It's been a whileeeeeeee!
Hi, I’m Ben Searle and I’m a human from Melbourne, Australia. I spend most of my time doing stand-up comedy related things. My favourite food is banh mi. Like you, I’m a multifaceted individual with hopes and dreams. Every now and then you can read a couple of my ‘ponderings’ ( ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ) from the last little while; maybe I’ll even include a poem! This is a relatively new newsletter so please come along for the ride. Hit the subscribe button and I’ll flick you an email every so often. Cheers.
[[ ON TOUR ]]
How’s this? I’m currently writing from Melbourne airport. My last flight was from Brisbane back to Melbourne after my ex’s family Christmas, January 2nd, 2020. I remember being really gee’d up about air travel at the time. I bought a Samsonite suitcase for a Sydney Trip only a month earlier; My thinking was ‘this is an important purchase in my life. I’ll be using this suitcase a lot as I’m now a person who travels to do comedy’. Then covid happened and I filled the prick with books during lockdown to lift in my room, because it was impossible to buy weights online.
I didn’t even use it this time, I’m trying to travel as light as possible under that pesky little 7kg carry-on limit. 7kg is a real fuck around of a weigh to get under. Had to do the whole ‘bathroom scales at home, weigh self, weigh self holding backpack’ thing; demoralising shit.
I love the airport and competing to be the best traveler. Moving through security the quickest, metal detector doesn’t go off, past the random explosives check with confidence to not get stopped, then getting a prime spot to hang out before engaging in the miracle of flight. Like that George Clooney movie Up in the Air, except with a boost juice. All of that culminates in being handed the ‘good at the airport’ medal awarded by the pilot upon boarding, delivered with a pinch on the cheek as they call you sweetie.
The airport is a great chance to pretend you’re more important than you are. All the ads are for Mercedes Benz, Omega Watches, or Proper Health Insurance. Flying feels like something rich people forgot to keep from us commoners.
I’m staying in a private room Airbnb in someone’s house for the first few nights, it’s nice, but also weird being in someone else’s house while they are here. That’s kind of the sick thing about Airbnb, people monetising the space they live in to keep afloat. Am I boycotting it? No; another moral quandary for our time. Might see if I can sublet part of my room in my sharehouse, get some Irish backpacker in a cupboard. For the rest of the trip, I’m in whole apartments which were surprisingly cheap. I think a lot of people chucked everything into having several Airbnb places and are now fucked due to the lack of tourism.
I’m on the Gold Coast about to head to Brisbane (I wrote the airport part a couple of days ago). The first gig I did down here was super fun. I guess I’d heard gigs can be rough up here, but the crowd was great. Mostly a loose hospo crowd in a craft brewery; the area seemed a bit hipster from what I could tell. My second gig in the Gold Coast was a bit tougher, I think I should have spent more time prepping, but had fun. I have three gigs lined up in Brisbane. Wednesday and Friday at Good Chat Comedy. Thursday at Don’t Choke. I also get to see my friend Luke Smith (hi mate) who was in Toronto for almost two years; exciting stuff.
Melbourne
I feel a bit weird about the timing of this trip with cases now in Melbourne and a likely lockdown looming there with more cases arising each day. I haven’t been to any of the exposure sites and don’t have any symptoms, so I guess I’ll wait it out. I’m headed straight to Sydney from here so hopefully, that’s all okay. I’m wondering what needs to happen to progress the vaccine rollout? It feels like nothing is going to get done in this country unless we start to hit the streets more. Can you just slap the shit out of Scott Morrison? What’s the go with that? Is anyone looking into this?
Interesting article about that rat fuck from 2009
For me, it feels like it’s going to take a more united front against corporations, lobby groups, and far-right political movement to really change things in Australia. It’s interesting looking at the downfall of the USA and how we can hopefully pull back from that. It feels a bit hopeless at times. This article from last year, while a little outdated, is engaging reading.
What else has been happening?
(There was a whole thing here about a breakup, which in retrospect was pretty disrespectful to post about so I’ve removed it - Searlo)
Content Corner
Chongo Bongo - Mix 4
A couple of friends seemed to enjoy my last playlist, I was happy with that one. This one is a bit more haphazard, but I stand by it all. Try to knock a song on this playlist and I’ll tell you why you’re wrong.
The Handmaids Tale
I missed this show the first time around, but I watched 3 seasons in the last week, fucking hammered it. I thought it was a Pride and Prejudice style period drama, which I’m not that into, but hey what do you know, it’s sci-fi! Yeah, sick. A dystopian future gets me every time.
Season 1-3 are on Stan, Season 4 just started on SBS On-Demand.
Redfern Electrical
This is red hot, one of the funniest things to come out of Aus Comedy in a minute. Must watch.
THAT’S ALL FOR NOW
Suss my pod with Prue Blake here, follow me on IG.
If you noticed any spelling/grammar/syntax mistakes, let me know. I wanted to get this out and couldn’t be fucked asking and waiting for someone to proofread it.
Cheers.