Pubdate: Mon, 09 Feb 2015
Source: Los Angeles Times (CA)
Copyright: 2015 Los Angeles Times
Contact:  http://www.latimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/248
Author: Josh Rottenberg

MARY JANE IS A REGULAR GUEST

Comic Doug Benson Has Turned a Fondness for Marijuana into a Career 
Move With His Stoner Web Series.

It's 1:30 on a Monday afternoon, and on a quiet dead-end street in 
Culver City, three comedians are getting stoned and debating whether 
astronauts are, on average, handsomer than most people.

"No astronauts look like George Clooney," one of them, Ari Shaffir, 
says flatly.

"I don't know," counters Adam Carolla, who hosts a popular daily 
podcast. "Buzz Aldrin and those guys - they were pretty good back in the day."

Doug Benson smiles, his eyelids heavy, and bites the head off a 
gummy-bear-shaped marijuana edible.

This in itself might not sound remarkable - at this moment across the 
entertainment industry, a not insignificant number of people are 
probably getting high and having similarly random conversations.

But they don't have a camera crew filming them. They don't have a 
medic in the next room in case anyone has a marijuana-related 
emergency (a panic attack, a coughing fit). And they don't have 
thousands of people around the world watching them live on YouTube - 
many, if not most, stoned themselves.

Some people dream of getting an Academy Award or singing "The 
Star-Spangled Banner" at the Super Bowl. Benson, 50, a standup comic 
who has carved a successful career around his boundless enthusiasm 
for marijuana, dreamed of hosting a talk show in which he and his 
celebrity guests could get really, really stoned.

And for a little over a year, he's been living out that dream with 
his weekly Web series, "Getting Doug with High."

Unlike conventional talk shows, full of prepared comedy bits and 
rehearsed anecdotes, "Getting Doug with High" - which has featured 
comedians, actors and filmmakers of varying degrees of fame as guests 
since its launch in the fall 2013 - is loose and freeform. There are 
a few recurring segments, like a discussion of pot-related current 
events, but Benson doesn't always get around to them. (The only real 
rule is that guests must either state that they have a medical 
marijuana card or sign a legal waiver.)

Under the influence, some of Benson's guests get extremely talkative. 
Some get quiet and self-conscious. Conversations wander with their 
own nonlinear stoner logic - over 45 minutes, today's topics will 
bounce from astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson to texting and driving 
to obnoxious T-shirt slogans to nostalgia for old pornography.

"Going off and telling random stories and jokes is welcomed," Benson 
explained later, "just like in a pot circle at a party or in a smelly alley."

Think "The Dick Cavett Show" with bong hits and more giggling.

Benson came to the stoner life relatively late. Born and raised in 
San Diego, he didn't try pot until he was in his late 20s. He took to 
it like a duck to water, though, and, defying the lazy-pothead 
stereotype, was soon balancing a busy comedy career with a level of 
marijuana intake that would render most people perpetually couchbound.

"Doug somehow has it all figured out," said comedian Sarah Silverman, 
a longtime friend of Benson and a two-time guest on the show. "He can 
somehow smoke all the pot in the world and still be sharp as a tack. 
There are a handful of people like that, and I'm in awe of them."

In mid-2013, Daniel Kellison, a former producer of David Letterman 
and Jimmy Kimmel's late-night talk shows, met with Benson to see if 
he was interested in doing an on-camera version of his film-centric 
comedy podcast "Doug Loves Movies."

Benson, though, had something different in mind.

"I spitballed an idea, telling Daniel, 'I want to do a talk show 
where we get high on camera and just see what happens,'" said the 
comic, who starred in the pro-pot 2007 documentary "Super High Me." 
"I wanted to show people that weed smoking is fairly harmless and 
have some fun at the same time. He didn't hesitate to say yes."

Kellison's only real concern: Even in generally pot-tolerant 
Hollywood, getting celebrities who aren't named Cheech Marin or Tommy 
Chong to partake in what is still a federal Schedule 1 drug on camera 
would be no easy feat.

"It's a different time - smoking pot isn't that scandalous or 
shocking," Kellison said. "But any publicist worth their salt would 
probably discourage their talent from doing this show."

Still, since "Getting Doug with High" first aired on Kellison's newly 
launched YouTube channel, Video Podcast Network, in October 2013, 
Benson has managed to wrangle an array of prominent guests, including 
Silverman, Kevin Smith, Margaret Cho, Jack Black - and, yes, Cheech and Chong.

Silverman said she's had no real hesitation about appearing on the show.

"I don't think twice, because I can't seem to actually believe that 
anyone sits and watches people getting stoned," she said. "But people 
eat it up! Who knew?"

 From the outset, "Getting Doug with High" has been a fairly stripped 
down affair. The commercials, which help cover the modest production 
budget, are mainly for pot-smoking paraphernalia, like a 
ketchup-bottle-shaped device called the Buddy Power Hitter. The 
show's set - nicknamed "the spacement" - consists of a simple 
celestial backdrop, a small table piled with pipes and bongs (mostly 
Benson's own) and a couple of chairs. Benson owns a stake in the 
rights to the show but, otherwise, does it for almost nothing.

"We splurge at Trader Joe's for the craft-service table," Kellison 
said, "but that's about the extent of our luxuries."

Whenever possible, in observance of long-held stoner tradition, 
Benson likes to start the show promptly at 4:20 p.m. Cabs are offered 
so that no one needs to drive while high, and the aforementioned 
medic is on hand, primarily to offer peace of mind to any nervous guests.

"He has throat lozenges," producer Brent Butler said dryly. "He has 
forestalled a number of very serious, almost show-stopping coughing fits."

"Getting Doug with High" has amassed more than almost 300,000 
subscribers on YouTube (the audience is predominantly male). Episodes 
frequently get 500,000 or more views, and a handful have received 
more than a million - numbers that would be considered respectable on 
some basic-cable late-night shows.

Booking guests is still a challenge. Some people turn the show down 
because they're forbidden by network-TV contracts from using drugs in 
public. Some don't want their kids or other family members to see 
them getting high.

Some potential guests are simply worried they'll become paranoid. 
Appearing on the show in September, Jack Black, who has laid off pot 
in recent years since having kids, warned Benson he might leave early 
if he started to spiral into "a bad trip."

Less than 15 minutes after taking his first hit off a vapor pen, 
obviously struggling with mounting anxiety, Black said his 
pre-arranged safe word ("cantaloupe") - but then managed to hang on, 
if in an almost catatonic state, for the rest of the show. That 
episode has been watched roughly a million times.

"I felt sorry for Jack," Benson said. "He's kind of a stoner icon, so 
I thought viewers might be pissed that he's such a lightweight these 
days. But there has been little backlash, so now I say, 'Bring on 
more lightweights!'" (The show's commenters often pass strict 
judgment on whether Benson's guests are getting high enough.)

As marijuana laws continue to ease and use in the open becomes 
increasingly normalized, Benson and the show's producers believe 
lining up celebrity guests will gradually get easier. (Snoop Dogg, 
Willie Nelson and Seth Rogen are three of the most requested.)

Kellison thinks the show could even end up on TV at some point: "If 
you look at something like [Comedy Central's series] 'Drunk History,' 
where people are getting drunk and vomiting on camera - I mean, why not?"

Benson himself, perhaps not surprisingly, has a laidback attitude 
about the show's future.

"Any former or current president of the United States would be 
great," he said of his dream guests. "Other than that, I'm just happy 
that anyone is willing to do it."

He does have one more serious wish, though.

"I hope that a person who is anti-weed stumbles onto the show from 
time to time and maybe changes their mind," he said. "It's a silly 
show, so I doubt it happens often. We might be preaching to the 
converted, but at least we're out there - and getting away with it."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom