The Digression Sessions - Ep. 207 - Ben O'Brien! Live! (@BenfOBrien)

Episode Date: January 3, 2017

Hola Digheads, this week we're live from the Single Carrot Theater in Baltimore on New Year's Eve with our guest, Ben O'Brien of AB Video Solutions and Wham City Comedy!   Check out his new series on IFC - The Mirror!   This was a quick one, but a fun one. Improvisers had to use our podcast as material for their scenes after the pod. We made it very easy for them.   Follow the podcast, Josh Kuderna, and Mike Finazzo on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram! Josh - @JoshKuderna on Twitter and @JoshKuderna on Instagram Mike Finazzo - @TheeMikeFinazzo on Twitter The Pod - @DigSeshPod on Twitter The Pod's Facebook page - Dig Sesh on Facebook Thanks for listening, all! Do the pod a favor and rate and review the pod on iTunes & Stitcher plz!

Hello, this is Nigel from the Tony Kornage Show, and you're listening to the Digression Session. Did I say that right? Do I get paid now? Can I leave? We're both in great. Oh my god. Cool. Just make sure you're turned on. I'm turned on. Hey, my God. Cool. Just make sure you're turned on. I'm turned on.

Hey, everybody. Hey. Wow. Okay, this is very Senate panel. Yeah. I say, Mr. Cadana, I am not a member of the Communist Party. That joke bombed. Number one.

Right out of the gate. Can the improv group following us do an imitation of a joke bombing? Apparently not. Two in a row. Holy fuck, yes, sir. Right out of the gate. Can you can the improv group following us do an imitation of a joke bombing? Apparently not What's up single Karen, how are you guys? We are the digression sessions podcast my little Is it hot? Is it hot? Is it hot? Is it hot? Is it hot? Yeah, keep talking. Keep being hot. How hot is it? Is it real hot? It's pretty hot.

This is what our podcast normally is, actually. Anybody else feeling hot? Hot. I'm not allowed to talk yet because I'm the guest. Shut the fuck up, man! I think you guys are good. You are harassing me. And yourself. Hey, I'm Josh Koderna, and it's my co-host Mike Fonazzo.

Hi. And yeah, we normally, yeah, we do this not in front of people. This is a little weird, but I like this. This has, I don't know what the vibe is in here. It's like pre-orgy, right? That's the vibe. Like we're all just getting loose. Okay, okay, I just want to check in, make sure.

Okay, all right, all right. Mike, how, okay. I just want to check in and make sure. Okay, all right. Mike, how are you? I'm doing well. Yes? Yes. I'm comfortable. Uh-huh. We're doing this podcast right now in front of, for the listeners at home, thousands of people.

Yeah. The lack of security here is shocking. Okay? This may be the last time anybody ever hears us. I feel like I'm at a Jill Stein rally right now. Pretty wild. There's just like two dozen liberals judging me. Right. And I feel like just some random ladies

can be like, cats! And it's like, we get it. But yeah, hello. Thank you for coming out. I will be comfortable in roughly 30 minutes when this podcast is over. And it is New Year's Eve, so thank you guys for spending it with us. Can we get a countdown from 10 to introducing our guests, guys? Can we start that, right?

No. Let's start at 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Ben O'Brien is our guest, everybody. Ben O'Brien. Hello. Of Wham City and other stuff, right? That's right. Wham City, the original Nutty Nut Boys.

Yeah, I'm so sick of people calling us the Nutty Nut Boys. I know. It catches on. It catches on. Okay, so Wham City, by round of applause, who's familiar with Wham City? Okay. By round of applause, who's not?

Yeah, so Wham City started as an artist collective, right? Yes. And now you are doing Wham City comedy, pretty much exclusively. Yes. Uh-huh. And okay, that's been our show. And hard-hitting questions from Josh. I told you I would answer no questions.

That's right, that's right. Before we, when we talked before the show. Yeah, you were going to be the bad boy of podcasting. I'm absolutely the bad boy of podcasting. Ben, you got any anecdotes? I have no stories. Okay, cool. Let's do a little crowd work.

I will comment on what you say. Okay. How's 2016 for you? I don't know. I have no concept of how to put a whole year into a judgment, I guess. A lot of people are doing it, though. A lot of fuck 2016 going on. Yeah, I'm not about the fuck 20.

I'm not on that wagon. On that tip. I just think on that wagon, you know? On that tip. I think that's, I just think that's weird, I guess. I think so, too, because most people are just upset that celebrities are dying. Well, some people were born this year. Right. Do you know what I mean?

Mm-hmm. That's kind of shitty. Right. Right. Yeah, it's like, oh, I just had a kid. It's like, fuck 2016. Yeah, it's like, oh, my, I got married and had a kid. Uh-huh. Yeah, it's totally, it's rude, yeah. Well, you oh my i got married and had a kid but yeah it's totally

it's rude yeah well you know in 2017 no celebrities are gonna die it would be awesome to write to write fuck 2016 under someone's wedding photo on on facebook like it's so vague right like what are you mad that we're married are you in love with me like what's going on you know that's where you go i think it's that is where i would go because I'm a man of stories. Right. You're like, Stephanie was going to marry me. Yeah, exactly. Yeah.

But it's so passive aggressive. Uh-huh. Yeah. It's great. Keep it open. You guys can all, I suggest that you try it. Mm-hmm. I don't know.

Maybe just text your parents or your friends, just your mother and write, fuck 2016. Okay. All right. Can we get the whole crowd? I want to see phones out texting their moms. Fuck 2016. Okay. no one's doing it Edit that out For the listeners at home, everyone did it

Wow, that was impressive So many blackberries What's the deal? Weird Well yeah man, what's been going on? It's so open ended It's too open-ended, right? It's too open-ended. I don't know.

Well, Wham! City Comedy's been doing really well. I saw you guys were on Comedy Central. On Comedy Central's internet. Right, but still, that's their internet. Their part of the internet. We were on the internet of theirs. They let us have a space on a part of it. So it wasn't even like a big part. You know what I mean?

It was like they were like, we have the Internet's infinite. And they're like, we have what is it? That's how they started the meeting. They're like, we have a tiny part. We love you guys. The Internet is infinite. Honestly, that's how they started all of their meetings. Regardless of what it is.

It's a weird religious thing. You're Amy Schumer. They're like, it's infinite. That's how they start all of their meetings. Regardless of what it is. It's a weird religious thing. They're like, it's infinite. We have this tiny, tiny, just infinitesimal little speck of it. Infinite to infinitesimal. Wow. And then they're like, within that, we have a show that no one will watch. And then they're like, within that. Oh, wait, there's more.

There's many episodes of that. So in one of those episodes, we're going to give you a couple minutes. Uh-huh. So we've been on Comedy Central. We also have a part of IFC's internet. We just released an online series. No network.

I can't talk bad about networks after I just talked about IFC. There's a lot of industry in the crew we're working with. A lot of industry. I get paranoid. That's why I feel uncomfortable being in the middle. I thought I was going to be the guy who holds the mic like I'm a cool guy like Mike.

We talked about it before the show. We're like, we're going to hold the mic. We fist bumped and then I got up here and I'm like, I got to put this mic down because I'm freaking out. I just want to say that I love IFC and fuck Ben O'Brien for shitting on them. Here's what I was going to say that I love IFC and fuck Ben O'Brien for shit no I didn't shit on I see what I was gonna say here's what I was gonna say I think that I don't understand what a lot of networks want out of their internet

content okay like in terms of I feel like they're like let's get a viral vid it's like that but I actually what I think that IFC does is they're like we want to like a cheap way to like test people out without having to invest the money in an actual pilot. Because the pilots, they never get seen if they don't like them and they're a lot more expensive. But when they're like, we'll put it on the internet, that's very cheap, we'll say, for them. And then they can kind of test it out.

But it's just like, who goes to ifc.com and watches the show? You know what I mean? Okay. A lot of people. That, you know, they don't have, it's just like, who watches, who goes to ifc.com and watches the show? You know what I mean? Okay. A lot of people. That's their homepage, right? IFC, right? Are we Sundance fans?

Because if you are, get the fuck out! I'm a big CISO guy. Oh, really? No. You're on that tip, huh? No, no. Well, it's only $3

to add to your Amazon subscription. I did get a CISO. Which brings us to our sponsor. I did get a free CISO trial so I could get 200 free gems and a clumsy ninja for my iPad. Nice. Nice. So I can watch the weird real estate comedy show that they have. Yeah.

Which is a real show that they greenlit. Yeah. Well, it sounds like you. Funny real estate agents. Anyway, I love IFC estate agents. Anyway. I love IFC. What is the thing for IFC? It's called The Mirror.

It's about a cult. It's a prequel to Black Mirror. It's before The Mirror gets black. And it's the white that you can still see in the mirror. And it's really exciting. It's just a very positive show where everything goes right. It's totally cool. It's all about how good technology is and how we enjoy it. It's just basically like we all have iPhones and we're like, this is fucking awesome.

It's tight. No, it's not that at all. Moving away from the joke into reality. Sure. Great interview. It's a show about a cult. See, when people ask me to explain something, I'm just like, okay, this is going to be fucking boring as hell. Okay. It's this fucking cult. There's a guy, he's a cult leader. I really want to see these business meetings you're in. Yeah.

Because the one side's like, you know, just put it on the fucking internet. You're like, okay, fine, I will. What is it? Wait, wait, wait. Who am I in that meeting? You're both. You're both people. I'm both people? Yeah.

You are the mirror. That is a wild meeting. Deep. Deep. Deep. Wow. Wow, yeah. That fucked me up. Sorry, man.

I'm really sorry. I'm really into these two coils in this cord right now. That's really good for the listener at home. I love that. What are you talking about? If I say there's two coils that I'm really into, they know what I'm into.

They might be picturing a big-ass coil. That's awesome. That's even better. Let them picture that. If I had said, oh man, I'm really into this thing, then we'd have an issue. But there's these two coils. We'll describe it now. They're just perfectly symmetrical, and if you have a rare form of anxiety,

I'm high-functioning and anxious, this kind of thing is like, whoa, this is awesome. this kind of thing is like you're like whoa this is awesome this kind of thing? that thing? I think Mike gets it yeah man

when you're really anxious all of a sudden you'll be like this is the most amazing thing I've ever seen and I should never stop touching it. Right. And I'm going to just think of, whoa, like two coils and a cord and they're symmetrical to the people at home.

And they're keeping you safe right now. And they're right in front of me like they were given to me. And so the more that I touch them, it grounds me. Right, right. But if this was just like, if I was chill and this was like on the floor, I'd be like, get these fucking cords out of here. I don't need this. I'd be like, someone straighten this.

But right now, I'm like, this is amazing. It's not like I'm high, but it's the opposite. It's worse. Get up for more coil talk in 2017. Let's do it. The year of the coil. Fuck 2016. Right?

Fuck it. Right. You know what I'm saying? Fuck it. Ben? Yeah. So what are your plans for 2017? You got any resolutions, huh? New year? New you? New coils?

What's the plan? Resolutions. See. You gonna buy a boat? If you go on a podcast, you're supposed to be a funny guy. You don't have to be a funny guy. No. People go, hey, what are you doing in 2016?

And then they're like, let me give you all this stuff. But my mind just immediately is like, oh, what's the real resolution that I made to feel better? Become a better person. Be more whole. What are you doing? Nothing. I'm good. Mike, what's up?

I'm just following Josh's lead in 2017. Yeah, just hanging in there. So I'm probably nothing. I'm just following Josh's lead in 20 yeah just hanging in there probably nothing yes trying to grow facial hair I was actually gonna shave but then I got a zit above my lip and I was like I'll just keep it you know yeah and then people be like oh what is that like a big red hair in his beard yeah like it's very thick beard every That's how every great beard started. Right, right, right. Mike's face is just... Acne. All zit.

It's just one zit. One giant zit. Yeah. It could be. You wouldn't even know. That's what's so cool about beards. Right. You don't know what's under there.

It's like, what's going on under there? Yeah, like, what if he had a bunch of hate speech tattooed on his face? Yeah, that's it. Right. You know how many swastikas he has on his face? Yeah. And the left side says, I love 2016. Yeah. Which is so fucked up, I love 2016. Yeah.

Which is so fucked up. You know what? I was zoned out for a second because Umar walked in and then I heard, you have swastikas on your face. And I'm like, wait, what the fuck just happened?

It's like they found out. Shit, how did I know? Finazzo, you got any resolutions? No, man. I just live my day one day at a time. Quarter mile at a time. Is that fast and furious? Maybe.

Maybe? I think as the great philosopher Vin Diesel once said, fuck 2016. How come every time I say fuck 2016, you guys act like I just yelled, yay Trump. But these two fuck faces yell, you're like geniuses

Sorry fuck sorry hey guys wow We were geniuses, thank you yeah, yeah, that's all you took from that yeah, thank you. I heard a compliment too. Yeah, yeah, yeah No, we fuck faces. Yeah, that's what it's about right 2017 yeah People are gonna improvise off of this, so let's talk about fucking faces some more. Let's see what they do with it. Okay. I just can't wait for like Yes And

and the dry humps on my face. Because I'm here to fuck your face. Yes And, I'm here to fuck your face. We are robots. Thank you. Fucking a face is a completely acceptable Sexual move Sure okay I didn't say it wasn't

My point it sounds so aggressive And violent I guess Make love to your face Yeah but you know it's like It just It can be so beautiful Sure I just think we's so, it can be so beautiful. Sure.

I just think we should stop calling it face fucking. Okay. Grabbing the coils on that one. That was a, that was a coils moment for me. All right. So, uh, fucking faces in for 2017, but maybe not call it that. Yeah. I don't know. Okay. All right. Mike, you in for 2017, but maybe not call it that. Yeah, I don't know. Okay, all right. Mike, you ever fuck face?

This is where the podcast takes a turn. Lights come down. I like to fuck broads faces while playing with that coil like Ben's doing. Just have a wire, and they're like, it's not even plugged into anything. Why do you have it? Yeah. If it was plugged into something, would that make them feel better? They're like,

hey, if you're going to play with a coil, at least plug it in. If it was a wire with some Christmas lights or something, like a happy nostalgic memory, it could be triggered off of that. Instead of just having me in their face, literally. With the fucking.

I did air quotes. I thought that would make the fucking. I did air quotes. Okay. As I thought that would make the fucking less harsh. I feel really bad for the two people who are gonna improvise. Is it just two?

These two people having sex. I thought you were saying I feel bad for the two people listening to this. I wish more than anything that that's what I had said. There's like 10 improvisers here and we have four listeners.

Yeah, exactly. Look, I don't know what's going on at all. You're hanging in said. There's like ten improvisers here. We have four listeners. Exactly. Look, I don't know what's going on at all. You're hanging in there. I don't know who is here. I don't know who these people are. Well, it's tough because there's so many people. You can't see all of them. That's true. The lights are not bright at all.

So it's tough to see. That's true. Ben, do you ever direct a video for Dan Deacon? Whoa, that's crazy. You ever do that? Yeah. You ever be like, damn, I'm directing this video for Dan Deacon whoa that's crazy yeah yeah yeah sometimes I wake up in the morning and I'm just like today's the day today's I'm gonna do it yeah

I've directed so many you don't want to talk about yourself at all it's just yeah killer segue it was like, perfect. Okay, okay. Wait, you mean that was your segue? Okay, I'll go with it. Yeah, I've directed videos for Dan Deacon. Big smile. Yeah.

We don't have to talk about it. That's okay. Well, what do you want to know about it? Well, okay. You like it? I guess. All right. I did it a That's okay. Well, what do you want to know about it? Well, okay. You like it? I guess. All right. I did it a bunch of times.

Yeah? Is that because you like it or does he have some dirt on you? And he's like, I'll release the photos. I mean, he does have dirt on me, but that's not why. Yeah. We've known each other for a long, long time. I think that's why. So the dirt piles up, huh?

Is that what you're saying? The dirt just piles. Honestly, yes. Dirt piles up. That I will say. Okay. I'm up, huh? Is that what you're saying? Honestly, yes. Dirt piles up. That I will say. Okay. I'm going to quote you on that one. What's your favorite Dan Deacon video you've directed?

Is it the most recent change in your life? I'm going to say the most fun, one of the most fun video shoots I've ever had was the video for his song truth rush um it was like we set up this set and with all this oh like i don't know how to describe this it's so conceptual it's like there's all this shit all over this set right and every eight bars there's like a dance and a uh and someone gets a water thrown on them right and so what we did was we filmed Dan and I doing that. We wrote on the walls. We set up this set, and we did all this stuff,

and we came up with a dance, and then we threw water on Dance Face. And then what we did was the next group that came in to do that exact same thing could watch us do that in a video, and then they had to try to recreate what we had done from memory. And so through the video, it goes, we do it, and then they had to try to recreate what we had done from memory right and so through

the video it goes we do it and then someone watches us do it and then they create this set and the dance and the water throwing from memory and then yada yada yada down the line until the whole song is uh this kind of devolving um i wish i had said a different video i really like this other video that I made. That was really simple. It was very simple. It was just a found footage video made of workout footage.

Right. With a Dan Deacon song. Yeah. Yeah. Of course. Okay. I was making sure. No, that was just a video I made for Dan.

To Dan. I love you. I hadn't touched the coils like that before. Oh, yeah. Palms down? Yeah. Thank you. You knew to describe it for the people who can't see.

Uh-huh. Okay. Do you want to talk more about you? There's nothing that I would like more. Yeah. We don't have to. How was your week? You want to talk about that?

No. Okay. I just don't remember. Like, I just can't remember it. Yeah. I have a memory problem. Do you want to talk about that? Yeah.

What's going on with your fucking brain, bro? I took anti-anxiety medication for like six months. And there's a very rare side effect that like wipes out your short-term memory. Oh, no. And it can happen from any anxiety medication or even anxiety medication or even any histamines or whatever. It's this, it's a choline or something in the brain. Ask C to choline in the brain. Someone in the audience is nodding.

They must understand. Ask C to choline. Um, that's how you say it. Anyway, it just, it destroyed your production to destroy my production of that or, you know, kind of altered it in some way. And so, uh, Christ. And then I went online and there's like these message boards of people like i just started medical school and i can't think of anything or remember anything shit so you have anxiety and you're like i just want to chill out and it's like now i'm freaking out that i don't

have a memory yeah no i wasn't freaking out about it i didn't care you didn't that was the that was that was the greatest thing. That's great. Yeah, my girlfriend cared, but I didn't. Because when I was on that medication, I had every single side effect you can have from that medication. I even invented a new one, which is called yawny pukes, which is where you yawn. I think that's one of the improv troops tonight.

The yawny pukes. Now we're talking. It was where I would yawn uncontrollably, really intensely. And then right after that, I would feel nauseated. Jesus Christ. And that would go on for a while. So I invented that. But anyway, so yeah, all these message boards, people were like, I went off Lexapro and it never got better.

What? And so, like, some high percentage. It changes. It's gotten different and whatever. Like, I'll say the wrong words in really weird ways. And I can't remember. Sometimes I'll pause in a sentence and then I just can't, like, return to it. Holy shit.

I thought I had, like, early onset Alzheimer's and stuff. So it's functional. Like, I can function with it. It's not like it's a huge, huge problem. But there are some times when it's like I can't. Like if someone asked me like what did you do or how was your week? I'm like I have no idea. God, I was just trying to like.

But I can think of it. You were like stressed and I was like let's just talk about something easy. What are you up to this week? And you're like well, Josh, I don't know because my brain is broken. Yeah, yeah. I was actually trying to heal myself and made it worse. So what's next? It's okay, though.

I mean, the nice lady who nodded earlier now looked very scared at the description. So I just wanted to let people know that it's okay. A lot of good things came from it as well. But 2017, it's going to get better. Yeah, this was 2014, I think. Oh. So fuck 2014. Yeah, a lot of people. If you want to know my hot take on 2014. A lot of people don't say that. think. Oh. So fuck 2014. Yeah, a lot of people.

If you want to know my hot take on 2014. A lot of people don't say that. Yeah. I'll say fuck 2014. But it's not that I don't have the information. It's that I have, it's my recall. So it's like I just sometimes it just takes me like two minutes to find something that should be obvious information. Damn.

So. And then I also just forget. Is there anything you can do? Like does it get better over time? I don't... No one knows anything about it. No doctor understands it. It's just people on Reddit. Okay.

They understand. That's the wonderful thing about drugs. Yeah. I think you can do that for a lot of things in life. Like, I don't know, Reddit? Well, that's the thing, though. That's the crazy thing is they're like, well, only one in 100,000 people get this. That's like 1,000 people.

Then they find each other online and they fall in love. Really? Twist, right? The story wasn't that interesting, so I spiced it up. Then you fall in love. Is that how you met your lady? Online.

Let's keep going with it. We were just talking about how we couldn't remember anything. Is that how you met your lady? Yeah. Online. Let's keep going with it, yeah. R slash love. Of course, man. No, we were just talking about how we couldn't remember anything. Oh, that's nice. No, she can remember things wonderfully, and it took her, you know, she's a trooper. Give it up for the troops out there. They're all Ben's girlfriend.

Where are we at on time? How are we doing? Two minutes? I feel guilty It's not your fault man It's not your fault I don't feel guilty anymore I got it

I heard you and I believed what you said Okay How much time we got? Should we just run out the clock on this one? Yeah. Yeah. Let's just take a knee.

I think we won already. All right. Cool. Yeah. Well, I ended with that. We got a playoff berth on this one, so. Can we go with something

maybe, you know, more uplifting for the fuck 2016 crowd that wants 2017 to be better, which it definitely won't be? Like, if you didn't like 2016, you are not going to like 2017. Yeah, 2017 Trump is actually going to be president.

So, yeah, we're going to make America great again, so look forward to that. Yeah, we might have people who... Okay, I was kidding. Settle down, everybody. Jesus Christ. We're having fun until he said that. He meant that. That's...

What if Ben's memory kept him from knowing Trump was going to be president and he just found out this way? What? No, that's okay. Grab the coil. Touch the coil. Can I take this coil with me?

Absolutely. That was easy. Yeah, that's your safety coil. All right, well, let's end on a high note. I just want everyone to know that whenever there's an awkward silence, it's not my fault because I am the guest. Yeah. Exactly. One more time for Ben O'Brien, everybody.

Great guest. Thank you. Check out Ben O'Brien and Webb City. Oh my god, I'm dying. That'd be a good ad, right? No, I just died. Last pot ever. We're getting on the roof.

Emotional. Yeah, just the latest celebrity death, Josh Coderna, 2016. Fuck 2016. Damn it. Ben O'Brien, you're online, right? You're an online guy. You got a small sliver of the internet, right?

Yeah, you go to any website, click the lower right. That's me. That's that dude. Wham! City Comedy online and all that stuff, right? You just Google it. Just Google it. Exactly. Mike, anything to plug?

Witsendfilm.com. We have a movie. It's Pay What You Want, so go watch it. Mike made a film called Witsend. Josh is in it, and a better movie. It's Pay What You Want. So go watch it. Yeah, Mike made a film called Witsend. Yeah, Josh is in it. And a better version of this podcast than you saw tonight is in it. I play an asshole podcaster. Big stretch for me in that film. Big stretch.

But yeah, I think you'll, you might like, I don't know why I assumed you guys would like it, but you might. So bye. No, yeah, witsendfilm.com. Yeah, check that out, and check out the digression sessions online. We're on iTunes and Google Play and Stitcher and all that stuff, and get us on your Blackberry

somehow. And thank you guys so much for coming out. We really appreciate it. Have a good 2017. Bye-bye. Happy New Year, everybody. Thank you. Digression sessions! coming to an end Thank you. Oh yeah, oh yeah