no matter how cleverly concealed, to an audience who may not quite know how to interpret the nuances of your routine…how do you deal with that as you prepare to step on stage?

Great question and I do not have a great answer because: I don’t! I usually am reactive about it – so will think about it after the fact before I go on I’ll try to just think “it’s just you and the people don’t think about the other stuff” because for awhile I would get caught up in “what’s this person thing, is his good enough, will they think I’m weird!? Fuck them if they do but oh no what if they do!” So to stop that I just try to think of it as a big party and we are all there to vibe and have fun – people give you a gift with their attention, so I try to make them not want to return that gift!

Tell us a bit about your work and passions OUTSIDE of comedy…

I love talking to my friends! Who doesn’t BUT I have four or five good friends and I love hearing about their world and what they are up to – step outside myself and just be there in that…I am also into: crystals, self-help stuff, I LOVE FOOD chicken wings, nuggets of all forms, lobster, French fries, I love going to restaurants and I love learning about sex.

I am trying to get more into exercise – but I am currently linking that with comedy cause am partially doing it to try and look better for TV – it’s the lesbian hunger games out here!

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