Most people think stand-up comics spend decades learning to polish their act to get good at telling jokes. But for the past 23 years, Steph Tolev has used every ounce of stage time to build up the proper amount of dirt to smear across a long career built on fart, poop and ejaculation humor all in the hopes of one day becoming comedy’s reigning “Filth Queen.” It’s a title she wears proudly (and literally) on her back when she takes the stage in her signature stage outfits. It’s also the title of her latest Netflix comedy special out on Tuesday.
Since moving to LA from her native Toronto Canada over a decade ago, Tolev’s spiky personality, no-hold-barred humor shaggy mullet have helped her explode onto the stand up scene in America in a way that makes fans of the “bluest” (read: dirtiest) comedy begin to blush by the time she’s half-way through her act.
But the reason Tolev’s comedy works on crowds is because deep down, everybody’s gross.
Eventually her humor attention of superstar comics like Bill Burr who offered her a spot on a Netflix special [2022’s Bill Bull Presents: Friends Who Kill], after seeing one of her viral clips online. But that immediate attraction to her gross out humor lead him and others down a rabbit hole of dirty material she’s cultivated for years that’s finally led to a special that simultaneously serves a coronation and an introduction for a comic whose smut-covered star continues to shine.
Recently Tolev spoke to the Times about planning out her big solo debut on Netflix, turning it into one big rock concert and giving women the fortitude to fart in front of their significant others.
