In 2018, his show stealing showcase at the prestigious Just For Laughs Comedy Festival caught the attention of Hollywood tastemakers, but Slay’s irreverent sense of humor developed before he even stepped on stage, through over a decade of working thankless blue collar jobs.

Long before anyone had ever even heard of Tik Tok, at eighteen years old, Slay dropped out of community college. At 19 his plans to join the army were foiled by an arrest. By 21 he moved from his hometown of Opelika AL to Charleston SC. On the coast, Slay worked as a waiter and pesticide salesman for over a decade while moonlighting as an obscure, often drunk, open mic comedian.

It wasn’t until he quit drinking in 2012 that he started to take comedy and his unique talent for telling jokes seriously. His smooth baritone voice and relatable stories about growing up poor in a trailer park quickly made him a local Charleston favorite. After being voted Best Local Comedian and winning the Charleston Stand Up Comedy Competition, both two years in a row, his well-intentioned friends and colleagues encouraged Slay to move to LA and take a shot at the big time.

While this may have been sound advice for the average aspiring artist, Dusty wanted to try to make it in comedy on his own terms: by living the South, without getting too far away from the home that grounded him.

Today, Slay has close to half a million Tik Tok followers, Four Late Night appearances, a Comedy Central set and a Netflix Half Hour Special under his belt. He enjoys selling out comedy clubs across America on weekends, then chills out at home in Nashville, Tennessee with his wife Hannah and daughter Daisy. He’s even a regular at the legendary Grand Ole Opry, sharing the stage with the musicians he grew up loving.