An uptight, inner-city atheist with a heart of gold: that’s how Ben Zabel describes himself and that’s just what you’ll get when the 'Big Brother' 2013 housemate brings his one-man show to Brisbane Powerhouse.
‘A Quiet Night In’ sees Ben step in front of a theatre audience to ruminate on his time in the Big Brother house and life after reality TV, with its dizzying heights, devastating lows and mediocre in-betweens.
“I was up at Woolworths a few days ago and there was a lady doing the free sample cooking,” Ben says, “she was very sweet, she was a mum and she said, ‘Can I get a picture?’ Under the counter she had her camera, so I got a picture and then someone assumed that I was endorsing the product she was pushing and they were like, ‘Oh, is this what you’re doing these days?’ and I’m like, ‘No, I’m not selling mince', just so everyone’s aware.“I even spoke to someone at the post office and she asked, ‘Can you quickly talk to my husband on the mobile?’ So I chatted to him but he was very abrupt and she said, ‘Oh, he’s in prison, they only get a certain amount of time’ and I thought, ‘Wow, this is just ridiculous’.”
Mistaken endorsements and awkward conversations with inmates are just some of the situations Ben has found himself in since leaving the BB house last year and with ‘A Quiet Night In’, he hopes to give the audience the answers to all the questions they’re dying to ask.
“I get stopped every day and get asked: a good question, the same question or a really odd question and people seem very interested. So for 50 minutes the show’s going to be kind of a Q and A, kind of an evening with, where we talk about the reality of reality television. Because you’re in then you’re out; you’re hot then you’re not; and then sometimes, like with me, you’re not hot, you’re tepid.”
After surviving 73 days in the BB house and like so many popular ex-housemates before him, Ben has become a local celebrity and transitioned into the media, recently hosting a movie spot on Channel 9’s ‘Mornings’ programme.
During ‘A Quiet Night In’ Ben will face questions from the audience about his life, recount his time on 'Big Brother', hopefully dish some dirt on its inner goings-on and what it’s like to live inside a voyeur’s wet dream.
“It’s going to be a bit of an expose: we’re going to talk about no hot water in the [Big Brother] house, no coffee, no tissues, the microphones hidden in the garden, seeing the Tower of Terror from the front yard and waving to the tourists. We’re going to talk about life before 'Big Brother', life during and life after.”
Although Ben has landed work in the media post-'Big Brother,' Ben says the prospect of performing at Brisbane Powerhouse in a man vs. audience-style show is daunting. “When you have anxiety, the last thing you want to do is stand in a big room full of strangers and talk in front of them, but it’s all too late now. I will turn up, I wasn’t sure if I would, but I will.”
So providing Ben turns up (don’t worry, he will) and doesn’t get mobbed for selfies, audiences can expect not only love, laughs and his warm, relatable demeanour, but also a serious conversation about the state of the reality television phenomenon which Ben says is still alive and well.
“I’m not really into any of that reality television stuff: it’s cheap and cheerful television that makes a great profit. No-one says they watch it but I can tell you, having played with commercial television and radio, if it doesn’t rate and it doesn’t make money, they don’t air it. So someone’s watching.”
