Doug Benson Breaks in a New Comedy Club with Some Classic Stand-Up

At least the mics worked well at the new venue

Last night I saw Doug Benson at the new Helium Comedy Club here in Saint Louis. Doug Benson was good, as he always is. He came on stage first, as he always does, and gave us a little taste of comedy before he did his full headlining set. If you have ever seen a live Doug Benson show, you know exactly what I'm talking about. It's a preview. Benson comes on stage and introduces the show. He usually checks his Twitter feed to see what people in the particular town are tweeting prior to the show. It's Benson's version of crowd work, and it always lands very well. He picked out a few people's tweets, some were there, others were not, and he reads them aloud and answers them with a joke. I really enjoy this part of his show. I like that a headliner like Doug Benson likes to give his crowd a little preamble before the main portion of his show.

Benson then introduced his opener, a very funny comedian from Ohio named Jeremy Essig. Essig did about 15 minutes of pretty decent standup. He joked about one ladies love for Busch beer. He made fun of his age and his hairline. He talked about how he pissed off famed game show host via Twitter, Chuck Woolery. He talked about being in between dreams while falling asleep with the television turned on. It was all pretty funny stuff. I enjoyed this opener.

Then Benson came back on stage to do his 45 minute set. It was very funny, as always. What I like about Doug Benson's stand up is the familiarity of the structure. Every time I have seen Doug Benson live, he usually has the same set up to his jokes, but the meat of the joke and the punchline always evolve. For example, each show I've been to, he always talks about his love for UFC and how he likes that one of the fighters calls himself the "Mexicutioner". He makes a comment how that sounds like a racial slur, but the fighter is actually of Mexican descent. Then, he goes into a new version from that set up. Last night it led into a whole bit about Donald Trump and how backwards and racist that asshole truly is. It was very funny. He also brought up his old movie, "Super High Me", and he had the original test that he took in that movie from 8 years ago. It was funny for how non topical that test has become. He does this at most shows, but his crowd work during this bit last night was incredibly funny. He also talked about his deep love for marijuana, but he always finds a way to make it relevant and funny. Doug Benson's stand up is tried and true. He is a professional that knows what he is doing on the stage.

He ended the show playing one of his games from his excellent podcast, "Doug Loves Movies". He brings up a special guest and last night he brought up Helium's headliner all weekend long, Bert Kreischer. Bert Kreischer is very funny to begin with, but when he is hanging with Doug Benson, he is even funnier and last night was no exception. Benson always rips on his lack of movie knowledge and he did it in spades last night. They played Last Man Stanton last night where the contestants have to name as many movies as possible from one actor, actress or director. The subject was Clint Eastwood last night and the game lasted longer than I thought it would, but that was good. The competitors were all very good, with Kreischer being the lone exception. This was just as funny as the rest of the set and it was an excellent ending to a very good show last night.

The only gripe I have, and it is very tiny, Helium is still very new. The staff seemed to have a hard time getting everyone seated at the start, delaying the show by 15 minutes and the waiters and waitresses were a bit too loud for my liking, but that is so small, I don't think it made too much of a dent. I still had a very good time. Helium is going to be the new spot for comedians here in Saint Louis because it is a genuine comedy club and I'm sure they will iron out any future problems with ease. Anyway, Doug Benson was hilarious as always and I'm glad I went to the show. I had a great time and I really enjoy seeing him do his stand up live. Doug Benson is a must see stand up for live comic fans.

ed note: The opening comedian spells his last name Essig, not Essec. Our fast fingers need to be accompanied by slower eyes. We apologize and have fixed the error.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. He fulfilled his two drink minimum last night with a couple of no gin and all tonics. Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.

Ty recommends "The Wahlberg Solution" as one of your podcast pleasures.

You want me to listen to what now?

I have just recently started listening to a newish podcast called "The Wahlberg Solution" and I'm here to tell you, it's great.

You can get the podcast through the "Sklarbro Country" feed since "The Wahlberg Solution" is Daniel Van Kirk's show. Dan Van Kirk is the co host on every Tuesday's episode of "Sklarbro County" and he's a great comedian that's a phenomenal impressionist. He does impressions of a lot of famous and not so famous people. He does Steven Seagal, Rob Durst from "The Jinx, Dr. Phil, the recently deceased former pro football player Doug Bafone, a lonely TSA agent in the Chicago Airport and an annoying traveler who's been everywhere and seen everything. His best impression, in my opinion, is his Mark Wahlberg. It's spot on. I get excited every time I hear that there's going to be a surprise drop in or voicemail on "Sklarbro County" from Mark Wahlberg. Dan Van Kirk does a heightened version of Wahlberg, claiming that he's just run something like a 22k or will only drink water if it has creatine in it. Van Kirk's Wahlberg has popped up on other podcasts, most notably as a guest on "Doug Loves Movies". Fans love when he's on "DLM" and we get crazily excited when his segment, "Doing Lines with Mark", comes on. No, they're not doing cocaine. Doug Benson has "Wahlberg" read a line from a famous movie and the panelists have to guess the movie. If they don't get it right after three tries, "Wahlberg" loses his mind. It's quite funny.

So, when Van Kirk announced that he would have the great people at Earwolf show up to one of his live shows of "The Wahlberg Solution" and have them record it for an episode that you could get through "Sklarbro Country" I was super excited. So were his fans, because they've now done seven episodes. "The Wahlberg Solution" is a lot like Bill Maher's show on HBO "Real Time with Bill Maher". The structure is exactly the same, whereas on each show, the panelists discuss important political and social issues. The difference, "The Wahlberg Solution" is pretty damn hilarious. Van Kirk plays Wahlberg and he invites his comedian friends, that also do great impressions, to be his panelists. Comedians like Kenny Stevenson, who plays multiple people like Nic Cage and Michael Caine, or Marques Ray who plays Manny Pacquiao, or Madeline Walter who does a perfect Anne Hathaway and James Adomian who plays "presidential" candidate Bernie Sanders. Van Kirk has also had a heavy hitter on this show with Jay Mohr doing an excellent Harvey Keitel. He also gets other comedians to come on and just be themselves, comedians like Dominic Dierkes or Andy Peters. To hear these people discuss important topics is great, because they all play glorified versions of their character and they're so out of touch with the regular people. They usually don't understand how anyone anywhere can have problems. They all usually end up asking why people can't just solve their problems by buying some lavish, expensive items. As these celebrities usually do.

The podcast is very, very kooky and very funny. The shows last about 45 minutes to an hour and since there's only seven of them, it's really easy to get caught up. One can only hope that there's going to be a lot more "Wahlberg Solution" episodes since it's so great. Like I said earlier, you can get all the episodes through the "Sklarbro Country" feed. I love impressions and Dan Van Kirk is one of the best impressionist out there right now.

Do yourself a favor and give "The Wahlberg Solution" a listen. You will love it

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the co-host of The X-Millennial Man Podcast. Good comedy in downloadable form so it can be listened to at anytime is how Ty likes his entertainment. Follow him on twitter @tykulik.