By Gracie Fairfax | Echo
For anyone who likes to make people laugh, a full-time job in comedy is often a distant dream. As a senior writer for Clickhole, a comedy website, this is Taylor alumnus Steve Etheridge's ('10) reality.
His career in comedy began at 16 when he wrote what he now considers to be his own subpar version of the Onion on the back page of his high school newspaper.
"That was the first time I ever tried to be funny in a public way," Etheridge said.
Etheridge, who knew he wanted to be a comedy writer going into college, majored in English with a concentration in writing. Since a degree does not guarantee success in comedy, Etheridge saw his major as an opportunity to practice different writing styles and discover his voice in a supportive environment.
Etheridge especially benefitted from the fiction classes he took with Aaron Housholder.
"I think he was really in tune with who I was as a student and a writer, and he knew where to give me freedom and where to give me structure," Etheridge said. "Looking back, a lot of the writing I did was pretty disastrous, and I'm sure Aaron saw that, but he was graceful in his criticism and never made me feel discouraged."
Etheridge also served as the Opinions editor for The Echo, where he was able to exercise creative freedom and build confidence in his abilities.
"It was sort of this fun little sandbox where I could try new things and make mistakes and develop an intuition for what kind of stuff works," Etheridge said.
While at Taylor, he began publishing pieces in humor outlets with open submission policies, such as CollegeHumor and McSweeney's. As a college junior, Etheridge had built up enough of a reputation among these humor communities to receive a range of offers for freelance opportunities. One of these opportunities was writing Onion-esque sports articles for a humor website called Sports Pickle. After graduation, the editor at Sports Pickle connected Etheridge with a job writing humorous pieces for ESPN's Page 2.
ESPN was Etheridge's first major professional gig. While it was enjoyable, he needed additional work to pay the bills and began freelance writing for practically anyone who would pay him.
He covered topics including women's reproductive health reports for newspapers, software patents for a Medicaid services company and pieces for Sports Illustrated, as well as theater, music and movie reviews.
"I think there were 17 different jobs in total," Etheridge said.
In 2011, the Onion moved its headquarters from New York to Chicago. As a Chicago resident and an avid fan of the Onion, Etheridge decided to do everything in his power to get a job there.
At the time, it was essential to know someone in the company to be noticed. Etheridge was able to make his connection and get his foot in the door through a writing class at Second City taught by an Onion writer.
"I basically bombarded him with jokes every week until he was willing to give me a shot," Etheridge said. "He recommended me to apply for the Onion writing fellowship, which is basically where you come on as a staff writer for a six-month trial period, and if you do a good job, they'll keep you around. Thankfully, I ended up getting the fellowship, and I've been here ever since."
When Etheridge was wrapping up his fellowship with the Onion, they began to build a writing staff for ClickHole as they prepared for its launch, and thought Etheridge would fit well. He accepted the position and was excited about the opportunity to shape the voice for the new site.
ClickHole parodies some of the newer internet content forms that that did not fit the Onion's satirical newspaper format. Since most of the writers at ClickHole came from the Onion, they share a lot of the same roots, as well as the same office space, alongside the AV Club, Onion Inc.'s pop culture site. According to Etheridge, ClickHole allows greater freedom in terms of format, as well as a variety of styles and voices, while the Onion maintains a set format.
On a typical day, Etheridge likes to go to the office early in the morning when it's still quiet to get his most difficult writing finished. A few days a week include 10 a.m. headline meetings, where the team goes through hundreds of headlines before determining which articles to write. When he is not at his desk writing jokes, he may be found outside of the office directing a video shoot, as each ClickHole writer is responsible to write and direct one video per week.
"It's just exciting to be able to write what I want to write, and to do it alongside a group of writers that I really admire," Etheridge said. "The kind of creative freedom we have is nonexistent in the TV and movie industries, and I really cherish that."
In addition to writing for ClickHole, Etheridge still freelances and was recently published in the humor section of The New Yorker. Since ClickHole is a full-time job and his primary focus, any freelance work is secondary.
For aspiring comedy writers, Etheridge suggests writing and reading constantly, including seeking out reading material and art that are less mainstream. This sets yourself apart from other comics and gives the writer a broad source of knowledge to draw from. Etheridge also recommends not being picky about jobs.
"When I got offered the ESPN job, I didn't really know that much about sports, but I decided to take the opportunity anyway, and ultimately it made me a much better writer," Etheridge said.
Now that Etheridge has found his foothold in humor writing, he looks at the world through a comedic lens, oftentimes waking up in the middle of the night to jot down ideas. Although his work can be all-consuming, he treasures the opportunity to wake up every morning and live his dream at a company where cracking jokes is a full-time job.
