MrBallen Answers the Web's Most Searched Questions

[00:02] autocomplete interview. >> [music] rotate the collar and then you have a new outfit every day.

[00:17] get started? It was sort of accidental. Uh I I got out of the military in 2017. I was a Navy SEAL. I tried my hand in in social media. Nothing worked. Uh but then sort of on a whim in 2020, um I told a story on this this new platform

[00:33] TikTok about these missing hikers. And it went super viral and I thought it was really cool. I love telling stories. The rest is history, I guess. How did Mr. Ballen get his name? There is a story, but it's just sort of random. There's

[00:46] like this almost hidden community of of aspiring Navy SEALs, like civilians that want to be Navy SEALs. And they're all pretty acutely aware of of who has has an Instagram account that was a former Navy SEAL. And these these

[01:02] aspiring, you know, Navy SEALs will often send messages to those folks. And my username at the time when I had just gotten out of the military was John B. Allen 416. But there was no punctuation in my name. And if you didn't know me,

[01:16] it would look like my name is John Ballen 416. And all these kids who were very respectfully asking me questions, like, "Excuse me, Mr. Ballen, I have a question about becoming a Navy SEAL." They're very proper in their DMs to me.

[01:29] And then I I took the username and ran with it. How does Mr. Ballen find stories? I just Googled. I mean, really, it's that simple. I I I spent a lot of time looking for stories that way. But now we have a whole team dedicated to

[01:43] several series that do lots of Googling themselves and original research. But it started with just thinking of a cool idea and Googling it. Next. How does Mr. Ballen go viral? I don't know. How does Wired go viral? I mean, this thing goes

[01:56] because the format's really like simple to understand, right? Like the reason you see an image before you've even watched the video, you know what it is. And then if the format delivers in quality, people stick around. And so

[02:11] about getting people's attention long enough to get them to click something as it is about making good content. It's an imprecise science, but that's that's the gist. Done. All right, next board. Where

[02:23] did Mr. Ballen grow up? I grew up in Quincy, Massachusetts. Not to be confused with Quincy, sports-centric town, like Red Sox was a religion. Lots of street fighting. That was a big part of growing up. I'll tell

[02:37] quick little story. Uh I when I was a sophomore in high school, I made the mistake of being in the same study hall as a girl whose boyfriend was the captain of the hockey team. I sat next to her in the study hall. Big mistake,

[02:51] okay? And I was I was called over the weekend by representatives for the for the hockey player, and said, "Hey, Paul wants to fight you." And I, knowing the culture of Quincy, Massachusetts, knew that this was not the time to say, "I

[03:03] didn't do anything." Instead, you immediately accept the fight. And so we right away. It's like in 3 weeks we're going to fight. So we'd pass each other in the halls at school. I thought I was like really tough. And so I remember I

[03:17] Paul wasn't. Paul, you know, despite calling me out, was sort of nonchalant field, and there's literally hundreds of kids that have gone to this fight. And time, and I'm like, "This guy's scared of me. He's pathetic." And then Paul

[03:31] rolls up like 20 minutes later, calm as can be, and I had this line. And I throw young, motherfucker." And then he gets up to me, and proceeds to beat the living crap out of me in front of

[03:45] nothing. But everybody heard my big line. And it was so egregious that my teachers made fun of me for that line the next day. Where is Mr. Ballen Studios? We're in the the the New York City area. It's sort of like a

[04:01] hole-in-the-wall spot. All right, next, where did Mr. Ballen serve? So, as soon as I graduated, I enlisted in in the Navy. And then the training takes 2 Navy SEAL if you're successful. Wouldn't say I was the best in the class, but I

[04:15] was good enough. And so 2012, I checked into my team in Virginia, and then I went to Af ghanistan in 2013, and then I was in South America in 2015. And then I was medically retired shortly after that. Last question of the board, where

[04:28] does Mr. Ballen get his flannels? So, I wear flannels in every single video. about is like, "Well, what do I wear?" I'm like putting myself on camera same outfit every day. But I was like,

[04:41] color, and then you have a new outfit every day." I think my wife was just getting them at like Target. And then uh fans began sending me flannels. Like homemade flannels. Some were pretty incredible. There you go.

[04:54] All right, next board. Here we go. Uh what's in the basement, Mr. Ballen? I told four stories on our tour in 2024, and the final story it is called What's in the Basement. It's about Daniel LaPlante. Uh basically this

[05:09] family in Massachusetts began hearing all these strange sounds coming from what it was. There was a recent death in the family. The kids believed it was being in touch with them or something. Over the course of weeks and months, the

[05:25] the the tapping sounds they they just persist, ultimately culminating in the like, "No, we think someone's down there." He thinks the kids are doing it, that they're playing up this ruse that their mother is is like coming back from

[05:38] the dead. Well, lo and behold, when police get involved, when there was like uh what appeared to be a break-in in the house, uh they discovered a hole in the wall in the basement behind the washing machine and there was a tunnel in the

[05:50] wall that led to this back corner and huddled in the corner, the end. Gotcha. And huddled in the corner was the 16-year-old kid named Daniel LaPlante. He was wearing a dress, he had clown makeup painted to his face, he had

[06:04] a hatchet and he had been living in the family's walls for upwards of a year because he believed one of the daughters had spurned his advances and so his house and live in their walls. He would be pulled out, luckily no one got hurt

[06:17] in that family, but he's let out and while he's out on bail essentially, he breaks into another family's home, but he kills the entire family. So, Daniel LaPlante is in the basement. >> What is Mr. Ballen's favorite story? One

[06:30] of the stories that really stands out to me is the the Ellie Lobel story. So, life, she's a lawyer, she lives in Connecticut. This is like in the in the early 90s, but one day she starts feeling sick and she can't tell like

[06:43] doctor, they're like, "Oh, you're overworking yourself." Over several affecting, you know, her ability to be a mom, her ability to be a wife, she's not able to to go to work. People began to believe she was lying, like her own

[06:55] lying and her kids as well and it it created real tension in her family. She gets divorced and then at about the 15-year mark, whatever this mystery illness was, it began to progress. So, she went into to see the doctor one time

[07:08] don't know what's doing this, but we think you're going to die." And Ellie doesn't tell her ex-husband, she doesn't even tell her kids. She hires an end-of-life care person and she goes to Southern California, a place that was a

[07:20] big part of her childhood. She lays in bed for 3 days and she doesn't die and so she says to her end-of-life care person, you know, "Why don't we just go break and then I'll come back and die." And they eventually turn onto the street

[07:33] lined up against this beautiful field full of flowers and tall grass. She want to stay here for a second and just take this all in. She hears buzzing over her head and she looks up and she sees there's a bee. But then a moment later

[07:47] louder and she looks up and she sees there's now a swarm of not just bees but African killer bees. And the bees just like came down, they descended and began stinging Ellie Lobel in her face over and over and over again. She can't

[08:03] person scoops her up and he's running with her. She's still getting stung and she's screaming at him, "Don't bring me to the hospital." So he runs her back to and she's covered in bee stings and she's just like, "At least this way,

[08:15] this should this should, you know, expedite my my demise." But for the next 3 days, so these three subsequent days, she doesn't die. In fact, she begins to feel like the chronic joint pain and some of the other just chronic issues

[08:27] she's had now for 15 years are starting to fade. And so she began doing some research and she discovered that there was this this study that was done in the '90s in Australia where these scientists believed patients with Lyme disease

[08:41] could be cured if they were stung by certain bees. It would turn out 15 years earlier she Ellie was bitten by a tick. Somehow nobody caught it. She had Lyme disease and was in the terminal stage and then basically accidentally

[08:55] conducted this experiment with bees on herself. And now Ellie Lobel tours the country advocating for bee stings. What is Mr. Ballen's scariest video? There's this one video, do you know how to get to Bells Canyon? And it's about this

[09:10] guy, this this banker who goes every year out to Washington state to go he's made his campfire, he's got his tent made and he he hears like movement around him, he can't see anyone, there's nobody out here. He hears a voice and

[09:24] the voice just calls out, "Hey, do you know how to get to Bells Canyon?" And he turns and this man wanders out of the woods and he's illuminated by the little really even react to this guy, the guy just turns and runs off into the woods.

[09:39] farther away from his car. He's now like 2 days in and that night he's sitting hear? Do you know how to get to Bell's Canyon? It's the same dude. Dude, I was zigzagging through the woods. Like there's you had to be following me. The

[09:53] through the woods. He's he's panicking and he's trying to get back to his car, but it takes days to get there and on his return he like would periodically look over and he sees this dude like running in the woods keeping track. And

[10:06] gets in his car and he's fine. But the the magic of that story is that really nothing happens. But it's it's like the theater of the mind. The idea that there could be like crazy people out there that are watching us. Like that alone is

[10:19] people that it just plays it plays with but perhaps the most memorable and certainly the most mean amongst the the Mr. Ballin community. What won't Mr. Ballin cover? The magic of Mr. Ballin in

[10:32] Ballin cover? The magic of Mr. Ballin in some ways rests on these are crazy but but they happened. Like that's really important. And then secondarily, I'm a father of three kids. I cover lots of horrible stories, but I just can't

[10:44] cover like harm to kids. Too difficult for me. What will Mr. Ballin cover next? We have a a new graphic novel coming out at the end of the year in October called The Terror Within that has nine stories in there. That's going to be great.

[10:58] That's that one. How are we doing for time? Am I going too slow? Okay. Does Mr. Ballin believe in the paranormal? I've certainly come across that have happened that make you question what's out there. However, I've

[11:14] also come across an ungodly number of un credible stories of people purporting paranormal and it like definitely didn't. And so I am more skeptical in some ways now than I was before I started. Does Mr. Ballin investigate? We

[11:29] ton of it, but we do. We have people you know, court dockets and doing some original research. But do I literally go out and literally investigate? I don't know. Maybe I do, maybe I don't. I'll

[11:42] leave it to your imagination. Does Mr. Ballen have a podcast? I do. So, this this whole thing began on TikTok and then we also developed a podcast back in I think it was 2022 on what we call Ballentines Day in the Strange, Dark,

[11:56] Valentine's Day, but we made it Ballentines Day. And here we go, I'm going to toss the board. Why does Mr. Ballen hate the like button? In the beginning of making YouTube videos, I used to think it was

[12:09] give you like a little hook like today we're going to do this or I'm going to always like a little pause and it's like, "But before we do, go ahead and the channel." And then they're like, "Boom, onto the content." And I remember

[12:22] learned from talking to some of these creators is that even though it seems sort of odd to be telling people to do that, it actually disproportionately makes people like and subscribe to your channel. But I was like, "Ah, it's kind

[12:36] of cheesy. Like how could I do this in a way that is both accomplishing the goal of getting people to like and subscribe and also be sort of memorable in and of itself." And I began coming up with these weird like no context bizarre

[12:49] before we get into the story, go ahead give the like button a nice brand new cone of cotton candy. But before they take a bite, knock it into a puddle. But it's like there's no context. If you've

[13:02] podcast and on YouTube, everywhere you see Mr. Ballen content, you'll always see Mr. Ballen content, you'll always get like a a new totally unhinged random thing we're going to do to the like button that ranges from nuisance stuff

[13:14] to full-blown just like violence towards the like button. Mr. Ballen Harrison Ford. This probably is like the other story I could have said was my favorite. This kid who was hiking with his his Boy Scouts. This is like in in the '90s. The

[13:26] storm rolled in an unexpected storm. This is out I think in Washington state. in the woods cuz they're pretty far out there. But it turned into like a blizzard. One of the kids got separated from the group and he couldn't find his

[13:39] way back. He winds up taking shelter in a cave this 12-year-old kid and he's die and no one can find him. The storm had cleared up but it was still quite a point he hears a helicopter and it's you know flying up ahead and he's like oh

[13:52] there there's the search party they've come to find me. He runs out into the clearing and he sees this helicopter and he's waving and and so the helicopter he's waving and and so the helicopter lands over in the in the field. And you

[14:04] helicopter. It's Harrison Ford in his private helicopter. He's hey kid are you you all right back there? And he flies him off to the hospital and saves his >> Mr. Ballen approach to storytelling. >> So much of the story

[14:19] like hinges on the delivery of the story. Realistically I could tell a terribly written story and make you think it was a great story just cuz I'm I'm going to be fully committed to the story.

[14:31] >> Next Mr. Ballen scoops. >> We were researching a case about a potential serial killer in New Bedford, Massachusetts and it was this long unsolved case and we got access to this box of evidence that actually the

[14:44] cuz police had stopped investigating it. There was like this this brief release program in New Bedford for prisoners. Really high level offenders got to go home for the weekend with virtually no

[14:56] oversight and during that time a lot of people over the weekends would get murdered. It turned out there was this one guy who kept going out on this break at every time somebody got killed and the families like no like that's got to

[15:09] be him but he's living his best life. He's like nah I didn't do that but uh remains to be seen if that's true. Mr. Ballen untold stories. I'd say most times if we've decided on a story we're going to tell it, but the one I always

[15:23] come back to is about Ernest Shackleton. The late 1800s, he was an explorer. If you were a a known explorer at this time, you were like a big celebrity. He was notorious for being both an incredible leader of men, but he also

[15:36] was just always screwing up. Like he's like, "Oh, we're going to go to better bring a lot of food for all these people." "Ah, I got it covered." And then they like get halfway on their dog sled journey to wherever they're going.

[15:49] was so good at leading at leading his men that they would come back, you know, nearly starved to death. So he decides to go to the South Pole to be the first one to do a dog sled to the South Pole. Except he mis-times the the ice flows.

[16:02] The boat gets frozen in the ice before they reach land. And he kept his crew alive for like 2 years. All of them survived. And every day he had them they their boots, they do all the stuff to

[16:14] Shackleton for it. He kept them in line, but famously nobody was coming to rescue eventually Shackleton's like, "Well, we've survived this long, but unless we to we're going to die out here." And so he and like half the men took one of

[16:29] these big rowboats and they overland carried like on their heads like 15-20 miles to the coast. Like just picture like rolling waves, like treacherous. There was a whaling station out on this island off in the distance. And he's

[16:42] going to be people at this whaling station." But it was like a, you know, multi-day journey even with a compass and everything. And they all pile into this boat, like 20 of them. They have no idea where they're going. "I think it's

[16:54] they land on the wrong side of the island. They're like, "All right, well, of the island. We just have to hike this mountain." A mountain that by the way no Everybody who had tried climbing it had died. And they're like, "Well, we have

[17:09] water for for 2 weeks. We're basically nearly dead. We're just going to hike up the mountain they hike with like bare feet in some cases, and they get to the top unbelievably. And they realize this is so steep that we actually can't even

[17:24] really properly down climb. We have to sled down on our butts. And so, Ernest Shackleton and his men with their huge beards and their ragged clothes sledded this whaling station is not far from the base of this mountain. And there's a

[17:39] mother and father and their young daughter. And suddenly out of out of the mist comes these battered ragged men who are limping towards them. And she thought they were monsters. And they walk up, and then suddenly the lead guy

[17:51] goes, "I'm Ernest Shackleton, and I need your help." And they all lived. So, it's one of the greatest survival stories of all time. And you just got the the There we go. Boom, all done. I hope I

[18:03] didn't ramble for too long. Hope you enjoyed it. Thanks very much. See you.