Ben Gleib’s Real Wedding Crashers Blog By Ben Gleib This is my first TVguide.com Celebrity Blog. This is very exciting for me, because I guess it means I‟m now a celebrity. This is news to me. I mean I guess it makes sense. I have a TV show airing on NBC, called “The Real Wedding Crashers.” Plus I feel very celebrity-like lately. For example, the show‟s only been on one week, and I‟ve already been in and out of rehab three times! (My second time in rehab I impregnated Britney Spears. You‟ll hear more about that in 9 months.) I also now wear huge sunglasses when I go out in public, and I‟ve punched out several paparazzi. They weren‟t even taking my picture. That was what bothered me actually. So I socked „em. I realize that now they will probably never take my picture, but I wasn‟t thinking that far ahead. I‟ve been doing standup comedy and acting for years, but this is the first time TV Guide has asked me to write about one of my projects, so it officially now feels like I‟m at a whole new level. People keep asking me how being on NBC has changed my life so far, one week in. What it‟s like being on a show being seen by millions of people? And it so far has only had three effects. 1) Everyone I have ever met has been emailing me, texting me, and contacting me on myspace. It‟s very cool of them, but I think I spent 900 hours this week replying to messages. (That might be a slight exaggeration, but I think it was at least 400 hours.) 2) I got on stage for a standup show at the Brea Improv the night after the premiere, just like I usually do, only this time, the second I hit the stage people shouted out, “You got any Cubans?” referring to a prank we pulled in the first episode where I get the groom, the best man, and myself in trouble with the cops because we‟re smoking cigars, and I volunteer the fact that they‟re Cubans. That was cool. 3) After a show last night at the Hollywood Improv, a girl came up to me and asked me to sign her arm! She literally wanted me to write, with a thick marker, all over her arm! So I wrote in huge block letters, “This autograph will not last. Love, Ben Gleib.” Then on her other arm I wrote, “Watch Wedding Crashers Mondays at 10!” I figured if she‟s gonna let me advertise on her body, I may as well plug the show. In episode one, at the end of that cigar scene scene, I get to be the hero and save the day, taking the blame for the cigars even though they weren‟t mine, and being driven off to jail. Don‟t be too impressed though. It‟s a lot easier to be a hero when it‟s not actually real, and the cops are just driving you around the corner to Kraft Service, where you get to east licorice and drink free Red Bull. On this week‟s episode of Wedding Crashers you‟ll see the wedding of Jen and Jay. This is their real life wedding. Despite all of the crashing we do in and around it, this couple really ties the knot. People keep asking me why someone would want to crash their own wedding. I think it makes perfect sense. If you‟ve got a good sense of humor, why not have some fun with you friends and family, get your wedding paid for, and make yourselves and everyone close to you guest stars on a network comedy TV show? It seems like a smart decision if you ask me. Then again, I am a horrible decision maker, so maybe I don‟t know what I‟m talking about. But what I do know is that at each wedding, once the reveal happens, almost everyone is ecstatic about it. So Jen and Jay are our
featured “guest stars” for our second episode. And they really got into it. Especially Jen. You‟ll see what I mean when it airs. I play a lot of different characters on the show. But in this episode I play just one for the whole time. A tow truck driver from Brooklyn. This was one of many very cool things about working on the show. We were given a lot of freedom to create our own characters. And really have fun with it. As long as it seemed believable, we were allowed to try different things. So I did some research, decided my tow truck driver grew up on Flatbush and 5th in Park slope, Brooklyn, (though this would likely not come up, I wanted to have back story in case I was asked,) and I spent the night before we shot this prank working on my accent. The next day my task was simple. While the groom and his soon-to-be father-in-law were eating lunch, I was gonna start towing their car. They‟d come out while it was up on my rig, and I would refuse to release it. And in this scene, while being a huge pain to them, I also had to somehow try to get invited to the wedding! But I don‟t want to give away anymore. Watch the episode, and I‟ll write again next week. Sincerely, Ben Gleib