Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Dusty Slay: Workin’ Man’ On Netflix, A Third-Base Coach Of A Comedian Waving Us Home

Who is this long-haired bearded guy in the trucker hat who keeps waving at us and telling us we’re having a good time? His name is Dusty Slay and he’s a very real comedian on the rise, so if you’re not on board yet, let’s get you caught up as this is might be his first hourlong stand-up special on Netflix, but it’s not his Netflix debut.

DUSTY SLAY: WORKIN’ MAN: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: Alabama-born and Tennessee-based, Dusty Slay has been working his way up the stand-up comedy ranks, named a “New Face” by the Just For Laughs comedy festival in Montreal in 2018, Slay returned to Montreal the following summer as one of Variety’s “10 Comics To Watch.” He popped up on Netflix at the end of 2021 with a half-hour special as part of the third season of The Standups, and he pops up regularly now as a sidekick on Nate Bargatze’s “The Nateland Podcast.”

You also may have seen him perform in shorter sets on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, or Lights Out with David Spade.

For his first hour special, filmed in Knoxville, Slay reminisces about some of the jobs he worked before becoming a full-time comedian, how he used to smoke and drink and why does neither now, that time he accidentally on purpose delivered a TED Talk, and how growing up in Alabama sometimes provided more surprising and realistic memories than the lyrics you find in some country music lyrics.

What Comedy Specials Will It Remind You Of?: Slay somehow comes across as a cross between the late Mitch Hedberg and Larry the Cable Guy — if they possessed the body of Judah Friedlander.

Memorable Jokes: Slay reveals that he’s the kind of guy who, when he worked at Western Sizzlin, used to eat leftovers off of customers plates after they’d been bussed back to the kitchen, but don’t worry, he had a system: “If you’ll make out with somebody, it’s OK to eat their food.” Except, of course, Slay found plenty of loopholes.

So it might not be surprising to hear Slay also needed to quit smoking and drinking. Of the latter, he jokes that you used to be able to look into his eyes and discover he couldn’t see you back, “like the spirt had left the body.” He might like to dip and smoke weed, and yet, the people selling him dip weirdly lecture him and the people selling weed have made it too commercial when they’re selling such a strong product.

Slay has a great bit about comedy versus TED Talks, leading off by admitting: “I’ve done a lot of unintentional TED Talks but I did one on purpose.” And the talk he delivered in Nashville turned out nothing like he anticipated, which he recounts in detail. If you’ve seen it, you know what he’s talking about. And if you haven’t, Slay says: “It’s on YouTube. Don’t watch it.”

(Sorry, Dusty!)

Instead, enjoy Slay joking about how his dad’s farm in Alabama included a deadly ditch full of junk, which he might not have evidence for directly although he does have the videotape for a previous incident involving a frog and a pool vaccuum (stay for the closing credits to see!).

And for someone who only prefers drinking black coffee, Slay has plenty of stories about the differences in ordering his cup o’ joe from coffee shops, the Waffle House, or even the strip club?

Our Take: Slay may not look much like a working man, and he’ll explain why if he tucked in his shirt, he thinks he’d look too much like he works anywhere he might be standing. Which is funnier later on in the hour when he responds to a doctor’s office questionnaire by acknowledging: “The way I see it, my life is just walking to new places to sit down.”

Slay is great at bringing across his particular point of view as a guy who doesn’t like to wash his hands so much he’ll fake it in a public bathroom, but does love to talk so much that he’ll make his Uber driver uncomfortable.

And much of this is helped by his distinctive look and a catchphrase: “OK, we’re having a good time.” He says the phrase early and often, usually punctuating it beforehand with a quick wave hello with his hand. Is it a catchphrase, though? Is it a way for him to segue topics, cover where he might otherwise pause, a nervous tic, or perhaps a way to manifest the good time he hopes we’ll have? Perhaps a bit of everything?! “I like to touch my hat, my glasses, my belt. I’m like a third-base coach up here.” Slay says, saying he has other tics like touching his nose, perhaps worried about what his nose hairs or mustache might be up to. “Don’t touch your face? Well, I’ll be dead. I can’t stop touching it.”

Before Slay became famous as a comedian, he was working as a stand-up with short hair, a clean-shaven face, and no hat. There’s something in Slay revising his look and developing this persona we see now that reminds me of finding videos of Hedberg when he was younger and not yet famous himself. The joke-writing may be similar, but something magical happens with a slight change in the delivery. And just like Larry The Cable Guy, Slay has found his own way to connect his Southern style to a wider audience, and he’s definitely getting it done.

Our Call: STREAM IT. Slay knows his “we’re having fun here” bit is a bit much, but he’s not about to stop now, even telling us “and yes, I’ll be doing that joke for the rest of my life.” If it ain’t broke yet, why fix it?

Sean L. McCarthy works the comedy beat. He also podcasts half-hour episodes with comedians revealing origin stories: The Comic’s Comic Presents Last Things First.