We were lucky to catch up with Benny Villanueva recently and have shared our conversation below.

Benny, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Have you been able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen? Was it like that from day one? If not, what were some of the major steps and milestones and do you think you could have sped up the process somehow knowing what you know now?

KNOW UR VALUE: My journey earning as an artist began when I played folk music around Flagstaff, Arizona. Some sort of troubadour dressed like Cash and smoking like Dylan when I was approached by the event coordinator for NAU’s multi-cultural event. They paid me $2,000.00 for two hours work and ever since that day as a musician I valued myself at $1000.00 an hour. Till this day I will not perform music if it is below that rate and it is my goal to raise that rate eventually. I reinvested that money into my first full length LP vinyl record distributed from east to west coast in the USA. This is an important aspect about knowing your value, because it is easy to keep an expectation of a high hourly wage however it is much harder to believe in one’s own project so much that money is put on the line. If you do not invest in yourself, who will?
MULTI INCOME STREAMS: As an artist I need many mediums to satisfy my creative urge and discovered along the way that each path is lined with multiple streams of income. Build yourself a port amongst this flowing currency of water ways. As a musician own the master’s to your songs and make money as a producer. Make money performing and selling merch. Make money with audio and video streams. I do this now as a podcaster slash comedian. I did this as a musician, as a painter, as a writer, as a poet, and as a film auteur. So naturally I combined it all and that means there is money to be made on the documentary capturing the act of the art and the act of the art itself. As well as any type of product or experience that can be sold along with each aspect of any of your projects. And do not fear money for capital provides the necessary audience or third party or the observer. Art thrives on the observer and money is merely one conduit for quantifying the effect of a piece of art. This also means it is not the only validation of an artist. You see I spent 15 years playing my dad’s old guitar in the Arizona red dirt before I ever saw one dime. Like my father told me, “It’s always a 20-year overnight success story. ” My music was sweet however nothing will ever compare to the dulcet notes of music cascading around a well-built venue while one’s pockets lay heavy lined with Roman gold.
KNOW CONTRACT BUSINESS LAW: Or pay people who do because straight out the gate, you can rely on “Murphys law” to disrupt any business venture especially one comprised of Artists playing the role of businessmen. The closer the circles get to fame the more intense the Darwinian struggle to survive intensifies so why should you waste your time tossing dice in candy land? It’s all chutes and ladders and eventually you slide down all the vipers and snakes. So instead of walking like a sheep to the slaughter take out your whip and crack it at the falling boulder and if the gods smile upon your cause, then just maybe your metaphorically jungle equipment will bring you back home Mr. Jones. Forgive me I am a poet, but I am painting pictures on the wall of your minds cave because what difference is a pool of snakes or poison arrows when you wake up one day to discover your fellow Producer Business Partner has staged a coup d’état and your celebrity artist and local artists have absconded to a competing venue leaving you high and dry. What difference is that to waking up with a knife in your back? Now imagine you could have an Iron Man suit to protect you against such attacks foreign and domestic. Contracts. CONTRACTUAL LAW. Business law. Entertainment law. Everyone involved should be on contract. A contract for the producers and a contract for artists performing. A contract for the venue in question and these contracts should dictate penalties if they are broken. Non-Disclosure Agreements should be used to protect important secrets of your trade and production. Most people learn while working under someone and then steal or copy the business model on their own. You should encourage teaching those you do business with and have them sign NDAs for highly sensitive information. Once you master these secrets dm me on Instagram @bensworldpod and I’ll release the next three. Because I love teaching fellow artists how to “arty”.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I, BENNY VILLANUEVA, am a standup comic. A comedian if you would allow the liberty of me sullying that word with such comparisons. You see that is just one example of myself deprecating Latin x Jewish comedy style. Which began officially most aptly at a show called Tour de House back when it actually was at a house owned by the late, great Georgie “Porgy” who was big Super Bowl news twice in his short lifespan may God keep his soul a few hours before the devil knows he’s dead. I digress but officially I hosted my first comedy show in Georgie’s back yard inside a shed we called THE MURDER BARN, “where comics go to kill”. Such greats like Celia Contreras who has since made it on Kill Tony with Tony Hinchcliff and played on stage with Rosanne Barr, first played at “the barn”. Well, I learned the basics in those days and eventually met a friend, Mr. HORNY. And his name really was HORNY. We had a good system. He would “fluff” the crowd and then I would go out and lay some real thick schtick down. And as soon as he said, “hello I’m horny!” The crowd would laugh as he interjected, “no really my name is horny. I’m Mr. horny. But honestly, I am super horny. And the crowd would be dying at every pun he made and by the time he announced, “… and now Benny the Jew!” I would walk out onto the stage telling anecdotes about failed attempts with strippers and about how my dating life consisted of paying for sugar babies to muck bang at steak restaurants. MUK band means “film self-eating” you perverts lol. But please do not take that to mean I am a sugar daddy… I am not… at best I’m a Splenda daddy; artificially sweet, toxic, and doctors don’t know if I’ll kill, ya or not. lol these jokes killed on the back of Mr. Hornys warmed up crowd. We went on tour playing open mics in San Diego with his baby French bulldog “baby sue” and played at the San Diego Comedy Store open mic. That night Adam Ray performed, and I met him afterwards which would lead to him politely offering me two tickets to his Escondido show. I followed his Instagram @adamraycomedy and a few times while he was on live, I screen recorded him saying, “what’s up Benny the Jew” and played that clip across my social media platforms. The synergy paired well with the algorithms and my personal followers began increasing exponentially for 12 months and had built to a level that now still garners me the title “Almost Famous” * Mr. Horny was receiving even more followers from similar interactions although sadly he eventually succumbed to his suicidal tendencies. I was there until the end watching him stand on the precipice of a successful first year in comedy and his ultimate main pain in life. From that point forward I felt that I could no longer take this route as a team and must transform into my own entity. My own act. It was time to stand on my own and walk onto the stage as Benny Villanueva not as “Benny the Jew “the second funny part of what Mr. Horny and I called THE EL CHAPO SEX ROBOT COMEDY TOUR. I will always cherish that trip and the moments we laid conquest to open mics at the San Diego Comedy store, and the Las Vegas WISEGUYS and around the usually stomping grounds in Phoenix, Scottsdale, and Tempe. I put focus into my own comedy and eventually was booked to run the comedy at a music festival called Genesis Jam, as well as produce successful shows with a comedy fraternity slash sorority I created called OMEGAX4. Squash the Beef was our first roast battle and my podcast WAKE N BAKE WITH BENNY captured special moments during that event. That led us to THE ROAST OF BENNY THE JEW which featured many prominent Arizona comics roasting the bejesus out of me and the funniest line came from comedian Chris Herb, “Benny doesn’t look Jewish… he looks like he thought the Gaza Strip was a steak.” That video is being edited along with our Omegax4 comedy journey at Genesis Jam. And during all of this commotion I was able to secure tickets to a Matt Rife film movie premiere through the benevolence of film director Jack Cook. This film was hilarious and featured many names like Erik Griffin, Matt Rife, and Clare Grant. I was elated to see Seth Green on the carpet interviewing before the showing and will always remember that trip because someone stole my black-on-black Louis Vuitton tie which I wore especially for that event. At least I got my pictures with it at the event lmfao. During that trip it rained for three days in LA, and I was slated to perform some comedy at a low-end venue that got rained out. Rain was seeping through everyone’s roof that journey and my psychiatrist had driven me from Arizona to La due to my fear of flying and we ended up stranded down the street from the La comedy store and I let my psychiatrist head to the hotel as I pushed on, determined to perform in LA. It was a hilarious yet horrific scene of lesbians yelling at me and me standing in the wrong line and a river of water just pouring down the patio as I crack jokes impersonating the builders of that property, “ oh yeah boss just lay the bricks down like this and don’t worry about the steep angle there defiantly won’t be a flood of water washing over the patrons every time it rains.” And eventually a kind person said, “hey use your receipt to put your name in the bucket and go up tonight.” So, I did, and they pulled my ticket, and I was able to experience what had influenced Tony Hinchcliffe to create Kill Tony, albeit allegedly. You must understand I am a Sherlock Holmes of reverse engineering people’s motives and after analyzing their modus operandi I can tell tales of their exploits, however, let’s take my theories with a grain of salt. Two days later I did a similar act at the Hollywood Improv open mic hours before Natasha Leggero, Marc Maron, and Dane Cook to name a few of the massive names who plaid after me. These experiences led me to start recording content for my comedy album BENS ON FIRST, because I have reached a level big enough to open up for known names and perhaps one day that will translate into me being a headliner. I recently entered a contract with Saturday Night Lives very own, Jeff Richards, and have already learned from him a few tricks. And mind you he has taught the likes of Adam Ray, Will Ferrell, and others impersonation techniques etc. He also sparked the idea for a video I’m working on that mimics Tom Greens song, “Daddy, Would You Like Some Sausages” and he told me to pair it with his viral “Gary Busey Buttered Sausages” video. So that will hit socials soon, but I would be remiss to not mention that this snapshot shows you how one can build their career up one notch at a time whilst learning but one should never forget that moment that first sparked the love of one’s own art. For me that was back in the days I had a punk band called SUPERDONKEY and I was a naughty boy doing powders backstage and then running out when they called us to perform songs about cocaine and art. During one of these shows they were having a story telling contest and someone signed me up by my stage name JOHN LEMON and as a joke I went up and told a horrid story about a girl crushing my heart and soul and the audience of 200 people died laughing and came up to me afterwards with their condolences and wowed at my hilarity and the spark of comedy was emerging from my Id and my ego was killing the rockstar so that I could trade the designer powders for prescribed Adderall and cigarettes for medical marijuana. Now I wait for my agent to get me a 5-15 min speaking role in the upcoming Adam Sandler Movie HAPPY GILMORE 2.

What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?

Society can mimic or help sustain organizations like my OMEGAX4. Soon we will be an official 501 c3, a non profit organization that supports starving artists. We plan to garner money via grants and purchase properties around the valley that will be the backbone of our artist community. As it becomes impossible to find affordable housing we will be able to provide this for our members. Properties ranging from apartments and houses all of the way to large self sustaining farm communities in the rural areas. Areas rural enough for our music festivals. Each outlet giving more room for donations and all amenities provided for our egalitarian sisterhood and brotherhood. Art can be made on well fed bones, and we need not always entertain the notion that our children and peers must “starve” in order for their art to flourish. We say, let us harness the power of each other to build our art collectively toward the heavens like a ladder. It’s time to “arty” like it’s 1999.

We’d love to hear your thoughts on NFTs. (Note: this is for education/entertainment purposes only, readers should not construe this as advice)

Love NFTs however people must be more informed concerning crypto in general so let us discuss some key pitfalls of understanding in this realm. From the words of my legal team, NFT ownership is a murky territory. Essentially the creator and the first buyer have the highest rights claim. This is where it gets tricky as an NFT might be traded all the way down the cyber corridor. And the further away from its encoded and written inception it floats, the trickier it is for a courtroom to assign ownership so HODL is a prominent strategy. Meaning, buy early be the first come to first serve and hold on for dear life. Now that being said NFTs are a digital cousin of the Art world. For in the art world, oligarchs of power pick artists to use as currency in a game of hide and seek your investment from taxes. This paired with celebrity and influence is what makes a Banksy worth so much. This is the same in the NFT world. What you have is the block chain version of art currency. So projects range from local artists with zero backing and recognition to major celebrities both marketing and developing a NFT. Which means this arena is rife with charlatans selling bridges to naive peasants. The most successful NFT is established with high capital backing and with a forum of entities willing to prop up its value in a manner that benefits the whole system trading with said NFT. So that is why it is hard to recommend them because of the fear of very smart people taking advantage of any traders who read my words and become inspired to venture into this market. I believe in myself, so I always recommend self-projects. As a team we are developing the OMEGAx4 crypto coin and have a whole series of NFTS to release alongside of it. But we are following strict rules and regulations and are offering 1000 free OMEGAX4 coins and various NFT packages. Our goal is to create a value and currency within our coin as well as our NFT Packages using them as a medium to push the various art forms of our entertainment community. Omegax4 is comprised of all sorts of artists, and we hold no limitations on people’s identities. This ethos pairs well with the Neo philosophies of meme coins and NFT collections and the absurdity of life in general.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.spjrit.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bensworldpod?igsh=MWpkOXF1cWloemEycg%3D%3D&utm_source=qr
• Youtube: https://youtu.be/3r7GPlZclaM?si=L4NKkXkCnvo93kIw

Image Credits

BENS world pod and wake n bake with Benny credit ARTWORK to DANNY ARCHILLA

Omegax4 logo credit to Benny Villanueva

Photos are from anonymous