Ear Biscuits with Rhett & Link - Ep. 20 Alphacat - Ear Biscuits

Episode Date: February 14, 2014

Iman Crosson, known to his fans and followers as Alphacat, sits down with Rhett & Link to discuss his recently found fame on Vine (2.4 million followers), how his Barack Obama impersonation led to an invite to Aretha Franklin's birthday party, and why a previous relationship on YouTube has prompted him to keep his personal relationships private in the future. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This, this, this, this is Mythical. Welcome to Ear Biscuits. I'm Rhett. And I'm Link. It's time for another conversation with someone interesting from the internet. This week that person is Amon Crossan, known on the internet as Alpha Cat. He's one of the most recognized Barack Obama impersonators in the wizard. You remember Obama singing Beyonce? Yes. Single ladies, 20 million views.

That was him. And T.I.? Yes. That was him, 20 million views. And the epic rap battles of history against Romney, 81 million views, Link. Okay, now. That's Iman.

Iman, he's a lot more than that, a lot more videos than just those. He's a longtime YouTuber with over half a million subscribers, but he's recently established himself as a superstar on Vine. Have you heard of Vine? 2.4 million followers on that platform. So he gives us a crash course on what Vine is, and we discuss the fascinating differences

between Vine and YouTube, including the prevalence of black comedians on Vine, which is something that we didn't know how to ask the question, but we did want to talk about it. We did. We did ask it, though. We also discuss how a potentially racist comment

changed the entire trajectory of his career and what it's like living under the weighty expectations of being that guy who does the obama impersonation could you do that for us again again why are you doing anything else but that now okay uh that's what we discuss i don't know if there is a presidential mandate about what I have done as a parent. I could definitely see the first lady saying that she would not advise me to do this. You know how the first lady always has like these mandates and stuff? Not really mandates, but, you know, we're like, you know, Michelle Obama. Well, I know that if you're talking about your wife, I can assume that she has lots of mandates for you.

No, I don't call my wife the first lady because that would make me some sort of official and I don't want that kind of pressure. I'm just saying, you know how- Plus you haven't earned it. Michelle Obama wants all the kids to be in shape, but she'll also do some stuff for safety and that kind of thing. I'm just trying to basically make a segue into the fact that I've got a trampoline for my kids and I feel guilty about it. I heard about this. And not only do you have a trampoline, you got, and I feel guilty about it. I heard about this, and not only do you have a trampoline, you got a used trampoline, right? Well, the best kind.

First of all, trampolines are not that expensive. Just a few hundred bucks, you can have a very large piece of equipment in your backyard. How much did you pay for yours? Zero. Now, this is the same friend who gave you the NBA tickets that we talked about. This guy, listen.

That you missed the... I've known this guy, Jay, for like six months. He's your sugar daddy. He's given me more stuff than you've given me in a lifetime. Well, he's got connections I don't have. It's not a reflection of how much I care or don't care about you, Red. I only have what you have

because we're in the same place in life. But I will say that given somebody a used trampoline, I mean, this is not sugar daddy scenario. It could be argued that it's a kid death wish. These things are dangerous. This is, hey, I've got a trampoline. My kids don't want it anymore.

And Jesse has repeatedly said, my wife has said, sometimes the kids drive me crazy and they're really into gymnastics and diving kids don't want it anymore. And Jesse has repeatedly said, my wife has said, you know, sometimes the kids drive me crazy and they're really into gymnastics and diving and they are those kinds of kids that jump around, flip and that kind of thing. So, and they love trampolines. Their cousins have one. Why don't we get the kids a trampoline? It'll give them something to do. Now, I have heard this rationale many times and I get get it i totally get it uh from friends who have kids that are just they just want they're just active kids you know i mean your kids lock and shepherd they are they're active i mean there are times when they literally are bouncing off the walls

and it's just you have to channel that into something positive or it will, it could be unlivable for someone like Jesse or for Christy being at home with the kids, homeschooling. And I mean.

Well, no, they are constantly It's difficult. jumping on and off of things and each other. You've got to find a way to wear them out and if you can't afford

a swimming pool, well, what are you going to do? Right. So, well, I got a free trampoline. That's what I can do. Actually, I did buy their family ice cream after they gave me the trampoline. And this is funny. It's one of those things that this is why it's good to have a partner in life sometimes, and I'm talking about my wife at this juncture.

Okay. I'm talking about my wife at this juncture. Okay. And that is because we go over there and they disassemble the trampoline, which is a lot easier than you would think. I mean, this thing breaks down into small pieces that you can get in the trunk of a car. You pull one cord and it just falls apart, right? No, you have to individually loosen these things with a special tool, the springs.

Oh, yeah. It's pretty, I mean, you feel like you're about to lose an eye, but that didn't happen. But then we take it apart, we put it in the car, and then they're like, you guys want to go get ice cream? I mean, you know the equipment's dangerous when you could lose an eye taking it apart. Well, yeah, but it's probably more dangerous to assemble and disassemble than it is to jump on. Probably that pediatricians would not tell you that, though. So we go to get ice cream after this, you know, after the disassembly and then we're buying the ice cream for our family and their family is ordering ice cream to kind of like free for all,

like multiple people ordering from multiple places along the counter. And Jesse's like, you should pay for their ice cream. They just gave us a trampoline. And so then I turn around and I'm like, we got this. We got this payment. This is the least that we

could do for this trampoline. Give you $15 or so for ice cream. But yeah, they weren't expecting that. They didn't give it to me so they would get free ice cream. They didn't want it anymore and we could use it. What if they did, though? Well, they got the ice cream then.

I mean, no one's complaining, and they didn't until right now, unless Jay is listening. They don't know that it wasn't my idea. Now, did you tell them, now, I'm buying this ice cream for you and for your kids, but I just want to let you know that your kids could choke and die on this ice cream. No. It may not happen, but pediatricians say that you could choke and die on this ice cream no it's not it may not happen but pediatricians say that you could choke and die on this ice cream well you in the same way that don't say that they don't know because ice cream melts what maybe there's a cherry in there or

something what about trampolines but okay so they actually do not you know i know there's more responsible parents out there than me and i did after we already made the decision to get the trampoline i didn't have to go on the internet to learn that trampolines are dangerous. I know that people don't recommend trampoline use. And that's why my mom and dad never let us have one. Oh, my mom was like, you could die on a trampoline. My cousin died or, you know, there's always a story. Somebody died on a trampoline because it happens. Well, you die, you break your neck. I mean, it's a freaking platform in the backyard that kids jump on. I mean, this is not safe.

That's not why we got it. We didn't get it because it was safe. We got it because it was fun. But they have a mosquito net around them now, right? Well, they do all come with nets. Most of them come with nets, and that's recommended, and I do think that that helps.

But it's only for malaria. But for some reason, I made the mistake of, after I put the thing together, which I'm going to tell you about in one second, something that happened that was important, I then began looking at the research. And that was when I found that, you know, they asked like 10,000 ER doctors, what is the top piece of advice that you would give to parents out there? The top piece of advice from ER doctors. Just say no to tramp out there. The top piece of advice from ER doctors, just say no to trampolines. And I'm like, oh my, you know, this, I got a one-way ticket to the emergency room in my backyard

now. So I'm, that's what I'm dealing with is a little bit of a guilt complex, but I'll tell you, the kids are having a blast. It's funny when you said that one-way ticket to the emergency room, I pictured a kid jumping so high that he landed in an emergency room. I don't think that's what you meant. No. But I will say it was not easy to put together. You have to stretch the net across, and you have to line it up perfectly because you've got all these springs, and they have to be – you have to line them up perfectly or else – you have to do one and then do one right across from it, right?

That's not the net. That's the bouncy thing. Not the net. Yeah, the actual trampoline part of it. I guess that's what you call it. The bouncy part. Yeah. The black part. And I sit there with my friend Antonio and then Ron and his family come over and we're doing this thing. It took me, you know, an hour and a half maybe to get this thing put together. The very last step, it was impossible to get these last few springs into place. Like, we're double teaming this thing.

I got a pair of pliers. Antonio's got the tool and we're like all up on each other to kind of pull on all these things. And then Olivia, you know, little Olivia who's like eight years old, however old she is, Ron's daughter. The girl in Spot the Differences video. Oh yeah, the girl from the Spot the Differences video.

All of a sudden, she's's like why don't you do it like this and we look over there and she has put in this she put the spring in the the bar side the outside of the trampoline first yeah i know the trampoline side first and then pulled it to the bar and it was just like went right in and we're sitting there two two adult men with a pair of pliers the tool that they bring did they give you with the trampoline i mean i thought i was going to get a hernia trying to get this thing in place and this little eight-year-old girl is over there doing it correctly and we had done every single spring except the last like two and i was like you know what olivia that just might work and i go and i

do it her way and it was like the last two were just in oh wow and i was like, you know what, Olivia? That just might work. And I go and I do it her way, and it was like, the last two were just in. Oh, wow. And I was like, why didn't you say something earlier, little girl? Little girl that was in our Spot the Differences video, because that's what we call you? No, we call her Olivia. Now, question. Did you go out and buy her an ice cream cone? No, no, no. She didn't give me the trampoline. She just gave me a tip. Well, I mean, at least a freaking Klondike bar.

And she didn't help a whole lot. Of course. I fed her dinner, because just gave me a tip. She gave me a- Well, I mean, at least a freakin' Klondike bar. And she didn't help a whole lot. I fed her dinner, and they were there for dinner. Give the girl a Klondike bar, man. Anyway, if you've got to assemble a trampoline, first of all, pediatricians will tell you you shouldn't. Second of all, the springs, put them on the black part first and then pull them out and put them into the frame. Like a Nutty buddy or like a...

What kind of nutty buddy? What are you talking about? Like a popsicle or something. Do you have anything laying around you could give her? My wife made cookies for her. Okay. She was well taken care of. She was well compensated for her tip.

Speaking of trampolines and death-defying stunts, we talked to Alpha Cat. Remember that? Wow, yeah, yeah, yeah. So here it is, our conversation with Iman and Joy. Okay, so we obviously know you through YouTube, not only through our collaboration way back in the day, but just because you're you on YouTube. But now you are also something arguably even bigger on Vine. And I am fascinated by the world of Vine.

So I want to talk about that. 2.4 million followers on Vine versus you've got 600,000 subscribers on your main YouTube channel. Right. So over the past year, right, the Vine thing is just blown up for you. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I want to get into that. Okay. Now, I mean, I have an icon on my phone that says Vine, but I haven't opened it.

I think I added the application because I felt like I should. Right, right, right. Like months and months ago. Maybe when it first started and then I never did it. So I'm just kind of hearing from the sidelines the whole Vine thing.

Red, I think you've like made two right when you got your account and you don't do it either. Yeah, we're going months back and I didn't really understand. Now I understand but I have not gone back to enter the world because now it's gotten like, oh, I get it now when I watch it,

but I'm like, I don't know if I can do it. I don't know if I can commit. Just explain it in general before we get into specifically what you do and how you blew up and what that means. Okay. Well, for those that aren't familiar with Vine, it's a six-second video app for your phone. It takes six-second video.

And basically with me— And then it loops it. It loops it. It loops it automatically indefinitely. Actually, if you let a video play continuously, it will stop itself. And I've never counted how many. I'm going to guess like maybe 30 times. And after 30, it'll stop itself. I've never counted how many. I'm going to guess maybe 30 times. After 30, it'll stop.

I've been doing something. I'll watch a Vine and sit my phone down and I forget that it's going, but I hear it in the background and it stops. There is a point when it'll stop, but that's irrelevant. That's different than Instagram video. Which does not loop. It's also, those are longer. Up to 15 seconds.

Up to 15 seconds. Vine. Up to 15 seconds. And Vine is 6 seconds. There's no up to 6. It's always 6? Well, I think it's between 3 and 6. I think you can post as short as 3 seconds, I believe. So you can edit the end a little bit. Right. How you want it.

Yeah, and I do comedic Vines, of course, and it's a really interesting world to find a medium that's six seconds long and make it something that works that people actually want to see. Right. But it also works because we're in the microwave age of things have to be so instant and so fast. People's time, their attention span is a lot shorter. Their free time is a lot less. So they like to be able to look at something that's really quick and brief and then they can just move on, you know?

And it's right there on your phone. I mean, it works like Instagram. So when you first heard about Vine and decided to be a part of it, I mean, my first reaction was, well, I think the Instagram video came out after Vine, but not long after it. Right. So when I had first heard of vine i knew that instagram video was coming out at the same time i was like well i'm kind of doing instagram at least a little bit why would i want to do vine you know who knew that those differences would create kind of its own art form that's i mean much more prolific on vine in terms of video than just kind of this

added thing on instagram what were you thinking at first with Vine? At first, I just watched it and I just observed because I, you know how it is as YouTubers and as veteran YouTubers, it's like you see these things come out and sometimes some of them have similarities to what the original YouTube platform was like when it first came out. And with Vine, I saw a lot of similarities. And there's like a pressure to know, being a no on everything, right? Exactly. And so I watched knowing what could potentially happen.

And it just, a lot of the things that I was seeing just reminded me of YouTube. And a good friend of mine who goes by KingBatch on Vine, I think he's like the number one account. He started it off and I was kind of watching him do it. And I was just kind of observing what happened because at the time I was like so strictly YouTube. And I'm like, I have YouTube, I have Instagram, you know.

But I was watching him, and his account was growing, and I was seeing that people were taking to it. And then that's when Instagram video came out with their video stuff. And then everyone swore up and down that like, okay, well, that's the end of Vine. Because, you know, Instagram has video, and they're bigger. But then something interesting happened is that everyone kind of flocked to Instagram for like a day. And then they came right back to Vine. And I think it was at that point that I was like, okay, I need to start making Vines. Because if it's able to help.

Like literally a day or like just it seemed like overnight. It kind of seemed like overnight. I do remember that because when it happened, I had that Vine account, but I wasn't thinking I was going to do anything with it. And then when Instagram came out with it, because it wasn't right after. It was, I don't know the exact timeline, but it was months, maybe a year after. And then it was like all these articles came out and said, oh, the death of Vine. You know, like experts are saying this is going to happen. I remember thinking exactly the same thing.

I was like, okay, well, there goes Vine. I feel bad for those guys who started that company. I was like, okay, well, there goes Vine. I feel bad for those guys who started that company. And then I remember seeing Reggie Watts post something where he said, I'm not going to do any videos on Instagram. I'm only going to do those on Vine. And I remember thinking, there's something there.

And it was the day after the announcement. You experienced the same thing. And you were watching King Bach, who has like 5 million followers. So he's a personal friend of yours even at the time, so you were just kind of watching his channel. Yeah, like I was watching him, and he was making some really funny stuff. And I was just kind of observing because it's, you know, you kind of have to be picky with your time, especially like as a YouTuber. So I was like kind of just observing because there's a lot of other video sites

that have come along like Keek and like a lot of other ones that just don't stick around. So I was just kind of observing to see because I was like, if it sticks around long enough, then I'll get into it because I want to be a part of it. And was he,

did he come from YouTube or? He has a YouTube account, but he, I can't say he particularly came from YouTube. He's an actor that, you know, he does a lot of directing and producing as well as,

you know, acting as well. Okay, got it. So yeah, I watched it, and he was getting really successful, and then I kind of got the itch, like, well, I want to do it because this looks fun. So then I jumped into it. And just like YouTube, the process was pretty much the same. It's like you get into it, you have your own thing that you want to do,

but then you collab with people. You get on your account, you get on theirs, and just you spread each other's videos. It's a lot of the same thing. Even some of the like early on YouTube bickering, when people first started getting attention, the same thing that was happening on Vibe. So I got a, for me, I felt kind of privileged to be able to watch it knowing step-by-step what was going to happen before anything even happened, even before like Vine, like Vine now allows you to do a little bit of editing within the app. In the beginning, you couldn't do anything at all. And people that were finding ways to edit

were getting hated on because everyone else was like, that's not what it was created to be, and it's supposed to be like this. And the new school kids are like, it's supposed to be like that. And I'm watching it. This reminds me of YouTube back in the day. Certain people wanted the front page, and they wanted to not have corporation this. And I'm thinking the whole time, watch Vine. It's going to start getting corporate any day now. It's going to happen really quick. So what were some of the first specific Vines you did that were, okay, this is going to work for me too?

I think one of the first Vines that I had some good ones early on, but the first one that comes to mind was one that I did where I was dressed as Obama and this guy yells at me, Obama sucks. And we did some whip pans so that we can kind of like, you know. Hide the cut. Yeah, hide the cut. So we did a whip pan. And then when it cuts back to me, I'm standing there and I'm saying, what did you say? It was back to him and then he's surrounded by Secret Service. And then they snap his neck.

And I'm like, you better watch your mouth. I got those goons. And then just walk off. And, you know, and then just walk off and you know people really like that one and The the cool thing about vine for me was that I was able to not only Introduce what I've been doing with the whole bomba thing, but also do some original ideas and mix it up a bit You know and I think doing that and also for a while like I was posting at least twice a day for like at least like a good month straight which which really helped so

a Lot of different things contributed. So it wasn't, yeah, you would do some Obama, but then you would do just something else. Yeah, and the thing is I have 200 and something vines on my account, and only a fraction of that is Obama. And I think my biggest vine actually is not even an Obama video. What's the biggest?

One of my biggest ones is called Where You From. Okay. It's actually Where You From, excuse my language, but I'll call it Where You From. We're familiar with this one. This is when everybody's dancing and they swish pan to you and you're like pirouetting. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And when I explain that one, it's funny. Vine's like a lot of ideas are hard to explain when you have, it makes sense up here and

you explain it and people are just kind of looking at you like, huh? So I explained it and I was like, you know, let's just shoot it. And I was like, I'm going to do some ballet stuff. And I don't think the guys knew that I actually was classically trained in dance. So when I did it, the first take, I told them to look shocked. In the first take, they all actually were shocked and started laughing. And I was like, they were like, we didn't know you could do that. I was like, yeah, I told told you i'm gonna do some ballet

stuff so you know we had to do it a few times and um it came out really good so and that one just really blew up that night and how do you measure when it does well because it's not views right i mean there's no view count there's no view, but then you pay attention to your likes and your revines. Particularly for me, like, at where I'm at, it's good to have, like, standard in general, it's good to, like, get 100 likes a minute when you post something. I would say, like, if you're up, you know, 100,000 followers and up, it's good to have, like, 100 likes a minute. And then after that, you want to look at trying to get 200 likes a minute or three. So when I tend to be in the 200 to 300 likes a minute range, that's a really, really good vine.

But also at the same time, the numbers are changing because the site's getting more and more flooded. So people aren't always pulling those numbers anymore. You'll have good ideas and you'll get good likes and revines. But people don't always, always pull those numbers anymore. Now, we had Daystorm come in when we shot Christmas Face music video we did at the end of the year. And I was kind of picking his brain about Vine. And one of the things he told me was,

he said, I'll know within just a matter of minutes if a Vine I've done is going to work. Oh, yeah. And then he said that he would take some down. If they weren't working, he would take them down because he wanted everything on his channel to be hot right and really take off right i mean is that do you go that far to really kind of comb through what's working or not take things down if it's if it's not yeah i mean that's exactly what we do we all do that like we'll put something up and we watch the like count within

like five to ten minutes. And if it's not doing what we expect, what we should be, if it's not performing up to par, we just take it down. Well, it's interesting because it's a six-second video, so it's not like. It's not like a YouTube video. It's not like, oh, I did this music video. I don't care if you don't like it. You're going to watch it. Exactly.

A YouTube video, you know, the likes aren't that great. Well, I did it and it's up. But a six-second video is very easy to throw away when it's not, if it's not, it's not doing well. You know, you didn't spend tons of money on a set and, you know, extras and, you know, a crew, you just shot it yourself with your friends. So there's not, it's not, you're not losing much just to delete a Vine. Also in terms of having or wanting to have everything on your page be really good, that helps when people come to your Vine account, because there's branding deals, a lot of branding deals going on now, and they scroll through it that you don't want them to see a lot of nonsense.

Like, for instance, I'll never forget me and Batch had a conversation one, King Batch. Yeah. And he was explaining why he did that, because that was before I did that. I used to not delete anything, partially because I'm that good. But I was talking to talking to batch and he was explaining like how because i asked him i said why is it that um because we were talking about another viner who was much bigger than him at the time and i said why is this person just post anything and they're still growing and but at the same time you you're very selective and he and i

said but you're i said he posts more than you but you're still growing more than that guy. Cause I was just watching these two. And he said, well, it's because I don't put up, I don't let any like random fluff just remain on my Vine account. Like if it's, if it's not hitting, if it's not popping, I take it right back down so that every single Vine, when you scroll through is like a big Vine or like a really like impressive Vine. And it just kind of condenses your effort. Well, cause it's amazing, even, you know, right before you came in and we're, you know, kind of looking at your latest Vines, the way that you enjoy somebody's profile is, oh, I've just watched 15 Vines, you know, in a couple of minutes. So it does have this, it's just a totally different philosophy. How have you seen, you know, what you knew about YouTube?

You've kind of explained some of these differences already, but what are some of the key differences between something that works on YouTube and something that works on Vine? I think with YouTube, there's a lot of differences. Let me start with Vine. With Vine, it's like you got six seconds. You always want to end on a punch, and you want it to be relatable. In a sense, it's very similar to YouTube.

I think the difference is just the time frame and the format. You know, it's like, you know, you have six seconds. On YouTube, you have longer. On Vine, you don't have as much time to build a backstory and, you know, tell, like, an elaborate highbrow joke. You know, it's really, I don't want to say rushed because that sounds like the wrong word, but you really kind of have to get to the point. And with YouTube, you can sometimes take a little longer

to develop a joke and to have that character arch or that storyline arch or whatever, but you can't do that on Vine. It kind of has to be like one punchline. It's like a one-hit joke kind of thing, really. I don't oftentimes see a Vine that has more than one punchline. It's like a one-hit-joke kind of thing, really. I don't oftentimes see a vine that has more than one punchline that works without it seeming chaotic.

And these days, I see a lot of chaotic vines where it's like a lot of screaming and yelling, and you can just see them trying to fit in a ton of jokes. And it's like you might want to just take it down

and just stick to one joke. Sometimes less is more, as cliche as that is to say. Well, it seems to me that I would say that they're sillier. That's the word that I would use is that you's the same. Well, it seems to me that, I would say that they're sillier. That's the word that I would use, is that you can be sillier on Vine. Like, some of your videos,

which are some of my favorite, you just end with a face. You know, you just say something to some girl on the phone and then try to make a funny face at the camera. And when I see that the first time, I laugh. And then I see it the second time, I laugh more. And the third time, I laugh more.

So it's that repetition repetition but it's just silly you couldn't just if you made that if you did a music video and then turned and made that face on YouTube I just think

people wouldn't like it right right right you know they're like this sucks all he does is make faces well there's I mean there's certainly there's like a physical element

like a lot of them I've seen the more successful ones, they have like the very relatable one joke or kind of a physical thing and then you're out. But I'm fascinated by, I never would have thought that the looping of it would be so key. That something that you think is funny just becomes funnier and funnier.

I mean, the only thing I can relate it to is the p and i'm not one of these people but i observe the people who are obsessed with a certain comedy movie so they'll watch it until they've memorized every part of it and it just gets funnier to them right i don't even have the capacity for that but i have the capacity to watch a six second video 30 times that's but I, I would not have guessed it would keep getting funnier. It, that's just surprising to me. Right. Is that something that you anticipated or that you learned?

And now how do you, how do you plan for it? Like, how do you come up with ideas? Um, for me, um, for me,

everything is about observational humor. If it's just something that I laugh at through the day, if it's something I chuckle at, if someone does something that annoys me, makes me mad, makes me happy, I really pay attention to observational humor. So that, to me, is what works because that's what makes people relate to what you're doing. Like the car alarm one. Yeah, the car alarm. Explain that one. Well, it's happened often that I go to my car and I try to open it or unlock it and I think the alarm's off and it's not. And then the alarm goes off and you immediately feel like a criminal, you know?

Yeah. And, you know, I just, I know that's something a lot of people can relate to. And, or, for instance, there's a vine that I shot yesterday. And you jump cut that and all of a sudden you've got a hoodie on and you're running down the street from your own car. Exactly. So it's like, that's, you know, observational humor is just things you notice that people can relate to. That's the very reason why people comment and tag other people because they're saying, oh, this is just like you or just like me or this is just like us. And that's what you want is for people to relate to what you're doing.

So I think it's a lot more traction that way. Right. There's a lot of be like videos too. Tell me about that. Yeah. You know know it's funny there's a lot of meme urban memes like that that are have been coming out and it's funny to me because to a lot of people it's new but in like the urban areas and like you know uh or if i say you know black neighborhoods or ghetto neighborhoods growing up, that was just how we talked. You know, like when I was in elementary school and I was with my friends in like these urban,

you know, schools, these inner city schools, that's just how we talk. Like, oh man, you'd be like this. And like, you do something silly to imitate how they are. So that for me goes back to childhood. But recently it's kind of had like a resurgence of like this new meme. And it's funny to watch everyone laugh at it because it's like, it's to me, it's so old. But yeah, the people be like meme is just really funny to me because it's just everyone can get made fun of. You tell us. I mean, why does that seem to be working so well on Vine?

And maybe a more direct question is, it seems like the perception of the Internet is that Vine is more of a black thing than YouTube is. I'm just going to come out and say it. So you're an authority on this. Is that a proper perception? You know what? In all honesty, maybe it is. I can't say yes or no for sure. I know that with YouTube and all the years I've been on YouTube, the black audience on YouTube isn't as big or as strong as some of the other audiences. And with Vine, for some reason, I honestly can't explain it, but I just know that it's been a lot easier for, you know, black people to do comedy on Vine and get way more traction for some reason.

I honestly can't explain why that is. I don't know if it's because it's a shorter format. I don't know if it's because socially it's just really in right now with the younger generations or if it's more accessible to, you know, the young black audience. I don't know. But there does seem to be something different about Vine that has attracted a lot more of an urban audience than YouTube ever really did. So and maybe that's why I was able to do a lot more on Vine in the last year than I was able to do on YouTube in the last eight years, you know? So there's this

weird paradox there where I'm like, I don't know what, like, how did I do all this on Vine so quickly? But on YouTube, I mean, I had a lot, a lot of great successes on YouTube and I'm, I'm honored to be a part of YouTube and part of one of the, you know, the veteran crew, but how did I do so much on Vine so quickly, but not on YouTube. And maybe it's because of that, you know? Now, getting back to that, one of your most popular, it might be the most popular one, Where You From, you obviously are classically trained or professionally trained dancer because you can't do that kind of thing if you're not. Well, he's a classically trained pirouetter at least. That's all I saw him do.

Is that a pirouette? Is that what you were doing? That is a jazz pirouette, yes. Okay. So, seriously. You're a jazz pirouetter at least. That's all I saw him do. Is that a pirouette? Is that what you were doing? That is a jazz pirouette, yes. Okay. So seriously. You're a jazz pirouettist. Jazz pirouettist. I like it. Where are you from?

Let's go back. I was born in Louisville, Kentucky and raised in Cincinnati, Ohio. So I was kind of born, I'm raised in the Midwest and my family's all from Kentucky and Tennessee. So a lot of Southern roots there. Oh yeah.

So you know a thing or two about barbecue. Oh, heck yeah. What was the parental and sibling situation? I'm the youngest of five. I'm the baby. Big-ass baby, but yeah, I'm the baby. How much younger? All close together?

We're fairly close. My next sibling, I believe, is like 37, and I'm 31. Okay. And then there's more. So six years. So that is the legitimate baby. Yeah. Being six years.

Yeah. So my parents were together and very Christian household. So sometimes nowadays, now that I'm older, even though I'm a grown man, sometimes you have those moments where you want to do something, and you're like, my mom's going to see this. Oh, yeah? Yeah. I still kind of have that moment. Was your mom like a preacher or something?

No. But I grew up in church. I was the drummer at my church, very involved in church. And my family is a very Christian family. So sometimes – my mother is very Christian. And I know that she's watching and she's my biggest supporter. So sometimes when I do things a little bit more on the adult side or the edgy side, I'm like, Mom, maybe you don't want to watch this one. She's like, I want to watch everything you do.

So I know that even if it's not something that she's going to be crazy about, I know she's still going to watch and support. So it sounds like you're not as devout as your parents are, but you know your mom's watching. So it's more you're maybe a little more accountable to your mom than you are to God himself. I get that. Well, no, you know what the thing is? And that's an interesting point. I think that the differences in generations, it's like I think that when you speak of devout, I think that people nowadays can be just as devout, but they just view their activities differently. Because I consider myself a devout person.

It's just that I don't really have any religious habits. Got it. Yeah, my faith is still the same. I just don't have – I can't say I have any religious habits, you know, as some of the older generations did where they're in church every Sunday, Bible study Wednesday. I can have the same beliefs and spread the same love, but I just may not be having the same activities that you have. So that's an interesting point. So what kind of household, you know, you guys joking around with each other all the time? Your parents are funny too?

I'm very, very grateful because my household, like my parents, I had two great parents that were like very in love. And they were like two little kids. And like they ran, they would chase each other around the house. They would like, you know, get into like two little kids and like they ran they would chase each other around the house they would like you know get into like W like back then it was WWF now it's WWE

I think yeah they would get into full out WWE like wrestling matches like my mom would like clothesline my dad and like I would

as a little kid I would sit there just laughing and it was the funniest thing then I'd jump in to help my mom and you know so it was like

was he like wearing like a Speedo no that would be really weird. No, that's what they did. You said WWF. Yeah, I don't know about all that. I wouldn't be wrestling with my dad if he was in a Speedo. Yeah, put the clothes on.

Him and mom could take that to the room. My family is a very fun, goofy, jokey family. My sister was always trying to, you know, pop out and scare people. And just, you know, my other sister would grab me by my back pockets and swing me around. It was just, you know, a very fun family. So were you kind of spoiled as the baby, though? I can't say I was spoiled. My parents definitely, in any endeavors I wanted to go on as a child, whether it was, like, acting or dance or playing instruments, I played the flute, I played the clarinet, and then I played the drums.

Anything I wanted to do. In that order? Like the first instrument you picked up was a flute? How does that happen? It was a clarinet, actually. Okay. Yeah, I would have loved to know what my dad was thinking the first time I said, Dad, I want to play the clarinet. Right.

This was like middle school? No, this is elementary. This is elementary. Oh, really? I was young. Yeah, I want to play the clarinet. Right. This is like middle school? No, this is elementary. This is elementary. Oh, really? I was young. Yeah, I was in fourth grade. Wow. Because I went to a school where we had a band, and I was just really intrigued by music.

Like an orchestra. Yeah. And I was really intrigued by music. So I asked my parents, I was like, can I join this orchestra? And they were like, well, what do you want to play? And I was like, I want to play the clarinet. And, you know, money, I'm sure money was tight back then, and it was expensive, but they would always find a way to make it happen.

So it was the clarinet. They got me a clarinet. When it was flute, they got me the flute. And when it was drums, they eventually got me the drums. So they always supported me no matter what. So I can't say I was spoiled, because spoiled sounds like they just give you anything. But my family definitely believed or my parents definitely believed

in hard work and they definitely enforced that. There was no lazy sitting around not doing things. But when it came to my artistic endeavors and things I wanted to do, they were always behind me 100%. So was music was like the first

artistic thing that you kind of latched on to? No, I mean technically. You said dance too. Yeah, dance. I mean, I was just an artistic, like overall, like I was just an artistic kid artistic thing that you kind of latched on to no i mean technically dance too yeah dance i mean i was just an artistic like overall like i was just an artistic kid and like they put me in uh the school for the creative and performing arts which is a performing arts school in cincinnati ohio uh and that started in seventh grade but before that i was always doing like you know plays at school and putting on performances for my parents for my family and i think that's when they first

noticed because i was doing little characters and trying to mimic Jim Carrey when he was on In Living Color. And they were just like, you know, he obviously wants to act. But in the process of going to the performing arts school, they allowed you to really immerse yourself in many different things as you wanted to. So that's when the music came in. Well, the music came in before, but I'm saying in the process, I was able to major in percussion, study drums, acting, musical theater. I did visual art for a

while. I was an art major for a little bit. So I did some sculpting and painting. So I was just really thankful that I was, you know, able to be immersed in that and do all those things. Cause that's where I needed to be. I didn't need to be in like a full out academic school. And I think not to get all preachy, but I think parents should really pay attention to what their kids are doing and instead of, you know, trying to push them,

like, you're going to be a lawyer like every man in our family's been or you're going to be a doctor like every man. Maybe let them feel their way around and just support them and just see what happens.

Because then, if they didn't, I probably wouldn't be here with you guys right now. So you went to college as a, what did you say? I was a dance and acting major. Really? Yeah.

Okay, so that's kind of where you landed by that point. You went to school for dance and acting. Yeah, I started off, I went to school and majored in dance. By the time I graduated, I wasn't sure if I wanted to be an art major in college. And I was looking into art schools, and I really loved art. And I loved studying art, and all the impressionists were my favorite. But I just didn't feel that thump in my chest about what I was doing. I didn't feel like this is my passion.

I loved it, but it wasn't like this is what I crave. And what I craved was acting and dance. And at the time, I was really, really into dance. I still loved acting, but I was really into dance. So I went to college primarily at first as a dance major and did that for a while. And I loved it and did that for two years before I got picked up by a professional dance company. So what kind of dancing were you talking about here? Well, in college, I mean, it was everything.

It was everything from ballet to modern to jazz to tap to African. And then there was also hip-hop, but hip-hop was just a part of culture for me growing up. So that was just second nature. I didn't really have to take classes for hip-hop. And then after two years in college doing that, a dance company called Dayton Contemporary Dance Company, or DCDC, came and scouted at my college. And they saw me, and they were like, we want you to audition. And that was usual for them. They would come to the college and scout the dance dancers and, you know, bring them in for auditions. And I got it. And this is what

you were kind of waiting to happen. It would seem. Yeah. I mean, I was looking to get into a dance company, you know, I wasn't at first, but when it came around, then it opened my eyes to it and I was like, you know, I think I'd like to do this. So I joined the dance company. my eyes to it. And I was like, you know, I think I'd like to do this. So I joined the dance company. And at that time also to like financial aid and school was too expensive for me and my family. And I couldn't, I honestly couldn't continue in college anyway, because I just couldn't afford it. So when that came along, it was kind of like a blessing. Cause it was like, you know, you know, now I can move on to what I want to be doing anyway. I don't necessarily need a degree in dance to dance, you know, so, or a degree in acting to act. So it's fine. You know, I won't get to finish college, but I get to do what I love to do. So

they picked me up, put me in the company and yeah. How did, so how do you get from that to finding fame on YouTube and discovering that career? Did it, did it blindside you? What, what, what, give us the Obama story. story that I'm sure that you've had to give many times. Yeah. So after the dancing, I moved to New York. Well, during the dancing, I moved to New York and I was doing a little dancing here and there. And the thing that started to happen is that my body started to kind of give out because when you do classical stuff like ballet or jazz and modern, it really works. It really strains your body. And most dancers are flexible and they have feet that point and all these other things, and I just wasn't.

I was a really good dancer and I was great at it, but I just wasn't very flexible and I was doing a lot of weird stuff to my body. It was at that time that I realized, you know what, like, my main first love really, really is acting. All that stuff I was doing as a kid, like, it's coming full circle now. Like, I love dance and it was a passion, but my biggest absolute passion is acting. And it looks less and less painful compared to what I'm doing right now. Exactly. And so I started going on auditions and trying different things.

And it was around that time that YouTube came around. So I was excited. I had never owned a camera. 2005. 2005. And I joined the site on December 18th, 2005. Oh, wow. So I got on YouTube and I bought my first little camera and I was just recording dumb stuff

and posting it. You know, back then it was like the wild west. Everything went. And I just really loved it. I mean, a lot of people were at work were saying, like, what are you doing? What's the point? And I'm like, this is what I do. They're like, you do this in your free time? And I'm like, yeah. But I kept doing it. Years goes by and whatever. Not a whole lot happens.

What were you doing at the time on YouTube? I was doing a lot of storytelling, actually. Like vlogging? Like vlogging. I would just tell stories, like for instance, I told a story once about how I was in college and I met someone in an AOL chat room and met them in person and that was a disaster. And I would just tell a lot of stories.

And was this the Alpha Cat channel? Yeah. Okay. And a lot of people that were slowly, the audience I was slowly picking up, they were demanding, like, we love your stories. Keep telling stories. And so I did that. And, you know, then I would do, like, little funny spoofs of, like, you know, music spoofs. And I'd take the song and just act silly to it or whatever.

And I was having a blast. And my girlfriend at that time would come home and, like, I'd show her, like, look what I did. And she's like, this is what you're doing all day while I'm at work? Right. this is what you're doing all day while I'm at work. So years go by and I'm working in a restaurant. And that's when in the fall of 2008, President Obama, or back then, I think Senator Obama was running. You're in New York at the time? I'm in New York. And he was running for office.

And I hadn't honestly even heard of him. Or I'd seen a little bit. And then I go walking into work one day. And at that point, I was tired. I was tired of bills and not making enough waiting tables tables I've been waiting tables almost a decade at this point and so I go into work and this girl was like oh here comes Obama and everyone kind of laughed and I laughed about it I was like oh yeah I think I've seen that guy on TV now she wasn't white right because she couldn't have said that she was white you're not like isn't that racist well no i don't think so because i don't i don't think

i was told that in general that people of another race shouldn't tell somebody of another race that they look like someone of that race no that's risky i mean it can be i mean i guess oh we all look alike kind of a thing yeah i, I think for me personally, I think I've had those moments where someone tells me like, oh, you look like this person. And it's like, you know, they're of the opposite. You know, they're a different ethnicity and like they compare me to someone that I don't look anything like. But then people of the same ethnicity compare me to people that I don't look anything like. So I don't I don't believe in I really, really as a black person. And I'm very vocal about this, I don't believe in being hypersensitive about issues of color.

I don't believe in being color-struck. I just don't, and I think we need to stop that and stop making other people walk on eggshells because they just don't know how to approach us. I've had so many friends come up to me like, hey, I need to ask you something. I'll never forget. A friend asked me, I want to ask you something i never forget a friend asked me they're like i want to ask you something about black people but i don't want to be offended and they just simply asked me something about like i think it's like how sometimes black guys wear stocking caps on their heads and it was just an honest question the person was so timid and i

looked and i was like it's just a question like it's not even an offensive question whereas i can understand how someone else probably would have been so offended but it's like sometimes people just don't know or they're just really just genuinely curious you know so the question why do why do black guys wear stocking caps on their head yeah well it's um to answer since i'm sure people are like yeah i've been wondering that too um okay girls when they curl their hair they use curling irons or they put rollers white guys when they when they style their hair they put sometimes they put gel and they spike it black guys when we style our hair we will put whatever we put on our hair we'll brush it and then we put a stocking cap which makes it lies

flat as you can see here like i have like these little like like curly wave things like waves or whatever that's what that's how we style it it's just how we style our hair we put it on until our hair dries or until it sets then we take it off and we go out the house so for anyone who's ever been wondering that's why. Now, there are the guys in the hood that will wear it just standing around just because they just want to. And that's cool too. But-

Now it's a fashion statement. Yeah. Sometimes it's a fashion statement. So yeah. But- But going back to that instance, you were not offended when said, here comes Obama. You were like, who is Obama? Yeah.

I'm just like, who's like, well, my first thought, like everyone laughed and I kind of chuckled, but then it hit and I had a sobering moment of clarity I'm just like, who's like, well, my first thought, like, everyone laughed and I kind of chuckled, but then it hit, I had this sobering moment of clarity where it was like, at that time, I didn't do any impressions. And I was like, if I can come up with an impression of this guy now, and if he wins the presidency,

he'll be the first black president, which will automatically probably make him the most popular guy on the planet. If I can come up with an impression now and get out there first, I can kind of like corner that market. And you're saying this to them while giving them their food? They're like, we just asked you what the fish special of the day was.

No, but I was just thinking this in my head and, you know, so I went home that night and looked him up and started looking at a lot of different things. And you're like, I do look like him. I don't think I look like him, but I can get the similarity. We're tall, light skin. He's a lot slimmer than I am, but I get the similarity.

I don't actually think we look like him. Out of the five years that I've been impersonating him or doing impressions of him, I still have never had someone stop me and say, you don't ever tell me you look like Obama unless it's someone that knows my videos already. Except for that one girl who changed who you're like. Right. That one racist white girl. That racist.

So yeah. And so I went home that night and I didn't do any impressions and I worked on an impression and made a video and I was really nervous because I didn't do impressions. And I was like, what am I- And this is before the election, still before the election. Oh, this is way before the election. And I was like, what am I doing doing impressions? I was just nervous to step out and put yourself out there.

But it was like a defining moment. And I did the video and I put it up. And then the audience response was just really big. I was like, I don't get views like this. I've never had views like this. And did you script something? I did script something. And you know what's funny?

I just moved about six months ago into a new apartment. And I was digging through a lot of old box because I had a lot of things in storage that I finally took out of storage. And I'm digging through boxes and I found a napkin, this long napkin from the restaurant that I worked at. And on it, it scribbled the whole script to my very first Obama video. Oh, wow. The whole thing is scribbled out. So I saved it and framed it. But when I saw that, it was like I found some great relic.

Yeah. Well, yeah. But it was really cool to see it. And I'm like, man, I had forgotten that I had written it out. So I wrote it out, and I had it hanging up. And I remember I would glance at it. But the video did well. The impression in that video was way different than it is now.

But it was a starting point, and people took to it. So from there, I just kept working on it. And then so what was the big flash moment? What is the moment called when it flashes i don't know the flash point the strobe moment the flash point um i mean that video didn't get 20 million views no the the flash point would have been when i did my first musical parody um because that's the thing is like for some weird reason, and people don't probably imagine this, I was also,

even though I've been on YouTube all that time, I was very timid about putting myself out there. And I would always have ideas that I would sit on and sit on and sit on. And I had always wanted

to do more musical parodies, like real musical parodies. And I would never do them, but I would think, I would hear a song, and my brain was just structured that way. I'd hear songs

and I'd immediately just change all the lyrics in my head. I'd never do it. So I finally did a parody to a song by T.I. called Whatever You Like, but I did it as Obama. And I put that up and that one just

blew up. And that was the moment that things, that was a flashpoint. Because at that time I had just moved to California and I was living in Santa Barbara. And I promised myself I'm not going to go back to waiting tables. Not going to do it. And that video blew up.

Like, I mean, big. I mean, now it has 22 million views, maybe. Yeah, something like that. But it probably got a lot of those in the first few months, maybe. Yeah, a lot of it was in the first few months. And the thing was, I did that, and I was just, I had just had an interview at a restaurant, and I was just about to go back. And I was, like, disappointed in myself. And then right when that video popped, I started getting all these offers to do these things. Like come here, host this, make a appearance here. And I was making more money than I ever, ever had in a matter of a month. And within that month, I went from almost going back to waiting tables to now being

self-employed. So it's like singing for Aretha Franklin. Yeah. Didn't that happen? Yeah. I sang for, she hired me to come and perform at her birthday party. And the coolest part was they gave me her guest list with all these celebrities' names and numbers and I had to call them

as Obama and invite them. Oh, wow. Yeah, so I had to like call Al Sharpton. And it was like the strangest, it was like. Okay, so you got a list. I want to hear this

Al Sharpton story. You got a list and you're like, I've got it. What? You're getting paid to call these people? And then I can sell the numbers later and make even more money? And did you have to tell them that you were the president? Did you just be like, is this a problem I'm calling? They want me to call and stay in character and invite people to this party.

Now, the only unfortunate part is that these people that I was calling all have secretaries and assistants. So I would a lot of times hit them first. And I didn't get through to a lot of big people. I would get the assistants that would be basically cracking up while they're listening to me do this. It's weird. They never questioned it. They were just like laughing. They were like, okay.

And I'm like, well, look it. We have a party here for Aretha Franklin, and they're expecting you to be there. So I need you to hand over the word and let them know to be there on time. And this is an order, you know, and they would just like crack up and like, okay, I'll let them know, you know, so that was fun. Who did you get to talk to though? And honestly, I don't even remember. That was like, that was literally like five years ago. So it was like, or like four years ago. So it was a while ago, but I didn't get through to Sharpton. I didn't, I didn't, But it was a long, it was actually a pretty long list. And there was a lot of names I knew and some that I didn't know.

But it was a lot of cool people on that list, though. Before that, I mean, at what point, obviously you're more than a guy who does Obama really well. I mean, do you get tired of it since November 08? You know? Yes. Yes, absolutely. And that was also like a little dark point that I had because after I did that first musical parody as Obama that blew out and then people challenged me.

They go, do you think you can do it again? So the next one I did Beyonce and it did exactly the same thing again. Yeah. It was cool. But then what happened is I had this massive audience. It's just suddenly, it's just like, do Obama, Obama, Obama, do the voice, do the voice, do the voice. It was after, I was like, who's that guy that was on,

what you talking about, Willis? The guy that used to say that. He passed. I know who you're talking about, but I can't remember his name. Yeah, well, that guy. Coleman. Gary Coleman. Yeah. And he had a documentary and he was talking about, but I can't remember his name. Yeah, well, that guy. Coleman. Gary Coleman. Yeah.

And he had a documentary, and he was talking about how he got fed up with everyone saying, say the line, what you talking about, Willis? What you talking about? And I felt like I was kind of having that moment where it's like, if one more person asked me to do the voice, I'm going to lose it. And I got upset with my audience, because when I would try to post anything else, a comedy sketch, musical parody, they would get mad. They were like, just stick with Obama.

And I was beginning to really hate hearing that. Just stick with Obama. So I hit a point where I just stopped making videos for like six months. I just stopped cold turkey. And that was probably the worst decision, but I just didn't know back then. When was this? This was early 2009, I believe. Right after

everything blew up, I shut it down because I was like, it was great success, but it was almost too much focus on one thing that just drove me nuts. What brought you back after six months? Just missing doing what I do. Missing creating videos for the people that have supported me and missing having a space to express and just be funny or just be, you know, fun. You know, I missed it. And I was just trying to like find my way back into that. And so I imagine when you brought it

back, you were doing the other things, but the Obama thing was still the most successful. Did you just come to grips with the fact that, okay, I can handle this now, the weight of the expectation of doing the voice, do Obama, and then what became your strategy to cope? Trying to find a balance between the two. And it's hard because you almost kind of have to, I hate using this expression, but you kind of have to train your audience. You have to let them know, okay, this is what I'm going to do. And I'm going to do this for you guys. I'm going to do the Obama stuff, but I'm also going to do sketches. And I'm going to do parody is what I'm going to do. And I'm going to do this for you guys.

I'm going to do the Obama stuff, but I'm also going to do sketches. And I'm going to do parody. And I'm going to do musical parody. And so what happens is you get this pulling point where the people that are really diehard fans will stick around and go, well, I love everything you do. And then you have the people that go, I don't like the sketches. I'm not watching. And you kind of will have a falling away of people that aren't really true supporters but you kind of have to go through that phase to get your core audience that's going to stick around that appreciates whatever you do and you just keep going from there and then also too i had to make sure i balance it out and not just do too many obama videos back to back

do an obama video do a sketch musical parody obama video sketch just like really balance it out what was it a lingering struggle for you to still not have the other videos be received as well consistently as the obama thing that you would take it personally you know i know we take things personally all the time when people don't respond the way we want them to uh so i mean is that a part of the challenge for you or at least over the past few years and maybe vine has kind of changed that for you has that brought you out of something that was kind of a a few years of struggle identity struggle um i mean yeah kind of it's just i'm trying to think how to answer that properly. Vine has kind of brought me out of that because it has been a lingering problem where it's like, you know, I don't know.

It's just, it's a mix of a lot of things. Having been on YouTube for so long, you get, sometimes you get creatively winded, you know, and then also dealing with the struggle of my own personal audience and the Obama thing. And then the sketches, like sometimes it is a struggle to get people to appreciate things outside of Obama. But I have to also have to realize it's Obama. So nothing that I do is, I mean, anything that I do is going to be still, it's still going to be kind of hard to compare that.

Cause it's, it's an impression that now is like known worldwide and a lot of people know it. So it's like, it's going to be kind of hard to top that with normal quote unquote normal stuff. So I don't really expect for my other videos to do as well as the Obama videos, you know, and I'm okay with that as long as they do well in general.

And so what does that mean, you know, moving forward? Obviously, he's always going to be a public figure. He was a two-term president. But, you know, two years from now, he won't be the president anymore. but you know two years from now he won't be the president anymore right and as you think about you know you're an entertainer now and i assume that's what you want to keep being you know have you thought about the landscape years from now where it's like okay he's a public figure but obviously that's not i mean you're not gonna you can't keep tapping into that in the same way that you can now while he's an active president right Right. And that's like the other piece of the puzzle is like to start segwaying into film and television, which was ultimately the entire time my goal.

And just last year I actually shot two films, one here in the States and one in India. And that for me just really brought me alive, like just to be able to do something that was not only outside of Obama but also like outside of YouTube and the Internet and the web, um, to do these things makes me really excited. So as I continue to do this, and even though he has some years left in office, the goal, the next phase of things now is to like continue doing videos, but at the same time, start branching out because I'm not going to sit back and just go Obama heavy and do all Obama stuff. And then the moment he leaves office, I'm just sitting around. Cause that, that tends to be like the

number one question from fans. Well, what are you going to do when he's out of office? As if I've never thought of it. So it's like, I'm going to like, I'm like that part is already like already in process, like, you know, auditioning and doing more traditional media things. And also too, right now, particularly I'm in a phase now where I'm kind of restructuring my brain to, to think more sketch minded because I love sketches, but I don't, I haven't written a lot of sketches in the past. And recently I've been taking a lot of time to sit and write sketches and, and, and, and, and try to get my brain into that route so that as things start to taper off with Obama, I'm still, I still have a lot of other things that I have going on besides just that. Well, we saw the Along the Roadside trailer,

and, you know, it seems like there's a lot of promise there. Yeah, I mean, it's doing really well in the film festival circuit. It's won Best Picture. And you're the lead in that. I am the lead, yeah. It won Best Picture? Like four or five times. Really?

Yeah. Awesome. It's won a lot of other accolades. And what's cool about that is not only am I the lead in that, but— And this was an Oscar? Yeah, I wish. Like I said, it won Best Picture at some of the festivals. Yeah, at a lot of the film festivals.

And what's cool about not only being the lead in that, but also that one of my supporting actors is Michael Madsen, who's like a legend. He's in Reservoir Dogs. Link hugged him one time. At Sundance, yeah. Scary dude. Yeah. Still huggable. Imagine working with him.

He's a very intense guy. But, you know, it's cool that, like, for me, that was huge to be a lead in a film, and then someone like Michael Madsen's in it, and some other stars were in it as well. So that was a big moment for me. And then I flew to India to be in another movie. That one I'm not allowed to, like, legally talk about because, you know, NDAs and all that stuff.

We don't care. Talk about it. We won't prosecute you. But, you know, went to India earlier this summer and shot that. And I'm actually going back to India next week. When will we find out about that? That's a good question. I don't know.

But it's a big franchise in India. It's like, you remember the comedy movie Scary Movie by the Wayans? Like the first two it's a big it's a big franchise in India it's like you remember the comedy movie Scary Movie by the Wayans like the first two were like a big deal it's like that kind of thing out in India

so like I'm literally about to be like all over billboards and stuff in India and it was a really cool experience I'm going back in a week because they have to

reshoot scenes so it's like hey we have to reshoot scenes so you have to come back to India and I'm like oh okay

that's a great free trip so if that works out it seems like, Hey, we have to reshoot scenes. So you have to come back to India. And I'm like, Oh, okay. That's a, that's a great free trip. So if that works out, uh, it seems like it is beginning to work out. Uh, is it the kind of thing that it's like, okay, uh, I'm going to be an actor now. Uh, you know, YouTube vine, is that just, okay. That's kind of like this thing I did at some point, or is it like, no, no, I'm going to keep pushing it on all fronts. No, I'm going to keep pushing it on all fronts. I probably won't be, if things go as I would like for them to in the film and television circuit, I won't be as heavy into YouTube and Vine, but I would never want to completely abandon it

because there's so many people there that love me and have supported me, and I would never want to walk out on that. But we see complaints amongst your Vine followers that you're not giving them enough. I know because it's like I went from posting twice a day to posting every day to like I took – there was a point recently where I just stopped for like a month, like a whole month. And the reason why is because after doing so much, once again, sometimes it points where you get creatively winded. And I felt like I was forcing ideas.

And I'd rather stop and take a break and also just live my life because we all have lives to live. I'd rather do that than to keep forcing ideas and giving them crap. I'd rather stop doing that and just wait until I'm fresh again and then come back, which I'm beginning to do now. Which do you see as more strategic, Vine or YouTube moving forward for you? Honestly, probably YouTube. Really?

I have this weird thing now where I'm trying to get integrated back in because I miss YouTube a lot, you know, and I'm not going to stop Vine,

I'm not going to stop YouTube, but I've been way more quiet on YouTube than I ever have been on Vine. You know, Vine will be okay. I'm going to keep

posting Vine. That's easy to do. But Vine was kind of like a weird therapy for me because it's like I took some time off from YouTube and when I was doing Vine, it kind of gave me a new method to come up with ideas that I can turn into not only Vines, but I could take those same ideas

and turn them into sketches too. Okay. So your fans should expect more YouTube videos. YouTube videos and lives. And movies. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Got it. Now, the one thing we haven't talked about yet is your other strategy for success, which is dating other YouTubers. Yeah, you have one of the first that I can remember. You're like laughing. First public relationships, you know, public YouTube

relationships. Going back to Miss Lisa LaVie. Yeah, we're gonna go there. We're gonna talk about that. Okay. I wish you could see his face right now. When we met you, you guys were dating. Okay, so she was an amazing singer on YouTube

first and then was like a touring singer anyway otherwise. Was it YouTube first for her? I don't know. Yes. Or did you launch a career? No, I did not launch a career. It was just YouTube. But you guys dated for a long time.

I mean, how many years are we talking? Like four years. Four years. And you had a, I think one of the things that makes it interesting is you had a collaborative channel. Yes. You had a collaborative channel. So it was, you know, I remember thinking, okay, yeah. So this is because, you know, so many firsts.

You know, we get to see and experience so many firsts because of YouTube. But I can't think of another. How did that? Just tell us about that. I know it's over now. I know you don't have the channel or the relationship now. Okay. So what's the uh

what's the 2014 version of of that story what do you mean in retrospect yeah i mean it's really not a whole lot to say on it i mean it's just you know that was a very public relationship and you know like some relationships just ran its course ran its course you know, that's pretty much it in a nutshell, you know? Well, would you, having made that relationship public, would you say that is something that I will not do again? Or no, that wasn't really, that wasn't the problem? Honestly, I don't know. I mean, now when it comes to, like, dating life, I tend to be way more private just because of like, you know, that breakup for me was the first time experiencing something that public or particularly a breakup that public. Well, was there a breakup vlog?

There was no breakup vlog, no. You didn't break up with her via the channel you shared? No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. We didn't have a break. No, no, no, no. The videos just stopped. Yeah, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. We didn't have a break. No, no, no, no. That was the video stopped. Yeah, the video just stopped. Well, we had actually stopped daily vlogging long before we broke up.

Well, not long before, but our daily vlogs together had stopped a while before because we both had just gotten kind of like exhausted with having to edit videos every day. I was busy. She was busy. Then we also had this collaborative channel, which took a lot of time, and we both kind of got winded with the vlog. So we didn't break up via vlog now. Yeah.

What were we saying before? Probably would have gotten a lot of views. I'm just saying. Yeah, yeah. But, yeah, I mean, yeah, that's pretty much the story. I don't know if I answered your question. So what's your love life like now? Well, yeah, I mean,

there was Andrea's Choice YouTuber. You guys had a, you guys were dating too, right? No. Really? Where'd you get that one from? I was told.

That's an internet rumor. No, we never dated. She's a good friend of mine, but no, really, that's funny. That's a rumor? That's what I was, yeah, that's what I was

alluding to. I was like, you have this, a strategy. I was totally messing with you. I don't believe you have some subversive dating strategy. No, no, no, no. That's fine, though.

That's news to me. Really? Okay. We don't try to turn ear biscuits into like a gossip show. So I'm sorry that, you know. But these are the things that people want to know, so we have to ask them. But the whole choice to, you know to create the shared relationship channel, it sounds like maybe you're going to go a little bit more private.

Well, yeah. It's just I think that— And then people like us make up stuff. Like, oh, well, he's dating so-and-so. They're not just friends. Yeah, no. Yeah, it's to be private. I'm already a very private person as it is.

And people look at it and they go, well, how are you private? You vlog, you're a YouTuber, your whole life is public. And it's like, yeah, I said, but you also see what I show you. You don't see what I don't want you to see. You know, I control that the moment I hit crop or delete or, you know, I cut something out of an edit or, I'm sorry, out of a vlog. So with dating, it's like, I think it's fun. It's naturally when you're in a relationship, you want to share your life with the person, you know, you might Instagram with them or put them, you know, you see them in a video,

but I don't know how public I would be in the future about relationships. I think finding someone who, who maybe doesn't even necessarily enjoy being on video would be cool. Cause then it's like, okay, we can have our own private life and our own private space without having every YouTube comment or Viner look into our lives and make assumptions or whatever else. So I think a little privacy might be in order. Well listen, I think that

I don't think you held back. Is there anything else you want to tell us? I don't think you guys held back. That's how we should end your biscuits from now on. Is there anything else you want to tell us? Well I think the application here is that you should start a collaborative relationship-based Vine channel.

So it's like, baby, six seconds at a time, me and you are going to change the world. That's the shortest relationship ever. You could call it a new Vine. You could call it Six Second Man. And that would not be good for... No, call it Six Seconds in Heaven.

Oh, hey. Check that out. All right, I might have to do that with my wife. So far I've kept her completely off the internet, but now we're going to start a Vine channel. Wow. Damn. And a specific type.

All right, it's time to sign the table of dimmed lighting. Oh, wow. Here you go. A black pen, that's racist. And there it is, our ear biscuit with Iman Crossan. You should tweet at him, let him know what you thought. That's twitter.com slash

alphacat. Also, follow him on Vine if you that's twitter.com slash alpha cat also follow him on vine if you're into that uh his uh username there is also alpha cat 2.4 million followers over there it's amazing how you know he just capitalized he saw the pattern of how it was kind of the next youtube got involved with the right group of people who were asserting themselves and just blew up. I mean, I certainly respect him for capitalizing on that. Well, and he's making money six seconds at a time. Not bad. There's a pressure.

You know, we talked about this pressure of in doing what we do of always signing up for the next new thing. Oh, this new thing called Twitter just happened. I better get that username. We better grab Rhett and Link, and I'll grab Link Lamont. You can grab Rhett MC on that. And this new thing called Vine, we can do that too. Well, that was 2008 when we did that. Yeah, but that's the last time I really felt the pressure of it and actually

went into it. You know, I fell into the whole, oh, I gotta chase this thing because it might be the next big thing. By the time Vine has happened, I'm like, forget it. Should we do it? Is it too late? Well, it's definitely not too late.

Should we do it? Well, it's definitely not too late. Should we do it? Well, I will say that I'm going to go directly after this. I'm going to delete my videos from Vine. Because I do have a Vine account with, I think, like 10,000 followers or something. I don't know. Because I started it a while back. And then I said, you know, I'm joining Vine. Just FYI, tweeted it out, and people came over there.

I had three videos that were not Vine videos. They were just six-second videos because I kind of knew that people were doing these like jump cut things, but I didn't appreciate the humor, and I did not see, I wasn't thinking about investing in it, right, and like actually making a thing of it. investing in it, right? And like actually making a thing of it. So I looked at the three videos I had up there recently and I'm just in preparation for this conversation with him. You're going to delete them, but what are they?

They are, the very first one I ever did was me coming into the office and it like pieced together like me in the car, then me opening the door, and then saying hello to different people in the office. There was no comedy in it. No, it was just kind of mistimed, and it wasn't supposed to be funny.

And then I did one where I woke up and said something, and then I did one where... Like a vlog, like a six-second, I just woke up. Yeah, something. Right after Gorgon went viral, the Shifted commercial, and we went over there to his office and he was getting all the calls, I just filmed him answering a call and he just said, what type of car is it?

Which is kind of funny, but, you know, it just didn't... I didn't understand the mechanics of it, so it just says... No pun intended. Yeah. Don't delete the Gorg of it. No pun intended. Don't delete the Gorgon one. No, I'm going to. It's a point in time. But I don't want to send people over there.

And first of all, I think if we're going to do this, we've got to do it as a Rhett and Link find. We don't need to do this thing where I've got one and you've got one, and I start it, and then a couple months later you start it, and then neither one of us really puts anything up there. I'm not saying we're going to do it do it but if we're going to do it it's going to be on a Rhett and Link account if you want to follow us um just do it on Twitter Rhett MC Link Lamont and the Rhett and Link account why not man six seconds we could have made we could have made like 30 vines just in the time that we've been talking since well it's not that easy if it only were I think you've just proven, it's not that easy. If it only were.

I think you've just proven that it's not that easy. The three things that you did, you're now deleting. Yeah, but now I feel like I talked to an expert. I talked to an expert. I'm inspired. I know I'm not going to do it, though. You know what?

Let's just get realistic here. Let me be clear. Oh, that's pretty good. I'm not going to start a vine because it wouldn't be prudent. That was a mixing of presents.

The prudent thing is a clean thing. All right, guys. Next week, another Ear Biscuit. It's a bush. That's a bush thing. Yeah.

First bush. Next week, next Ear Biscuit. Thanks for listening. Period.