Late 2024 I stumble upon Ben Bankas’ video of Mayor Chow talking snow removal for the City of Toronto. Not the first time I saw this guy’s videos online- I remember his hilarious “Run for Mayor” campaign taking the piss out of the city of Toronto amid the Pandemic or his Theresa Tam bits (I used to be Canada’s most popular Theresa!). Somehow, after watching his Doug Ford impression, I knew I had to see his “I Said What I Said” tour.
Nearby, Danforth Music Hall sold out quick but I noticed a Peterborough event with tickets left & Peterborough is my hometown!
& it happened to be at The Venue (I was The Venue’s OG Event Manager when it opened) so, instantly book a ticket for myself and a friend. Endless laughs ensue, so I snag a front row ticket to the Meridian Hall tour stop too. There I notice Ben Bankas always has fresh material. Never the same show twice!
But then, a few days ago, Ben Bankas drops his Christmas album and — true to form — tears of laughter. I try to play the album while cleaning & kept laughing through tears instead. It is like my brain had a comedy overload. Hooked on that feeling, and knowing that new dates are added quick, I looked for more local sets…
Sure enough… Ben Bankas added a new Toronto show. A podcast. Hmmm, I thought. Will it be as good as the stand up? I book it anyway.
Bankas’ Podcast Special was held at Yuk Yuks Comedy club on Richmond St. W in Toronto and made sure to be early for a front row seat. Now I had never ever been to YukYuks before, but this was a seriously UP CLOSE and personal. Front row is knees touching stage and this show quickly became VERY interesting…
Look how unbelievably close to the stage I was at YuksYuksTO for Ben Bankas Sold Out Podcast Show!
Christmas Album Hits Different Live
Ben Bankas opened the show with a solid rendition of “Jingle Bell” to start things off on an extremely high note. All the comics did an individual stand up set. Bankas jokes that no one ever remembers the guys on tour with him, but having been to all these shows it’s worth noting Armin Arbabi can be pretty funny too. Bankas’ set included telling us how he was recently cancelled by none other than “CHIEF KAREN” (literally 😂😂😂) & that his American friends scratch their heads about the name of the place ‘Sault St. Marie’. Ben Bankas’ impression of them flubbing the name ‘Salt St. Marie’ made for another hilarious moment.
When the stand up was done, the comics all sat down together for a podcast where the fun REALLY started… I could not believe what happened next…
Meridian Hall Footage Fiasco & A Brazen Heckler
We find out from Ben that recently they had a bunch of camera equipment stolen from a car which contained his Meridian Hall footage. Such a shame really, because that would have made for an exceptional special show! Hopefully he can get it back somehow but the chances seem slim. After some blame game about that, Ben started recounting the aftermath of his Toronto Meridian Hall show at Pizza Wine Disco, where there was a mixup and some fans were mad because they went there right after the show at 9 oclock thinking they’d see him there, but in actuality the club asked him to arrive at midnight. Amid this recollection he said the r- word and an audience member got super upset and heckled. The patron threatened to get on the stage and for about 3 seconds the mood shifted and it was a hold-your-breath moment. Obviously Bankas is used to this & joked people would ask “How did he get arrested?” — “at a comedy podcast” 😂. Which instantly broke all the tension again. This ended with an audience member across the room calling the heckler the r-word he hated so much, and then he was carried out of the place.
6ixBuzzTV’s Hasty Exit
It’s a Wednesday night, the clock struck 11, and the 9:30 show was still rolling — when Bankas notices a line of about 8-10 people heading out. People try to figure out why they are leaving and Ben says sarcastically to them “Sorry, I know, you probly gotta go to work in the morning. Oh.. OK. Sorry you didn’t figure it out like me… heh… I’m working right now!” and he took a nice draw of his rum and coke! I suggest they are all leaving for the last GO train — and still everyone is wondering about this when the last person in their group out the door yells “6IXBUZZTV!!!!” really loudly. Bankas roasts them, ‘who yells their own name while leaving?’ 😂😂😂 Once again more laughs.
Front Row Gets Roasted
Naturally as the show winded down Ben turned his attention to our row, so close to him our knees were touching the stage. The two broads next to me had clearly had a few. Bankas began going off on Chow again and mentions Jack Layton and the tipsy ladies beside me started cheering “We love Jack Layton” . Ben instantly deadpanned how “terrible of a politician” Jack Layton was and the chicks just kept agreeing “YES!” woo!. LOL They didn’t even know what they were agreeing to at that point which made it more cringe for them. He skipped me and focused on the person next to me, who I learned is a brilliant, gifted, multi-disciplinary artist named Elixr.
Elixr was dressed in a multiple print outfit, a blinged out NY snap back and a lot of sparkly diamonds. Ben made a comment about his hat and Elixr tells him his homegirl made it for him and did he want to try it on? 😂😂 Ben obliged! First we laughed that there was a hair on it and Bankas had to take the hair off and threw it on the comic beside him.
Ben dons the hat & starts talking with a bit of a lisp introducing himself with some newer variations of “Ben Bankas” & then roasts Elixr saying he looked like he was going to EB games next. We all died laughing and it was pure joy for everyone. Ben also let him take a photo of himself in the hat before he gave it back.
5 STAR Comedy Gold
The comics thought about how to wrap it up, Ben and Armin kinda had a little moment when Ben did not appreciate being the butt of one of Armin’s jokes & admonished him on stage for taking his phone out 😂😂 You’ll see this all in the podcast of the whole show, which I highly recommend watching when it comes out. For all that I recapped this show, there were thousands and thousands of side splitting moments I left out of this review. They all agreed it’s not cool to hype social handles after a set, but that the podcast could reasonably end with shameless self plugs. And with that! They were out after another night of 5 Star Comedy Gold. Now, that was my first time ever at a YukYuk’s comedy club, but, thanks Ben — I don’t think there’s anything that can top having my favorite Comedian of all time 2 feet away, running through all his best new material. Dreams do come true!
Why do I find Ben Bankas SO funny? Maybe it’s because I grew up in a house full of guys (my dad and brother) and we watched things like Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em II & South Park. For me personally, Ben’s unfiltered, conservative-leaning hilarity is everything South Park ISN’T right now. Yeah, that’s right. South Park used to be the ultimate equal-opportunity offender… nothing was sacred, they dropped ‘fa**ot’ 100+ times in one season, roasted Jesus, Muhammad, Scientology, everyone. The last 5–6 years though? They’ve gone soft on the left. Biden gets a total pass, trans athletes and COVID hysteria barely get touched, and their big Trump satire was just ‘orange man literally in bed with Satan’ … lazy, mean-spirited, and zero insight.
South Park used to punch in every direction; now they mostly punch the right. The old ‘we offend everyone’ spirit is dead, but comics like Ben Bankas are bringing it back bigtime. Just yesterday in an exclusive with the Western Standard on the supposed backlash to his brand of comedy, Ben is quoted saying “We are on the front lines of freedom of speech and artistic expression in Canada.”
So, where South Park has dropped the ball, Ben Bankas has taken up the torch. Thanks Buddy!
Catch me front row again sometime!
For upcoming show dates, and more visit https://benbankas.com/. He also encourages people to support his Patreon.
