Bankas Podcast - Bankas Podcast #107 ｜ Toronto Blue Jays

00:00:00.000 Welcome back to Bankus Podcast, everybody. It's me, Ben Bankus, and I got some shows coming up.

00:00:08.060 I'm going to be in Grand Prairie, Alberta. That actually is sold out. Calgary, Friday, Saturday, sold out.

00:00:19.080 Sunday, I'm going to Red Deer, Alberta. That's sold out.

00:00:22.720 Why am I telling you this? Because I'm building hype. I'm building hype.

00:00:28.960 And Monday, we come back. We're doing a live podcast. Armin's going to be there.

00:00:37.640 I think Ari, who knows, is going to show up. And it's going to be a fun time.

00:00:43.940 The last one we did, we're going to do something similar where we basically the whole show is we're ordering Uber Eats.

00:00:51.360 And we interview the Uber Eats drivers and find out how long they've been in the country and whether they're here legally.

00:01:04.580 I mean, it is kind of what we did last time, so you should go check that out. That's two podcasts ago.

00:01:09.840 But anyway, we're doing a live one, October 27th in Calgary.

00:01:14.460 October 28th, two shows in Calgary.

00:01:17.960 The second show is almost sold out.

00:01:19.640 Wednesday, there's another show.

00:01:21.760 Go get tickets, benbankus.com.

00:01:24.820 They're also on the Yuck Yucks website, yuckyucks.com.

00:01:27.820 And after that, I'm going to be in Toledo, Ohio, Houston, Texas, Potsdam, Pennsylvania, Atlantic City, New York, Toronto, and then I think Montreal.

00:01:42.600 And that's it for the year.

00:01:44.640 That's 2025.

00:01:46.320 That's a wrap.

00:01:47.080 It is almost the end of the year, folks.

00:01:49.980 That's something you should be thinking about.

00:01:51.840 This is this is the year is over.

00:01:54.580 It's October.

00:01:55.720 As soon as Halloween happens, you got two months.

00:01:59.800 It's nothing.

00:02:00.380 You already have to be planning many months ahead of that.

00:02:04.200 So the year's over.

00:02:08.000 Figure it out.

00:02:09.180 Figure out what your next moves are.

00:02:10.740 My next moves are my first moves of 2026 are Poughkeepsie, New York.

00:02:20.300 So I know what the hell I'm doing.

00:02:22.200 And that's that's how you get back in the swing of things.

00:02:25.760 You go to Poughkeepsie, for God's sakes.

00:02:30.540 Poughkeepsie, New York, we're doing four shows.

00:02:34.480 Washington, D.C. at the Comedy Loft, we're doing, I think, four or five shows come out to that.

00:02:39.980 The first time I was there, I think I did two shows.

00:02:41.700 We sold them both out.

00:02:42.580 That was a really, really fun experience.

00:02:45.300 And huge announcement coming for Canada, Canada.

00:02:53.140 I am going to be announcing something very soon.

00:02:56.040 I don't even I shouldn't even tell you what it is, but I'm teasing it.

00:03:00.020 And it's going to be a crazy, crazy thing that I'm going to be announcing soon.

00:03:09.160 And everybody's going to have the ability to.

00:03:13.440 OK, it's a it's it's a tour.

00:03:15.420 It's a tour.

00:03:16.180 I'm not going to.

00:03:17.020 You know, I didn't become the artistic director of CBC or anything.

00:03:23.740 The head of comedy, Ben Bank is head of comedy, CBC.

00:03:28.620 Head of comedy and CBC is Ben Bank.

00:03:33.040 Head of comedy and CBC should be Olivia Chow. 0.99

00:03:35.240 That's that's really a head of comedy.

00:03:38.700 But.

00:03:42.740 I have a huge announcement, a huge tour that's coming up, and it's going to be announced.

00:03:47.020 In a cup, I think, a couple of weeks after Halloween, something like that.

00:03:51.840 So get kind of prepared.

00:03:53.800 And if your city's not on there, it's probably on there.

00:03:57.400 So if you're one of the people messaging me, why aren't you coming here?

00:04:00.340 Why aren't you coming?

00:04:01.460 This is going to be crazy.

00:04:02.920 And we're going to be coming to all corners of the country.

00:04:08.840 With that being said, support me on Patreon, patreon.com slash Ben Bank is.

00:04:14.460 And let's get into the show.

00:04:17.020 Blue Jays beat the Seattle Mariners.

00:04:24.400 And I couldn't be happier because, look, I'm not a diehard sports fan of any kind.

00:04:31.300 I played baseball as a child.

00:04:33.000 I've had a game winning RBI.

00:04:34.700 I, OK, when I was nine.

00:04:38.320 And so I know I know a thing or two.

00:04:41.800 I used to play hockey.

00:04:42.980 I used to play single A hockey in Toronto in the GTHL.

00:04:47.740 Toronto Penguins.

00:04:49.140 Shout out.

00:04:49.760 But the Blue Jays beat the Seattle Mariners when I was in Tacoma, Washington, just outside of Seattle.

00:04:59.580 The show was sold out.

00:05:01.420 It was on a Sunday night and 120 people did not show up to the show because it was the Blue Jays Mariners game.

00:05:10.040 So the moment that we found out that I mean, there was a great show, by the way, the people who didn't come.

00:05:14.840 You missed out.

00:05:15.460 You should have just come and looked at it on your phone, especially consider you lost anyway.

00:05:20.060 But they didn't come.

00:05:22.700 We won.

00:05:23.540 And there was this moment there was people started talking in the audience.

00:05:26.340 I go, what happened?

00:05:27.580 What's the score?

00:05:28.340 And they go, Blue Mariners lost.

00:05:32.100 And, you know, I'm on stage.

00:05:34.340 I'm celebrating.

00:05:35.260 Obviously.

00:05:36.880 My team beat your team.

00:05:38.840 But in comedy, it doesn't always go the best when you do that.

00:05:43.360 When you just go on.

00:05:44.560 I literally started the show.

00:05:46.360 I went on stage ago.

00:05:48.020 It's six, three or whatever the score.

00:05:50.100 I don't know.

00:05:50.420 We are winning six to six to right now.

00:05:54.440 Not the best way to start show, but it was an incredible show.

00:05:58.420 But.

00:06:00.420 People.

00:06:02.000 Love their their sports so much that a comic that they've been waiting to see.

00:06:08.120 And then they were like, I'm not going to see that.

00:06:10.000 And part of the reason they didn't come is because they knew deep down in their hearts that that the Mariners were going to lose.

00:06:16.820 And I was going to talk about it or I was going to, you know, they know I'm from Toronto.

00:06:22.200 So.

00:06:23.500 And people are mad.

00:06:24.580 There's some.

00:06:24.980 It's kind of interesting.

00:06:26.080 Usually Canadian fans are mad at me, but now the American fans are like, you're a communist for supporting the Blue Jays.

00:06:33.220 Listen.

00:06:34.460 I get that. 0.95

00:06:35.860 And but we have to take you can't just let brands be destroyed by shitty people like you can't let this flag that I grew up thinking was cool. 0.91

00:06:49.400 And I grew up thinking the American flag was cool. 0.88

00:06:51.800 I grew up.

00:06:52.920 Every hockey game had an American flag and a Canadian flag in every arena in Canada has an American flag and a Canadian flag.

00:07:00.220 I played hockey in tournaments in America.

00:07:03.780 I loved Canada.

00:07:06.780 The way I loved Canada as a kid is the way I loved America.

00:07:10.400 And most Canadians did.

00:07:12.220 And this new like, oh, well, Canada versus America. 1.00

00:07:16.840 And I don't buy that shit. 1.00

00:07:18.320 And like the booing, the anthem stuff like that stuff. 1.00

00:07:20.580 So that's crazy to me.

00:07:23.400 But.

00:07:23.760 This is a big this is a big thing for Toronto that the Jays are in the world.

00:07:32.540 I mean, this is a big thing for any city, but it's even bigger in a way for Toronto because it's the only team in the entire country.

00:07:40.840 There's no other baseball team.

00:07:43.200 So whenever there's basket with the Raptors or the Blue Jays are in a playoff or they're in a final, it's big for the whole country.

00:07:54.400 So now this is going to affect everything.

00:07:56.300 This is going to be affecting all my shows in Calgary.

00:07:59.940 People are going to be want to watch, you know, want to watch the Jays game.

00:08:04.300 They become Canada's team.

00:08:06.500 And look, do I support the things that Canada's?

00:08:13.540 No, obviously, like the government, though, that's the issue is they're trying to take the Canadian brand and like Olivia Chow is trying to take the Blue Jays brand and be like, the Blue Jays. 0.96

00:08:27.220 And all this crazy, you know, theatrical bullshit. 0.97

00:08:33.520 No, I'm taking it back. 0.97

00:08:36.900 I'm taking these brands back because when I grew up going to Blue Jays games with my mom, it wasn't a safe space.

00:08:48.120 There was always drunk people and my mom would love it. 0.98

00:08:50.840 There'd be like a drunk guy in his late 20s being like screaming out at the outfielders, yelling at them.

00:08:58.380 And my mom would be like, that's funny.

00:09:00.140 And I'd be like, OK, that's cool.

00:09:01.440 Like, this is where I learned things at these games.

00:09:04.220 Now it's different. 1.00

00:09:05.000 Of course, they have like the LGBTQ plus halftime seventh inning stretches is now you stretch your asshole. 1.00

00:09:13.920 But it's look. 1.00

00:09:16.020 I support the team.

00:09:18.900 Do I support the mayor of Toronto?

00:09:22.580 No, I mean.

00:09:24.820 She has done beneficial things for my career by just being ridiculous in every video and that I used to do. 1.00

00:09:36.540 And.

00:09:38.120 Yeah, maybe it's somebody somebody tweeted at me.

00:09:41.860 They go, maybe the Olivia Chow videos are good luck.

00:09:44.160 It seems to be working.

00:09:45.840 I'm like, you know what?

00:09:47.320 You're not wrong.

00:09:48.360 I think that she needs to continue making the most cringe videos possible. 1.00

00:09:53.440 So the Blue Jays can win this because.

00:09:57.760 What sucks is if she doesn't do it and we try to go the Drake angle and just be cool, we're not going to win for some reason.

00:10:05.880 The universe is not going to reward that.

00:10:07.420 But if we just have videos of Olivia Chow, it's in the bag.

00:10:15.600 You can't you can't beat that.

00:10:17.700 You can't beat that energy. 0.99

00:10:19.040 You can't beat the Olivia Chow energy of, you know, and people shit on her. 1.00

00:10:23.480 Look, I make fun of her. 0.94

00:10:24.380 People send me her videos like, oh, here, look at this one.

00:10:26.700 And it's like her having a good time. 0.96

00:10:28.900 I'm like, honestly, I wish I could fucking enjoy an Indian festival that much. 0.98

00:10:35.680 I wish I could go to an Indian festival and be like, oh, put some curry chicken in my mouth. 0.99

00:10:43.360 It's a beautiful thing.

00:10:47.460 Anyway, so Toronto.

00:10:50.080 Deserves it.

00:10:51.300 Did Seattle?

00:10:52.920 No.

00:10:53.320 No.

00:10:56.700 And Toronto's woke, too, but it's there's it's it's kind of like how New York is woke.

00:11:02.260 But there's the people making hundreds of millions of dollars in the city kind of balance out the woke because once you're making 100 million dollars, you're not really liberal.

00:11:12.540 I don't think maybe maybe there are liberal millionaires and billionaires, but you know what I'm saying?

00:11:18.440 You know what I'm saying?

00:11:20.220 I'm saying that Toronto has a lot of rich people.

00:11:23.340 Which are going to be the only people at the Blue Jays games.

00:11:27.160 By the way, the Blue Jays games, I got people are gonna be like, I thought I thought Canada was there was a lot of Indians in Canada.

00:11:33.060 I don't know, even if they can't afford it.

00:11:36.960 I don't think Indians are, you know, dropping 10 10 G's to sit in the nosebleeds.

00:11:41.860 They rather, you know, get a lease on another 24 2026 Corolla and get some Indian guy that they brought from India to drive the Uber and pretend that it's him. 0.85

00:12:02.160 And then he makes 80 percent.

00:12:05.440 And the guy lives in, you know, a house of 35 people in Tobacco or whatever.

00:12:13.920 But it's a beautiful thing.

00:12:15.480 It's a beautiful thing.

00:12:16.440 And people shouldn't be mad that, you know, Toronto is special to me, man.

00:12:26.740 People don't even understand this.

00:12:28.440 They don't understand that.

00:12:29.540 All the comedy that I do, it all came from Toronto.

00:12:35.640 All the jokes, all the, you know, not all the new ones, but I'm saying like the where I came from was there where.

00:12:44.120 We did have every race and religion and they do get along for the most part and they do laugh at each other for the most part.

00:12:52.700 And.

00:12:54.040 I wouldn't be who I am today without Toronto, and I was able to come up in Toronto during the covid thing when I started the show in the park.

00:13:02.680 I started a show in a park and people would come and it was it was huge.

00:13:07.740 We one one week had like 900 people in a park during walkdown.

00:13:12.060 Which was later deemed, you know, it was deemed illegal or whatever.

00:13:18.600 Trust me, I, you know, I don't know what it was, but you weren't allowed to do it.

00:13:24.240 That's for sure.

00:13:28.780 But I did that and I would do these these.

00:13:32.380 So after I did the park shows.

00:13:36.320 And I had a lot of people's emails, I would get their emails at those shows.

00:13:39.800 Because the whole thing was, we're not going to post where the show is because you weren't allowed to do it.

00:13:46.260 You weren't allowed to be outside.

00:13:47.900 I mean, this is going to be crazy.

00:13:48.900 Imagine telling my kids this when they're 21.

00:13:51.360 I was I wasn't allowed to go outside.

00:13:53.900 We had to do comedy in the in the in the bush.

00:13:58.640 Insanity.

00:13:59.000 They literally they had police drones, you know, for the comedy show, just completely nuts.

00:14:05.420 And we did it for like 13 weeks or something or 14 weeks.

00:14:08.600 And then after that, we transitioned people.

00:14:10.980 Not their gender, but transition from doing shows in the park to doing shows at this bar that was allowed to be half full. 0.98

00:14:24.280 And they were just cool enough to be like, fuck it, just sell the whole thing out. 0.63

00:14:27.560 So we were it was the only bar or restaurant at that time, probably in Toronto, if not all of Canada, that was full and people were having a good time. 0.99

00:14:40.200 And they're at one night they did send a guy like they had like the government sent a guy to this bar.

00:14:47.820 It was called the Annex Social at DuPont and Bathurst in Toronto.

00:14:55.200 And they sent this like a guy.

00:14:58.100 I don't know what it was from what, you know, from the government.

00:15:02.640 A covid guy to just check on things and make sure that they didn't have too many people.

00:15:08.280 And of course, they did have too many people.

00:15:09.700 And they were like, he can't smoke on the pad.

00:15:11.360 People were smoking on the patio. 0.98

00:15:12.840 And but it was it was kind of like everybody was kind of like, get the fuck out of here. 1.00

00:15:17.440 You know, get the fuck. 1.00

00:15:19.220 We are living. 1.00

00:15:21.040 Fuck you. 1.00

00:15:21.740 This is Gestapo bullshit. 1.00

00:15:23.240 I mean, it's all now. 1.00

00:15:25.280 It's in England is like the it's it's like covid never ended and they just kept going.

00:15:31.340 And now it's any being racist is a crime being.

00:15:35.120 This is a crime being. 0.99

00:15:36.180 You know, it's ridiculous. 1.00

00:15:37.920 It's ridiculous. 1.00

00:15:39.700 You we could you can argue, OK, racism is bad. 0.98

00:15:43.380 Racism mean racism hurts my feelings.

00:15:47.600 Racism is exclusionary.

00:15:49.180 But is it is it illegal is the question.

00:15:53.220 You know, certain types of discrimination are illegal, I guess.

00:15:56.440 But it's just it's just it's just really crazy to think that that was happening in Toronto and ex-social. 0.99

00:16:07.300 Not allowed to fucking gather. 0.99

00:16:08.560 Not allowed to fucking gather. 0.99

00:16:14.440 Four or five years ago. 0.99

00:16:15.900 That's what I was doing.

00:16:16.980 And that was so that probably was in the fall of 2020.

00:16:25.380 So we were already selling that out on Eventbrite every week.

00:16:28.600 It was like, you know, 50 or 60 people.

00:16:32.660 So I was selling the show out every week.

00:16:34.240 We're doing like a two hour show where I hosted a first first few shows I hosted. 0.99

00:16:41.180 And then I was like, fuck this. 0.99

00:16:42.940 I'm going to headline. 0.99

00:16:43.580 So I started headlining every show that I did.

00:16:50.440 And I would put on like seven comics before me, all doing five to seven minutes.

00:16:55.000 And then I would go and do an hour.

00:16:58.020 And it was great.

00:16:59.400 And that's where I started.

00:17:00.560 It was in Toronto, DuPont and Bathurst.

00:17:02.920 Not started comedy for like, but that's where I started getting people.

00:17:08.620 I started comedy when I was 19 years old at Patio Houlihan's or whatever. 0.99

00:17:15.820 What was the fucking bar? 0.99

00:17:17.060 Oh, Grady's. 1.00

00:17:18.900 Oh, Grady's in Toronto.

00:17:21.280 King and Church.

00:17:23.220 First open mic I ever did was in the gay area. 0.71

00:17:27.040 It's not really.

00:17:27.920 It's like off. 0.96

00:17:28.700 It's off gay. 1.00

00:17:29.460 It's just off the gay area. 0.91

00:17:32.920 But I did that was the first ever show that I did, which was also in Toronto.

00:17:36.180 But those were the first shows where I got people coming to shows, buying my tickets.

00:17:40.000 I remember seeing a guy at lunch and he was like, I was like, yo, he was like talking to me.

00:17:45.240 And I was like, I have an Instagram.

00:17:46.280 I was I was in salesman mode.

00:17:47.760 You know, it was COVID.

00:17:48.660 I was like, it was desperate.

00:17:50.520 Everybody was desperate.

00:17:52.740 I was desperate to make it out of COVID alive.

00:17:56.360 And like mentally alive.

00:17:58.480 And, you know, I was talking to this couple.

00:18:03.240 I made a joke.

00:18:03.940 They laugh.

00:18:04.360 I'm like, I'm a comedian.

00:18:05.360 Like I was trying to sell tickets to that show.

00:18:09.220 And the restaurant I was at was in that area.

00:18:12.120 It was KOS, which is a breakfast place of DuPont and Bathurst in Toronto.

00:18:17.720 And this guy recognized me.

00:18:20.520 And then he goes to follow me.

00:18:21.980 He's like, oh, I already follow you.

00:18:23.060 And this is in 2020. 1.00

00:18:27.240 I'm like, holy shit. 0.98

00:18:29.020 And that account got deleted. 0.98

00:18:31.040 That account that that guy followed, that Instagram account was banned and banished.

00:18:36.500 That's why I'm Ben Bank is too.

00:18:38.240 Because the original Ben Bank is account was banished because I made some joke about BLM and vaccines or something like that.

00:18:44.480 Like I basically took all of the worst things that were happening at the moment and just smashed them together.

00:18:51.240 And it wasn't even like it wasn't the thing.

00:18:53.740 I should have done it as a stand up joke.

00:18:55.800 And I've learned these lessons now that some tweets are really just meant to be a joke.

00:19:00.760 And then when you do it as a stand up, it's like, oh, well, he's doing stand up.

00:19:04.160 But it was a tweet.

00:19:05.880 And it was something about BLM and vaccines and lockdowns.

00:19:11.320 And it was just like banish, ban account, ban it immediately.

00:19:15.800 So I had to and so I had to start over while I and that was that was fucked because I had just started making that like little bit of money from selling out those shows every week.

00:19:27.840 I was like, I'm you know, it's just over 10,000 followers, which at the time felt like way harder to get to than even now.

00:19:37.140 I would say where some of my friends, Armin and so I give them a couple of tips and all, you know, put, you know, when they follow my instructions, their accounts get bigger.

00:19:48.160 You know, Armin's at like 18,000 or 19 or 20 or whatever.

00:19:51.600 And, you know, but it took a long time to get to it felt like not really.

00:19:59.080 It was only like a year, but to get to 10K.

00:20:01.560 But that got deleted and then I had when I got back to 10K much faster.

00:20:06.040 But it was thanks to going to Austin, actually, and by chance doing a Kill Tony.

00:20:14.580 That I got a lot of followers back and a lot of people who had followed me saw me on Kill Tony.

00:20:21.260 This is in 2021 now.

00:20:24.620 And so we got it back and then it was just off to the races.

00:20:27.480 I never did Kill Tony again until 2024.

00:20:29.500 I just from there, I just used that momentum and started really posting.

00:20:34.920 But again, all the stuff that I was in Austin for like a couple, like a couple of weeks when that happened.

00:20:40.820 But when I was in Toronto after and working on my ability to be able to come back to the States more permanently.

00:20:47.620 That's when I really started honing in on just like fucking how many, you know, like creating content.

00:21:01.520 From my standup from sketches, which I want to do more sketches. 0.94

00:21:11.280 I haven't done a sketch in a while.

00:21:14.440 But yeah.

00:21:16.940 So Toronto is it means something to me.

00:21:20.660 And when and another reason that I'm excited for the Jays.

00:21:25.140 The first time they won the World Series was 1992, which is the year I'm born.

00:21:31.520 And then the next year, 1993, when I was one.

00:21:35.540 So.

00:21:36.180 How crazy is that?

00:21:39.600 My parents were pregnant.

00:21:41.860 And then when I was one years old, they won again.

00:21:46.960 And my mom always would tell me that story.

00:21:49.100 My dad going nuts in the kitchen and.

00:21:53.920 Crazy, crazy stuff.

00:21:56.140 And George Carlin was there.

00:21:57.540 Not I mean, not in my parents house, but he was in.

00:22:01.280 He was in Toronto for that.

00:22:04.400 Then I read about that in Russell Peters book.

00:22:08.060 Which I read when I was probably four or five years into comedy, but he had an experience where.

00:22:14.880 So during the.

00:22:17.660 Nineteen ninety two or nineteen ninety three World Series championship.

00:22:21.260 When they won, Russell was part in the crowd in Toronto, the celebration crowd walking around and he literally bumped into George Carlin and was like, hey, I want to be a comedian.

00:22:36.160 He was I think he was like young, like under 20 when he and George, like told him some shit about comedy and walked away. 0.75

00:22:45.320 I don't know. 0.95

00:22:45.660 It's just cool. 0.99

00:22:46.200 There's just it's cool to remember that Toronto is also kind of a cool place because a lot of people shit on it. 1.00

00:22:55.200 And now it's super easy to shit on because the government sucks. 1.00

00:22:59.820 The government sucks. 1.00

00:23:01.360 The city doesn't suck. 0.99

00:23:03.100 The streets are cool.

00:23:04.640 The buildings are cool.

00:23:07.340 The people, for the most part, the new people that are there.

00:23:11.520 I mean, and I don't mean the immigrants. 0.93

00:23:13.460 I mean, the new, you know, there that's a whole other separate thing.

00:23:17.340 But the new white people that move to Toronto from their small town, because like I don't fit into my small town. 0.99

00:23:25.660 I need to go to the big city and work, you know, working a fucking gay barista Starbucks shitty thing. 1.00

00:23:33.840 And so they go and do that and then it's like they suck and it's like you just suck everywhere. 1.00

00:23:39.320 You shouldn't have come here, you know. 0.98

00:23:43.000 And like everybody who wants to make it in Canada without leaving Canada kind of goes to Toronto, I would say.

00:23:49.260 It's kind of like the New York of people say that, but it's not like New York.

00:23:53.660 It is a separate place.

00:23:54.660 And I wish the Jays all the best.

00:23:58.340 Now, that being said.

00:24:00.780 I do also own a L.A. Dodgers hat.

00:24:06.000 And in the event that the L.A. Dodgers win, I will put that hat on shamelessly.

00:24:14.320 And take a pick.

00:24:16.860 No, I don't know.

00:24:18.880 I do.

00:24:19.340 I do.

00:24:20.840 I was in.

00:24:22.360 It's kind of interesting.

00:24:23.220 I was in L.A. when they won the World Series last year doing sold out shows.

00:24:29.920 At I mean, it's not even it's honestly embarrassing to say they're sold out at the lab.

00:24:35.220 It's embarrassing.

00:24:36.260 It's like 50 people.

00:24:37.500 And it's it's a small room at the Hollywood Improv.

00:24:40.820 And it's it's not good.

00:24:42.400 I mean, it's you know, it was fun and I'm glad that I went and stuff.

00:24:46.380 But it's not like a good club, you know, it's it's small.

00:24:52.880 It's the bars like part of it.

00:24:54.800 And there's 50 people and it's L.A.

00:24:57.560 So nobody fucking wanted people who liked me beforehand came to see me and were like, oh, my God, it's a lot.

00:25:06.420 But it was interesting. 0.96

00:25:08.260 But they won the World Series.

00:25:10.000 By the way, they won the World Series.

00:25:11.800 The L.A. won the World Series.

00:25:13.400 And no, I hadn't.

00:25:15.400 The shows were sold out and everybody showed up Seattle.

00:25:19.520 And that was a World Series.

00:25:22.480 Like, not just the semifinal like you guys.

00:25:26.260 That's where you ended.

00:25:28.400 So mean.

00:25:29.180 The people, the Seattle people like, why is he so mean?

00:25:31.160 And it's funny because it's like when I talk about immigrants or something like that, like as if they were nothing, people are like, that's funny.

00:25:39.760 But when I'm like Seattle Mariners fan, you're nothing.

00:25:42.360 That, like, actually triggers them and they're like ready to do a domestic, a domestic T-E-R.

00:25:52.660 Or.

00:25:53.180 But I will say, folks, that I love Austin, Texas.

00:26:05.980 I love Texas.

00:26:06.780 And when you move around the country a lot, maybe you kind of like more than one place.

00:26:15.080 Like, I don't just like one place anymore.

00:26:17.100 I used to be like, I need to be here.

00:26:18.580 This is the only place I want to be.

00:26:20.260 I like being here for a little bit.

00:26:21.920 I like being there for a little bit.

00:26:23.160 My wife, not so much.

00:26:24.100 She wants to just be somewhere.

00:26:26.300 But I like, you know, OK, let's live here for a couple of weeks, especially going back to Yucks.

00:26:34.620 You know, I'm a big Yucks guy.

00:26:37.200 Yuck, Yucks, the original, the original Canadian stand up comedy club.

00:26:43.660 There's something magical about that because it is a copycat of.

00:26:49.960 Well, it's not a copycat.

00:26:51.140 It's a comedy club, but, you know, the original comedy clubs were in the States, I think.

00:26:58.720 But it's the first.

00:27:02.420 Comedy club, I think, in Canada, and it really it's still it's more classic than the new improvs and the new funny bones. 0.99

00:27:14.120 And you go to a Yuck, Yucks, you're like, holy shit. 0.97

00:27:16.420 Like, you will if you watch I've seen Louis C.K. perform at a Yuck, Yucks at Niagara, Yucks. 0.99

00:27:22.760 I saw him and I saw him at Toronto, Yucks.

00:27:25.580 And it's like, it's just such a good room for comedy.

00:27:29.000 I don't know what it is, the way that the bars tucked away, the seats, the low ceiling.

00:27:34.780 It's it's a really perfect room for comedy.

00:27:36.700 I can't speak more about I feel bad saying that it's a copycat.

00:27:41.100 But I do I meant that the idea of comedy came from the U.S.

00:27:46.020 Canada, there was a demand for it because they saw what was happening in the U.S.

00:27:49.980 They wanted to have something similar.

00:27:52.480 And Mark Breslin, the genius that he is, you know, brought stand up comedy to modern stand up comedy to Canada.

00:28:00.760 And without that, you know, would there be, you know, Norm Macdonald.

00:28:06.680 These are the places he performed some of his first sets and always, always was close with with Mark Breslin.

00:28:15.000 That's what he told me that till like he died, he was close with Mark Breslin.

00:28:18.500 He never told Breslin.

00:28:19.460 And he didn't tell anybody about the sickness, but he did text Breslin a lot in the last years, apparently.

00:28:27.500 And when very much was, you know, asking he brought him to the Aspen Comedy Festival and he was just like, where's Mark?

00:28:36.940 He just wanted Mark right there.

00:28:38.280 And I totally understand it because Mark's an amazing character and person in comedy and an old school voice in comedy.

00:28:51.980 It's still, you know, he's, I think he's the oldest living comedy club owner.

00:28:56.800 Mitzi Shore and past and the improv guy.

00:29:02.380 And he's the, he's the oldest living comedy club owner.

00:29:08.280 And the Toronto yucks.

00:29:09.780 Anyway, I don't want to bore you guys. 1.00

00:29:11.660 Fuck you guys. 1.00

00:29:12.700 If you're bored, though, because I sometimes I just want to talk about what I want to talk about. 1.00

00:29:17.580 You know, I could just go through reels and look, you know, look through a million reels and be like everybody else.

00:29:24.500 And there are are reels that I kind of was like, I'll show them these reels because I do send myself reels that I watch and I go.

00:29:31.560 So, or like, you know, Twitter posts, X posts that I'm like, oh, my God, my fans need to see this and maybe need to see my take on it.

00:29:42.840 So, we can watch one.

00:29:45.780 Let's watch one.

00:29:46.620 Let's break it up.

00:29:47.280 I know there's a lot of Toronto talk for all my American fans, but, you know, Canada sold out everything crazy.

00:29:59.920 Toronto, 3,300 tickets.

00:30:02.620 Unbelievable.

00:30:03.300 I keep before it was 3,132.

00:30:05.700 I think it's 3,100.

00:30:06.800 If you want more me this week, patreon.com slash benbankus.

00:30:13.160 Go subscribe.

00:30:14.740 Good night.

00:30:16.020 Hey, everybody.

00:30:16.900 It's me, Ben Bankus.

00:30:17.820 Thanks for listening to my podcast.

00:30:19.760 Want to support me?

00:30:21.040 You want to watch the rest of this show, which is me critiquing different reels and X videos.

00:30:28.560 Things.

00:30:29.260 Honestly, I don't want everybody seeing what I'm saying.

00:30:32.440 You need to go to patreon.com slash benbankus.

00:30:35.620 That's where you can support me.

00:30:37.700 It's the best way to support me.

00:30:40.220 You literally sign up month to month or a year.

00:30:44.020 Basically, you lease a Ben Bankus for five bucks a month, but you get to have exclusive interactions.

00:30:51.940 That kind of sounds insane, actually.

00:30:54.220 Maybe that's too crazy.

00:30:56.680 Exclusive interaction sounds very bad.

00:31:00.800 No, DM.

00:31:02.480 You can DM me on Patreon, and I definitely will respond to that faster than an Instagram DM, that kind of thing.

00:31:11.360 It's really the best, and I love touring.

00:31:18.240 I love going on massive tours.

00:31:19.800 I'm about to announce a huge Canadian tour, but having that Patreon community behind me just makes everything completely different, and the possibilities are endless from being able to fund sketches, everything.

00:31:33.600 Crazy, crazy, crazy stuff.

00:31:36.720 Comedy specials, high budgets.

00:31:40.160 It's all...

00:31:41.600 I mean, that and I want to ball out, obviously.

00:31:45.960 Let's be honest here. 0.99

00:31:49.140 I might fuck around and buy the lowest tier of some nice car or some bullshit. 0.99

00:31:54.220 That's it, so... 0.99

00:31:56.340 Guys, patreon.com slash Ben Bankus.

00:31:59.760 I love you guys.

00:32:00.280 Thank you.

Bankas Podcast - October 22, 2025

Bankas Podcast #107 ｜ Toronto Blue Jays

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