Doug Benson: the multi-tasking, pot-headed comedian strikes

by Tim Hammill

There’s this comic that claims he smokes a lot of pot. But then those commercials warning us that marijuana leads to nothing but self-inflicted couch arrest make little sense. It seems unlikely that the man in question can indulge in mounds of the green stuff and still somehow get off the sofa in time to be seen every week on Best Week Ever, co-write and star in The Marijuana-logues and star in his own widely released documentary, Super High Me. Not to mention put out his debut album, Professional Humoredian. Meet Doug Benson: the leader of the new breed of pot heads.

It’s been a while since there’s been a solidly silly comedy album that’s heavy on laughs. Nick Swardson came close last year with his Comedy Central release, Party but in the end, too many feces-themed jokes and sophomoric sketches weighed it down. But LA-based Doug Benson does it right on Professional Humoredian, the latest from Aspecialthing Records (who have brought us albums from Paul F. Tompkins, the Sklar Brothers and Jen Kirkman).

As he tells you at the start of the album, you may know Benson from VH1’s Best Week Ever where he says things like “Did you hear Britney Spears is getting back together?” or from him finishing in sixth place on last year’s Last Comic Standing or from the Marijuana-logues, the pro-pot stage show he co-wrote with comedians Arj Barker and Tony Camin.

Tangential success aside, however, Benson is first and foremost a skilled comic who just gets it. He gets that you could be goofy without being stupid, intelligent without being preachy or heavy handed and just be plain funny by toying around with inflection, bending words and rewriting traditional verbal cadences. Lucky for us, Benson put down the pot pipe long enough to chat with Punchline Magazine about his new album, why he hopes Britney Spears doesn’t die anytime soon and why the world will never embrace him as the next Ebert or Roeper

The name of your new CD is Professional Humoredian, when do you think comedy became a profession for you?
I would say, five or six years after I started. In the early going especially, living in Los Angeles was tough because I had to support myself. I had various jobs to help pay rent like being a stand-in and a tour guide at Universal Studios. Those jobs gave me enough time so I could do comedy. It took a while for me to develop enough of an act. Once I did, I was fortunate enough to hit during a comedy boom. Back then, I could actually make some money, touring as an emcee. I was able to get a lot of experience working as an opener, and recently I was able to make the leap to headliner.

When do you know that something you’ve written is going to get a laugh?
Usually I don’t test it out too much. I come up with something and get excited about it. I might run it by one person but not always. Just because I’m excited about it doesn’t mean it’s going to work. I don’t try stuff out on friends, especially comedian friends. They’ll say, ‘Why are you trying a joke out on me?’ And whenever you say, ‘Hey what do you think of this joke?’ the reaction is always going to be eschewed. The key element in humor is surprise. I just try stuff onstage. Actually a lot of writing happens onstage. You add and adapt your material based on the laughs you get up onstage.

Did you approach the recording of this album differently than you would any other set?
I made references and jokes to making the CD. But that’s about it. I wanted the CD to represent exactly where my act was at that night. I’m used to doing 45 minute sets four to five times a week. With each night the act changes, now that night is captured on CD. The next night is going to be different than the night before. So I tried to capture where my act was on that particular night, which just so happened to be 4/20.

The plan is to do a CD every year on that date. I had never done a CD before, but I realize maybe I should have been doing them. It’s crazy because it’s a great way to get my material out there to people who live in cities that I don’t make it out to. I think we’re going to do the CD in a different city every year too.

Why did you decide to the show in LA?
I agree LA crowds can be tricky. The element of doing it on 4/20 helped me in that respect though. I also had some of my friends on the lineup so the crowd didn’t feel like they were paying to get into a CD recording. So it worked out well.

On the CD you say, ‘I hope Britney Spears doesn’t die before my CD come out. Well, she lived long enough,]. How’s that make you feel?
Well, I hope she stays alive long enough not to make that a depressing reference.

Do you stay up on your pop culture for your gig at Best Week Ever or because you’re really into that stuff?
I do it naturally. I’m a huge movie fan. I really like reality TV, though I’m not into gossip magazines or Britney. VH1 makes it easy on me though, they send an email to me and say this is what you’re going to talk about. Then when you get down to the studio they actually show you the clips. I don’t have to stay that much on top of it. But I know enough to know what I’m talking about.

As a respected critic of film (see video below), were you upset that you weren’t considered for the Ebert & Roeper gig?
How do you know I wasn’t considered? No, I guess my reviews are too short and too angry. We’re going to be doing a bit in the fall for Best Week Ever called Doug Benson Reviews the Latest Movies in Eight Words or Less. But as far as At the Movies goes, I mean they took out the thumbs— the institution has been ruined. I didn’t really care for Roeper but I got used to him. They didn’t change the format; they just added him. Now they’re adding more bells and whistles to the show. It’s gonna to be like Entertainment Tonight. But I also hear they’re going to add like a critics roundtable and that could be interesting.

For the your film you released this year, Super High Me, you got high every day for 30 days to study the effects of habitual pot use. How different is that from an ordinary 30 days in your life?
Normal day-to-day life I am a moderate to heavy smoker. For the movie I had to crank it up 30 to 40 percent. I would smoke like that if I didn’t have any responsibilities. I smoke a lot more when I am on the road because I’m just sitting around in a hotel room.

What are your thoughts on The Inalienable Rights Enforcement Initiative that could make buying marijuana in California as legal as buying alcohol?
I love it. Count me in. Sounds great but also sounds like something that won’t pass. We got the medical thing been passed but saying that it’s for medical use, makes it easier on the voters. They don’t have a problem getting behind it because it’s for medical use. People will be afraid of that.

But if you remove the medical element, people will think society will go straight to hell because we’re just selling weed to anyone and everyone just for the purpose of getting high. Even though it’s hard to imagine how a pot smoker can ruin someone else’s life, it is still an issue to some. To most people it’s a non-issue though, those people who just smoke every once and a while at a party and see how it easy it is to get access to it.

Listen to a track from Professional Humoredian:

For more info, check out myspace.com/doug_benson; to buy his album head over to Aspecialthing.com.