Ben Marcus Rules

 Bunce Beach is meant to be silly, fun, campy and celebrate Malibu; at the end of the day, Bunce Bakes saves the day. We had a lot of fun making it and hope people enjoy it.

• Alison Bunce of Bunce Bakes

Bunce Bakes Episode 1 launches September 24th on Instagram @buncebakes 

It was a cold and windy Monday September 16th. What felt like the first day of fall was actually six days before the official start of fall but it was sunny, with a cold snap in the air and an unusually strong northwest wind that actually felt more like spring. 

Along Dog Beach there was an unusual but not entirely extraordinary sight: Two healthy attractive young women - a Betty blonde and a Veronica brunette - in red, one-piece bathing suits adorned with what looked to be LACO lifeguard patches. 

They were running along the beach holding lifeguard cans being filmed by a man with elegant hair running backward not wearing a red one piece. This attracted the attention of the many residents  overlooking Dog Beach and beach walkers navigating the low tide.

Some launched drones to get a closer look. Invasive and a bit rude but this is the 21st century. This is the modern world. This is the Malibu. Cameras cameras everywhere.

And then all of a sudden in a rocky shorebreak racked by that unusually strong northwest wind a young man seemed to be drowning: “Help! HELP!”

Disregarding their safety and perfectly-groomed hair, Betty and Veronica boldly charged into the surf and grabbed the man and brought him  - carefully, professionally and assuredly - up to the beach.

All the while this was being filmed by that other dude with the nice hair.

But then instead of giving the man CPR or mouth to mouth resuscitation the blonde offered him what? A cookie? What's the deal?

Turns out this was a promotional video for Bunce Bakes, a Malibu-based maker of tasty, healthy, gluten- and everything-ooky-free muffins and cookies owned by Alison Bunce - the blonde Betty rocking the red one piece: “I started watching Baywatch because my sister said it was a fun show to watch. It became the thing I looked forward to at the end of the day where I'd bake and watch Baywatch. I've seen 103 episodes of Baywatch so far. I'm either listening to music or watching Baywatch while baking.”

Bunce Bakes launched in May of 2024 and the website promises “clean, organic ingredients, and absolutely delicious” made from “organic, fair trade ingredients” that are “baked to order.”

The inspiration for Bunce Beach came from Alison, “Watching the content other bakers and small business owners make for their businesses, started making me think how I might be more creative with Bunce Bake's content and marketing.  I was watching Baywatch and baking one night and thought, ‘Baywatch is Malibu, Bunce Bakes is Malibu...I wonder if I could make a skit for Bunce Bakes where instead of a lifeguard saving the day, it could be one of my products saving the day?..."

And that is how the story goes. The Veronica part of the equation portraying Lifeguard #2 is Alison’s friend and neighbor Rachel Whitney: “I decided in a car ride there that I was going to tell her my crazy idea and ask if she'd be interested in being in this skit if I gave her cookie-muffins and got her a red suit.”

Rachel said LFG! And it was on. Alison found the red one piece suits online: “I asked several people on etsy if they'd make custom patches for me and everyone said no, so I found a custom patch making website and made the design myself on my computer. I had a tailor sew the patches to the suits.”

The Bunce Beach clip is short and sweet. Betty and Ver…. sorry, Alison and Rachel see a guy drowning in the shorebreak. They run to his rescue but are told by The Concerned Uncle he has low blood sugar but is gluten free. Alison says “No problemo,” unwraps a gluten free, soy-free tasty snack and feeds the victim which brings him right round.

The auteur of Bunce Beach is Dirk Braun of DIRK BRAUN GALLERY: “Dirk and I were doing a photoshoot together and I told him my Bunce Beach idea and he really liked it.  We talked through the idea more, I sent him the script and very fortunately, he agreed to help bring it to life. Boom, I had a cast, director and production. All in all, I got very lucky with the support of my friends and neighbors to make Bunce Beach possible.”

According to Dirk Braun, the wind and the cold were a challenge, but the hardest part was “Keeping a straight face. On a breezy later-summer day in Malibu, I filmed the Bunce Beach episode one and all went well - the outfits were dialed in, the setting was perfect and the wind kept blowing which made a lifeguard-needed save a viable situation.  Things get serious and then we’d explode with laughter because it was awesome. Filming lifeguards running required me to run backwards and as steady as I could.”

Asked if the peculiar scene of two pretty girls running along tbeach dressed like salt and pepper Pam Anderson on a cold windy day with some dude running backward in front of them attracted unwanted stares: “Attention?” Braun said. “We got some…birds flying in and even an unexpected drone that probably captured footage of us waving it to fly away.”

Alison Bunce was pleased with the shoot and the outcome: “During the drowning scene we had a big set of waves come in and that in combination with the wind, I feel really helped make it look ‘real.’  The shoot went really well. We did the whole thing in about 2 hours. Yes, there were neighbors watching from their balconies and decks.”

Bunce Beach Episode 1 is currently lighting up the internet and can be seen on Instagram at @buncebakes. Asked if she would continue the series, Alison Bunce said: “Bunce Beach is an experiment. I want to see what people think, if they like it, if they want more stories. Will Bunce Beach make people more excited about Bunce Bakes? We'll see!”