In development · World premiere 2027
Bin Laden's Favorite White Boy
Written & performed by Ben Ti · A one-person show with original music
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A dark comedy and music-driven one-person show about childhood fear, masculinity, religion, and the strange stories we tell ourselves to survive.
As an adult, a hapless and directionless millennial stumbles across the bedroom of his eleven-year-old self and is pulled back into the longest night of his childhood: the night he became convinced Osama bin Laden was coming to kill him.
The Show
Over the course of one sleepless night, Ben recreates the people, songs, fantasies, and fears that filled his childhood imagination. Armed with an acoustic guitar and original music, he performs a rotating cast of characters, including Oswald the Owl, his eleven-year-old self, and Santa Jesus, an absurd imaginary hero and amalgamation of the men, religious figures, and political leaders who defined Ben's childhood.
Part concert, part comedy, and part theatrical fever dream, the show moves between original songs, storytelling, and character performances as childhood memories collide with the complicated perspective of adulthood.
As the night spirals further into absurdity, Ben begins questioning the beliefs that shaped his ideas about masculinity, race, sexuality, and religion. What emerges is funny and unexpectedly vulnerable: a confrontation with the frightened kid he thought he had outgrown, and the realization that some parts of ourselves do not disappear when we grow up. Sometimes, they simply wait for us to come back and find them.
The Cast (all one person)
A rotating cast of one.
Oswald the Owl
The nocturnal confidant who knows too much.
Ben's 11-Year-Old Self
The frightened, fevered imagination at the center of it all.
Santa Jesus
An absurd imaginary hero, every man, saint, and president in one.
Staging
One performer, one guitar, any room.
The show is built to travel light. It works on a traditional stage and just as well in unconventional spaces. Load in and load out are light and quick.
- Traditional stages & black boxes
- Living rooms & house concerts
- Churches & fellowship halls
- Event spaces & festivals
- Yes, even a bedroom
About Ben Ti
Ben Ti is a playwright, actor, musician, and performer whose work blends comedy, music, and theater to explore the absurdities and emotional complexities of modern life.
His work includes the one-act play Thing #1 and the award-winning screenplay and short film Toe The Line. A former lead singer and guitarist of the band Unicorn Apocalypse, Ben has also performed secret pop-up shows in collaboration with Sofar Sounds. He is drawn to the emotional distance many men are taught to keep from themselves and others, and to the ways patriarchal ideas about masculinity leave people isolated, ashamed, and searching for belonging.
Read full bio →World premiere 2027