Seeing Her Work Next To 'Total Legends' Boosts US Comedian's Beth Stelling's Self-confidence

US stand-up Beth Stelling is one of the busiest and most in-demand comics around. From filming her own Netflix special to writing on critically acclaimed films and TV programmes, like Good Boys and Sarah Silverman's I Love You America, all the way to co-hosting a podcast with her own mother, We Called Your Mom, Stelling is the secret weapon of Hollywood comedy.

“I still remember my first meeting in LA,” she laughs of her transition into screenwriting. “I had gotten an offer for Just For Laughs in Montreal about eight years ago, and they said, ‘We love your stand-up! What else do you do?’ And at that time in my life it was just like, ‘Oh, I do what you saw? That’s it...’ The negative side of it all, I guess, is that it’s hard for those people to monetise that kind of thing, which is a pessimistic way of looking at it. At the same time, though, they don’t see dollars when they see a new comedian they’ve just discovered.

“I had to learn to write from scratch really. I read loads of books about it, and I realised that if I can write my own stand-up, I can write jokes for other people and TV and stuff. Since I’ve started writing, there’s a stability in that versus the sort of piecemeal existence of stand-up. So now I find myself really straddling the two.”

Stelling’s first foray into TV writing came when she was handpicked for Pete Holmes’ HBO series Crashing, executive-produced by comedy royalty Judd Apatow. Stelling says writing for a show about struggling comedians was the perfect way to learn about TV writing. 

Having Crashing be my first writing job was great because it eased me into the world of writing through stand-up,” she says. “It was very familiar to me, and Judd knew that and Pete knew that. I’m really grateful for that job because before that I didn’t necessarily think of myself as a writer, even though that might sound a bit silly. Sometimes you have people come up to you after a stand-up show and ask, ‘Do you have writers?’ and it’s like, ‘This is an open mic, do I look like I can afford writers?’” 

Stelling admits that writing jokes for other comedians was often an odd experience.

“I’d be lying if I said there wasn’t times where I thought of a joke or a bit and thought, ‘I’m gonna keep that for me.’ But as you go on, you realise that you sort of have to think of yourself as an infinite well. Otherwise, when you get these writing blocks or you don’t have any new material, you think that you’ll never write anything ever again. Then, of course, the new jokes do happen and it’s the best feeling in the world. Writing for other comics, you realise too that it’s not ‘you’ and you can give those things away. It’s a different muscle, and forming jokes in someone else’s voice can be very difficult, but I also think that you gravitate towards writing for particular people for a reason.

“With writing for Crashing, you realise the balance between pulling from your own life and filtering it in a certain way or from a particular experience – maybe you had a really weird booker or you played at a crappy club – once you bring that to the room you realise we all have had the same experience. Obviously things vary between different comics and different genders, but we’ve all played the same cities and these same clubs, so really there’s more in common than maybe you first thought. In a way, it’s a very singular experience, but you don’t get to see other comics headlining when you’re out headlining yourself. You don’t necessarily think of that.”

Along with an impressive portfolio, these opportunities have given Stelling a renewed confidence in herself and her craft. 

“I hadn’t even called myself a comic for the first couple of years, because I felt you have to earn that, you know? For years I suffered from the notion of, ‘Am I real yet?’ Even after doing something like Conan for the first time, I was like, ‘Okay, now I’m gonna be real.’ The truth of it, though, is that there are always going to be pull-downs and setbacks, and this is going to sound cheesy as hell, but it totally has to come from you and your own self-confidence. I think I have gained confidence over the years, and seeing my work next to people I idolise and think are total legends, that’s really boosted it.”

When Stelling tours to Australia, her Sydney date is part of Just For Laughs. She admits she finds it hard to pass up writing gigs in order to focus on her stand-up. 

“This will be nothing that’s aired on TV before, but I run into this roadblock often: it’s hard for me to say no to writing gigs because I came out here – like a lot of people – with, you know, ‘hopes and dreams,'” she laughs. 

“I tend to get snagged into writing jobs a lot, and that can put a halt on the stand-up in a way. I’m in the [writers’] room from 10 to 7, and it’s hard to gather that energy to go up and do stand-up at night. That halts my progress, I guess, as I prepare to go and headline overseas, but I’ll have a fair bit of time to get it back up off its feet. An hour is a long time to talk to people, so I want to have it as ready as possible.”