Funny things seem to happen all around Dave Ackerman. Just as I sat down at Zupas to talk with him about his upcoming comedy show at Trolley Square, March 11 and 12, a tall, handsome random stranger hijacked my interview.
I thought Dave knew him – and Dave thought I knew him. Actually, this blue-suited man was a (wannabe) comedian too, and he thought Dave was the man. After asking me if Dave was my husband (to which I of course quipped…yes) he sat himself down and proceeded to pepper Dave with questions that he graciously and funnily answered, willingly assisting the star-struck boy who looked like he had just come from a visit to the Temple.
Upon his departure the look on Dave’s face was a little perplexed. Becoming the spokesperson for the Orabrush tongue cleaner has made him a mini-celebrity and he is still getting used to it.
If you haven’t heard of Orabrush, then you probably don’t frequent YouTube very much. Orabrush is a brush for your tongue. It is a Utah product developed by “Dr. Bob” and then taken viral through a series of YouTube “commercials” that are not commercials at all, but more like Saturday Night Live comedy skits with the Orabrush thrown in.
Dave dresses as an awkward tongue that sometimes plays 11-year-olds in football and in others visits Sci-fi conventions (although his favorite may have been the pillow fight at the sorority house). All in an effort to help people combat their bad breath utilizing, of course, the Orabrush tongue cleaner.
“I’m the last person who should draw attention to himself,” he said.
Dave graduated from Utah State, then had a short stint as a journalist and then was a video editor for the Utah Jazz. Dave finally blew to the Windy City (Chicago). There he shined up his comedy and started to make it personal. He wants to make his audience feel a little uncomfortable, like a roller coaster ride – taking crazy edgy topics and helping us laugh at them.
His YouTube channel, scratchmybackerman.com, has over 90 ways to be funny. Being funny about things like abortion, racism and making out could definitely be seen as edgy, especially in the conservative state of Utah.
Dave feels that laughing at life’s lemons or “the not happy things” draws us together and allows us to heal. Like the Orabrush commercials, where you get two things in one, his comedy gives us something to laugh about and something to think about. Likening it to an Oreo with spinach in the middle.
Dave sees the Internet – including Facebook, YouTube and Twitter – as the wave of the future. He says he has been “amazed at what we have been able to do” and is excited to see where it is headed.
Thanks mainly to the viral YouTube video series, they have taken Orabrush from a brilliant, yet obscure product, to a product growing into major markets. They are looking at deals with Wal-Mart and Harmons.
You can find Dave doing his stand-up act at Trolley Square March 11 and 12 or anytime on his YouTube channel.