Owen Benjamin was a generic, boring comic for years and when it started to wear thin with less NACA bookings, he decided to attract an audience by saying the generic, boring equivalent of “edgy”. The man has only ever chased a point of view — never actually having one of his own.
Everything he cries about comes from a persecution complex. Like he’s owed something. Nobody is owed shit in this business and dues are only paid when you believe in masters. This guy could easily just book his own show in any shit bar and make his nut, but in his mind he feels like he belongs on any stage he chooses.
By design he seeks out the venues he knows would reject his current schtick. Getting dropped by a liberal arts theater to seem like a victim is his strategy. If he performs he’s won a battle for “free speech”. If he’s denied, then he’s fighting the “liberal agenda” and now has “evidence” of his persecutors.
It’s business. And it’s just as boring and basic as when he was a fresh faced, piano playing, safe-for-college-gigs act.
THE DUDE PLAYS PIANO.
At least a guitar comic is smart enough to streamline his equipment needs so as not to be a heavy burden with his hacky bullshit.
(That’s a cheap shot and I do know a handful of original and good musical comedy acts.
Ok. Three. I know three good ones to the hundreds of terrible ones)
Go look up his Live at Gotham clips on Comedy Central and tell me this wasn’t a dude told by the Industry how special and smart he was for years because he was a goofy fresh faced kid who could hang with the cool kids and make everyone around him money.
Look at his clips on ‘how the weather reports are so sexual’ or ‘how relationships are tough’ or ‘how hard it is to find a woman’s spot’ and tell me this is a brilliant forward thinking dude?
This is the foundation of his success.
The industry propelled his generic bullshit with festival spots, television credits and Vince Vaughn tours.
The same industry he now rejects because ten years later, tastes have changed, the pendulum swings and Vince Vaughn’s fast talk can no longer distract us from Owen Wilson’s dick nose.
Now HE’S throwing tantrums because HE couldn’t remain relevant?
The Industry has never been pure. The Industry goes where the ad revenue is and right now the money isn’t for more water downed versions of an American Pie extra.
This is not his ‘Carlin going to the coffee shops’ career turn. This is a basic, keyword memorizing brand marketer who sees an audience gleaned on Jordan Peterson, Ben Shapiro and Gavin McInnes — who are pissed off and reactionary enough to buy his victimization and fund his patreon.
A fraud who never had a real point of view.
This is the trap of populism. You take common ideas and tropes we all inherently accept as important, then twist them to meet your own individual narrative with the illusion that everyone should naturally agree — with just you.
Life isn’t that simple. Issues aren’t so black and white and the material is in the many nuanced and complex details.
Don’t trust anyone who tries to sell t-shirts and hats as facts or think pieces and treat your freedom of speech against them as a crime.
And definitely don’t believe a Medium post is actual journalism because it looks official and formal-like. (It’s not)
Just because someone stands up for freedom of speech, doesn’t mean they know how to actually use it or are even worth listening to.
Besides — If Owen Benjamin really cared about free speech he’d call God a faggot and watch as 90% of his soy boy yelling, fragile faux Christian audience disappear.
But that’s not where the money is, is it?
