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." Kalan also performs as a stand-up comic, and in 2013 performed several USO shows in Afghanistan along with John Oliver, Rory Albanese, and Adam Lowitt. In August 2015 Kalan announced that he had left his position as head writer for "The Daily Show". In May 2016, it was announced he was joining the writing staff of the "Mystery Science Theater 3000" revival as head writer. On April 14, 2017, Kalan appeared on Episode 1103 of the Netflix production of "Mystery Science Theater 3000" along with series creator Joel Hodgson. The two portrayed characters in a "host segment" of that episode's source movie, "The Time Travelers". Along with comedians Dan McCoy and Stuart Wellington, Kalan co-hosts "The Flop House" podcast, on which the hosts discuss and mock major movies that were either commercial or critical "flops", such as "Gamer" and "All About Steve". One supplemental episode of the Flop House, in which Kalan improvised a rapid-fire pitch for a film based on the comic Ziggy became a minor viral Internet success after being posted on Gawker. Dan McCoy and Kalan have also been published in comedy magazine "Whim Quarterly" and film zine "I Love Bad Movies". Kalan is also the co-host of the Audible podcast "Presidents Are People Too!", along with American historian Alexis Coe. The podcast examines the life and times of the Presidents of the United States. From early 2009 until April 2012, Kalan hosted the screening series Closely Watched Films at 92YTribeca. 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 series "Spider-Man and the X-Men". An exchange of dialogue between the characters Spider-Man and Sauron 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.” For his writing on "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart", Kalan has won four Primetime Emmy Awards (shared with the rest of the writing staff of the "Daily Show").