“If you would’ve told me two years ago I’d be on my 70th show, I’d say no way,” she said. “(Audiences) already know what to expect out of me from social media. Social media is the heartbeat of my business. Had I not started out on social, I’d not be where I am today.”
Her first standup show was in February 2024 at the Comedy Zone in Greenville, South Carolina, and she said it was basically trial by fire. Hays ended up performing at eight sold-out shows, and after her first time on stage she was hooked.
“I just knew that this is everything I wanted to do,” she said. “I’m just addicted to it now.”
Her First Time Tour continues to add dates all over the country. She has traveled from coast to coastand recently performed in Columbus, where she said the people were “just amazing.” She enjoys performing for all types of crowds, specifically the crowd she had in Sacramento, California.
“The energy in that room ... I wanted to bottle it up and put in my back pocket,” she said. “I feel like out West, they don’t hear a Southern accent much, so they are laughing at you and not with you, but I don’t care. In the South they can relate to every situation and scenario. My dad told me funny is funny no matter where you are.”
Hays is based in Nashville, but she was born and raised in Alabama. While she does traditional standup comedy, she brings her guitar to parody some country music songs. She also has a range of silly Southern characters that she brings to the stage. One of her most popular characters is Sharon Jean.
“She’s a very conventional, abrasive country woman who is based on someone from my family,” she said. “But I won’t ever tell that family member that it’s her.”
Hays’ main social media platform is TikTok, where she has 3.1 million followers. Her next most popular account is on Instagram, where she has 800,000 followers. Hays said that anyone who comes to the show can expect a one-woman variety show that is reminiscent of her social media content.
“It’s not just me standing there with a microphone,” she said. “It’s a super-size version of the content they see. I want to keep people excited about what’s next.”
Hays is also interested in acting, and played a role in “Mother Nature and The Doomsday Prepper,” which is currently being shopped around to various streaming services. She’s acted in other movies and shows alongside actors like Diane Keaton and Kathy Bates.
“It was so cool,” she said. “Acting is like the Mecca for me. I got to play a character like Sharon Jean. It was fun to play something familiar and at ease. And being on set was pretty cool.”
Hays said she wants to continue learning guitar and would like to do a sitcom in which she plays herself as well as a character. She will continue performing standup as well, and will possibly change up her show’s format to be a more well-rounded comedy act of characters and jokes.
MORE DETAILS
The Victoria Theatre is at 138 N. Main St. To purchase tickets, call 937-228-3630 or visit www.daytonlive.org.
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