Depending where you’ve watched Cash Cab, you may or may not have seen Ben Bailey as the host. Canadians have likely seen another (lesser) host, but Americans have come to love Bailey’s exuberant and humorous personality. It wasn’t until my wife told me he was performing at The Improv that I was aware he does stand-up comedy too. We attended the show, and I must say that he was surprisingly impressive as a stand-up.

Cash Cab Canada

When I searched for “Ben Bailey” here were some of the Twitter results that I got, to reinforce people’s love for him (and dislike of the Canadian host):

Click to enlarge.

I assume they’re talking about this guy:

Now, Ben Bailey

I have come to really enjoy Cash Cab, and I don’t doubt that it is due to Ben Bailey. While the show is unique and interesting (most of the time), the host has a lot to do with its success. Before the show, I watched a clip on YouTube to see what I was getting into. I liked what I saw. Here’s a different clip that includes some material that he performed last night. Oh, lazy eye.

Ben’s bio on The Improv website tells the story of how he began his career in stand-up comedy:

Ben got his unlikely start as a stand-up comedian when he was mistaken for a comic in the green room of The Comedy Store in Los Angeles where he was hired to answer the phones. The booker seeing that the other comics in the room could not get enough of Ben’s humor booked him on the spot. After a few years of performing in Los Angeles, Ben moved back to New York and for two years consistently went to open-mic nights to hone his craft and he hasn’t stopped making people laugh since.

The Show

While I won’t get into too much detail about the show we watched (because frankly, you probably don’t care) I do want to highlight something. Despite having a handful of front row hecklers/they-just-won’t-STFU’s Ben managed to save the repeatedly derailed show.

// Begin Aside

Why is it that the people who are so hell bent on talking and being distractions ALWAYS seem to sit in the front row of these shows? Seriously, what is up with that? Stand-up comedians are already the only performers with whom these people could get away with such rudeness, but they have to make it worse by being 10 feet away from them.

// End Aside

Having performed stand-up comedy myself, I sympathized with Ben when he said (I’m paraphrasing): “You have no concept of comedic timing and momentum do you? It’s all built up to this moment, but you felt that what you had to say was more important or clever than my line.” Essentially, he had people who just would NOT stop interrupting and talking. It created (as it always does) an awkward vibe in the room, because throwing off the comedian makes him/her want to just stop trying. To his credit, he was able to bring it back and finish the show with the punchline to the 7-minute-long joke he had tried to complete earlier. It was a perfect way to end it.