EPISODE 113 – Ben Mann | Comedian
Ben Mann is a standup comedian who has been working the Corpus Christi comedy scene for four years. He grew up in Port Connor, went to high school in Port Lavaca, and has been visually impaired since birth — he had his left eye removed in the second grade. He addresses it upfront in every set so blind jokes land clean and the crowd already knows where they stand.
He did his first standup at sixteen at a church camp, telling a story about eating Play-Doh in the tenth grade to an audience legally obligated to be nice to him. His first real open mic was in College Station, where he got too drunk, stared at the ground the whole time, and bombed. He went back, fixed it, and has been going ever since.
A month into his comedy career he won a crowd vote contest in San Antonio. Nobody in the comedy community cared. That humbling stretch after he thought he'd made it taught him the game is never done — there's always something to chase.
His mentor in the Valley, Raymond Orta, gave him the advice he's carried ever since: a dirty set pays your bar tab, a clean set pays your mortgage. He now prides himself on being able to work any room.
At the end of his shows he sells signed baby dolls — real baby dolls, from an undisclosed location — as collectibles. His closer as a bit is built specifically to set the sale up. Without the closer, the babies don't make sense. That's not just merch. That's craft.
On this episode of the Corpus Christi Originals Podcast, they talk about reading the crowd, bombing, writing jokes, the difference between open mics and paid shows, the local comedy scene, merch etiquette with headliners, and why he was an all-state debater whose van broke down on the way to the state meet.
Find Ben at @benmanncomedy on Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook — two N's on both words.
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by guests on the Corpus Christi Originals Podcast are theirs alone and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the podcast, its sponsors, the recording studio, or any affiliated entities.