Electronic Press Kit
Bin Laden's Favorite White Boy
Written & performed by Ben Ti · World premiere 2027
A dark comedy and music driven one-person show about childhood fear, masculinity, religion, and the strange stories we tell ourselves to survive.
Trailer
Trailer plays muted. Tap the video for sound. Direct link: youtu.be/Cfevk09UxmQ
Fact sheet
- Title
- Bin Laden's Favorite White Boy
- Written & performed by
- Ben Ti
- Genre
- Dark comedy, music-driven solo theater
- Form
- One-person show with original music and live acoustic guitar
- Cast size
- 1 performer
- Status
- In development, world premiere 2027
- Run time
- 55 minutes
- Audience
- Ages 12+ Occasional profanity, references to 9/11 and Osama bin Laden, and themes of childhood fear, violence, masculinity, race, sexuality, and religion.
Themes
- Childhood fear
- Masculinity
- Religion
- Racism
- Sexuality
- Memory and imagination
- Post 9/11 America
Short logline
A grown man stumbles into the bedroom of his eleven-year-old self and relives the night he was certain Osama bin Laden was coming to kill him.
Synopsis
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.
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.
Technical & staging needs
One performer, one guitar, any room.
- Space
- Traditional stage, black box, living room, church, event space, or bedroom
- Set
- Minimal. A bed or chair, a few practical props, one acoustic guitar
- Sound
- One vocal mic, one instrument input, or fully unplugged in intimate rooms
- Lighting
- General wash preferred, adaptable to house lighting
- Load in / load out
- Light and quick. The show travels self-contained.
Artist bio
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.
Booking & press