Ep. 15: Ben Gleib | The Danger Den Podcast w/ Danger Foley @SXSW

In this SXSW special of The Danger Den Podcast, Ben Gleib — comedian, satirist, and former presidential candidate — joins Danger Foley for a sharp and entertaining conversation on comedy, politics, and the future of digital performance.

From his run for President to creating the Nowhere Comedy Club, Gleib opens up about the power of humor to reflect culture, drive activism, and connect people across borders.

Tune in for a mix of hilarious stories, candid insights, and bold perspectives that only Ben Gleib can deliver.

Follow Ben Gleib:
Website: bengleib.com
Instagram: @bengleib

Connect with The Danger Den:
Website: https://www.thedangerden.com
Instagram: @dangerdenco
YouTube: @TheDangerDenCO

Transcript

0:05

I’m Danger Foley. This is the Danger Den podcast. We are at South by Southwest in Austin, Texas, and I have my very good friend who I've missed so much, Ben, Gleib. He is a comedian. He is the host of Idiot Show. Idiotest. You just failed Danger. God dammit. You just failed, I’m so sorry. No, check this out. He just finished his filming a special. It's called endings. He is. Oh my gosh. You're working on a lot of different things. I can't wait to talk about all of it. But first of all, it's so great to have you here. Thank you. So good to see you, my friend. It's so good to see you too. So you're here down at South By. I am. What have you been? What have you been doing? Just seeing some very interesting talks and going to some amazing, fun parties and meeting amazing people and performing really cool shows. I did a show, show for Patel for all the CMAs that are here from different big companies and brands. And then. I heard you roasted them pretty good. I roasted them good. They were very in their heads, like ten of them afterwards told me, I want to go trying to what I can't do the whole time. Once I saw you start talking to people and I was running scenarios, running scenarious, trying to figure out a way to make amends with them. What I could possibly come back with. What is the hardest movie in the world? Bro, this isn't a spreadsheet. Relax at this comedy show. Be ready. Like. My god. And as the regular shows for the festival at Esther's Follies. And it was amazing. Yeah, it was amazing. It sold out. Show’s of regular crowds of amazing people. It must feel so good. It was just, like. Made them laugh? Yeah, it was just like crusher energy in this room, like explosive. Very fun. Thank you for having me at your Danger Den. Absolutely. So I want to. This is very nice. My gosh, it truly is a pleasure to have you. And this is our first activation. So it feels really good to be here and to be having such cool friends be able to stop by and share what they're up to and. I really appreciate that. And for people that can't see behind the camera here, there's probably about 300,000 people listening to what's going on everybody. Yeah, what’s up. You look great. You look great out there. Thank you guys, you’re a very attentive audience. I know, and only a few fights, but. That’s right. It's okay. Another, another guy floating on top. I mean it's like a constant rock concert. They love podcasting. They love us so much. They love podcasting. Love us together. Turns out. That's right. What are you. So you're the host of Idiotest. Correct, we haven't shot new episodes in a long time, but it's on Pluto TV still. Used to be on Netflix and Game Show Network. We did 210 episodes, four seasons. That's amazing. It was really fun people loved the game shows the way I work. Yeah. No, no, I was going to say you work extremely hard and you have worked very hard to get to where you are in your career. That’s true, I’ve done 500 episodes of television, all of them strung together with like different series, some of them last six episodes, in the last 100, and some that last two different gigs, changing cast, changing correspondence, changing contributors and then stand up across the planet. For 15 years I was headlining clubs around the country. At the moment I'm not touring for the last three years, I decided to feel the confidence of taking a break from that and that feeling that I needed to rely on, like the old traditional method of how to build. And I don't need to be to constantly traveling to find the fans. When you can find more fans faster from home, from your phone. Well, you broke the mold kind of during Covid. You actually, saved a lot of people and gave people the ability to have comedy and at such a scary time. Thanks, yeah. And honestly, when you first told me your story. We created Nowhere Comedy. Yeah, when you first told me the story and I would love for you to just share, you know, an abbreviated version of it, because we would be here all night talking about it, but. Sure. Yeah. Just why you decided to do what you did during Covid and what it turned into and. Yeah. Sure, yeah. I created Nowhere Comedy. When Covid started, I had just come out of a very crazy seven month endeavor in my life that kind of took me largely out of the comedy world already. And then the pandemic hits. And I'm not in a good financial situation. And so I need, I can’t have my touring money cut off. And the pandemic hits and live venues close down everywhere in the world. And I was just like, this is a problem, because that's the only guaranteed way I can ever make my, is through stand up. Yep. At the time especially. I just needed to problem solve and desperation’s the mother of invention, I guess. And I love coming up with ideas that are like problem solvers. And I just close my eyes for 15, for 10/15 seconds. And I thought, I'm like, how could I recreate the experience of stand up, make it feel as close as possible to being there live, in a place over a video conferencing platform? I bet I can figure that out. And a couple people have done some zoom shows, but they were making everybody mute themselves and it wasn't standup and it was super awkward. Comments were afraid of being talked over. They had everybody be muted and then was you felt like you're in a meeting and it was cringe as can be. And so weird. Totally, getting a bunch of hearts and likes. Oh it’s so lame, and I was like that’s certainly not the way. I was just like, I'm sure we could create it. And I think the way you create it is by letting everybody keep their cameras and their mics on. I figured, like, you could run it like a business and create, actually, problem solve to, to make it really an amazing experience. And I called my friend Steve Hofstetter, another comedian who's excellent at business. And I've always loved his execution skills. His like COO skills. So we started a business together. We're co-founders, and we immediately ended up like, redefining live touring and changing it over 700 shows to this day. Now, now we're over 800 shows. Actually, we created millions of dollars of revenue for up and coming comedians who were asked out of this moment all the way through, like Bill Burr and and Natasha Leggero and the Sklar brothers and Mike Birbiglia, doing regular shows with us. And, making a living for themselves during the pandemic and some charity shows. Bill Burr did an amazing charity show instantly and sold a thousand virtual tickets for an amazing, guy who was in need during the pandemic. It was magic. And so, Steve went back to comedy full time, as did pretty much I. But I decided to keep the company alive. So he's not involved anymore. And it's still my company, and I'm looking for a new COO actually, that sees the vision because this could be like a multi billion dollar media conglomerate. Basically, I own worldwide comedy clubs with the greatest brand name Nowhere Comedy, which is now Nowhere Studios. So it's all kinds of live shows. So it's also for live music, for talks, for Q&As, for meet and greets with fans, live podcast with a monetized audience built in. And it's a worldwide network. It's like kind of like Netflix meets Live Nation meets the venues itself, and it can exponentially expand. If there's somebody willing to dive in for equity and blow it up. What's the vision behind Danger Den? Why you do this? I feel like one of the things that made me love your soul so much from when we first met, a few months ago, was that we actually had very similar wise. I think we were talking about building during the pandemic of, like, it's not the same of doing this digital comedy of, like, there's an energy exchange that happens between a performer and their audience. what I noticed in all my years in artist hospitality is that there is a drastic difference in that energy transfer to as, as an audience member feeling the church of a good live show like that is church to me. All the same. And so when the artist. As a performer too. Exactly and exactly and when you get it right, it's unbelievable as a performer. But if you're not nourished, if you're hungover, if you haven't been sleeping, if you have, if your shoulders messed up and you haven't been into the doctor, you have a toothache. All of these different things that can keep you from actually being in the flow state and connecting with your audience like we more than ever need to be protecting art right now, and we need to be protecting the artists and the demands that this industry has on touring artists. It's not okay because I've had to call 911 for a couple different artists. I've been in rooms where the band was literally about to break up and and end a tour, and we talked through an issue that, you know, that could have just changed everything, and it's bigger band. Wow. And so it's there need to be opportunities for just like a step back and exhale. Take care of yourself. Like the Danger Den is not meant to be just a podcast for artists to actually talk about what matters to them. It's also a place if you need to nap. It's a place if you want to get a massage. I'm living here now. Yeah, Ben Gleib is actually sitting in the garage. It's actually a really nice garage. I’m sleeping in this room. He's living. Is there 300,000 people there, and that’s my bed, I’m sleeping on top of the pool table. We have a rollout mattres.. It's changed, they all left. But you intend for it to be permanent spaces in the city, so that. I mean. Or it’s meant to be traveling, So it's it's pop ups at this point. This is our first activation. But you have one in Denver. yeah, it's invitation only. And so it's, giving us the opportunity to provide all of the things that I wish that I had on the road as an artist. You know, I my, my own case study of someone who is now touring and having the opportunity and the blessing of being able to travel around and tour, doing what I love and following that creative road less traveled that, you know, for so many, it's just impossible to do for one way or another. Lack of time, lack of resources. Because you need to be self sustainable while you're climbing, you know, because it's not easy at all. And so for so many different reasons, I have the opportunity to do it and travel and have it be not only a value add to myself in a way for me to nourish myself before shows, but also to share in that with these other artists who are also doing it. Producing all of this is going to be a little also draining for you, unless it's like fully nourishing in how. I love it so much. And yeah, and my team is crushing it. Like we have. This place is beautiful and it’s the greatest thing. Thanks you. So I recommend people check out Danger Den as it expands, because it's a very cool premise. Thank you! You asked me before how, how to like make sure you’re messaging it right, because it’s brand new. Totally! So I like the way you said it, but you're also taking on so much there, even like toothaches and stuff, which is a lot. It’s great if you're down to organize all services. Oh yeah. It’s a really good service. We have a whole directory. It’s amazing. Of people where we do an intake call, ideally, if you, Wow that’s cool. would let us like, well, like in Denver, for instance, we have a 15 minute call with the artist and we're saying like how are you doing? Like truly and mentally, physically, Wow! spiritually. We can offer a journey work. We have, you know, we work with, mental health counseling, addiction, addiction specialists, grief counselors. What I would also include in your description of it. and in your vision of it is just what it actually is as like an artist's hang. Where we don't have anywhere in the world that we do shows really is like a constant place as a haven for artists. And you can only come in if you're like an. Hey, what's what So-Ho House used to be? Like a respect to the artists in that community and our friends. Right. And then yeah I suppose. But also I would love it not to have a fee. It is meant to be like. Oh absolutely. No that's the point. Then, it's beautiful. It's the coolest idea ever. The danger den to be able to have a place I know in L.A., it's like up the street from the Comedy Store then in Austin. It's at this house that's two minutes from the convention center, from the comedy clubs, from the music venues, or whatever it might be. That I would go to a lot, I would, like start looking for it. If I know a town has a Danger Den, I'd be like, oh, where's the Danger Den? You guys have a Danger Den? That'd be dope. Totally. So, well I mean shit, dream and beg. And I mean, the cool thing about it is, yes, we do. One of our ethos is being able to offer infectious generosity where we work with our facilitators who are doing the world's best imagery. We offer infectious generosity with, like, bedbugs. We bring your mask down to the danger, then it's actually dangerous. All right, we're workshopping it. Jesus. We're risen, man. Were you always making people laugh? Oh, my God, I knew I was gonna be a comedian at age, like, five. For real. And you always followed your dream? Yup. Wow. Yep. And you had the support of your parents? Always. Wow. Amazing. How awesome! It literally said Ben’s Comedy Club outside of my room like seventh, eighth, ninth and 11th grade, tururing minimum outside of my bedroom door. Come on. I had a card that said, Ben Gleib comedian, said Ben Gleiberman, my real name Ben Gleiberman. Comedian slash impressionist and I became a comedian, mpressionist. I have a picture. That card has found the card recently. You did? We'll put it here. Baa baa baa. I don't know if you want, but we'll try. I'll send it to you if I can find it. Yeah. I think I can find it actually pretty easy. That's amazing. Yeah, I've always known, but I also have a severe speech problem growing up, so I wasn't able to speak all my life, so I know I wanted to do. I didn't know if I'd be able to do it because I couldn't even talk. I couldn't say hi, No. to a friend in the hallway, for a lot of my life. What was the issue? 5 through like 22? I stutter and the disfluency, I would stutter on certain sounds, but also my vocal cords would just locked down. I wouldn't be able to even make a sound come out, so it wouldn't be like it would be like, and there's no there's no voice. That's like a version of hell. It was intense. That’s aweful. It was a version of hell. I'm sorry. I would say so, and I so I think. Just not being able to get it out. Accepting, having to live through that made me really tough, made me really able to handle a lot of bullshit and made me very patient. Yeah, in a very long slog of a business. It made me, it gave me the bit far beyond 10,000 hours of training like, and probably 100,000 hours of training at what I'm best at which is thinking quickly. What, what got you through? You're like, what did you do therapy or? I went to therapists all throughout elementary and high school. But they never helped me majorly try and teach me, like, techniques or breathing techniques because I knew that for me, it was a mental block. I knew there was something that was happening. I just wasn't seeing correctly. And then. Interesting, so you knew it was a mental block before you could fix the mental block. Correct. So you could recognize it as a mechanism. Decades before. Wow. And, and then but I did have a breakthrough beginning of a breakthrough moment at therapy. Once at the amazing therapist Doctor Guerrero, who had me read a passage out loud and I slogged through reading it. And then she goes, what was it about? And I go, I don't know. I was trying to read it. I was focused on sounding perfect. And she goes, that's the problem. You're more focused on how you come off rather than on the content of what you're saying. Wow. And I realized that’s a completely different paradigm shift. And I had it wrong and it started to unravel. The that everybody's so many people's biggest fear is public speaking is because they think you're so important. They speak, you think you have to come off a certain way, you got to be perfect. Couldn't be further from the truth. People have very low expectations, they’re barely listening. They just they want you to succeed because they're there to get your info. So there's no tension or adversarial energy. It's like, please be a good speaker and give us the info. They don't care if you sound good, it's just by a good speaker does mean the information you're sharing. We're always caught up in our heads. How am I going to come off? How will I look? Will they judge me? Will talk aboue me, me, me? It's the most selfish act to be scared to speak publicly. It's just a service you're providing. Just like cooking French fries or being a vice president at a company, you're. That's your job. You're just conveying information and achieve, accomplishing tasks. And some tasks are done a foot and a half raised on a stage with a amplified voice, because that's how more of the people hear you. Like if you're a like if you're a server at a restaurant going here are two hamburgers and a fucking, two side shakes up, which is the exact same thing, just throw sometimes they have a mic even in these restaurants so you can everybody can hear you. It's the same shit. Orders. Ready? Good night everybody. It's the same exact shit. Take your ego out. You're no more important because you're speaking. You're just doing a role. And then you also can move a step further back and realize you think it's important what you're saying. You're one of 8 billion humans, one of trillions and trillions of creatures on this planet. And then you get a step further back and your floating on a little dot in a spinning marble, in a vast, unknowable, ever expanding universe where the most insignificant thing, how big our egos need to be to be that and be one of trillions on the little dot in that vast thing and think you're so important that not only what you're saying is important, but how you're saying it, the pauses, the speaking style. Oh, what if I'm not dynamic up there while cooking fries for people on this dot that's floating in the air. It's an insane thing to be scared about. So you let it all melt away and now you good as gumdrops, ready to go out there and be Barack Obama. Because he wasn't a very good speaker, like when he was off stage on stage he was incredible. That guy's riffing. He's one of those boring speakers. Oh, what we're going to do, oh, we’re gonna, we’re gonna oh address this problem, oh as soon as we can. Said jeez, Brock, get rid of the ums, speak a little quicker, bro. What is happening? Right. And then Trump. Bagh. Come on, bro, like the most extraneous speaker ever. Very quick speaker. Just never on topic at all times. Like, I'm honestly one of the greats. This can reminds me I'm shiny as well. A lot of people are saying I'm very shiny. I'm one of the shiniest, okay. And so sometimes sharks attack people. They're saying sharks attack people. I don’t know if it's true. I don't know if it's true. They’re saying sharks are attacking people. I feel like it's because of windmills and trying to save the environment. I think that's really what is causing it. And of course if they fix the climate, I'm like, there could be nuclear war. You just said that. It's like there could be nuclear war and no one talks about it. World War III could happen. You want me to fix the climate? Bro you're in charge of both. Yeah. Yeah. And we want both to not happen, same time. Both. Wait, that's the most insane misunderstanding. Don't make us choose. Don't make me choose. Of his responsibility is mind boggling. Bogadotious. That's how you solve speaking publicly. Well. With political tangent. With Ben Gleib. Great. I do a corporate talk teaching this to companies and people. I coach executives on conquering the fear. Regular folks. I, I also, sometimes as a private thing. We'll work with executives or speakers or whoever on their TED talk and make it amazing. Make them speak instruction perfect, make it funny and make it more impactful and then deliver it in the most impactful way possible. Amazing. I do a podcast for 12 years called Last Week on Earth with Ben Gleib. It's on Kevin Smith’s SmartCast network, and I summarize what happened in the world during the last Or whatever is on my mind, usually solo. But this week we have Sam Jay from Saturday Night Live late night show piles, on HBO and, Baritone Day next week and all that. I'll show you my other cool handshake. Okay, you go like that and then you just spin. Come on. To there. And then what do we do? A 360 spin, then you can break it, or you can dap it at the end. And girls always get it better the first time than guys. Guys freeze up at this moment. Yeah. But girls understand. Girls, girls we used to love to do that. Yeah, we used to. Yeah, for sure. I could never do that shit. Really? That sucks. That was honestly one of the best things about being a girl if I ever tried. I do really nice. Really cool slappy handshakes. If I ever did it, I’d be able to patty cake. As one of the best. A lot of people don't know. I, no one knows patty cake like I do. No one knows patty cake like I do. Okay? Okay. Okay. Unbelievable. I feel like I'm, I feel like he's here with with us just right now. I mean, Biden was no better either. I don’t know why I'm ending this by, so I know Biden’s perfectly apropos because it holds my card, said comedian slash impressionist. That means. Yes, and you better. That I never publicly do. Yay! Except for my monthly virtual show grid off the top. You can still see it Nowhere Studios. But what to we are? Nowhere studios.com and get tickets. I do a monthly show where improvised like 3 hours. Joe Biden was no better. Ask me any question as though I'm in a debate, as Joe Biden or an interview. All right, Mr. Biden, you are. Sure. Just talking about climate change yourself. Yeah. What would you do, in response to Trump's, question of nuclear war or fix climate change? What do you say? Well, climate changing, climate changing. I'm not, no joke, I’m not joking around. Climate’s changing, it’s getting cold. It's getting warmer, certain places are cold. I'm not joking around folks. Certain places are getting really hot. So nukes problem is. You understand? Sometimes this is the heart of our country. Democracy. So I’m not kidding around, country’s crumbling. The ocean’s plunge into the sea I won't cry, I won't cry, no, I won't shed a tear. That's just a long folks. As you stand. Stand behind me folks. Why is somebody knocking on the door of the podcast video? I know. What on earth. I think that’s my grandma here to pick me up for apple? Apple sandwich time. When did you get here? All that ain’t gonna come with Jimmy Shore. I become Jimmy Shore right there. You go just one quick jump from Joe Biden to Jimmy. Shore. I wish I were never born. I wish I were never born. Movie stars disappeared. Used to be a real, real sensitive man. Now you got to be Jason Statham to to to to go get the girls. You got to be like, how you doing? It's wonderful being here with you. Whoa. I love it. This your drink yeah? Whoa. Yeah. Do you mind if I have a sip? Go for it. Thanks a lot. What the fuck? This the most delicious thing I've drank in my entire life. That I feel like I'm dealing with that. What's that movie where the guy has multiple personalities? Primal Fear? No, it's a Split! Split? I’ve never seen that one. Oh, oh, you're doing a great job. Oh, thanks a lot. Yeah, you're reminding me of it. Very well. I appreciate you all having me in the studio. It started off a little warm, but the air conditioning has been blowing the back of my bald head. For about, 30 minutes now, and I'll gotta be honest with you, I never felt so relaxed. I’ve never felt so relaxed or relaxed by the way. However British people say it. Do you know what I mean? Yeah, I do know what you mean. And if you don't subscribe to this podcast. Well, you just made the worst mistake of your whole life. It's a threat and a promise and that's coming at you. Live from the Danger Den Austin. Ben Gleib. That's called riffing folks. That's, that's called showbiz baby. That's how we do it in showbiz. Yeah, yeah.