Jasmine Ellis: Writes Her Own Script

Have you ever been heck­led by a home­less per­son? I don’t know, maybe you were mow­ing your yard and they stop on the side­walk to tell you to get a real job or some­thing? Jas­mine Ellis was heck­led on stage, dur­ing a show in East Dal­las. He walked up to her while she was doing her set and said, ​“Is that you talk­ing? I thought it was the radio and I was like, ​‘turn that radio off and play some music.’ ” That expe­ri­ence may make some peo­ple want to quit. For Ellis, it was a minor set­back but she kept on keep­ing on and it has been worth it.

Let’s back up a bit: Jas­mine Ellis was brought up in Arling­ton, Texas in the heart of the Dallas/​Ft. Worth Metro­plex. She did­n’t grow up as a hard­core com­e­dy fan. Ellis casu­al­ly watched shows like Com­ic View and found her­self drawn to minor­i­ty and female comedians.

Being extro­vert­ed and hav­ing a degree in Com­mu­ni­ca­tions and Broad­cast­ing makes Ellis very com­fort­able on stage. A friend encour­aged her to try open mics and they’d work on mate­r­i­al togeth­er before each show. It stuck, and she kept work­ing at it, grow­ing her set, and devel­op­ing her voice and style.

To cut an enter­tain­ing sto­ry short, click the link and give Ellis’ inter­view with Valerie Lopez a lis­ten. It’s a fun ride with Ellis talk­ing about hav­ing to write jokes, not lik­ing writ­ing, minori­ties and women in the com­e­dy scene, her tran­si­tion to Austin, and much more. I always find a come­di­an’s joke writ­ing method to be very inter­est­ing. Ellis’ is par­tic­u­lar­ly fas­ci­nat­ing to me, though I’m not sure why. Maybe because I don’t recall com­ing across some­one who has a degree sim­i­lar to mine, but does­n’t like to write.

One thing to look for­ward to is the release of the 3^rd sea­son of Standup Empire. Ellis appears on the line­up as the ​“out-of-town” com­ic, but we’re glad she now makes Austin her home. Jas­mine Ellis is cer­tain­ly a busy com­ic, and by click­ing any of the below links, you can find out her upcom­ing appear­ances and shenani­gans as she pur­sues her lim­it­less future:

• Web­site
• Insta­gram
• Face­book
• Twit­ter
• Last Gas Comedy