StarKid is back on tour!
This holiday season, you are cordially invited to rock out at the StarKid Jangle Ball!! After a decade-long hiatus, we’re hitting the road again! But this year, we’ve been naughty 😈 and nice 😇, so we’re delivering an evening of iconic StarKid villain songs AND a concert rendition of A VHS Christmas Carol that you won’t wanna miss!
🎟️ TICKETS AND MORE INFO 🎟️
December 2 - BOSTON
December 3 - PHILLY
December 4 - NEW YORK CITY
December 8 - CHICAGO (Sold Out!)
December 9 - CHICAGO (Just Added!)
December 11 - ANN ARBOR (Sold Out!)
December 16 - LOS ANGELES
December 17 - SAN FRANCISCO
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My Top Ten Favorite YouTube Channels
Originally published July 23rd, 2013
Sometimes I feel inadequate because I don’t have any “underground interests". But other times, I realize I definitely have underground interests. I’d say my most solid proof of this is my devotion to Internet entertainment. I don’t know of many people who take it quite as seriously as I do, and I have as much passion for watching it as I do making it.
So to shed a little bit of my “hip side" unto you, here are my top 10 favorite YouTube channels with brief descriptions of why I picked them. (Disclaimer: I have the right to include my own channels if I want to. But I’m not going to.)
10. nigahiga I actually started out on YouTube before the thing was even two years old. At the time, I viewed it as a place for amateur auteurs. Where one person can make everything herself. I thought that was fascinating, and that’s largely the kind of content you would find on YouTube at the time (2007). But, as with all good ideas, YouTube expanded and grew business-oriented. I have no resentment toward this because I understand it. I’m jumping onto that boat myself.
But I still have deep veneration for the people who truly do everything themselves, and for that, I have to include Ryan Higa on the list, the man behind nigahiga. He’s been doing this YouTube thing for even longer than I have and while he’s seen much success and popularity, he still has that old-school “YouTube touch" where he does everything himself. In addition to some clever yet juvenile comedy, you can watch the progression of a person refining his craft. It’s a fun ride.
9. vlogbrothers The premise is simple: Two brothers send vlogs to each other, one vlog from each brother for a total of two vlogs a week. And my are their brains something to be admired. They’re very honest with who they are and what they feel and even in the face of their popularity, they’re more committed to cultivating artistic growth and promoting identity than doing things for money or fame. It’s admirable to see two vloggers not only with compelling chemistry, but also an earnest love for who they are as people.
8. SecretAgentBob He’s more popularly known as FilmCow, and even more popularly known as “the guy that made Charlie the Unicorn". His animation is crude and unpleasant, even more so than South Park, but the complete dive into maddening, aimless comedy is a breath of fresh air in a sea of videos with poor aim. Jason Steele and his team of loyal friends are a truly funny bunch whose effort to making no-shits-given content is as satisfying as it is needed.
7. CGPGrey Not everything popular on YouTube is comedy. What’s particularly refreshing is to see a surge of interest in channels revolving around education. By far my favorite of these channels is CGPGrey. It’s one guy making animated slideshows that illustrate a point of interest. He seems like “just a normal guy", but the level of research and detail he exerts just to make sure he doles out the right information shows not only a propensity for knowledge, but a respect for those learning from him. His videos are as amusing as they are beneficial and for someone you never see in person, his presence as a teacher is something remarkable.
6. sxephil Most newscasts are boring. It’s industry standard to read the news without attachment or much personality. Which is why Phillip DeFranco is really something unique. He’ll tell you the news, but only the news he cares about and in the way he wants to. This could be an annoying trip were he an annoying person, but Phillip DeFranco has an enrapturing view of the world accompanied and a blunt sense of humor that collectively, you just can’t help but dig. Hopefully his shtick might inspire a wave of more subjective newscasters so those looking to get the scoop can have some variety as well as some personality.
5. StarKidPotter Meet Team Starkid, a contemporary theater troupe of cult status yet all the talent deserving of full-throttle stardom. While the members of the troupe rotate, each one brings to its productions the finesse of an adult paired with the unadulterated imagination of a kid. Their videos mainly consist of recorded footage of live shows and while low on budget, they’re written with great humor and sincerity. The music always soars, the performances always dazzle, and the theatrics of Team Starkid always vibrate with vibrancy.
4. MW10T It’s hard to really place what Mike Peterson is all about. A low-end member of the film business, Man With 10 Toes really shines with his overt nonsensicality that he heavily breathes into anything he creates. His greatest attribute is his shameless disconnection from inhibition and embracement of his wholly bizarre mein. No matter how effortless his work, it’s always labeled with the undeniably engaging mark of his strangeness. Manwith10toes is the fucked-up fruit on the tree that tastes absolutely amazing.
3. titleofshow It’s not a very active channel anymore and certainly not something a modern YouTuber would gawk over. It’s the home to “the [title of show] show", a documentation of the process it took to get the musical [title of show] onto Broadway. The concept is already rich as Broadway is a place with many secrets and any look into its process is worth the time. But these four friends are wonderful, chromatic people to take this journey with. Each has a distinct personality, but they all emanate with an honest passion for what they do and an authentic appreciation for their audience. It doesn’t hurt that the show they’re trying to put on is one of the greatest shows I’ve seen. It’s a fantastic series: Informative, funny, and even a touching reminder of the great things that can happen when you follow your dreams.
2. BriTANickdotcom BriTANick is sketch comedy at its absolute finest. Comprised of duo Brian and Nick, their videos exude everything the perfect sketch could have. They’re inventive, well-paced, unexpectedly well-acted, and culminate into a perfect laugh batch that no fan of comedy should miss. Their only agenda is to bring out the best in humor. They’ve had some misses, but when they hit, they hit to sink.
1. 5secondfilms It’s a delight to see so many people (to the point where you lose count) all coming together to make something that on the surface seems pretty trivial. 5 Second Films are exactly what you think: People that make films that are five seconds. And after nearly five years of uploading five videos a week, they haven’t missed a beat. 5 Second Films gives you the best way to waste your time while simultaneously showing just what kind of gold you can strike when you don’t waste a second. Relentlessly bold and ostensibly gifted, 5 Second Films delivers short content with a long reach.
The Internet is only a medium. But it’s a medium that’s brought forth enriching content that I hardly see in any other medium. When you do things for the Internet, you’re taken much less seriously than when you do things for television or the big screen. But the Internet, despite being largely embraced by the world, still manages to be one of the best-kept secrets when it comes to entertainment. While I certainly hope this doesn’t last forever, I’ll embrace the hippness that comes with beaming over something so in the dark.
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