Comedian Beth Stelling is nobody’s fool. For the better part of two decades, Stelling has Forrest Gumped her way back and forth across the country, making strangers laugh in bars, theaters, festivals and on screens of all sizes. With a persistence and intensity normally reserved for high-level competitive athletes, Stelling’s humor, cleverness and personal transparency make her a national treasure.
The mountains are going to ring with laughter when Stelling brings her new hour of material to Felton Music Hall July 9. From Conan to Comedy Central’s @midnight, Chelsea Lately, The Pete Holmes Show and Jimmy Kimmel Live, the Ohio-born comic is at the top of her game.
Two years ago, at 38, Stelling returned to her high school sport, and was successful in joining the U.S. Women’s Masters Field Hockey Team. Over the last few years, besides a full-time life as a touring comedian, Stelling represented the U.S. in Buenos Aires and South Africa. Combine this with the 21st-century twist of touring comics having to post five times a week and respond to comments, and there’s not much time left for anything else.
“I get a lot of negative stuff from men on Instagram and especially Facebook,” says Stelling, who is in her car, on the road to another show. “I had a back and forth with this 65-year-old man named Chris yesterday and today. He rattled something off and I replied.”
“It ended with him saying, ‘You’re right. I just watched 60 seconds and looked at your other stuff, and seen all your credits, and it’s not easy what you do. You’ve accomplished so much. And I’ll think twice before I just rattle something off on a 60-second clip from eight years ago.’ And I was like, yeah, that’s pretty much all I ask. Like, leave me alone. If you don’t like it, move on. But why are you trying to tear me down? So weird,” Stelling says.
Stand-up comedy is primarily a community of broken misfit humans, and Stelling was the rare bird who had the competitive edge of a field hockey player, and understood the level of focus needed for success, combined with a ruthless work ethic. Her adaptability to read a field, and see where possible opportunities are, led to Stelling becoming a valued comedy writer on HBO’s Crashing.
From whatever angle you look at Stelling – successful comedy series writer (Crashing), multiple comedy specials Boner Appétit to You (2015), The Standups (2017), Girl Daddy (2020), and If You Didn’t Want Me Then (2023), or graduating from college magna cum laude – you’re looking at a comedic olympiad. New material isn’t a problem.
“I think I have an overabundance of material at this point,” says Stelling.
“I was operating, for a good chunk of my career, under the old model, which was: put out an hour, start the new one right away, tour it, and then put out another hour. But now with everybody being a comedian, and YouTube, and the oversaturation with comics chasing followers and subscriptions, that’s not really the case anymore. There are still perhaps a few tastemakers in the business selecting art that they care about – whether that person has followers or not – but usually they do not. Now it’s operating from a place of an algorithmic subscription-based draw,” Stelling says.
Stelling is young, but old enough to remember when TV and radio were the most important ways to get the word out about upcoming shows. Now it’s the artist’s responsibility to get the word out. One should ask at what point do artists become part of the machine, rather than critics of its pointless machinations? For Stelling, that question is an everyday consideration.
“I’m not too into reading about economics and the structure of capitalism. I have a loose understanding of it from living in society. But we’re being made to be workers. Art and artistry used to be something that was a relief from that kind of work. And now artists have become the same type of worker, except that we’re trying to compete against each other and figure out algorithms by capturing every moment of our day. There’s also a lot of pay-to-play happening. A lot of people pay to be in your feed, even if you’re not following them, which I am morally against,” Stelling says.
“I’m type A. I work hard. I’m not lazy. I’m not a drug addict. Not that those two are synonymous. But I’m not up against an obstacle keeping me from doing my art or getting in the way of it. And yet it makes me feel lazy that I don’t want to be online every day posting. Posting something every day that isn’t finished or ready. So it’s an odd feeling. Just a cog in the machine of capitalism if you think that I should work, and put something out every day, for free, on the internet.”
The traditional path to a comic’s livelihood might have changed, but this all star comedy road dog has no intention of slowing down.
Beth Stelling will appear on Thursday, July 9 at 8pm at Felton Music Hall, 6275 HWY 9, Felton, CA. Tickets are $34.59. More info at feltonmusichall.com
