Where in the World is Ben Bosunga?

When learn­ing about come­di­an Ben Bosunga’s past, it’s help­ful to fol­low along using a map. Bosun­ga has been con­ti­nent hop­ping since child­hood, col­lect­ing life expe­ri­ences and sto­ries that could put some of your best anec­dotes to shame. Before mov­ing to Austin, the Con­go-born com­ic grew up in Col­orado; lived and worked on cruise ships in Cen­tral Amer­i­ca; and lat­er kicked off his stand up com­e­dy career in Boston. He’s led an event­ful life, but accord­ing to the come­di­an, he’s actu­al­ly on his ​“third life.”

Bosun­ga has lived through two near-death expe­ri­ences – the first being a bat­tle with kwash­iorkor mal­nu­tri­tion as an infant in Africa. Then again lat­er, when he was hit by a drunk dri­ver as a teen. He con­sid­ers both expe­ri­ences pos­i­tive reminders: ​“I’ve real­ized life is very fleet­ing,” he tells Valerie Lopez. ​“If I’m going to be here, I’m going to spend my time how I want to… to the best of my abil­i­ty.” And what Ben Bosun­ga does best is per­form­ing com­e­dy and going on adven­tures – bonus points if he’s doing both at the same time. Hav­ing done com­e­dy around the world, most recent­ly at this year’s Edin­burgh Fringe Fes­ti­val in Scot­land, he’s fill­ing up joke books and pass­port pages by the day.

No mat­ter which coun­try or life he hap­pens to be in, one thing with Bosun­ga is con­sis­tent: he has an adven­tur­ous, wild child nature and sim­ply rejects what doesn’t suit him — a trait so many of us only wish to have. ​“I’m ter­ri­ble at let­ting peo­ple tell me what to do,” he shares. Which in turn, means he’s great at being wild­ly inde­pen­dent, trad­ing in a cor­po­rate job for jet­ting off at a momen­t’s notice to, say, Alas­ka or Spain. He likes to use trav­el as a life reset but­ton, but also pulls that lived expe­ri­ence into his com­e­dy. ​“When you put your­self in uncom­fort­able or new sit­u­a­tions, [you’re] able to look deep­er with­in your­self and kind of under­stand your­self a lit­tle bit bet­ter. And I think that helps you comed­ical­ly as well.” 

His inter­na­tion­al roots and Amer­i­can heart­land upbring­ing inform unique com­e­dy that sets him apart from oth­er per­form­ers on the line up. Think less d*ck jokes and more hilar­i­ous African geog­ra­phy jokes (although his d*ck jokes are fun too.)

Bosunga’s mis­sion to do only what he tru­ly wants to do, means he rarely finds him­self feel­ing bit­ter about the com­e­dy rat race. ​“Some peo­ple get mad when they go to a show and the mic’s not right, or the audi­ence is inside, or they don’t get enough time, or they’re not get­ting enough mon­ey, or they’re not get­ting what­ev­er. And I don’t wor­ry about any of that, if I choose to do com­e­dy, like I choose to put my time and show out there, I’m gonna have a great time. Because if I don’t want to be there, then I just won’t go.” If Ben Bosun­ga is per­form­ing near you, wher­ev­er you are in the world, we think you’ll want to be there and we think you should just go. 

Fol­low Ben 

• Link​tr​.ee — link​tr​.ee/​b​e​n​b​o​sunga
• Twit­ter — @benbosunga
  
• Insta­gram — @benbosunga
• Face­book — Face​book​.com/​b​e​n​j​a​m​i​n​.​b​o​sunga
• Youtube — Lone­ly­Mans Pod­cast — Youtube​.com/​c​/​L​o​n​e​l​y​M​a​n​s​P​o​dcast

Ben can be seen and heard:

• Shows around town, the coun­try, and the world!
• Lone­ly­Mans Pod­cast — stream­ing on all platforms
  • Bonus con­tent and episodes on patre​on​.com/​l​o​n​e​l​ymans