I run advertisements and sell T-shirts to cover overhead costs and pay the few people who help me out behind the scenes. Anything left over is spent on production costs, animation costs, etc.
— Ray William Johnson
In fall 2007, I stood at the midway point of completing my undergraduate studies at Columbia. I studied every moment that I wasn't sitting in class. I was very focused on maintaining a solid GPA, so I could go on to law school.
Sometimes, comedy and entertainment is not all about telling jokes; sometimes you just have to be you for a few moments.
Human beings don't want to just enjoy something by themselves. They want to share that emotion - they want everyone around them to enjoy it like they enjoy it or hate it like they hate it. That's what makes a video spread.
I not only hope that YouTube channels compete with television shows for viewers and revenue, I hope they develop a bitter rivalry which could only be settled by an elaborate medieval tournament where the two entities fight to the death in a steel cage.
As a general rule, if you are prone to melodramatic meltdowns, please avoid purchasing a webcam for any reason.
For almost a year, I sporadically made these rather lame video blogs in my dorm. These video blogs were reflective of most video blogs during that time in that they had no real structure and were kind of just all over the place.
I enjoy what I do, but I also do it on time because my audience is very pervasive; they're everywhere, and they will constantly remind me if I'm not on time.
I'm motivated by entertaining people.
I was influenced by a lot of stand-up comedians... Eddie Murphy back when he was doing 'Raw.' I watched that so many times as a kid, I can probably still quote the entire thing to this day. Chris Rock. Dave Chappelle. George Carlin. A lot of the guys who were sort of edgy for their time.
One of the amazing things about the Internet is that the content creators are the gatekeepers. We can think of an idea and execute it quickly, and we didn't have to pitch the idea to a major network or convince a studio head to sign-off on the concept.
Never angrily rant into your web cam. While smashing a keyboard in half over a game of 'World of Warcraft' may seem totally justified in your head, to the rest of the known universe you look like a raging psychopath.
During my long study sessions in the library, I found myself watching YouTube videos during study breaks.
I try to have fun; I try to inject myself into my work and have a good time along the way and not lose sight of who I am, and who my friends are, and all of these things that treating it like a business might hinder. I try to keep that hobby mentality.
What really shocks me, what I can honestly sit back and ponder for hours in a lot of cases is just, 'Why would you film yourself doing that? Who put you up to that? What are you getting out of that?'
At the end of the day, a television, a computer, or a smart phone is just a device through which one can access content. The content itself is what matters, not the device.
My success has been something I've worked a long time at and it's been a gradual process. I compare it to the idea of someone losing a lot of weight over a period of a few years. You don't really notice the weight loss overall but if you compare photos from then and now there's a big difference.
Maybe someday, if I work hard enough, entertainment will be a career for me, but right now making videos and uploading them to the Internet is just a hobby.
