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.

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.

Trailer for the documentary that a clip from my video “George Lucas Died In 1989” is in. Premieres at SXSW next month!

This video I made over a year ago with Brandon Scott Jones, Dan Chamberlain, Rory Covey and Jason Jackowski is going to be on an actual movie screen at South By Southwest next month, in the documentary “The People vs. George Lucas.” A few months ago the director, Alexandre Philippe, contacted me to ask if he could use a clip of it in the doc. I tried not to tell everyone about it in case the clip didn’t make it into the final cut, but I kept my fingers crossed.
About an hour ago I saw in my Facebook feed that the documentary is premiering at SXSW, so I checked in with Alexandre to see if he could tell me whether we were in the final cut, and we are!
I’m on cloud nine. To think that literally the very first video I ever wrote and directed is going to be on a screen at South By Southwest makes my head spin. It’s also a little embarrassing - I still love the video, but the image is static, the color is off, the sound is bad, and you can see the tip of a chandelier poking into the top of the frame. I fixed some of  this a few months ago for the reel I put together for my UCB Beta Teams submission, but the original version is the source material for what’s used in the documentary. Hopefully they fixed it up a little too so I don’t come off looking like a total amateur, but if not who cares!
Anyhow, a SXSW movie pass is $425 and a plane ticket to Austin is about $350, while my monthly income right now is $0, but I’ll still try to make it down there for what I’ll be calling “my premiere.”
So psyched!

This video I made over a year ago with Brandon Scott Jones, Dan Chamberlain, Rory Covey and Jason Jackowski is going to be on an actual movie screen at South By Southwest next month, in the documentary “The People vs. George Lucas.” A few months ago the director, Alexandre Philippe, contacted me to ask if he could use a clip of it in the doc. I tried not to tell everyone about it in case the clip didn’t make it into the final cut, but I kept my fingers crossed.

About an hour ago I saw in my Facebook feed that the documentary is premiering at SXSW, so I checked in with Alexandre to see if he could tell me whether we were in the final cut, and we are!

I’m on cloud nine. To think that literally the very first video I ever wrote and directed is going to be on a screen at South By Southwest makes my head spin. It’s also a little embarrassing - I still love the video, but the image is static, the color is off, the sound is bad, and you can see the tip of a chandelier poking into the top of the frame. I fixed some of this a few months ago for the reel I put together for my UCB Beta Teams submission, but the original version is the source material for what’s used in the documentary. Hopefully they fixed it up a little too so I don’t come off looking like a total amateur, but if not who cares!

Anyhow, a SXSW movie pass is $425 and a plane ticket to Austin is about $350, while my monthly income right now is $0, but I’ll still try to make it down there for what I’ll be calling “my premiere.”

So psyched!

Thu Jan 28

Countries from which people accessed ImprovTeams.com in the last month

(In descending order)

United States
Canada
Germany
United Kingdom
Colombia
Australia
U.S. Virgin Islands
New Zealand
Argentina
Switzerland
Turkey
Poland
Pakistan
Mexico
Norway
Spain
China
Japan
Israel
Czech Republic
Austria
Ireland
France
Peru
Italy
Belgium
Ukraine
Romania
Slovenia
South Korea
South Africa
Uganda
Hong Kong

I love that people in all of these places are stumbling over this project and these performers.

Boy, when you’re dead, they really fix you up. I hope to hell when I do die somebody has sense enough to just dump me in the river or something. Anything except sticking me in a goddam cemetery. People coming and putting a bunch of flowers on your stomach on Sunday, and all that crap. Who wants flowers when you’re dead? Nobody.
- Holden
JD Salinger.

JD Salinger.

Mon Jan 25

"Groundhog Day" improv

Has this show happened before? Er - that isn’t a joke, I’m really asking. I’m pretty excited to see it.

What would you do if you were trapped in the same improv scene over and over and over again? What would you change?

This Groundhog Day, Neil Casey, Rebecca Drysdale, Jim Santangeli, Anthony Atamanuik and Christina Gausas will find out.

Say “goodbye” to the Harold and “hello” to the Harold Ramis, a new form based on his classic comedy starring Bill Murray and the unconditionally hilarious Andie MacDowell.

Winter might last forever but this show is one night only! Groundhog day is February 2nd after Harold night at 11:00pm!!!

Sun Jan 24
Getting ready to shoot a new series that I’m very, very excited about.

Getting ready to shoot a new series that I’m very, very excited about.

Sat Jan 23
Everything is about UCB.
- Verónica Osorio when I mentioned that a weird dream I had was also somehow about UCB.

Today on the bus from Philly, Vero and I were reading one book (at Anthony King’s recent recommendation) and a woman across the aisle from us was reading the other. I think the title and cover alone would have cracked me up, but the coincidence/contrast meant I Just Hadda Bloggit™.

Please don’t be cynical. I hate cynicism — it’s my least favorite quality and it doesn’t lead anywhere. Nobody in life gets exactly what they thought they were going to get. But if you work really hard and you’re kind, amazing things will happen.
- Conan “Coco” O’Brien (via sussybuckets) (via mikescollins)
Wed Jan 20

Jobless

It’s been almost a month since I worked at my desk job as a web programmer. I haven’t earned a dime since then except for a little improv coaching, but I’m enjoying myself to a degree that wasn’t possible while spending 40 hours a week getting other people’s things done. Things learned so far:

  • Auditioning is fun. It’s like the first 30 seconds of an improv scene, where your job is to confidently make a big, interesting decision. There’s almost zero time to justify, explore or heighten, but the same techniques apply and you can feel when it’s going well.
  • Beans and rice topped with cheese, a fried egg, and hot sauce tastes great and costs like a buck to make.
  • If you actually, seriously, really want to get some work done, you’ll get it done and no one can stop you.

Dunno yet whether I’ll be a starving artist or one of the far rarer “heartily fed” variety.