Just Like Talking To Your Best Friend For An Hour

She’s since been hailed one of America’s rising alternative stars by such media outlets as the LA Weekly. This July, fresh from taping a Comedy Central Half Hour special in Boston, Beth Stelling is touring Australia for the first time. Originally from Oakwood, Ohio, she exhibited comic flair in childhood. “I was the youngest of all my siblings and that typically tends to be an outgoing kid sort of begging for attention,” she confesses. “But I knew that I liked being funny. So in high school I would do the musicals and play the funny parts.” 

“One of my favourite reviews that I’ve received from someone seeing my show was that they felt like they were just talking to their best friend for an hour."

Stelling studied theatre at Ohio’s Miami University. Yet, working in a bagel shop, she was encouraged to try stand-up at an open mic by a colleague. “It went very well and so I had that in the back of my mind.” Stelling headed to Chicago to act — with mixed results. “The minute I got to Chicago I did a play that wasn’t very good and hardly anyone came to see it,” she laughs. “I found myself being like, Why am I rehearsing with these people on a play that I don’t necessarily even care that much about when I could be writing my own material and actually be invested in it?… I think I moved from theatre because I just wanted to take things into my own hands and be in control of the situation.” Nonetheless, Stelling joined an ensemble to develop the hit comic play 5 Lesbians Eating A Quiche through “improv”. She also landed a serious guest role in the gritty TV crime program, Detroit 1-8-7, shot on location. “I remember them dropping me off at my hotel and they were like, ‘Don’t leave the hotel alone.’ They’re like, ‘It’s too dangerous!’ So I just trusted them and I didn’t leave.” 

After the Chicago Reader named her the city’s ‘Best Stand-Up Comedian’ in 2010, Stelling left for Los Angeles, quickly becoming a fixture on late night talk shows.

Stand-up is Stelling’s love — she’s excited to check out, and meet, Australian talent, as she did recently in Ireland. But in competitive LA, Stelling has been urged to brand herself as a slashie — a comedian/writer/producer. She’s co-creating a show with Jamie Lee for Warner Bros’ digital studio. “I found that in Ireland, and it might be the same in Australia, it is totally okay to just be a comic and that is respected. I think we are required to be a jack-of-all-trades.” 

Australians will enjoy a droll, conversational and intimate show from the engaging Midwesterner. “One of my favourite reviews that I’ve received from someone seeing my show was that they felt like they were just talking to their best friend for an hour. If that’s your jam, then you’re gonna like my set, because I talk a lot about my family, myself, things that have happened to me…” 

Mindful of cultural slippage in Ireland, Stelling now recognises that the topic of sex is safely universal. “I don’t see myself as this sort of cute girl saying bad things, but that’s what I found eventually to be relatable,” she laughs. “I guess sex is everywhere!”