It's not easy being socially awkward. Trust me, I know. I make myself uncomfortable in most any social situation, so I can well imagine what it's like for anyone around my inept epicenter. But enough about my rad issues, let's talk about Bret Banta and his human condition. We first met Bret in ... shit ... 1995 or '96? He came to us at Big Brother skateboard magazine then with aspirations of an internship while enrolled at Cal Arts in the graphic design program. Bret was awkward as all hell. Twitchy. Hair trigger nerves. Constantly on edge and apologizing for shit that he'd imagined he'd done wrong or was about to do wrong. So, naturally, he fit right in amongst the rest of us misfits.
When Bret mustered up the courage to ask to be more involved with the magazine, specifically with regard to our music section, we agreed to let him interview bands—but starting with Pantera. This seriously may have been the end of the line for Bret, as the first question he was required to ask was, "Which one of you faggots is gay?" but fate smiled upon him that day. The band was grumpy due to a recent near death experience of a member and they lost it when the half-ass Big Brother crew arrived late and slightly disorganized. The band walked out before the interview even started and Bret continued to breathe in the air. He also slipped Jeff Tremaine some custom fonts on the not so sly side, but that's the kind of derring-do that young typographers do.
Bret eventually graduated in the late '90s, went on to design stuff, like skateboard graphics for Rasa Libre, shoe shit for iPath, and web design for the last gasping year or two of Big Brother magazine at LFP. He also got married, made a family, and compounded his neurotic, awkward nature in exponential ways known only to the mega-mastered minds of quantum physicians. The aneurysm odds were definitely set to pop like the 4th of July in his favor, but Bret did the next best Texan thing by grabbing his socially inept bull by the horns and steering it toward the comedy clubs in and around Los Angeles—and that's precisely where he's been doing stand up for the past several years now.
Apparently this has been a therapy of a sort, or at least a socially acceptable version thereof. Bret is nowhere near the bundle of raw nerve endings he once was—well, within reason, I suppose—but he's now able to capitalize upon his state of being not only on-stage but in front of a camera. Along with friend and director Jeff Roe of Outlaw Laboratories, Bret recently launched a "Banta Shorts" series of videos based on his stand-up. The first two videos can be found on FunnyOrDie.com, but here's one embedded below for taste test purposes:
Want to know more? You'd buy that for a dollar? Check out Bret's podcast here, and follow his social nitwit self on Twitter and Instagram. Oh, and don't mess with Texas.
(Old photo of Bret Banta by Rick Kosick; Recent photos of Bret Banta by Byron Valino)
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