Emmy Blotnick

Late-night TV has played a significant role Emmy Blotnick’s life.

“I grew up watching a ton of late-night television,” the comedian told The Post-Journal. “It (late-night TV) just felt like a good escape — a good way to let out some of the weird ideas that were inside my head.”

For the past six years, Blotnick said she has been working on different late-night shows while performing stand-up comedy.

“I had been sort of juggling the two. I find that they do feed each other really nicely. Writing jokes for someone else may not be different from writing jokes for yourself,” Blotnick said.

Based in New York City, Blotnick has appeared on CBS’ “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” “Conan,” and in her own half-hour special on Comedy Central. According to emmyblotnick.com, she was previously a staff writer on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” and head writer for Comedy Central’s “The President Show.” She was highlighted as one of Comedy Central’s Comics to Watch and a “New Face” at Just For Laughs in Montreal, Canada, and her debut album “Party Nights” is available to stream now.

Blotnick said there is a process for writing jokes for TV shows. “It’s not like I’m running up to somebody on the street and saying ‘please let me give you this joke,'” she said with a laugh. “Usually there has been an assignment, and there’s a deadline and there’s something we have to make. A lot of times hopefully the joke is strong enough that it stands alone on paper, and doesn’t need explanation, and they can just read and go ‘yes.'”

Sometimes writers will have to show another the comedian what’s funny or interesting about the joke. “It depends on the person and the place,” she said.

The comedian said she draws on mundane experiences for her material, and her ideas are about something average or every-day-like, but there are other layers found underneath.

“I have bit about joining a tea website, but I realized that underneath it was about being pretty depressed,” she said with a laugh. “Ideally I’ve arrived at some kind of conclusion or observation that might start personal that ends up universal. Not everybody is on the tea website, but everybody has felt moments of meaninglessness, boredom or whatever.”

She said if someone is looking to get into comedy either as a writer or a comedian, one should start writing and build one’s writing as a muscle.

“The more you use it, the stronger you get. For someone starting out, write as much as you can and perform as much as you can.” she said.

The comedian added that, before she was performing or writing for anyone else, she kept journals and notebooks.

“I worked on the newspaper at my college and was looking for places to get out pieces of creative writing that weren’t school assignments, and places where you could take some risks and not be afraid to go off-topic or explore something that you are interested in,” she noted.

She performs tonight at the Tropicana Club at 7 and 9:30 p.m.

“I think we are going to have a bunch of fun — lots of stories and jokes,” she said.