Elliott Kalan began his career atThe Daily Show as a production assistant in 2003 before moving up to producer, staff writer, and ultimately head writer.[3]
Kalan was co-founder of comedy group The Hypocrites with fellow television writer Brock Mahan.[4] He also hosted a live talk and variety stage show,The Primetime Kalan (originallyThe Midnight Kalan and laterThe New Kalan Show). The show was created by Kalan, producerErik Marcisak, and director Joe Guercio, and written and performed by Kalan, Marcisak, andDan McCoy. Many of Kalan'sDaily Show co-workers appeared on the show, includingStephen Colbert,Samantha Bee, andRob Corddry.[5]
Kalan occasionally appears in bit parts onThe Daily Show and has provided voice-over narration for "The Decider" comic-book segments. He was instrumental in putting together the "gay cowboy" montage (a comedic series of clips from classic westerns, illustrating that the gay content inBrokeback Mountain is nothing new), whenJon Stewart hosted the78th Academy Awards. Along with the writing staff ofThe Daily Show with Jon Stewart, Kalan has won fourPrimetime Emmy Awards.[6]
From 2006 to 2009, Kalan wrote a weekly column for the free morning dailyMetro. Following a column he wrote in the August 3, 2007 issue of the Metro, Kalan was fired for writing a self-deprecating joke about the increasing obsolescence of the newspaper industry. This was followed by a brief article inNew York Magazine on August 20, 2007, about the incident,[7] which was heavily publicized on internet blogs includingMedia Bistro,Huffington Post, andGawker. Many blog postings about the incident imply that the Metro violated basic principles of journalism and freedom of expression in firing Kalan. Perhaps as a result of this publicity, he was later re-hired. In 2009, he left the Metro of his own accord, saying "Why leave now? It just feels like the right time for me to move on creatively. Or I’m going undercover to deliver Osama bin Laden to justice. Pick whichever reason sounds cooler."[citation needed]
Kalan also performs as a stand-up comic, and in 2013 performed severalUSO shows in Afghanistan along withJohn Oliver,Rory Albanese, and Adam Lowitt.[8]
In August 2015 Kalan announced that he had left his position as head writer forThe Daily Show.[9] In May 2016, it was announced he was joining the writing staff of theMystery Science Theater 3000 revival as head writer.[10]
On April 14, 2017, Kalan appeared on Episode 1103 of the Netflix production ofMystery Science Theater 3000 along with series creatorJoel Hodgson. The two portrayed characters in a "host segment" of that episode's source movie,The Time Travelers.
Kalan was a contestant on the January 25, 2021 episode ofJeopardy! He came in second place.[11]
Along with comediansDan McCoy andStuart Wellington, Kalan co-hostsThe Flop House podcast, on which the hosts discuss and mock major movies that were either commercial or critical "flops", such asGamer andAll About Steve. One supplemental episode of the Flop House, in which Kalan improvised a rapid-fire pitch for a film based on the comicZiggy became a minor viral Internet success after being posted onGawker.[12] Dan McCoy and Kalan have also been published in comedy magazineWhim Quarterly and film zineI Love Bad Movies.
Kalan is also the co-host of theAudible podcastPresidents Are People Too!, along with American historian Alexis Coe. The podcast examines the life and times of thepresidents of the United States.[13]
From early 2009 until April 2012, Kalan hosted the screening series Closely Watched Films[15] at92YTribeca. These events commonly featured the screening of a rare older film followed by a discussion between Kalan and a celebrity guest who had not previously seen the film.
Kalan is a comic book writer; among other titles, he has written the six-issue superhero limited seriesSpider-Man and the X-Men. An exchange of dialogue between the charactersSpider-Man andSauron from the series became a meme: Spider-Man: “You can rewrite DNA on the fly, and you're using it to turn people into dinosaurs? But with tech like that, you could cure cancer!” Sauron: “But I don't want to cure cancer. I want to turn people into dinosaurs.”
