Emmy Blotnick is a New York-based comedian who has written for and performed on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. You may also have heard her joking multiple times on NPR’s Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me! or seen her performing stand-up on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and Conan. Her writing credits are even longer and more varied, including not just Colbert and Fallon, but also The President Show, Mel Brooks’s History of the World: Part II, English Teacher, Bust Down, Pause with Sam Jay, Nikki & Sara Live, Not Safe with Nikki Glaser, plus a few roasts, including Netflix’s most recent live Roast of Kevin Hart. Her new stand-up special, What’s Her Secret?, premiered in May 2026 exclusively on the new streaming service, Gorilla Comedy+, and will be available on YouTube starting June 16, 2026. Blotnick caught up with me over Zoom to talk about her experiences behind and in front of the camera, how her new hour evolved over the course of four years, and how this special finally got her posting on Instagram again. There’s a lot to get to, so let’s get to it!
Watch Emmy Blotnick: What’s Her Secret? exclusively on Gorilla Comedy+
And from four years ago, here she was joking about relearning how to talk to people after the pandemic lockdowns on The Late Show. Her bit about dog groomers wound up in her 2026 special, What’s Her Secret?, and Blotnick spoke with me about how her hour evolved over the course of those four years.
On rejoining Instagram after leaving only one post up for 12 years. “The late-night shows won’t point the audience to your work,” Blotnick told me. “The onus is so on the comic to promote, that I was like, OK, I have to break my silence. And it can’t just be the toilet. But it was a blissful — a blissful 12 years, and the toilet has I think 1,000 comments on it. I’m glad I held out that long.”
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