You probably know comedian Doug Benson as a Last Comic Standing 5 finalist, where he was among the show's top six performers. Or maybe you’ve seen him on VH1’s Best Week Ever, where he provides amusing commentary on the week’s pop culture news and events.
But there’s more to Benson than his TV appearances. In collaboration with comics Arj Barker and Tony Camin, he wrote, produced, and starred in a successful off-Broadway comedy show in NYC, The Marijuana-Logues, and enjoyed a year run of shows as well as several national tours, an original live cast recording and even a supplementary book, The Marijuana-logues: Everything About Pot That We Could Remember. 
Most recently, he co-produced and starred in Super High Me (due out on DVD June 17).
The idea was originally spawned from a joke in Benson’s stand-up routine, where he mused on Morgan Spurlock’s documentary, Super Size Me, and wondered what would happen if he applied the same 30-day health regimen to marijuana. Filmmaker/comic Michael Blieden seemed to think it was a viable idea and the resulting documentary opened in more than 850 cities nationwide on April 20.
In the film, Benson stops smoking pot for 30 days to clean out his system, then indulges near-constantly for the following 30 days to test the effects on his mind and body. The film follows his “journey” but it’s more than just a silly tale of a comedian's quest to get super high. The film also offers an earnest examination of California’s current medical marijuana law and the Federal government’s ongoing efforts to challenge the state’s law via the seemingly arbitrary busts of medical marijuana dispensaries. I sat down and had lunch with Doug on Thursday — he plays Tampa Improv through Sunday — and what follows are portions of our long and rambling conversation.
This article appears in Jun 11-17, 2008.
