Ben Palmer: Trolling his way to the top

More than a dozen top comics have ascended to enviable heights via social media.

But do you know anyone else who launched their comedy career on MySpace in 2006? Ben Palmer was that pioneer, out taming the Internet wilderness for future comedy upstarts.

“The first time I started making people laugh was on a MySpace blog when I was 19,” Ben Palmer said. “I just wrote some silly one-liners and updates about my life.”

Friends and family posted positive comments and shared the bits. Palmer got the bug.

Two years later, when friends held a roast for his older brother, they invited Palmer to bring his humor to the stage for the first time. His brother was leaving their Cleveland home to try his luck in comedy.

Palmer said he felt wobbly, but the response was positive enough that he felt ready to start taking his act to a hometown open mic.

“Then I had a show that went better,” he said. “I got good laughs and started making friends and getting invited to do shows. Before I knew it, there was nothing else I was going to do.”

“Once MySpace was over, Facebook started up, and by 2007 I was on Facebook writing the same kind of silly stuff. I would also share articles and wait for people’s responses.”

Then he started posting absurd captions for what he calls “cheesy stock photos” that he found online. The bits were a hit among Palmer’s friends and fellow comedians. One of them suggested that he create a show around them.

By then Palmer had moved to Atlanta where a popular comedy venue had a big screen. That’s where he did his first show with screen shot stills, narrating with a microphone in the back of the room.

That taste of success inspired him to see what the future might hold in L.A. “Shortly after that, I started doing a new bit, pretending to be a customer service rep for companies on Facebook.” Having served time as an actual customer service rep, Palmer had expert command of the patois.

What opened the door for his new character was corporate America’s social media neglect. Palmer said, for instance, that when Uber first opened its Facebook account, it almost never responded to customer comments and complaints. Palmer started commenting as “Ben Palmer, freelance customer service representative.” As a “freelancer,” of course, he was free to comment on all and sundry business accounts. Readers laughed and shared his comments by the thousands.

At that point, Palmer said, “Press started noticing. It (became) an internet thing. All the blogs and cool little publications were sharing my content. So, I started doing those bits on stage and the show just grew from there.”

Palmer said he hasn’t heard from a single troll-ee, but he’s been banned from loads of corporate social media accounts along the way. He continues to poke fun freely wherever he sees an opportunity. In a recent YouTube troll, he owns a known pyramid scheme operator by pretending to be a job applicant, and he recently drew Facebook heat for defending NASCAR’s tribute to Black History Month.

“I had (an onstage) set that I had polished that was making people laugh. I was still doing some festivals. I did San Francisco Sketch Fest a few years in a row, and I was killing at that festival, but I still wasn’t really ‘discovered’.”

“I needed a screen and a projector to get out there and was saving up for a little projector that I could take with me and do my show anywhere.

“That’s when the coronavirus thing happened and then it was no more comedy. But I had been wanting to put my videos out on TikTok. I had bought a green screen and (COVID-19 lockdown) gave me the push to do it.”

Now he’s got it all together, the gear, the slides, the videos and a lot of new material he wrote for the stage when there were no stages to deliver it on. In Tucson, Parker’s virtual and actual stage can finally come together so he will never have to work for Uber again.

Palmer Trolls, 8 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 18, rialtotheatre.com, $20

Gaslight honcho Katherine Byrnes is in The Soapbox

Katherine Byrnes may be less known as co-director and choreographer for the almost perpetually sold-out Gaslight Theatre, but she’s possibly least known for providing vocals for the China tour of Artifact Dance Project’s “Great American Dance Tour.” Only deep-cut music geeks will be aware of her work as a harmony singer for Amos Lee. In recent years, she’s attracted fans as a soloist with the Tucson Symphony, Calexico and Orkesta Mendoza, and for Sweet Ghosts, her project with partner Ryan Alfred.

Still, almost no one outside her circle knows how funny she is, and what great stories she has to tell.

That secret will be out Friday evening, when Byrnes steps up to the Tucson Improv Movement’s “Soapbox” show. Byrnes will tell anecdotes from her life, and then TIM’s top house team, “The Soapbox,” will spin and sling them into new lives of their own.

Comedy Elsewhere This Week

Catalina Craft Pizza,15930 N. Oracle Road Suite 178, 9 p.m., Saturday, Feb. 18,” Comedy in Catalina,” $8 or free with a donation of food or clothing. Reservations are recommended, 520-825-0140. LA comic and actor Jay Hewlett headlines this show with special guests Jay Rivera (“The Puerto Rican Grizzly”) and Phoenix comic Floyd Haas. Raymond Stalling hosts and Jen Blanco, Joel Martin and Holly Hilton fill out the bill.

Chuckleheads Comedy Club and Bar, 41 Brewery Avenue, Bisbee, 8 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 18, chuckleheadsaz.com, $5 advance at the website. Whittles & Friends Comedy Showcase features Zo Thomas, Aldo Campana, Tony Bruhn, Jennifer Churchill, “Whittles,” Sylvia Remington and Lisa Kristine.

Hotel Congress, 311 E Congress Street, 8 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 25, hotelcongress.com, $15. The more-fabulous-than-life “Retro Game Show,” now in its 12th year, presents “Sassword.” Prepare to laugh hard for the duration with emcee Chatty Kathee and celebrity guests Fulta Burstin and Oasis Kimmelman.

Laff’s Comedy Caffe, 2900 E. Broadway Boulevard, 8 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 17, and 7 and 9:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 18, laffstucson.com, $15, $20 preferred seating. Jade Esteban Estrada is a Laff’s favorite, guaranteed to make you laugh about things that never occurred to you. The only question is what color his feather boa will be.

The Screening Room,127 E. Congress Street, 8 p.m. Friday, Feb. 17, screeningroomdowntown.com, $10, “The Downtown Comedy Show,” hosted by Chris Quinn, features Nic, Anthony Jenkins, Sylvia Remington, Allana Erickson-Lopez and Dom DiTolla.

Tucson Improv Movement/TIM Comedy Theatre, 414 E. Ninth Street. tucsonimprov.com, $7 each show, $10 for both shows, same night, free jam and open mic. 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 16, 101 and 201; 8:30 p.m. Cage Match; 6:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 17, Improv Jam; 7:30 p.m. “The Soapbox” with Katherine Byrnes; 9 p.m. Stand Up Showcase; 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 18, “Finding the Words” and The Riveters; 9 p.m. “The Dating Scene”

Unscrewed Theater, 4500 E. Speedway Boulevard, unscrewedtheatre.org, $8, live or remote, $5 kids. 6 p.m. Friday, Feb 17, ImprovBlox Musical Showcase (free admission); 7:30 p.m. Family-Friendly Improv; 6 p.m., Saturday, Jan. 18, 6 p.m. Unscrewed Family Hour (all tickets $5); 7:30 p.m. “Unscrewsical” Family Friendly Musical Improv Comedy; 9 p.m. “The Backyard” Improv Playground (Pay what you will admission.)

This article appears in Feb 16-22, 2023.