Benjamin Apple

I direct web videos, perform improv comedy, take photos, make audio recordings, and build websites.

I'm wearing a wig in this photo.

Sun Mar 7

ImprovTeams stuff

NewYork.ImprovTeams.com passed the 1,000-user mark some time in the last few days. There are way more improvisers signed up from New York than from any other city (1,013 out of 1,345). Over 70% of users are “active,” i.e. they confirmed their accounts. Still no confirmation from Amy Poehler.

Still trying to figure out what I can do with ImprovTeams.com that will make it more useful for show promotion in addition to being a means of internal communication/organization for the community. I’m adding a reviews/suggestions section where improvisers will be able to add a book or movie and summarize why they think it’s essential comedy consumption.

Also thinking about adding show comments so there’s an archive of highlights. I think Jesse Lee suggested this a while ago, I just haven’t gotten around to it yet.

Thu Mar 4

Chicago

For aaaages I’ve said or heard said, “Let’s go to Chicago and soak up some DEEP DISH improv.” I love DCM (submitting with four or five teams this year) but it’d be nice to see everyone in their natural environments and check out teams that don’t make the trek.

Vero had a Jet Blue voucher and decided to use it for JUST THIS PURPOSE and we’re now sitting in JFK waiting for our flight. We’ll be there til Sunday.

Can’t wait to see some iO Harold teams and TJ & Rush tonight. Tomorrow we’re doing the iO jam show (they charge for it? what?) and will initiate every scene with obnoxiously obscure NYC specifics, then drop the mike and holler “Easter East Cooooooooast!”

Mon Mar 1

I’m on page 17 at the moment. I don’t remember the last time a book made me chuckle this much.

Fri Feb 26

vaov:

Watch this new sketch I made about the Olympics

I’m a voiceover actor! The performances in this kill me. When Jamison says “I mean, we all know the island is like, filmed in Hawaii” it seems to me that it’s painful for him to admit that Lost is fictional. Like it’s a intense effort and an act of significant maturity.

Ridley Township Public Library’s current Facebook status. Sometimes I kind of forget that it’s a real place, not just a pretend headquarters for my made-up TV show.

Ridley Township Public Library’s current Facebook status. Sometimes I kind of forget that it’s a real place, not just a pretend headquarters for my made-up TV show.

Wed Feb 24
Dan Chamberlain, everybody.

Dan Chamberlain, everybody.

Mon Feb 22

"Run" by Collective Soul

I promise at some point in my life I’ll direct a movie that not only has this song on its soundtrack, but puts “Dosage” back on the charts.

Sun Feb 21

Audio:Music:Recording:
[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]

Emma Blowgun’s Last Stand by Beulah.

For the last 7 years or so I’ve wanted this t-shirt.
Looks like I’ll finally have some consolation.

For the last 7 years or so I’ve wanted this t-shirt.

Looks like I’ll finally have some consolation.

Wed Feb 17

vaov:

Guys, Not While I am Eating

This is the FIRST sketch I ever write, shoot and edit all by myself. The whole process was really, really fun and these guys are hilarious, they improvise a bunch which made it so much harder to edit but a zillion times funnier.

Starring: Frank Hejl, Rob Stern, Benjamin Apple and Dan Chamberlain. AD: Benjamin Apple. Written, edited and directed by Veronica Osorio Videtta

This was really fun to shoot. Dan’s sick noises made me feel sick.

vaov:

This is my FIRST stop motion animation ever!!!!!

It is the Space Time’s bumper (being Space Time my production company)

It has been my DREAM to do stop motion, since I was a 4years old kid watching Gumby (In spanish Gomosito). I couldn’t be happier about this, I taught myself (Ben helped me with some final details) and did it from scratch. It takes a LOT of work but I’d do it again in a heartbeat.

I love this to an EXTREME DEGREE. When Vero told me she was doing a stop-motion bumper I kind of lost my mind, and when I saw her jerry-rigged photo studio (tripod, tape, stove, construction paper) I kind of lost it again. The finished product makes me really happy.

The video she made this bumper for (I think it’s going up today) is hilarious and I got to be in it.

Mon Feb 15
This picture wasn’t taken today, but the holiday is my excuse for posting a mushy picture of the girl (and friends) I love.

This picture wasn’t taken today, but the holiday is my excuse for posting a mushy picture of the girl (and friends) I love.

Tue Feb 9

Anyone who hasn’t been following the Chris Gethard show for the last four months does not know the current state of alternative comedy, talk shows, life hacking, social networking, or New York City.

Thu Feb 4

Dreams

I think it kind of sucks that dreams are thought of as boring, rambly anecdotes that nobody wants to hear. If what happened in the average dream happened in real life it would be an amazing, amazing story. But because they aren’t real, and everyone has them, we’re all stuck with these extremely real-to-me personal experiences that nobody else cares about. It’s horrible!

One quick thing that happened in a dream last night:

I was in a helicopter skimming low over the ocean at night, watching a hijacked, damaged airplane slowly descend in a circle. I was part of some kind of action squad trying to save people’s lives and prevent total disaster. We stood in the helicopter bay holding onto straps, like in action movies. Everything was loud and fast. At one point something caused the copter to splash into the ocean, and I was totally submerged in the darkness of the deep, but I held on tight because I knew that if I let go, as soon as the pilot regained control and took the copter out of the water, I would be stranded in the black waves with no way of signaling my rescuers. It was while I held on tight and waited for the convulsing void to turn back into a field of real vision that I woke up in my bed.