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Depth Charge
Owen Benjamin makes his mark with debut hour-long stand-up special
By Michael Shashoua / Jester editor-in-chief
Comedian Owen Benjamin, like fellow clean-cut looking comics Daniel
Tosh and Anthony Jeselnik, plays against appearance with darker
material. On his first hour-long special, “High Five Til It Hurts!”
which aired June 28 on Comedy Central and debuts as a CD-DVD album
on July 2, Benjamin may not go quite as far with the dark humor or
provocation as Tosh or Jeselnik. He uses a lighter touch.
Benjamin revs up with material that reminds one of a blander, late
1980s era stand-up boom kind of performer – dogs, driving, airports
and relationships. But his writing does more than those types of
comics did. In “Getting Pulled Over,” Benjamin imagines telling a
cop who pulls him over for talking on a cellphone while driving that
it’s legal for one-armed people to drive, so what does it matter
what he does with his “extra arm.” This puts more depth and
intelligence into the joke than one might have expected.
Benjamin also has another major talent in his arsenal – being able
to credibly channel pop and rock music performers to parody them.
The jokes here aren’t based on reproducing their sound note-for-note
like “Weird Al” Yankovic (no knock on “Weird Al” here, I’m just
explaining) but on commenting on something larger about how the
music is received by listeners. Benjamin pulls this off in several
short pieces that flow together: “Music/Timbaland,” “Beethoven,”
“Same Song Over Again” and “Eddie Vedder.” On that last one,
Benjamin observes that one of Pearl Jam’s early hits, “Yellow
Ledbetter,” is a favorite “dude” song – and what the words are, or
if there are even any decipherable words to it – doesn’t matter.
(Benjamin’s point of view, not mine…). He also gives a similar
treatment to tracks that Timbaland produced for Rihanna.
With this debut special, Owen Benjamin has established himself as a
performer with potential. He is currently a regular on the TBS
sitcom “Sullivan & Son” and has a list of comedic film credits in
small roles, but here he gets to show what he can do on his own.
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Feedback? Email shashouamedia@gmail.com or michael.shashoua@jesterjournal.com
© 2005-2018 Michael Shashoua