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Ben Gleib

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Ben Gleib
Gleib in 2019
Born
Ben Nathan Gleiberman

(1978-06-18) June 18, 1978 (age 46)
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Occupation(s)Standup comedy, acting, television personality, game show host
Political partyDemocratic[1]

Ben Gleib (born June 18, 1978) is an American actor, stand-up comedian, actor, satirist, news commentator, and writer.

Early life and education

[edit]

Gleib was born Ben Nathan Gleiberman[2] to Nate and Ziva Gleiberman in Los Angeles, California, on June 18, 1978.[3] He has a younger brother named Ron Gleiberman.[4]

Gleib attended the University of California, San Diego,[5] where he studied communications and theater. His honors thesis work included producing a four-year campus TV talk show, The Gleib Show, the finale of which included Gleib's delivery to UC San Diego's Price Center Plaza by marines in a military tank, followed by an interview with Carmen Electra.[6]

Career

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In 2006, Gleib sold a television pilot, The Gleib Show, to Fox. The pilot was produced by Saturday Night Live creator Lorne Michaels, Broadway Video, and NBC/Universal.[7] It was based on a TV show that Gleib directed, wrote, and starred in for three seasons on the National Lampoon College Network from 2003 to 2005 that aired to college campuses across the country; it was consistently the network's number one show. It was co-written and produced by Scot Richardson. The series was based on a show of the same title that Gleib had performed for four years while he attended college at the University of California, San Diego.

In 2007, Gleib starred in the NBC series The Real Wedding Crashers, a primetime comedy. The show also aired on Bravo and the Style Network.[8] Other cast members included Desi Lydic (host of The Daily Show), Catherine Reitman (creator, executive producer, writer, and star Workin' Moms), Gareth Reynolds (co-host of The Dollop), and Steve Byrne (creator, writer, and star of Sullivan & Son).[9]

Gleib was billed as one of "the six comedians who could be comedy's next big things" and part of "a bumper crop of brilliant new-alt comics" by Esquire.[10] He was also named one of the "funniest comedians working today" by TBS.[11] In 2008, Gleib was featured on the NBC competition show Last Comic Standing.[12] He subsequently performed stand-up twice on NBC's Last Call with Carson Daly in 2009 and 2015.[13][14] He is known for covering a wide range of topics in his act as well as his improvisational skills, often making up large sections of his performance based on interactions with the crowd.

Gleib was a regular guest on the E! late night talk show Chelsea Lately for seven years until the show ended in 2014.[15] He has been a frequent guest on KPCC (Southern California's NPR affiliate) on the Patt Morrison Program, bringing his comedic spin to political issues. He also reported for KPCC live from the 2008 Republican National Convention in Saint Paul, Minnesota[16] and the 2012 Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina.[17]

Gleib has appeared as an actor in thirteen movies, as well as several TV series.[18] His first notable role was a supporting role in the feature film Bar Starz (2008), which had a limited theatrical release. The film also featured Charlie Murphy, Daniel Franceze, Derek Waters, Jon Bernthal, and Nikki Griffin. Gleib is billed in the main cast of Jay and Silent Bob Reboot.[19] Gleib was a lead actor in the Disney+ anthology series Just Beyond based on a graphic novel from R.L. Stine, and he is featured on the series poster.[20] As himself, Gleib was also a regular on Today with Kathie Lee Gifford and Hoda Kotb on NBC.[21] Gleib is also the voice of Marshall the Sloth in Ice Age: Continental Drift (2012), one of the stars of Kevin Smith's Jay & Silent Bob's Super Groovy Cartoon Movie! (2013), and the voice of Dali in The Book of Life (2014). His voices have also appeared in Phineas and Ferb.[22] Including appearances as himself as a host, panelist, or correspondent, Gleib has appeared on over 300 episodes of television.[18]

In addition, Gleib performed multiple times on The Late Late Show[23][24][25] on CBS and on @midnight[26][27] on Comedy Central. Gleib has also performed at both the Vancouver Comedy Festival and Laughing Matters Festival in the Netherlands, hosted several podcasts for Current TV, and wrote for the Radio Music Awards for ABC in 2002.

Since November 2011, Gleib has hosted the podcast Last Week on Earth with Ben Gleib,[28] distributed through Kevin Smith's SModcast Podcast Network.[29]

Beginning in August 2014, Gleib hosted four seasons (212 episodes) of the television game show Idiotest on the Game Show Network. He also served as head writer and co-executive producer for a portion of the show.[30] It was a top original program on the network,[31] before moving to NETFLIX where it was only the second game show ever on the platform, following Jeopardy! In the Emmy-nominated show,[32] two teams of two contestants face off in increasingly challenging visual brain puzzles for a chance to win up to $10,000. In one memorable episode, all four contestants were Gleib’s real life ex-girlfriends.[33]

Gleib was guest co-anchor for a week for ABC News digital, from ABC News world headquarters in New York, and provided election night coverage for them in 2016. He has been a frequent on-air contributor on CNN, The Young Turks, and NPR, winning a Golden Mic Award for his work on Southern California NPR's Patt Morrison's Comedy Congress.[34] In 2017, he was one of the hosts of the social impact news show ASPIREist on CNN's Headline News.[35]

Gleib at Morty's Comedy Joint in Indianapolis, Indiana in 2013
Gleib in 2017

His hour-long stand-up special Ben Gleib: Neurotic Gangster debuted on Showtime in 2016 and has been available on Amazon Prime.[11]His follow up special, Ben Gleib: The Mad King, was produced by Helium Comedy Studios and released on their YouTube channel.[36][37] Gleib recently filmed a special titled Endings about the most challenging year of his life.[38] Endings was executive produced by Kelly Carlin, daughter of George Carlin, and was directed by Christian Lamb.[39]

In October 2021, Charlie Kirk invited Gleib on his show for a debate about abortion.[40] Gleib showed Kirk a photograph of a fetus and asked him if it was a human being, to which Kirk replied, "without a doubt", before Gleib revealed that it was actually that of a dolphin.[41][42]

Since 2022, Gleib has co-hosted episodes of The Young Turks.[43] On December 2, 2022, Gleib, who is of Jewish heritage, made an appearance on The Young Turks criticizing Kanye West for an interview he had done with InfoWars, wherein West praised Adolf Hitler and the Nazis and denied the Holocaust.[44][45]

Telethon for America

[edit]

In 2018, Gleib created (and executed produced) the Telethon for America in partnership with Michelle Obama’s When We All Vote organization.[46] Participating celebrities included Amy Schumer, Jane Fonda, Charlize Theron, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Judd Apatow, Chelsea Handler, Alyssa Milano, and Jessica Alba.[47]

Gleib again produced (with Milano and Rosario Dawson) and hosted (with Dawson) the Telethon for America in 2020 in partnership with Represent Us.[48][49]

2020 United States presidential campaign

[edit]

On May 13, 2019, Gleib announced his candidacy for President of the United States on Twitter.[50] Shortly thereafter, Cenk Uygur of The Young Turks interviewed Gleib.[51] He was also interviewed by Larry King on Politicking with Larry King,[52], by Hannah Jewell of The Washington Post,[53] by Stuart Varney on FOX Business Network,[54] by Tomi Lahren on Fox Nation,[55] and on NowThis.[56]

Gleib campaigned over the course of seven months in thirteen states and territories.[57] On August 21, 2019, at the annual AFL-CIO convention at Prairie Meadows Hotel in Altoona, he was the final speaker out of all 2020 Democratic candidates who spoke.[58] However, Gleib was unable to garner significant mainstream media attention or financing, raising less than $70,000 through all of 2019.[59] Despite media and financial struggles, Gleib's campaign finished as the 29th highest fundraising Democratic campaign out of over 200 campaigns.[60] Gleib was on the ballot for the New Hampshire primary.[61] On December 30, 2019, Gleib ended his campaign.[62]

Nowhere Comedy Club

[edit]

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic that left many comedians out of work, Gleib started the world's first entirely digital comedy club, Nowhere Comedy Club,[63] with fellow comedian Steve Hofstetter as co-founder.[64] Unlike other virtual venues, Nowhere encouraged audiences to keep their video and audio active during Zoom sessions so that performers could see and hear the audience's laughter. As a result, Nowhere Comedy Club mimicked being at a live venue in-person.[65]

Within a few months, Nowhere had sold over 10,000 tickets to livestreamed comedy events.[66] Comedians including Sarah Silverman, Bill Burr, Mike Birbiglia, John Cleese, Nikki Glaser, Christian Finnegan, Natasha Leggero, Todd Barry, Judah Friedlander, Jackie Fabulous, Sean Patton, Jay Jurden, Josh Johnson, and the Sklar brothers have all performed at Nowhere.[67][68][69][70][71] Nowhere was covered in multiple profiles in The New York Times,[64][72] as well as Fast Company.[63][67] The interrobang also named Nowhere as the #3 innovator that changed comedy in 2020.[73]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ "The End of My Campaign". YouTube. December 30, 2019.
  2. ^ Eby, Margaret (September 23, 2014). "The 'Idiotest' Funnyman Around: An Interview with Ben Gleib". The Forward.
  3. ^ "Ben Gleib Biography". TV Guide. Retrieved June 16, 2022.
  4. ^ Ben Gleib [@bengleib] (June 13, 2016). "My younger brother Ron, and his two amazing children. Parker is 3 and Oliver is a newborn" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  5. ^ "Ben Gleib". presidentialhopefuls.org. February 7, 2020.
  6. ^ Bell, Diane (September 10, 2014). "Tank caper was just start for Ben Gleib". San Diego Union-Tribune.
  7. ^ Nave, Howie (March 21, 2013). "Comedians to debut at Harveys Improv". Tahoe Daily Tribune.
  8. ^ "The Real Wedding Crashers". NBC. Archived from the original on June 22, 2009.
  9. ^ "The Real Wedding Crashers". IMDB.
  10. ^ "Will the Next Dane Cook Please Stand Up?". Esquire. July 2, 2007. Retrieved October 25, 2014.
  11. ^ a b Brustein, Darrah (September 23, 2018). "Comedians Reveal Their Top Tips On Being Memorable Communicators". Forbes.
  12. ^ "Last Comic Standing". IMDB.
  13. ^ "Last Call with Carson Daly". IMDB.
  14. ^ "Last Call with Carson Daly". NBC.
  15. ^ Cruz, Alia (October 19, 2015). "Comedian, Actor and Cartoon Sloth Ben Gleib". Submerge.
  16. ^ "Quarterly Programming Report, October-December 2008" (PDF). LAist.
  17. ^ "Quarterly Programming Report, July-September 2012" (PDF). LAist.
  18. ^ a b "Ben Gleib". IMDB.
  19. ^ "Jay and Silent Bob Reboot". IMDB.
  20. ^ Landwehr, Amanda (September 9, 2021). "R.L. Stine's Just Beyond Poster Teases New Disney+ Anthology Show". Screen Rant.
  21. ^ "Today". IMDB.
  22. ^ Springer, Alex (July 8, 2015). "Ben Gleib: Idiotests and Mind Games". SLUG Magazine.
  23. ^ "The Late Late Show with Craig Kilborn". IMDB.
  24. ^ The David Beckham Statue Prank. YouTube. March 12, 2019.
  25. ^ New Netflix Show Ideas. YouTube. April 29, 2022.
  26. ^ Anna Akana, Flula Borg, Ben Gleib - Ghost in the Hell No. YouTube. April 19, 2016.
  27. ^ Fortune Feimster, Ben Gleib, Moshe Kasher - Spring Break Regrets. YouTube. March 25, 2015.
  28. ^ "Last Week on Earth with Ben Gleib". Last Week on Earth with Ben Gleib. Retrieved December 4, 2022.
  29. ^ "Last Week on Earth with Ben Gleib". SModcast Podcast Network. Archived from the original on October 29, 2014. Retrieved October 25, 2014.
  30. ^ "Idiotest". IMDB.
  31. ^ "GSN Renews Idiotest for Second Season". BuzzerBlog. October 28, 2014.
  32. ^ Montgomery, Daniel (March 24, 2016). "Daytime Emmy nominations 2016: Complete list". Gold Derby.
  33. ^ Sepulveres, Danielle (February 10, 2017). "Why I went on my ex-boyfriend's game show". The Washington Post.
  34. ^ "Comedy Congress: Live from the 2012 Democratic National Convention, Day 3". Southern California Public Radio. September 5, 2012. Archived from the original on October 27, 2018. Retrieved October 27, 2018.
  35. ^ "About". ASPIREist.
  36. ^ Ben Gleib: The Mad King. YouTube. August 14, 2022.
  37. ^ "The Mad King". IMDB.
  38. ^ "BEN GLEIB: ENDINGS – Live Comedy Special Taping". The Hotel Cafe.
  39. ^ @bengleib (September 23, 2024). "Saturday night was magic" – via Instagram.
  40. ^ Charlie Kirk faces off against pro-abortion comedian & activist Ben Gleib on the right to life (video). YouTube. October 7, 2021.
  41. ^ "Comedian Tricks Charlie Kirk Into Declaring A Dolphin Fetus Is 'Without A Doubt' Human". god.dailydot.com. October 12, 2021. Retrieved November 11, 2021.
  42. ^ Smith, Precious (October 12, 2021). "Anti-Abortionist Activist Charlie Kirk Insists Dolphin Fetus is a Human Being". Nature World News. Retrieved November 11, 2021.
  43. ^ "Ben Gleib". TYT.
  44. ^ The Young Turks (December 2, 2022). PLEASE WATCH THIS CLIP - Jewish Anchor's EMOTIONAL RESPONSE To Ye (video). YouTube. Retrieved December 4, 2022.
  45. ^ Gleib, Ben [@bengleib] (December 2, 2022). "Please watch this video. I'm Jewish & I just got very emotional and angry at Kanye West while anchoring the news @TheYoungTurks" (Tweet). Retrieved December 9, 2022 – via Twitter.
  46. ^ "The Telethon for America". When We All Vote. October 31, 2018.
  47. ^ Saad, Nardine (October 31, 2018). "'Telethon for America' adds Amy Schumer, Jane Fonda, Charlize Theron to gather pledges to vote".
  48. ^ "The Team". RepresentUs.
  49. ^ "Rosario Dawson, Sacha Baron Cohen, Alicia Keys, Mark Ruffalo, Amy Schumer, Kerry Washington, Orlando Bloom, Chelsea Handler, Alyssa Milano, Billy Ray Cyrus, Camila Morrone, Olivia Munn and Many Other A List Stars Join Telethon for America on Election Eve to Get Out the Vote". PR Newswire. October 29, 2020.
  50. ^ Gleib, Ben [@bengleib] (May 13, 2019). "It's time for the announcement. We must do all we can to ensure trump doesn't permanently damage our democracy. Cautious politicians are not the answer. I am announcing my candidacy for President of the United States. Go to http://GLEIB2020.com & share this post. #GLEIB2020" (Tweet). Retrieved July 1, 2019 – via Twitter.
  51. ^ "2020 Candidate Introduces NEW Progressive Policy". YouTube. May 22, 2019.
  52. ^ Comic Turned Presidential Candidate Ben Gleib Arrested At US Capitol. YouTube. December 6, 2019.
  53. ^ Meet the comedian running for president. YouTube. July 3, 2019.
  54. ^ "Democratic 2020 presidential candidate Ben Gleib". FOX Business. May 16, 2019.
  55. ^ Tomi Lahren speaks to comedian & Democratic presidential candidate Ben Gleib. YouTube. July 10, 2019.
  56. ^ Why It Might Take A Comedian To Beat Trump. YouTube. August 29, 2019.
  57. ^ "Campaign Events". Ben Gleib for President.
  58. ^ "Full speech: Ben Gleib at Iowa AFL-CIO convention". YouTube. August 22, 2019.
  59. ^ "Financial summary". Federal Election Commission. January 2015. Retrieved June 16, 2022.
  60. ^ "Election data and reporting deadlines". Federal Election Commission. Retrieved March 22, 2025.
  61. ^ "New Hampshire 2020 Primary". The New York Times. February 27, 2020.
  62. ^ Gleib, Ben [@bengleib] (December 30, 2019). "THE END OF MY CAMPAIGN We don't have a clear path forward anymore, so it's time to say goodbye. Thank you from the bottom of my heart to all who supported me. I have more to say than a standard concession speech. So I hope you watch this video #Gleib2020" (Tweet). Retrieved January 11, 2020 – via Twitter.
  63. ^ a b "Is this Zoom on? A club crawl through the brave new world of live comedy online". Fast Company. May 20, 2020.
  64. ^ a b Zinoman, Jason (March 31, 2021). "Is Livestreamed Stand-Up Here to Stay?". The New York Times.
  65. ^ Magnotta, Andrew (April 16, 2021). "Inside Stand-Up Comedy's Pandemic Survival And Its Multifaceted Comeback". WAXQ.
  66. ^ Chacon, Pablo (June 29, 2020). "Comedian Ben Gleib on launching the first fully digital comedy club 'Nowhere Comedy Club'". KTLA.
  67. ^ a b Gleib, Ben (April 6, 2022). "8 life-changing tips to thrive in an uncertain world". Fast Company.
  68. ^ Marfo, Amma (July 17, 2020). "How Nowhere Comedy Club is Bringing Community and Laughter Everywhere". The Interrobang.
  69. ^ "Pick of the Day: Birthday Double Crowd Work Show with Todd Barry & Natasha Leggero 3/26". The Comedy Bureau. March 23, 2021.
  70. ^ "Upcoming shows". Natalie McGill.
  71. ^ "Pick of the Day: Dumb People Town 8/15". The Comedy Bureau. July 30, 2020.
  72. ^ Zinoman, Jason (July 1, 2020). "Comedy via Zoom: It's the Golden Age of Mugging". The New York Times.
  73. ^ "12 Innovators Who Changed Comedy in 2020". December 25, 2020.
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