Ben Palmer takes fake news to another level

Fake news is a phrase that is often bandied about, but how about fake journalist? Veteran comic Ben Palmer could add that position to his resume.

“I call companies pretending to be a journalist,” Palmer said. “I email CEOs and send them fake quotes. I tell them I’m working on a story. They expect a real article that will be published somewhere.”

Palmer, 35, who will perform Tuesday at the Spokane Comedy Club, trolls executives’ Facebook pages. Palmer also pretends to be a city government official making up fake cases. The witty humorist puts together all that he culls to create a presentation, which is the majority of his stand-up.

“My show is multimedia,” Palmer said while calling from his Denver home. “I project it on a screen and present it response by response. I have no idea how I started this.”

The Cleveland native, who has been a comic since 2008, has been delivering this type of show for seven years.

“I have a blast doing this, and it’s different than what anyone else is doing,” Palmer said

Palmer also works the crowd and enjoys the extemporaneous side of his work. “I love that you never know what will happen when you just talk with an audience,” Palmer said. “I just talk about things, and everybody gets loose.”

Palmer will be making his Spokane debut, but he promises that he won’t botch the pronunciation of the Lilac City.

“When I was in Seattle performing a few years ago, I said Spokane (Spo-kane), and everybody laughed,” Palmer said. “But they didn’t laugh in a good way. It was like, ‘Haven’t you ever been to Washington?’ ”