“Stand-up is really healing for me, and reality TV can be scary,” comedian Hannah Berner tells Tudum. From a starring role in three seasons of Summer House to her very own Netflix stand-up special, Berner’s brand of comedy has been making people giggle for years. “I always loved stand-up comedy but I never actually saw myself doing it,” she tells Tudum. Then, one day a friend dared her to get on stage for 10 minutes to perform stand-up at a live podcasting show in New York — and the rest is history. “Most people would not recommend doing 10 minutes of stand-up the first time you go onstage, but I immediately felt comfortable and got the bug.” 

The 32-year-old comedian made her Netflix debut at Netflix is a Joke Fest earlier this year, taking the stage at the United Theater in Los Angeles and hosting a variation of her viral digital series Han on the Street. That is, she interviewed — and stunned — some of the comedy festival’s star-studded guests with questions about golf and therapists, as well as their nonsexual turn-ons. 

As it turns out, nothing is really off-limits for Berner. If you’ve ever watched Han on the Street, you know she asks people for their opinions on the hottest topics of the moment — things like ghosting, lemon water, farting in bed, and everything in between. “My first dream was to be a professional tennis player,” she says, adding that she received a full scholarship to play for the University of Wisconsin. “I joke that I wanted to win Wimbledon, but then things went awry and now I tell queef jokes.” (If neither worked out, her other dream would’ve been to open a cat sanctuary.) 

In her new special Hannah Berner: We Ride at Dawn, the comedian gets into the same kind of subject matter as seen in her candid street comedy — the mechanics of spooning, gun safety, and dating older men. And, of course, queefing. “Stop saying that I queefed,” Berner says in the special. “You queefed me, OK? And I know that for a fact because I’ve never queefed alone.” According to Berner, the special came together while trying out the material on tour over a five-year period. She was really proud of the material but says, “I definitely needed to prepare for the big moment mentally. I called Gabby Bernstein and she helped me do some tapping exercises to feel calm and confident, and I also listened to Megan Thee Stallion on repeat.” 

Despite some of the jitters and mental preparations that come before taking the stage, it all felt somewhat natural to the comedian. “The stage is probably the only place where I can’t overthink things and I need to live in the moment,” she says. “When I walk onstage, I let the adrenaline hit, and then when I walk offstage, I always feel proud for putting it all out there.” 

You can stream We Ride at Dawn on Netflix right now for more of Berner’s raunchy jokes, about everything from marrying a zaddy to unrealistic sex scenes in movies.