Long-term investments are far and few between for most in their early twenties, but Ben Hunter is already looking ten years ahead.
While some may dabble in cryptocurrency or take a gamble on the share market, the emerging comedian is betting that refunding his audience might just pay off.
He's presenting his stand-up show 'I Will Refund Your Ticket In 10 Years I Promise'.
"I’m not sure I would use the word ‘smart’, but it’s definitely interesting,” Ben laughs.
“Hopefully, those who DO request a refund in ten years’ time have stayed in tune and aware enough of my career to have paid the ticket back.
“I AM nervous about how practical it will be for the Brisbane shows, because the audience will mostly be friends and family, and they’ll be in touch with me regardless. Probably a loss there – but that’s a problem for future me. The world might go up in flames before then anyway.”
Ben is Brisbane-bred, moving to Queensland’s capital when he was two. And although he had a string of similar, performance-centric hobbies – he claims, he never expected to be where he is now.
“I did a lot of debating and drama and theatre sports and model UN and public speaking throughout high school. And then I studied Communications Journalism at QUT – I wanted to be a sports journalist. A year and a half in, COVID hit, and we were off campus and weren’t hands on, and I lost any of the passion that I once might have had.
“I did see out my last year, and thought I’d study something else, but had a year off to work, and ended up focusing on comedy. It all picked up quite rapidly from there.”
That comedy career kicked off in 2021, at Brisbane’s Good Chat Comedy Club. He competed in the annual open mic competition, Brat Pack.
"Next I competed in RAW Comedy, and performed at Sit Down Comedy Club, and then I was picked to go to Melbourne for 'Comedy Zone' last year. I'm very grateful. Stoked to be here.”
'Comedy Zone' scours the country for the next wave of ‘big names’, bringing together a new line-up of fresh faces every year. Now? Ben is touring the country with his debut show – an hour-long performance of self-proclaimed ‘silly fun for the sake of silly fun’.
“I can reveal there are some members of the animal kingdom that feature in the show. We talk about the aquarium, we talk about Movie World, we talk about rain. We talk about a myriad of other topics,” he discloses.
“When I’m writing, it’s a lot of silly stuff that I think is funny and a bit absurd. I’m a straight white guy in my early twenties, privately educated, with very little in the way of struggle or adversity. I leave the edgy or potentially offensive personal anecdotes and opinions to the people who are better placed to have them.”
He’ll be performing to a home crowd at the Brisbane Powerhouse in May, amid Comedy Festival season.
“Coming to Melbourne and having crowds full of walk-ins off the street – that’s the dream, a room of strangers. If Brisbane goes badly, I’ll have to face the awful prospect of arriving at family Christmas and interacting with the people I performed the worst show of my life to.
“I’m doing 22 shows in Melbourne, so hopefully I’ll have figured it out by the time I arrive back home. Those lower-stakes shows are the marble, then you carve away the excess to reveal a beautiful, aquarium statue.”
Ben Hunter plays Trades Hall (Melbourne International Comedy Festival) until 21 April, Factory Theatre (Sydney Comedy Festival) 1,3 May and Brisbane Powerhouse (Brisbane Comedy Festival) 9-12 May.
