Wanna-Ben (2010 - 2012)

Ben’s career as a pop star didn’t quite turn out as he hoped so he settles back on the couch to catch up with his favourite video games only to be accosted by his mother and the ‘Job Vacancies’ page in her ever-present newspaper. It turns out she has found him another job – this time as a ‘Movie Star’.

Ben decides these jobs are all too hard and from now on he won’t get out of bed for less than ten thousand dollars a day. Luckily his mother finds him a job as a ‘Model’. With so many glamorous women to inspire him; Ben agonizes over the choices. He trials being like Tyra Banks, Kate Moss and Elle McPherson before attending auditions for New Zealand’s Next Top Model.

Ben wants some street cred, and there’s only one way to get it – become a ‘Hip Hop Star’. After attempting to be like three of today’s biggest hip hop stars: Snoop Dogg, Fifty Cent and Nelly; Ben decides they have nothing on the trailblazing beat-boxing pioneers of the 90s and so goes to Las Vegas to interview Flavor Flav from Public Enemy and Vanilla Ice.

Ben’s back on the couch and enjoying his “me” time, when his mother disrupts him with her clumsy behaviour and relentless job opportunities. This time she has discovered an opening for a sports star. This is right up Ben’s alley – he’s had years of training on his sports comedy TV show, Pulp Sport! While being like David Beckham, Sachin Tendulker and Mike Tyson would be fun; Ben decides he wants to be like skateboarding legend Tony Hawk. Unfortunately the one thing he hasn’t mastered is an ability to skate! But that’s not going to stop him being like his idol, so he packs up his kneepads and jets to LA to find out from Tony Hawk just what it takes to be a sports star like him.

Ben figures the “Movie Star” job was not all that his mother had hyped it up to be so decides to hold off until a real dream job comes about. He doesn’t have to wait for long – his mother has found him a job a ‘Rock Star’! The hardest thing for Ben is to choose which Rock Star he’d most ‘wanna-be’ and after trying out Angus Young, Steven Tyler and Tommy Lee for size; Ben is still crippled by indecision. First he decides to interview his favourite 90’s rock band, Hanson and attempts to form his own band of brothers just like they did.

Having always wished that he was funny, Ben is easily convinced when his mother interrupts his time on the couch to inform him she has found him a job as a comedian. After attempting to be a comedic actor like Jim Carey, Will Ferrell and Ben Stiller, Ben decides he’d much rather be a ‘stand-up comedian’. After getting directions from Kiwi comic Steve Wrigley, he flies to Las Vegas - a place where all the best comedians perform. In Vegas, Ben interviews Penn from the magical comedian duo Penn & Teller, Wayne Brady of Whose Line is it Anyway fame and the odd-ball props comedian Carrot Top.

After running away from angry bulls as a Rodeo Clown, Ben feels it’s time to do something a bit less scary. His mother has just the answer – she’s found a job for him as a “Retro Star”.

After being duped into a humiliating job once again Ben decides the only thing that would really work out as a dream job would be that of a “Successful Business Man”. Bill Gates, Donald Trump and Calvin Klein all seem like good options but after Ben gets beaten up for being nerdy, can’t get his ginger cat to sit on his head and spends a miserable evening in grey paint and underwear at a bus shelter he is left with a clear winner – Hustler Porn King Larry Flynt.

Left feeling dirty after pushing grubby merchandise on to all those nice people at Auckland’s Viaduct Basin; Ben is ready to give up on his aspirations of finding a dream job. His mother won’t have a bar of it – how else is she going to be kept in newspapers and colourful scarves? But this time she’s convinced she’s hit the jackpot – a job as a TV Star.