We recently connected with Shelley Smartly (nee Shelley Ensz) and have shared our conversation below.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I’m Creator, Writer, and Actor in THE SMARTLYS, an award-winning comedy TV series that is now streaming free worldwide on TUBI and PLEX TV.
THE SMARTLYS brings back classic comedy — but with a smartly twist — in a timeless and nonpolitical setting. Its fresh, colorful, hilarious, and mood elevating.
I’m also a 73-year-old arthritic widow, past Founder and President of the former nonprofit International Scleroderma Network, and co-editor of the Voices of Scleroderma book series.
Is there a mission driving your creative journey?
Absolutely! Our mission with THE SMARTLYS is to spread joy throughout the world. For me, it’s out of gratitude for blood and organ donors.
My interest in comedy jump-started when I was sixty-five. My late husband had a lung transplant, and later he passed away from leukemia. Within two weeks of that, I went to my first stand-up comedy show.
The camaraderie, endorphins, and new social circle made me fall in love with stand-up comedy. It kick-started my healing journey, so I began going to shows almost every night of the week.
Four years later I enrolled in a stand-up comedy course and began going to open mics. So at age sixty-nine I was in my first “real” comedy show at Comedy Palace in San Diego (which is now Mic Drop Comedy).
It normally takes about ten years, on average, for a comedian to develop a headline set. But I’m a prolific writer and I quickly had an hour’s worth of humor tested out in open mics. So four months after that, I had enough content to headline in a show I produced for our complex. Then I tried my hand at sketch comedy, which very rapidly turned into development of THE SMARTLYS.
We produced our first Pilot in front of a live audience in a senior’s center, and then the Covid pandemic hit. At that point, Floyd Strayer, who plays Preston Smartly our villain in the series, became our new Director and Producer. We made another Pilot with our actors self-filming with green screens and combined their performances digitally.
Our diverse ensemble cast of fifteen are ages 9 to 79, from the United States and Canada. We’re bringing back classic comedy but with a smartly twist!
We also bring back comedy duos in full force, as I love the humor of two people who are lovingly in conflict. Our Season 1 cast is Quonta Beasley, Cheli Landa, Tommy Lucero, Dan and Sandra McLellan, Melvin Powell, Allison Price, Monica Sarabia, Willow Seixas, Eric and Shelley Smartly, Dominic and Floyd Strayer, Gary Tallaksen, and Jim Winkler. Hedges Capers of La Jolla produced our delightful Smartly Sunny Day jingle.
We did marketing research on the second test Pilot and discovered we had ideal responses, in that it appealed to people of all ages. Importantly, there was a very clear divide, in that people who liked it were wild about it, and the rest didn’t like it at all. Those who loved it proclaimed it as awesome, super funny, hilarious, great writing, brilliant, great acting, stellar, whole family loved it, and want more, etc.
On a scale of 1 to 5, we had only 1’s and 5’s (but mostly 5’s) which is exactly what we were hoping for. Although you’d think “average overall with no dislikes” would be the aim, average is the kiss of death in this industry.
Thus encouraged, I closed the nonprofit that I had run for several decades and focused on writing the new Season 1 of THE SMARTLYS. Within the year of we completed eight half hour shows, won many international film awards, and were streaming free on TUBI and PLEX TV, and for rent on Exposure Plus TV.
Congratulations on your achievements as a new indie filmmaker! What are your plans for the future?
By viewer input, we discovered that our series makes an excellent radio program, too, so we’re releasing the audio on Podbean in September. We’re starting production of Season 2 for release next March. We also have a movie in development, from a romantic comedy novel I’d written (and shelved) over twenty-five years ago. We’re going to publish the book to go along with the movie. Our working title is Struck by Lightning.
Are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?
Floyd and I didn’t know anything about filmmaking or even video editing, so we learned everything we needed to know by watching YouTube videos together, every single step of the way.
If we’d known how much work it was going to be, or the enormous odds stacked against indie filmmakers, we surely would’ve quit before we started. Therefore, our naïveté, plus mutual refusal to give up, were probably our greatest strengths.
Author Richard Bach wrote, “You are never given a dream without also being given the power to make it true. You may have to work for it, however.”
That’s so true! But for me the challenge has also been drumming up the courage to continually face my fears. I found humor to be a very powerful force for tackling fear.
That’s why in my stand-up routine I quipped, “Now I’m facing my fears head on, because when I tried backing into them — they cancelled my car insurance!”
We invite your readers who enjoyed this article to test drive THE SMARTLYS (Rated TV-14) today, and be sure to say hello to us and spread the word on social media, too!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://thesmartlys.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thesmartlys/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thesmartlys/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shelley-smartly/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/SmartlysThe
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLBC1ivGDFl8juywGjjA6vg
- Other:
Exposure Plus TV($): https://www.exposureplustv.tv/search?search=smartlys
TUBI TV: The Smartlys: https://tubitv.com/series/300008861/the-smartlys (free)
PLEX TV: The Smartlys: https://watch.plex.tv/show/the-smartlys (free with registration)
Image Credits
Allison Price as Nanny in THE SMARTLYS Dominic and Floyd Strayer as Caddy and Preston Smartly Quonta Beasley, Sandra McLellan, and Tommy Lucero as Philesha, Lettie and Adare Smartly Melvin Powell and Jim Winkler as Thumper and Winky Dan McLellan as Fetch Smartly Willow Seixas as Carrie Smartly