A heavyweight in New York’s cutthroat comedy scene, DC Benny has wowed crowds at the famed Apollo Theater while delighting fans of Last Comic Standing. An actor who had a recurring role on soap opera As the World Turns, the multi-talented funny man makes his Shanghai debut with the Kung Fu Komedy club.
Congratulations on coming to China. Will this be your first time on the Mainland?
Yes! First time in Chinese mainland and very, very excited. All I know about Asia is what I saw in Shaw Brothers martial arts films I used to watch like a fanatic growing up, and still do, when my wife is asleep. My heroes as a kid were Fu Sheng, Sonny Chiba, Sammo Hung, The One Armed Boxer, The 5 Deadly Venoms, Avenging Eagle, Crippled Avengers, and the old Jackie Chan stuff before he got "discovered" by America. I also loved the old samurai movies with Toshiro Mifune. Asian culture has always been interesting to me.I look forward to jumping in with both feet, eating some great food and maybe doing some tai chi in a park.
You've been a staple in New York's comedy scene for years. How has the city's comedy changed as it becomes more gentrified?
NYC's comedy scene is so varied, it's hard to say it's become gentrified. Part of it may have, but parts of it are still very gritty old school New York – raw, uncensored realness from the mecca of stand up comedy in the world. NY is the place that comedians come from all over the world because this is where you will master the craft. Nowhere else can you do six shows a night if you want, amongst the best comedians there are anywhere, because the best come here. It's like the Shaolin Temple of jokes; the 36 chambers where you have to fight your way to the top.
For people who may not know you so well, how would you describe your comedy style? Who were some of your early inspirations?
My comedy style is mostly storytelling. What makes it different is that I act out the characters in my stories which come from my life as a comedian. I have jokes as well, but I love stories as they are like small movies for the audience to visualize. Early inspirations were comedic actors Peter Sellers, Jackie Gleason, Red Foxx, Sid Ceasar and Carol Burnett. Too many to list but I loved the old school guys.
When performing internationally, do you have to tweak material to fit the market?
Yes, one must tweak jokes when abroad, but the general themes that make us laugh at our humanity are universal, so it's not so much the message but the presentation. Funny is funny. I'm sure I'll have to make adjustments but have no idea what they are; only time will tell.
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You've had an extremely varied career. How important was the Justice Patrol video in establishing your name?
I try to be a comedy chameleon with a strong foundation: write, act, produce, do stand up, so that I can do this until I am an old man. A tree with strong roots can withstand the storms of this crazy business. Justice Patrol came about from a character, The Great Habibe, I used to perform on stage as. He was an Arab extremist with zero tolerance for anything. On the show I paired him with a Texas Sheriff as two cops from abroad, a special police unit, and assigned to clean up NY crime. I would go on stage as this guy, way before there was an Ali G and Borat, and insult the crowd and say inflammatory things. Half were laughing and half wanted to kill me, but they all believed I was that guy and this show was a vehicle for him.
You've done some writing for MTV and some spec scripts. What was more fun to write – Curb Your Enthusiasm or Entourage?
I loved writing both of those scripts but I most enjoy creating original projects. I have to write an article about being an American comedian on tour in Asia..."Roundeye goes Halfway Round the World" or something fish out of water.
You also co-wrote and co-starred in a commercial for Enron. What did you think when the company went up in scandal?
I've starred in commercials for Enron and a very infamous one for AIG. I hope I had nothing to do with their downfall. I've done commercials for Budweiser, Volkswagen, Dell, Nike and many others, and didn't put them into bankruptcy so maybe I'm ok. My Bud campaign is really famous; it started the whole "How You Doin' " thing. There was a song. Parodies. It was crazy. I couldn't go anywhere without people saying, "How you doin' "
You also had a recurring role in a soap opera. What was your character like and what was their most soap-opera-ish moment?
My soap opera character was like many I play; I'm always a guy with a bad past that's trying to do right. Almost a good guy but flawed. And ironically never comedic; always dramatic roles with the exception of the old Cosby show, which I wrote an article about in the NY Observer. And a comedic movie called Love Magical, which was a comedy but I was still a bad guy: a giant Mexican janitor who dreamt of being a soap opera actor. The guy wrote the part for me after seeing me on a soap opera; life imitating art. My best know film is Illegal Tender, where I don't say anything but kill a lot of people and look mean. I play a hitman. Strange, right, but I am happy for the work.
Besides performing stand-up, are there any upcoming projects you'd like to discuss?
Current projects are a book I'm shopping around called: Partially Jew-y with a Chance Of N-word. It's a collection of stories from my life: the time I was mistaken for a terrorist and yanked off a plane, a bunch of showbiz stories, being a white comedian working the black comedy scene, being a professional male model in the 90's and much more all against the backdrop of being an ethnically ambiguous person as so many are today everywhere. I'm always writing new TV and film projects and have several on my desk right now, so I hope one goes. Maybe I'll meet someone enterprising in Asia who wants to collaborate on a project, right?!
Shanghai: // Oct 16-17, 8.30pm (Fri) 8pm and 10pm (Sat), RMB170-200. The Camel, tickets. See event listing.
Beijing: // Oct 18, 8pm, RMB150-180. Bookworm Beijing, tickets.
*****WIN!!!!!*********
We're giving away a pair of tickets. For your chance to win, e-mail win@urbanatomy.com with the subject 'DC Benny'
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