Hannah Berner’s new year began with Variety announcing in January she had just inked a deal with Netflix to record her first comedy special.
Captured as an hour-long set, it tapes March 23 during her show at The Fillmore music hall in Philadelphia.
In 2023, Variety named 32-year-old Berner as one of the publication’s “10 Comics of the Year to Watch.”
Her comedy special taping comes just three weeks after her stage debut at 7 p.m. March 1 playing the 2,700-seat stage at Hard Rock Casino Northern Indiana, which she describes as “also a homecoming to see family.”
“My brother Daniel lives in Munster with his wife Jeanie and their 1-year-old daughter Lois,” said Berner, speaking by telephone in February from her home in New York.
“I was just back at Christmastime in Munster to visit them and be an aunt. I love being back in the Chicago area and spending time with family. I even talk about being an aunt and family life when on stage.”
It was in March 2019 when Berner began to earn acclaim when she joined the third season cast of “Summer House” airing on Bravo network, and continuing in the cast for two more seasons through the season five finale which aired in April 2021. The show chronicled the lives of personalities living together for the summer in Southampton, New York.
Already finding success as her own comedy and influencer brand, the following year she was named one of Just For Laughs’ 2022 New Faces, and she furthered her outreach by directing, editing, and acting in videos on Instagram and writing viral tweets.
Today, her two podcasts, “Giggly Squad” and “Berning Phone,” have more than 50 million combined downloads. She was also a co-host on “Bravo’s Chat Room,” and now has more than 4 million followers across her social media platforms.
“I have a hilarious family and that helps so much for comedy ideas and what I want to talk about with audiences,” Berner said.
“I also grew up watching a lot of comedy, and some of my favorites were guys like Chris Rock and Katt Williams.”
Another of her inspirations is talk show host and comedian Chelsea Handler, who is also bringing her dry wit and perfectly paused comedic delivery to Hard Rock Casino Northern Indiana for one show April 26.
“At times, it already feels like my life and career have come full circle, and I love to use a Chelsea Handler story as an example,” Berner said.
“I was a guest on Chelsea’s podcast in December around the holidays, and I told her this story. She didn’t really remember me that I met her about 10 years ago, right after college, when I was working giving tennis lessons and Chelsea came to our club and friends and I played tennis doubles with her.
“But she did remember the tennis lessons. If I were to tell myself back then, that person who was that 22-year-old tennis pro, that a decade later, I’d be doing Chelsea Handler’s podcast, I wouldn’t have believed it.”
Berner said she embraced the internet during the start of the early pandemic years in 2020 and 2021 as her primary tool for reaching audiences for her brand of comedy.
“When you’re a female comic starting out, it feels very unsafe working clubs late at night and all of the traveling that comes with it,” Berner said.
“Creating my comedy and content and using online to share it was a great way to reach new audiences and all ages.”
Meeting her future husband, Irish-American comedian Des Bishop, 16 years her senior, during the start of the pandemic, the couple had a six-month engagement and married in 2022
Berner said she describes much of her comedy sets as “fairly family friendly.”
“I can be naughty at times,” Berner said.
“But I’m really not that bad. Much of my humor is observational from the life I see around me. But sometimes, my comedy can make people blush.”
Hannah Berner
When: 7 p.m. March 1
Where: Hard Rock Casino Northern Indiana, 5400 W. 29th Ave., Gary
Cost: $29.50
Information: 219-228-2383; hardrockcasinonorthernindiana.com/entertainment
Philip Potempa is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
