Benchilla

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Benchilla
A still from the Where Them Girls At music video, featuring Aky (left) and Sai (right).

Benchilla, or just Ben, also known as Benjadumb, WaitWaitFixate, and Fix4te (born October 1992), is a writer, musician and filmmaker who lives in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.

Contents

[edit] Biography

[edit] Popular culture

Benchilla is perhaps best known for appearing on the 11th season of American Idol on February 1, 2012, in which his audition in Portland, Oregon was aired in a full segment.[1] The audition did not go over well, with Ben attributing it to his illness, which he had acquired between audition rounds. In an interview with Good Day Philadelphia, he explained that the reason he had auditioned in Portland was because the city he had originally auditioned in, East Rutherford, NJ, was a last minute addition to the audition schedule, and as a result, everyone who successfully auditioned for the producers had to be flown out to other cities still holding their callback auditions.[2] He was also interviewed by WXTU, a local country radio station.[3]

Immediately after the audition aired, he posted a video to YouTube in an attempt to redeem himself, to mixed reception.[4] Benchilla has not made an appearance on television since, although continues to perform musically[5]. He has not released any new material since, instead opting to create mashups under the handle Fix4te.[6]

[edit] Brenda Banks

Benchilla's drag persona, dubbed Brenda Banks,[7] has made appearances at numerous conventions since 2011. She first made an appearance at MFF 2011, where she was involved in the filming of a music video for David Guetta's Where Them Girls At, a collaborative effort between Kwik Cheetah and Char.[8] Ben plays Nicki Minaj in the video, as he performs behind fursuiters Tesxa Coyote, Aky and Sai. The video has racked up 47,000 plays as of April 2013, and has reportedly been shown at night clubs in San Francisco.[9][10] Benchilla reprised his impersonation of Nicki Minaj at Furstivus later that year, where he was the host of the Open Mic event.[11]

Since then, Brenda Banks had made appearances at other conventions, where she impersonated Jessie J at FWA 2012 and Carly Rae Jepsen at Anthrocon 2012. In October 2012, Brenda Banks attended Furfright 2012 as Kreayshawn, and filmed a music video with Scrumpet (aka Baby Trap Beat$) for her song "Go Hard" with rewritten verses. The video features dozens of fursuitters, and as of April 2013 has racked up nearly 3,000 views.[12] Since then, Brenda reprised the Kreayshawn impersonation at Midwest Furfest 2012 to perform Nicki Minaj's Va Va Voom, and has since impersonated Ke$ha at Further Confusion 2013, and Taylor Swift at Furry Weekend Atlanta 2013.

Since MFF 2011, Benchilla has attended every convention in drag, impersonating celebrities such as Nicki Minaj, Kreayshawn and Taylor Swift.

[edit] Fandom involvement

Although aware of the furry fandom since the age of twelve, Benchilla didn't officially become a member until 2008, when he was fifteen.[13] This can be attributed to his involvement with the wiki Encyclopedia Dramatica, where he was an active member from December 2006 to February 2008, and a Sysop from July 2007 to January 2008.

After leaving the site, he gradually became more immersed in the furry community, before creating a chinchilla fursona in July 2008, and joining Fur Affinity in October of that year.

Since joining the community, Benchilla has been involved with a number of projects, including moderating on the Fur Affinity Forums from May 2010 to November 2010, and co-founding the social art gallery Weasyl.

[edit] Fursona

Benchilla's character is a chinchilla, although it is rarely seen.[clarify]

[edit] Convention attendance

[edit] Controversy

  • In 2012, Benchilla was banned from Fur Affinity after exploiting a bug that permitted avatars larger than the size normally allowed. Initially, his ban was for only two weeks, but this was made permanent due to "previous history of hijinks,"[14] despite having no previous history of being banned.

[edit] References

  1. ↑ American Idol 2012 Auditions Portland Posted to Daily Motion February 2, 2012
  2. ↑ Good Day Philadelphia Interview Posted to Youtube on February 3rd, 2012
  3. ↑ Interview with WXTu Posted to Youtube February 11th, 2012
  4. ↑ American Idol - Born This Way & Super Bass redone Posted on February 1st, 2012
  5. ↑ Domino (@ The Rising Star) posted to Youtube July 15th, 2012
  6. ↑ Benchilla's Soundcloud Page
  7. ↑ Brenda Banks, Facebook Album retrieved July 29th, 2012
  8. ↑ Where Them Girls At (feat the Girls of MFF) Posted to Youtube December 30th, 2011
  9. ↑ [1] Tweet from Dwudles, July 15th, 2012
  10. ↑ https://twitter.com/Dwudles/status/224586649936474115 Tweet from Dwudles, July 15th, 2012
  11. ↑ Furstivus For the Worst Of Us Posted to Vimeo January 23rd, 2012
  12. ↑ Brenda Banks ft. Baby Trap Beat$ - GO HARD Posted to Youtube November 2nd, 2012
  13. ↑ Benchilla's profile on SoFurry. Retrieved ?.
  14. ↑ "Fur Affinity bug permits huge avatars; former mod banned" flayrah post by Rakuen Growlithe
  15. ↑ Wait, Wait, Fixate • Stepping Down From Weasyl - Benchilla, tumblr post (1 March 2013)
  16. ↑ Is it true what I heard about Weasyl staff catching one of the founders sockpuppeting? Twitter post. Posted ?. Retrieved 4 May 2013.

[edit] External links

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