Ellory Smith
Many comedians work for decades to get the chance to become a TV writer, but for 24-year-old Ellory Smith, TV writer was practically her first job out of college.
Smith is a writer for the long-running Adult Swim comedy Robot Chicken. Smith produces her own live standup show in Los Angeles, but she might be better recognized for her popular Twitter presence and frequent viral tweets. Smith is also a current StandUp NBC semi-finalist; the finalists will be announced this October.
Smith dropped out of college during her last semester after she was offered her current writing job at Robot Chicken. Smith talks about leaving school casually. After submitting a writing packet to the show, she recalls, “They offered me the position and it was my first real job. I mean it was just a godsend.” Smith has worked on multiple seasons of the show and still considers it her dream job. “It's a really comfortable and loving environment, which sounds silly, but it’s a room that is so incredibly safe to pitch in.” She continues, “That's been really helpful for me not just as a writer but even as a performer. It's been nice to have a place where none of your ideas are stupid.”
Robot Chicken has been a cult favorite since it came to late-night TV in 2005. Much of its success has to do with the in-your-face absurdist comedy that made the Adult Swim network a unique voice in comedy programming. Personally, Smith is also taken by the nature of boundary-pushing comedy. “In LA, I often see a piece of comedy that challenges what I think comedy is. It expands on my idea of what I understand to be comedy. My love for comedy is ever-evolving.” She explains, “I'm constantly learning and seeing new things and that's what keeps me wanting to work in this space. I love finding something new that makes me laugh, it refreshes the passion I have for comedy. I often think my particular style of standup lacks a sense of playfulness, so when I see something particularly joyful it inspires me to try to lean into different parts of my comedic voice.”
While Smith is still shaping her voice on stage, off-stage she has already found her audience, mostly through social media. “I've been on Twitter for the better part of a decade, and I think that's helped me both hone my voice and reach people who are more likely to be interested in my standup,” she explains. “It's important to have pieces of your work available online for people to come across, whatever that work may be. While live comedy is popular, it has nowhere near the reach that something hosted online does. The shareability of content makes it easy to widen your audience, if your jokes are re-tweeted or shared to Instagram they're getting in front of twice as many people. Twitter and standup have sort of worked in conjunction for me, where people will come see my standup because they've found me on Twitter and vice versa.”
While Smith has excelled quickly, it hasn’t always been easy for her to feel funny. About two years ago, Smith’s father and a close friend both passed away. “I spent all year not being able to work on anything. If I did write anything, it would be so bad just because I wasn't ready to be funny,” she recalls. “I went back on stage the day after my dad’s wake. I wasn't doing very well because I was trying to talk about it and I didn't know how to talk about it. Eventually, I did get some good material out of it which ended up helping me cope and process.”
Writing even when it’s hard or bad is something that Smith fully believes all young writers need to do to improve, especially for those trying to break into TV. “You'll have a lot of bad drafts,” she jokes. “This is advice that I don't follow, but even the worst script is better than one that doesn't exist. You should have a sample ready to send out should anybody ask you for it, along with sketch packets or a reel. Be open to feedback. If you get the same note more than twice, take it.”
