Ben Bankus contrasts Canada’s stifled comedy scene—where mask mandates, political correctness, and CBC’s "virtue signaling" funding (e.g., Colin Mockery, Tom Green) suppress bold humor—with Austin’s unrestricted, viral-friendly environment, citing Jared Nathan’s success on Kill Tony and his own shift to online sketches and stand-up. He mocks Doug Ford’s policies and Teresa Tam’s TV presence while criticizing CBC’s bias toward "woke" comedians like Kyle Sagan, who dominate galas like Just for Laughs. Bankus argues Canadian comedy thrives behind paywalls (like his Patreon) because censorship forces talent into underground, self-sustaining models. [Automatically generated summary]
I don't know what number this is, but Ben Banks is here.
He's back.
How are you, young Benjamin?
You don't know what number episode this is?
60-something, I think.
Would it be 69?
For you, maybe we can delay it to be 69.
Can we just make this episode 69?
And then if it's episode 66, you'll just do 68, and then you'll skip 69.
We'll see what we can do.
I think it's possible.
I'm not sure what.
I'm not sure anybody else will laugh.
What's going on, Rebel media viewers?
Rebel News.
It's been a while, Ben.
You took a big trip to Texas to do some open mics, I guess.
A couple podcasts here and there.
I watched you on Kill Tony.
How was it compared to Canada?
I'm sure everybody's asking you that, but the restrictions are leaving now.
We finally have a mask mandate ending date.
So just tell everybody what it was like being free for a while while everybody else wasn't.
It was amazing.
I tell everybody that.
They're like, how was Austin?
I'm like, it was amazing.
I mean, you didn't have to wear a mask.
People are like, in Texas, people are like, Austin, it's such a liberal city.
But compared to Canada, it's like, you know, the most conservative.
Well, whatever we think is conservative now, which is, of course, just the idea that you don't want to wear a mask.
That means you're conservative, even if you want to give money to like children.
That's true.
Charities.
You could be like, you give to charities and be like a philanthropist.
And if you walk into your condo building without a mask on, people will just assume that you are an alt-right maniac.
Well, you are.
Maybe you should move a bit closer here.
So when you're down there, what?
I want me to look at you.
I don't want to look at you.
Well, you don't have to.
I'm going to look at you on the screen.
That's fine.
That's fine.
You look very cool.
Like a pilot almost.
A pilot from like 1993 who got.
It never works out when I try to be the funny one, so I'll stop.
Sounds like you're coming onto me a bit, but that's okay.
You look like a pilot.
A pilot?
I feel like I'm watching Tom Gun.
Which still hasn't come out, by the way, the new one.
There's a new Top Gun?
Yeah, he filmed it like a couple years ago.
What's it about just giving Ukrainians old planes?
Trying to train random farmers to fly fire.
He fly MiGs.
I think he flies in one of those jets that can go hypersonic into space, like into the ionosphere or whatever it is.
But Tom Cruise actually flew jets in this one.
Well, okay.
Well, I'll finish telling you about Austin.
Okay.
Because we could get into all kinds of Ukrainian, Bulgarian, the war in Bulgaria.
Is it in Bulgaria?
No.
Yeah, Austin's a great place to go.
It's not as big as Toronto.
I don't think, I think it has its disadvantages.
Like, people, you know, want you to just be like, it's the best thing ever.
Like, it does have its disadvantages.
Toronto has a better transit system.
Toronto has more options for food.
More, I think Toronto is actually almost cheaper in some ways when you consider how many people are moving to Austin.
But yeah, it's living in a place that doesn't have restrictions feels normal.
And people are going to realize that once I already see it on people's faces.
They're walking around with their mask off.
Wow, everybody's out and we're just walking along Bloor Street or we're walking along Young Street.
Wow.
And it's like, yeah, that's why you were insane and depressed for the last two years because you didn't have that.
It's important to live a normal life.
It's important to not be worried.
It's not that, you know, wearing a mask is whatever.
It's just the idea that you're constantly in fear of if I don't put my mask on, somebody's going to say something because that's 90% of people who wear the mask are wearing it because they don't want to get in trouble.
They don't want somebody to be annoying towards them.
They're not wearing it because they're like, oh my God, I care so much about my neighbor and I care about, you know, I'm really worried about what could happen if I don't wear a message.
No, it's just because I don't want to get in a confrontation at the LCBO.
So I have it on.
Why Stay?00:03:03
David Menzies is no stranger to that.
I don't know if you've been watching LCBOs.
Oh, okay, because it's green screen.
David Menzies loves excursions to the L CBO.
Leave that in.
Don't cut that out.
Okay, that's fine.
We'll leave the water bottle in.
For what reason?
I don't know.
No Votopuzzels.
Did you get a lot of those typical questions?
Oh, what's it like being Canadian?
Oh, do you love Justin Trudeau?
What's the number one thing somebody from Texas is asking a Canadian?
Mostly people would be like, where are you from?
I'd be like, Canada.
I'd be like, oh, sorry about that.
They like felt bad for me.
Honestly, that's literally what it was.
They're like, oh, yikes.
So I saw you on Kill Tony, one of my favorite things.
Nobody cares about Canada.
People are like, what was nobody's like, what's Canada like?
They were just like, oh, you have legal weed?
That's great.
We also have that in certain states, but not here.
Something I was thinking about was, well, first of all, the guy you brought down there with you, what was his name?
The guy you did, the special needs guy, I'll say, you did skits with, and he was Jared Nathan?
Jared Nathan.
I didn't bring him down.
No, you didn't.
Well, I mean, I so when I did the park shows, if people don't know anything about me, which you probably don't, I, the reason I'm sitting here is because I did something illegal.
And I did comedy shows in parks when we had our most intense lockdowns in 2020.
And yeah, we had thousands of people come out to the park shows, whatever.
So I put Jared, Jared, I knew for a long time, Jared Nathan.
And he did the park shows.
And that's where he met Jason Rouse, who's a Canadian comic, longtime comic.
He's been in Just for Laughs.
He's done all the festivals.
He's toured the world doing comedy.
Now lives in Austin, hangs out with Tony Hinchcliffe and Brian Redband.
And yeah, so Jared met him at those park shows.
And Jason brought me actually last year down to Texas.
And then this year he brought down Jared Nathan.
And Jared killed it.
Jared did a week.
The first time it was going to be only for a week, but then he got on Kill Tony his first time.
The same night I got on, actually.
Except he got to go on 12 times after that.
Because, you know, they were just like, this guy is awesome.
You know, he's, you know, his deal.
He's got a stutter and some potential special needs, but he's also, you know, just a hilarious dude.
So he really impressed everybody down there and he had a great time.
And yeah, I think he's still there.
The first time he raised money on a GoFundMe, he raised like 10 grand.
And then Trudeau took it.
Yeah, Trudeau took his GoFundMe because he didn't wear a mask.
No, he got the money.
It was a legitimate GoFundMe.
And so he stayed an extra week and now he's staying there a month.
I stay there for four months.
Expensive Gig Jokes00:15:00
I mean, it's expensive.
You know what I mean?
I went with my girlfriend and, you know, she doesn't want to stay in, you know, like a room in some guy's house.
So it's not exactly cheap.
When you think about, and I've been thinking about this a lot lately, when you think about doing work down there or potentially moving there in the future to do work, do you think it's better to go down to someplace like that and be part of something and try to, you know, whether it's building it up with a group of people, other comics, or doing something on your own?
Do you think it's better to go down there and do that?
Or do you think it is almost better to try to stay around here and like be the guy?
Because you have the potential, I think, if you're here to be the guy, whereas if you go back down to Texas permanently, then there's this whole other scene where you're like, you've got the Tony Hanchcliffe's and the Rogans and all these people who are into the stratosphere almost now.
Would you rather almost be here and be the guy?
Well, I think there's an opportunity to be the guy in both places.
I think even both places at once.
I mean, if you know, if you can freely move between the two places, there's no reason that, you know, it's not that expensive of a flight.
I mean, the PCR, obviously, but I think they're going to be getting rid of that soon.
So, and it's not that long of a flight to go down to Austin or most of the states for that matter.
So, you know, I think there's a potential to be the guy in Austin too.
Obviously, I'm not going to be Rogan or I'm not going to be Tony Hinchcliffe.
Those are established names.
But, you know, working with Tony or working with Rogan is a possibility there.
And, you know, that can kind of establish you as like the guy on a lower level than them.
Like, obviously, you're not that the guy, but you're the guy that's also still doing other people's shows because Tony and Rogan, they're probably not going to come out and do some show for 30 bucks.
But if you're opening for Rogan, you might come and do that show.
So there's still that potential to be the guy.
And as far as Toronto, the problem here is that we don't have any tourism right now.
And I think a lot of comedy really, you know, benefits from tourism.
And, you know, people coming to the city for a night, they go to a show, they have fun, and then they leave, right?
Right now, we just basically you can only pull locals to come to shows or like people are driving.
Like I've had a couple people drive like two hours actually to come to my shows, which is awesome.
Thank you for doing that.
But you see what I'm saying?
Like we don't have like in New York City or in Austin, this constant flow of tourists being like, what do we do tonight?
What do we do tonight?
Going on event, Eventbrite type websites and finding comedy shows and like people are packing them out there.
And they're charging like, you know, people who don't have huge followings but are good at stand-up are charging 30 bucks for showcase shows where it's like seven or eight comics doing 10 minutes each charging 30 bucks US for that.
And that's why if you want to come see me, you know, it's, I'm charging 30 bucks Canadian, which is only like $23 US when you think about it.
So people will be like, it's 30 bucks.
I know that like the dollar's crashing.
My hair looks weird for a second.
My girlfriend's going to watch this and be like, you didn't do your hair properly.
You didn't shave your beard.
You wore your jacket insert.
You were my jacket insert.
No, this isn't a jacket insert.
It's like a, it's supposed to look like it is.
I don't know.
It's from two years ago.
I don't know what's in style anymore.
I'm going to go to Dufferin Mall after this and get kicked out.
Go to Champs without a mask on and learn about style again.
No, but anyway, comedy in Toronto is hard to sell in the same way that you can do it in a town where people want to come to all the time.
And now if Toronto becomes open more and we start having tourists again, because I remember when I started comedy in Toronto, a lot of my shows were doing stand-up for people who had hostels and like, or there was just people from, you know, all over the place from Australia, from Europe, you know, Spain, from Mexico.
And then there's all the exchange students that would come here.
I don't think that's happening right now, just with, you know, with everything that's happened in the last while.
So To answer your question, I think you can become the guy in both places, but Toronto is not as easy to do.
Because in Toronto, like the equivalent of getting on Rogan is like, I guess maybe like this, or like doing Ezra's show, I don't know who has the biggest podcast in Canada.
My friend Jack Denmo has a big podcast.
He's got like a million subscribers on YouTube.
He does videos kind of like Nelk Boys where he goes up to girls and, I don't know, says something funny and they do something or whatever.
You know, we don't have a Rogan.
We don't have anybody.
And if you want to get on CBC, you obviously have to adhere to some sort of rules, which, you know, I kind of thought about it and I was like, why if, okay, the CBC knows I exist, you know, they know that I'm funny.
They know I have a following.
I had to gain it back because Instagram literally deleted it.
But they could, you know, they could be like, hey, do you want to do something?
But maybe you have to, you know, not say this or not say that.
Or, you know, and maybe I could have that decision.
Do I want to work with them or do I not?
But I don't think it doesn't work like that.
You literally have to virtue signal your way into it.
It's not like you can be talented enough that they'd be like, hey, I know you said some stuff.
You know, like if it was norm or something, you know, like Canada missed out on a lot of, has missed out on a lot of talent because they just went, we can't have him on.
He's too much.
And then they just go to the States and become famous.
So.
Yeah, there really isn't a thing here.
There really isn't like a giant podcast here.
And I would hope to.
Definitely not this one.
Oh, you're going to make me swear on my own show.
I usually reserve my cursing for a while.
Your hair looks incredible, though.
Thank you.
My girlfriend told me I look like a cart 3D animation the way my hair is right now.
You look like a hockey coach in the GTHL or something.
Just yelling at kids.
Asking for vaccine passports.
The other thing I wanted to ask you about is Trudeau obviously in the news a lot the last like, let's say three, four months for his trucker convoy stuff.
He'll never get out of style for Blackface.
And then, of course, the previous election behind that.
And now we're still behind in the Western world in terms of all lockdowns.
Hawaii is the only other one in there lifting everything before us in terms of restrictions.
How much of your content do you want to continue to be political?
Or do you just want, does it matter?
Do you want to just go back to being a comedian like you were before all this happened?
Or do you see like your Trudeau stuff?
I think the Doug Ford one is the best stuff you do politically of all of them.
Do you want to keep doing that forever?
Because that would be a thing that you would think that one of these shows would want you to do for them.
It's a good question.
Hawaii.
What about Hawaii?
They just lifted their mask mandate before us.
Oh, I see.
And they were the last state to do so.
The last state.
Okay, I see.
Okay.
What was the last part of the question again?
This would like doing all the political comedy would be a way to get on one of these shows.
Well, yes and no.
I mean, I grew up with political comedy.
I grew up watching, you know, this is going to sound whatever, but I grew up watching Colbert rapport.
I grew up watching The Daily Show.
You know, when I was a kid, it was on after South Park, I think, or like before South Park or something like that.
It was on Comedy Central.
It was kind of uncensored compared to now.
And it was basically making fun of the government's lies at the time about Iraq and the Iraq war and like all kinds of stuff that was going on.
Completely, you know, what we have now is like the similar thing, but like on the other end of the spectrum, right?
So, and I was making political jokes like before the pandemic.
You know, I was, I was doing bits about the Wetzuettan protesters and how it was all like white people doing it.
And then there was also like teachers protesting at the same time.
And it was like, are the teachers?
Anyway, so I was doing bits about anything that I think that is people are thinking and talking about, I think is worth joking about.
Now, I think specifically maybe the question would be like, are you going to continue doing COVID bits or like stuff about the pandemic?
Eventually, no, like as it gets older.
I mean, I'm still doing jokes about Kobe's deaf.
So, I mean, but I'm trying to get rid of, like, I've been working, like, it takes a long time to work on stand-up jokes.
Takes a year.
It takes two years till it's like so good that you're like, this now is perfect to be seen by like the masses on Instagram.
Right.
And sometimes I'll take a chance and I'll just be like, let's just post this version of it.
I had a video where I said that I had a joke where I was like, especially after like what happened with Joe Rogan, I was like, well, I guess, you know, I guess white people still can't say the N-word, you know, and then the joke was, well, even though we, you know, kind of created it or whatever.
And then I was like, you know, it's kind of cultural appropriation, whatever.
It's a joke.
And it worked really well.
And there was like a guy in the crowd who was like, didn't know what to do.
And he was kind of, he was like a black dude.
And we were kind of, and then he just loved it.
And I've made fun of him.
Anyway, the video got like 500,000 views on Instagram.
So I think it's like there is, you know, whatever's popular, like I think it got those views because of the Rogan thing.
But I already had that joke.
I don't know if that makes me look bad or not.
But I already had that joke.
But at the time, it's just like that, the timing of that's good, right?
So I think it's less about how political you are and more just the timing of stuff now.
And I think it's unfortunate in some ways because I feel like a lot of comics are catching on to that.
And a lot of comics are becoming kind of critics of the times.
But I think that that's indicative of the times.
We need people to make fun of shit because it's so crazy that if we don't, then people will lose their minds.
If you just go on stage and you just totally pretend like the last two years didn't happen, the audience picks up on that.
Or if you have like an opinion of the last two years that's very all about being safe and, you know, we were making sure to be safe and it's not really funny and it's mostly just about how you are safe, the audience will hate it.
So does that answer the question?
Yeah, I don't know.
Was there a difference in what offended audiences down there as opposed to here or vice versa?
Were you able to be less safe down there?
It's funny.
Like, I don't know.
People there get, I had one guy get triggered, triggered, trickered.
He was like, I don't know, but he had like tattoos on his face.
So I don't know if he was the best judge of what the general populace, he was upset because I have a joke about Kobe and whatever.
And he, he was like, don't you ever, like, what happened to Kobe and his daughter?
Like, you should never make fun of it.
And I was like, whatever.
But people are pretty open to laughing at things.
And I think the woke, like, woke people in Austin who think they're woke aren't woke.
Like, they'll laugh at things that are bad and be like, but they'll be like, oh, that's horrible.
Like, you know, obviously I wouldn't say that at work or whatever, but I can laugh at it at a comedy show.
Whereas here, people are like, I can't say it at work, so I won't be laughing at it at a show, and I won't be enjoying myself, and I won't see through the, you know, no.
And then there's people that won't.
Like, I was just in Oshawa, and people had an amazing time.
Somebody had a few messages.
People are like, thank you so much.
You know, I've done, I've been to so many shows that are so politically correct recently.
I didn't even, I thought I lost faith in comedy.
I was so happy that you weren't politically correct.
And, you know, so people want it.
There's an appetite for it.
It's just becoming like, you know, it's like gasoline.
It's like, that's why I have to make it expensive, more expensive to come see me than to see somebody else because of Putin.
That's why my shows are more expensive.
What's the comedic take on Russian Ukraine now?
What are you working on for that?
Did you put it?
Have there been any Putin voiceovers?
Why don't you?
You should really do this.
This looks better.
What do you want me to do here?
This and then this?
Up and under?
Pull it down.
Yeah.
All right, up and under now.
Like a regular microphone.
At first, the funniest thing to say, I think, was that it's fake.
That was the funniest thing you could say for like a week.
It was like, this is fake.
Which is, it was the same with COVID.
That was like the funniest thing you could say for like a few weeks at the beginning.
Just in general conversation or on stage.
Obviously, it's bad.
I think the comedic take is kind of like I said with COVID, it's like you have to ingrain it in the bit.
It's like because it's part of what's happening right now, you kind of have to just mention it within whatever else is happening.
But I've seen a lot of comics go on stage going like, Russia's at war.
The audience is, you know, you got to have something like the punchline has to be that.
Like I made fun of there was like this big fat like Ukrainian guy in the audience and I was like, this guy looks like the whole Ukrainian army right now.
And like it was so funny because he was sitting at the front and you, if you were behind him, you could just see the most Ukrainian looking back and like head.
So everybody laughed.
It's not really making fun of the war.
It's just adding it in.
Do you see as much?
This is my take on it.
People have made the Ukrainian bride joke a million times.
Like that's hack.
Like, well, there's going to be a lot of Ukrainian mail order, bro.
It's cheap.
Do you see as much virtue signaling about it as I see about like supporting Ukraine?
Ukrainian War Jokes00:04:38
In what sense?
That this is the greatest travesty in the world and Ukraine's completely innocent.
Well, I mean, like, this is like no country's innocent, but like the people are innocent.
Of course, yeah.
But the people who are getting like injured, I think, are innocent, or the people who are having to flee are innocent.
Yeah, but there's a lot of, I mean, the virtue signaling, it's just the same with BLM.
Like, people don't even, they'll put a black square up and you'll be like, you know, that like eight white dudes got like murdered today by BLM people in like some random city riot.
And they'll be like, yeah, well, I'm going to still keep the BLM square up.
You know what I mean?
So it doesn't matter.
People are doing what they're told.
This is, this is just what they, you know, they're told to care about it.
They care about it.
Now, there's a lot of Ukrainians in Canada and there's a lot of Russians and I'm sure a lot of them watch Rebel and they know for a fact that this is horrific.
And it's horrific for Ukrainians and Russians who are in the diaspora on both sides because they want to watch Russians want to watch Russian TV if they live in Steeles and Bathurst or whatever.
And Grandma Babushka wants to watch her regular Russian TV and now it's banned.
Right.
So that's not great.
You know, is she a threat?
Like, is she going to watch an RT video and be like, no.
So, like, you know, and then on the other side, like, the Ukrainians, like, now it's like they're worried about their family members, probably families moving here.
There's all this.
I think one of the funny takes that I've done on it is that we kind of realize that Canada is a racist country because nobody on either side has said, like, let's not take in these Ukrainians.
You know what I mean?
Like, whenever they're like, oh, there's a war in Yemen, like, let's take in Yemeni.
And then, like, some people on one side will be like, well, you know, some of those guys, they're kind of battle-hardened.
And, you know, they might, they know how to use guns and they might be, they might be terrorists.
And the Ukrainian refugees, everybody, like people on both sides, like, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's great.
More pierogies.
So I think that's a funny take that you can have.
That you can have if you're allowed to.
I think that a lot of this stuff isn't allowed right now.
And that's why it's become another thing where I think that you're not allowed to have a conversation about it.
I mean, we are right here.
We're doing it.
And we're doing it, but you're not going to find it anywhere else in Canada, I think.
You can can't name me one other news.
Not on the news.
It's like, yeah, not on regular TV.
You can't tune in and have some, they'll be like, we have a comedian in who, what do you think of Ukraine?
And I'm just like, well, it's fake.
No, they can't have that.
But obviously I'm joking about that.
But even if I said that, they'd be so like, oh my God, like alarm bells.
It's like, I'm joking.
Obviously, it's not fake.
It's funny to say, think that it's fake.
And if anything, that's almost a left-wing joke because I'm like making fun of the people who said that the pandemic was fake.
You know what I mean?
So I think there is, I think the Ukraine thing is bringing both sides.
I think it's lessening the polarization and whether that's done intentionally or not.
And you can argue all kinds of conspiracies.
But at the end of the day, I think a war with anybody right now, especially a white-on-white war, which I think a lot of people, young people, are seeing for the first time, they haven't seen a white-on-white war.
They've seen, you know, us going into Iraq, us going into Afghanistan, going into all these countries of people of different races and just being like, you know, now you have just white people who look almost identical.
I know some Ukrainians, we look nothing like they look almost identical and they're just blowing each other up.
So I think that it kind of makes everybody who is like COVID crazy on one side and on the other side, they're like, let's get rid of, you know, let's go back to normal.
I think they're kind of coming slowly.
We're going to come back to the two sides not being as polarized.
You know, I know in the States there's a push for why, you know, some people, some far-right people are like, we shouldn't give them any money and we shouldn't.
And it's like, well, I don't know.
Like, I'm not a politician.
I just know how it's affecting me.
If I was getting blown up right now, I'd maybe, that's why COVID gave everybody this opportunity to really have an opinion.
Opportunities In Viral Comedy00:08:27
Everybody's like, you're not a doctor.
You're not, yeah, but I'm being affected by it personally.
You wouldn't say that to somebody in the Ukraine who's getting bombs dropped on them.
And you're like, well, you're not a general.
So you don't really know what's, you know what I mean?
Like, and like, I know there will be people out there being like, hopefully they do.
The comedian makes comparison to bombs being dropped to having to be in COVID lockdown for two years.
Yeah, well, it was pretty bad.
People did take their own lives.
So, you know, just because war is worse than being in lockdown for the majority of two years and losing all your money and your business doesn't mean that that wasn't all so bad.
And luckily, people in Ukraine didn't even really do that.
I don't even think they, do they even have a lockdown?
Nobody wears a mask there.
They have like one of the lowest vaccination rates in all of Europe.
What are the odds we get a new sketch comedy show or something in Canada?
I think you should start that.
Well, I'm working on some stuff.
Oh, really?
Yeah.
I'm working on putting out a special.
I'm working on putting out some more content, some more filmed content.
But the thing is, you know, it's tough if it's like, okay, you make a bunch of stuff on your iPhone or you have a little bit more quality.
I feel like if you have a little bit more quality when people come to see you, there's a little bit more, you know, it's not just, I just watch this guy make videos on his iPhone every day, which is great.
And you can get a bajillion followers from that.
I don't know.
Maybe I should do that.
Maybe I should just be like Gary Vee style.
But, you know, some days I wake up, I'm like, do I, you know, I don't want to force funny all, you know, and at the same time, I'm always working on something, whether it's my podcast, which you can listen to for free on all platforms, the Ben Bankus podcast, or you can find at benbankus.com, whether it's my Patreon bonus episodes, which I give to people so that they can have eat food so you can pay me $5 a month, which is at patreon.com slash Ben Bankus, which you can go sign up right now.
Or I'm working on my show, my physical shows, live shows, or I'm working on doing like a silly dub video.
I like doing videos where my face isn't in it.
Like, I really wish I was a, became, like, had a cartoonist friend who could draw me.
I'd love to do a cartoon because it's so fun to do little silly voices over images and videos versus, you know, having to actually act.
And then you need lights and stuff.
You need all this stuff, which is great.
You know, I have some good sketches out there.
I think I would watch a political cartoon of all the world leaders.
That'd be interesting, I think.
Well, the Ryan Long method seems to be both a new and workable method where you have this online following from all these sketches, and then you turn that into.
I'm pretty sure he was doing stand-up before his sketches got big, but that's turned into him being this huge name.
And his special just came out.
And it seems like he can get a good tour going.
So I think there's merit in putting out all these sketches or an iPhone video or whatever or getting together with other people and gaining a following that way.
Having said that, going back to my question about whether it's better to be here or to be down there, I think there's a real opportunity here.
And I know I'm fathering you here a little bit to do that sort of stuff because I don't think there's any other people doing anything like that here.
There's no sketch comedy show that anybody watches.
There's no kids in the hall.
Nobody watches this hour is 22 minutes.
I don't even know what the last show, there was like some CBC all-women sketch comedy show the last time.
I think I talked about that, like two years ago.
Do you remember what that was called?
No, but the thing is, nobody, I don't think anybody watches anything here.
You know, another problem.
People just watch, they go home, they scroll Instagram until they're cross-eyed, or they watch Netflix, some horrible show that they get into because they hate their lives, or they watch this, or they watch Rebel, and they just, you know, they get angry and they go, why is everything so bad?
Or then they go watch CBC after and they go, ah, I hate this.
I hate everything.
Not a lot of, you know, there's no, not like when I grew up and I watch comedy now and it was like comics doing stand-up for, you know, that were Canadians.
They used to get some money for it.
Like, I know it wasn't a lot.
It was probably like two or five grand to do that special.
But that's how that's how Russell Peters, that special went viral on YouTube for him.
So, without that, like, if he had been doing it now, he would have had to make his, like, now YouTube is so far along that it's, it's not like when Russell Peters went viral on YouTube, it was just YouTube was new.
It was, it was a new thing to do to go viral.
Now, people are going viral every five seconds with, you know, I just listened to Mr. Beast on Joe Rogan, and all the guy does, everything's like, we're giving away a thousand puppies to like a hundred people in like 10 seconds.
You know, it's like, how, what am I supposed to compete with that?
Like, all I'm doing is giving social commentary on what's going on.
I'm not, you know, or making fun of my own life or talking about funny things.
You know, I'm not like, anyway, there is opportunity here for sure.
I am going to be starting more of that.
But even Ryan's stuff is higher quality.
Like, he films it, edits it every week.
There's a sketch.
You know, he's not just doing like the, you know, I'm this guy.
Now I'm this guy.
And then I'm this guy.
You can't find a cameraman?
No, I can.
Exactly.
And I have a cameraman, but we're working on the podcast first.
So we've done my new producer.
Shout out to my new producer, Mike.
And he, you know, produces the podcast.
It looks amazing.
And we're slow.
We're doing this comedy special.
He's starting to film my stand-up.
And now we're going to start writing sketches and doing those sketches.
But this, you know, you want to pick a week and film like two or three, I think, just to get ahead of yourself.
And then the next week, you only have to film one.
And then you can kind of work at that pace.
I think that's a good way to really get the ball rolling.
And I think I'm in a good position to really move towards that.
I know you call it the Ryan Long model.
It's, you know, I think that it's just, it's really a lot of comics have, you know, Andrew Schultz came out with it for, you know, the idea of just putting out content and then, you know, gaining your following to the point where then people want to watch your stand-up.
And that's, that's really how you have to do it now.
It's the modern comedy way.
I know there's a lot of comics in Canada that are like, well, if I can just get with Yuck Yucks and then if I can just get, and it's like, yeah, but you need to, you know, Yuck Yucks will sell out for you on their brand, right?
Like they'll be like, here's the sold-out show.
You have to go kill now.
And that's what makes you, can make you so good and so strong at stand-up in Canada is that people go to stand-up, don't care who it is.
People do that in the States too, but not like they have the option to be like, or we could go see Rogan, or we could go see, you know, Jerry Seinfeld's in town or Tim Dillon or whatever.
You know, like we have those, those acts come through town once in a while.
We haven't, you know, but that's not, they don't live here, right?
So, yes, it's important to get with Yuck Yucks and become a headliner.
And that's how you get really good at stand-up, but you also have to have that online.
You want to get to the point where half the people at Yuck Yucks got sold out right away because they're your fans or the whole thing's getting sold out because it's your fans.
If you can do that, the only comics that have been able to do that in Canada sell out Yucks consistently for people coming to see specifically them is really Russell Peters.
Like he's like the last person to be able to sell out Yuck Yucks across the country based on when he had those videos going viral and people are like, how do we see this guy?
Stand-Up Success Strategies00:08:26
Right.
So it's, it's part of the game.
It's nuanced and you have to have, you have to become like a phenomenon.
I think the Teresa Tam videos kind of became a phenomenon a bit.
And the Doug Ford videos, like you said.
They can always come back.
But really, those videos are meant to make them screw off and let us live our lives.
They should watch those videos and be embarrassed and be like, this is funny.
What are we doing?
They shouldn't be like, ah, this is horrible.
How can this guy make fun of us?
It should be like, no, I look like a dork.
This is stupid.
Why are we obviously upsetting people?
And if they stop bothering us, then I don't think we can move on to make fun of whoever is pissing us off that day.
All right.
Now that we're behind the paywall, Ben.
Is this uncensored now?
It always was, but now we can say the extra YouTube illegal things and Twitter gender.
What?
This is uncensored now?
Not like fully, obviously.
Well, I don't care.
Yeah, well, yeah, we try to keep it clean enough that it'll go on YouTube.
And then the only thing you can't do on Twitter, I think, is the CBC wants, like, they benefit off of things like Rebel not getting money from the government because then you have to go out of your way to get money from people that watch.
And I think they use that against you to try to set, like, they try to like delegitimize being like, they have to have like, you know, they have to have people like donate to them.
It's like, you guys get 600, 700 million or billion or however.
That's exactly what a Patreon is.
We could open a Patreon page and it'd be the same thing.
And like everybody's got.
But they use it against you to be like, oh, well, they're just, you know, and it's like, well, yeah, but you, like, they could be doing such cooler stuff.
Like, what's, what does CBC do?
They get us, they get the Chinese guy to talk to Teresa Tam on a TV and then they get like four angles of it.
And she's just on a TV.
It's like, how is this in any way like good?
Like, I don't know where the taxpayer money is.
She's not even there.
How do we even know she's a real person if she's never actually in the room?
The funding, I think, just goes to these buildings.
I interned at CTV News and they get government money now ever since Trudeau.
And the size of the building that they share with TSN is just insane.
It's owned by Bell.
Like so much of their entire budget must go into just maintaining this building.
We can accomplish the same thing as the CTV newsroom in the back room back.
And wouldn't they not allow you to build your building because something, RBC something?
Oh, yeah.
RBC didn't let us buy, won't give us a loan for a building in Calgary.
Even in Calgary.
Yeah, even though the loan itself looked perfect, the guy said.
I'm paraphrasing, but the guy from RBC told Ezra that the loan's amazing.
Can we give you a couple more loans if you want to buy it?
Are you guys building stuff here?
Are you allowed to talk about it?
We can talk about it.
We're still trying to, like, the donations for the building.
We've been still this whole time trying to get a building.
People are going to look at buildings this week, wherever that may be in Calgary.
I don't know.
I've never been to Calgary.
But as of here, no, not right now.
We're not building anything, I don't think.
Unless that's way above my head, which it could be.
Yeah.
No, I think that Canadian, the Canadian people are being starved of like good entertainment, good, funny, talented people who are Canadian getting ahead.
I mean, there's a guy, there's this show on Amazon Prime right now that's like a bunch of Canadian.
Yeah, the one with Tom Green and Tom Green.
And like Tom Greens, apparently he's pretty good in it, whatever.
But there's like one guy who's like a young guy.
His name's Brandon Ash Muhammad.
And, you know, he's gay.
He's Muslim.
And he got the show because of, like, it's not, you know, he's not, it's not people, nobody ever watched him murder and was like, oh my God, this guy literally shook the foundation of this room with how funny that was.
They just go, well, he's funny enough and he fits these things, which is fine.
And, you know, good for him.
But I'm just saying that that's depriving Canada of, because I think 70% of people are going to watch that or more.
are going to watch that show and go, this guy's here because of that.
And that makes this show less funny.
And I'm not saying you need a white guy instead, but just pick, I have funny friends who are of all different backgrounds, races.
Jared Nathan, he's literally a Jew, special needs Jew.
I mean, you know, like.
Who else is on that?
Colin Mockery, that giant woman.
And it's probably okay.
Like, I mean, I'm just saying.
I don't know.
I have Amazon and I haven't watched it.
I'm just jealous that other people are getting paid to do comedy, but they're not actually doing it.
They just get to stand around and be told they're a comedian and not actually say anything funny.
Well, they went with people that have name recognition, but they're also the same people we've been seeing for 20 years.
Like Colin Mockery, God bless him, is so old.
Tom Green, I don't think he wants to do anything.
I'm surprised he was on that.
All I ever see him do is like camping out in an RV.
Well, it's just embarrassing that they're like, Canada, the funniest comedians in Canada.
We're going to pull washed up guys from the U.S.
And Colin Mockery, who just automatically gets probably $100,000 a year from royalties and all the shows that he did.
Wasn't he on the show with Wayne Brady?
Wayne Brady.
Whose line is it anyway?
Whose line is it anyway?
And he was funny as hell on that show.
And he is funny.
But are you going to, are young people going to watch this and go, Colin Mockery?
Wow.
I want to check out his pod.
Does he have a podcast?
Does he talk about anything relevant or that young people?
No.
And if he did, it would be a censored podcast nowadays.
He would have to be on a certain side to be part of CBC and all that.
If they had somebody like me on there who was a troublemaker, who was a shit disturber, who made people laugh, who was younger so that the younger generation – When I was 15, I only looked up to American comics.
I'm trying to think of any Canadian comic.
I liked Norm.
I liked Russell Peters, but they weren't around.
And there was no, even then, there was no Canadian.
We used to have a thing on Much Music.
There was a show called Video on Trial.
Right, right.
And that was the big show for a lot of Canadian comics to get on to make a little bit extra money.
They do it a couple of times a week.
They get like maybe a grand, whatever it was.
And they got some exposure.
But none of them used that to do anything on their own.
They only used it to, you know, like the one guy, Darren, he became, went into MTV.
Darren Jones.
Darren Jones.
Oh, God, he turned into such a social swarm.
I used to love him, but man, did he turn up?
He went into that realm, though, of guys who were like white guys who were like kind of edgy in like 2008 or whatever, and then they are 2010.
And then when the woke movement happened, they were like, well, good.
I'm glad I didn't really do that much stand-up or put any albums out because I won't get in trouble and I'll just keep playing this character of I'm just a innocent little white man who believes everything I'm told.
Went right to kiss 92.5 or whatever it was.
Right.
But I'm saying that anybody who did those video on trial things basically used it to either get further within the establishment career.
So like Deborah Giovanni and stuff like that, like they'll use it to be on, you know, part of Match Game and CBC.
But nobody watches these shows seriously.
They just know they exist.
They go, yeah, Canada has some show called Match Game.
Who's watching that?
Maybe people in seniors' homes who have dementia and don't know what's going on.
Is it just nobody's watching that and being like, this is amazing.
Even the family feud, the new family feud with Jerry D. Are people watching that?
I haven't seen a lot of clips about it.
Why We Left Hollywood00:06:24
I don't even think they film that much of it.
Well, is it just a case of like this government money's coming in?
Let's circulate it to the people that we like then are dedicated and are willing to be a soldier in our political cause.
Yeah.
Like, obviously, not overtly.
It's like the Hollywood model.
It's like the Hollywood model, except they have complete control where, you know, in Hollywood, like somebody, one guy could be like, hey, I don't agree with this.
Like here, if you say you don't agree or you say you support anything that's not what's happening, you know, like say somebody at this hour is in 22 minutes was just like stood up and was like, that actually happened.
I spoke to Kathy Jones.
There's an episode of Kathy Jones on my podcast, and she didn't really talk about that.
But, you know, she kind of was like, hey, like, I don't like the direction this is going in.
It's not as funny as it was.
It's too woke.
Everything's about like racist, you know, why the white guys are racist.
And like, that's every sketch.
And they basically said, well, like, okay, yeah, like, we'll just give you money and just don't work here anymore, but we'll pay you to like not complain, basically.
So that wouldn't happen, you know, now, like, with anybody else.
Like, if you were a new guy there, like, she'd been there for so long that they had, she had seniority that they'd be like, okay, we'll pay you off.
Kind of like, sorry, it's such a bad show, but we have to do it like this because this is what they're telling us to do.
But if I started there and a week in, somebody sent them a Teresa Tam, they'd be like, he's fired.
Like, they'd just be like, he's fired.
And it's like, he's fired for what?
Doing comedy that maybe was too offensive, but it was still comedy.
And so now what?
Now you're going to give money to all these, you know, they basically want you to quit.
They want me to quit comedy, delete everything I've ever made, and go disappear and go live in like Sarnia and work in like a factory or something.
That's that would like that would be best case scenario.
Did you see their Rebel News sketch a couple of years ago?
Yeah, with the Kian Becky.
Yeah.
That was kind of funny.
It was kind of funny, but like at the end of the day.
Some of their stuff's getting better, actually.
I watched a sketch recently and they did it against masks or something and it was actually kind of funny.
Are you sure that wasn't SNL?
No, it was them.
They did something against some, I don't know, people are worried.
I don't know what it was, but look, their quality is so good.
The quality is so good on their stuff that, you know, they have the potential to be doing so much more.
And, you know, hey, if they're watching this, there's no reason that they shouldn't like reach out to me.
Like, they don't have to.
Like, it's not like, oh, they reached out to me and now they're going to get canceled for reaching out to me.
They'd be like, hey, you're funny, but we, you know.
Well, you know exactly what would happen.
Here's a post from CBC where this hour is 22 minutes with Ben Beggis in it.
Hey, did you know he worked with Rebel News and he was anti-lockdown and he did illegal shows and he was against all this, that, and the other?
And then three people say that and they're like, oh, we apologize.
He'll never work here again.
But even if that happened, like that could be like my Shane Gillis moment.
You know what I mean?
So you want to get canceled, is what you're saying.
Well, even if I did, I'm saying that if they hired me and then they fired me because of a Teresa Tam video or because I was that would be headline news.
And then everybody would go, who the hell is this guy?
He got hired for two seconds, got fired.
Whereas, I mean, that happened to be actually at Rebel and nobody cared.
Two seconds.
I don't know about that.
No, I was here for what?
A couple of months?
Yeah.
I'm willing.
I'm like always, I'm always lying.
I'll hire you back.
I'll be your assistant.
You're always lurking in the background.
Final question.
What clip went the most viral?
My favorite one is the Doug Ford Tim Beebs one.
I watched it a hundred times.
That's the best one.
You know, I tried to go out and get Tim Beebs merchandise and none of the Tim Hortons had it.
I wanted to show up for work in the Tim Beebs fanny pack and I think Toque.
No, Tim Hortons had them.
I don't think the products ever existed.
Awful.
Honestly, the video of me doing the stand-up bit about saying the N-word has the 500.
Well, that wasn't the best friends with a black guy kit.
No, those videos did okay.
I mean, I'm consistently hitting like above 10K for most videos.
Some are like 40K.
Some of the better, like, Trudeau dubs are like 80, 100.
But my biggest video right now is that.
On my old account and my old TikTok, I had a million views on the first or one of the first Doug Ford ones I did where he had a mask on and he was like, we're closing her down, boys.
Tell Six Buzz Boys that we don't know what's going on here anymore.
Yeah, you want to do a voiceover right now?
We'll put Doug Ford over it.
Sure.
Can you do that on the screen?
Well, not right now, but we can put Doug Ford's image up.
But I don't know if we could fake you.
Okay, well, okay, introduce Doug Ford and then.
Ladies and gentlemen, the Premier of Ontario, Doug Ford.
Well, how's it going there?
Really happy we're opening up and saved a lot of money by not spending it on healthcare there, boys.
Anything else you want to say?
We can cut any clip for you, and it's going to get at least 50K, I promise you.
If you want to do one of your bits or do a joke from your routine, just talk to me like I'm Doug Ford, and I'll pretend to be Doug Ford right now and then put up his image over half of the screen and pretend like you're interviewing him.
Premier Ford, what took so long to lift the mask mandate?
Well, we had a lot of these soccer moms and Karens out there in Etobicoke and a couple of them there in Sarnia and they just kept calling every day and emailing us and saying, you know, we're really worried about the masks and we think we need to keep them on the kids.
And, you know, we listen to them and we listen to the people on Twitter who are really super far left.
And that's pretty much how we make our decisions.
But Premier, you've been photographed so many times not wearing masks, not following capacity limits, going to weddings.
How do you explain all that?
Well, you know, when you're out having a good time, sometimes you forget.
You know, we all remember my brother.
He'd like to have a good time.
Sometimes you forget what he would do.
And, you know, next thing you know, you're smoking a little bit of crack.
Thanks For Watching00:04:33
But I never did that.
So at least we had that.
But I would be at a party and sometimes we take it off.
And we knew everybody there was testing negative or how to negative PCR or triple, double vaccinated.
So we never really got that upset.
Last question to you, Premier.
Your daughters are notoriously come out against a lot of your policies.
Do you have any message for them?
How do you feel about that?
Well, you know, I don't talk to her anymore.
That's safe to say that.
Moved her out of the basement.
She thought she could live down there and do her little yoga studio and have a little cookie store down the street there in Etobicoke.
I said, you know, no way you're either getting vaccinated or you're getting the hell out of my house.
So that's what we do there.
And, you know, we don't talk to her anymore.
All right.
Thank you, good sir.
That's fun.
Great.
Now I pass you over to Terese Dam.
Trisha, I call her Trisha Tam now.
Why is that?
Because it's just more fun.
I just said I've said her name so many times.
Terese Tam.
Trisha Turn.
But it becomes.
Yeah, it becomes Trisha Tam.
Trish Tam.
What's Trisha talking about on TV there?
Oh, don't go side again.
That was pretty much.
That'd be hilarious if they did COVID all over again.
Like every time I'm just going to get more and more famous because all I do is make fun of this one person.
No.
This racist comedian.
Please check out my podcast, BenBankus.com.
And I will cut the clip of you telling me I have great hair over and over again.
Thanks for coming in.
I'm going to try to get you.
You look like you coach grade 11 soccer.
I wish.
You know, when I was just doing YouTube and I had $0 in my bank account, I was like, maybe I need to go back to my high school and become assistant basketball coach or something.
Wow.
I play basketball.
Am I getting paid for this?
You can have any food in the kitchen you want.
There's cake.
Fuck.
I'm on a diet.
There's...
I'll eat the cake.
There's cake.
There's cake?
Like, what kind of cake?
Just cake?
There was actually an ice cream cake from Ezra's birthday still, and somebody just brought in a cake today.
I'm not sure.
I might have Ezra's birthday cake.
I think I want that.
It's a power move.
Everybody, thanks for watching.
Thanks for being a Rebel News Plus subscriber.
Go to Ben Bankus' website and watch his podcast, Ben Bankus Podcast on Patreon.
And of course, go to his Instagram channel and watch his content.
Any final words?
You look like you're about to cry.
God bless Canada.
God bless Justin Trudeau.
Thank you for giving us the opportunity to speak.
We're at the CBC, right?
This is on the CBC.
Yeah.
CBC Radio 1 with John Gamesh.
I should be less bitter, but I am kind of the, I'm like the white Patrice O'Neal of Canadian comedy right now.
I love Patrice O'Neal.
I think I've listened to everything he's ever seen.
Self-proclaimed.
No comedian's going to watch this.
This is behind a paywall.
That's true.
I can say anything.
You all suck.
Every comedian in Canada sucks, except for me.
And come see my show.
Wyle?
Kyle doesn't suck.
Kyle's good.
I mean, like, I mean, the established comedy established.
Who are they?
They are.
They're on my Facebook.
I'd like you to name one of them.
Kyle Sagan.
I don't know who that is.
I follow Kyle.
He's a guy with a big afro.
If you looked him up right now, like every single one of his videos is like professionally done at like a gala performance at Just for Laughs.
He makes like $60,000 a year from Sound Exchange for one of his albums being on SiriusXM.
That's how the majority, the upper echelon of Canadian comedy, the way they make money is they make somehow they're getting 60K a year to have their album on Sound Exchange that's played by one guy that makes all these decisions.
His name's Ben Miner.
He makes all these decisions and he gets to decide who makes how much money and whose album gets to get played and all this kind of shit.
And then those people also get to do all the like gala Canadian gala performances.
It's like the 3-6 mafia of the Canadian comedy.
So I can't do that because I'm illegal.
My comedy is illegal.
So you have to go to patreon.com slash Ben Bankus and give me money.
Give me money instead of, I mean, if you're giving him money, you better give me money.