The New Wave of Online Celebrities

 

Besides the high profile examples of Dane Cook, Arctic Monkeys and Esmeé Denters. There is an increasing number of people using web 2.0 to launch there entertainment careers.

Dane Cook is credited as one of the first comedians to use a personal webpage and MySpace to build a large fan base.

Arctic Monkeys are heralded as one of the first acts to come to the public attention via the Internet, with commentators suggesting they represented the possibility of a change in the way in which new bands are promoted and marketed

Esmeé Denters regularly covered other artists like Justin Timberlake and Natasha Bedingfield’s songs on YouTube.  It was because of this that led Justin Timberlake to notice her and subsequently signing her to his record label.

These were more of the main stream examples of people who leveraged their career through the use of technology; now let’s have a look at the people under the radar. 

People you may not of heard of but are carving out their own niche in the online world;

Fred

Fred is a fictional character created and portrayed by American actor Lucas Cruikshank.  The videos are centred on Fred Figglehorn, a fictional 6-year-old who has a dysfunctional home life and anger management issues.  Cruikshank  created the character for his channel on YouTube, he filmed his first Fred video in late 2006.  This was the first Youtube channel to gain 1 million subscribers. 

His celebrity on Youtube has lead to him filming a motion picture for Nickelodeon, which is hoped to become a franchise.

Fred: The Movie  features Lucas Cruikshank as Fred, UK pop sensation Pixie Lott as Judy and WWE wrestler John Cena as Fred's dad.

KassemG

Kassem started out doing stand up in the local LA stand up scene and gained some ground in a short amount of time opening for Dane Cook & Daniel Tosh at sold shows.  He was disillusioned with the stand up scene.  He began to upload comedy videos of himself interviewing passers-by on Venice Beach in a similar style to Sacha Baron Cohens comedy. Kassems massively popular “California On” web series has been the main reason he has attracted over 130 million views on Youtube. Kassem had over a million followers on YouTube and is one of the most viewed comedians online. 

Kassem has featured in huge number of comedy shorts on Youtube, including a spoof Apple commercial with Jane Lynch of Glee fame. He has subsequently joined the online comedy show the Station and by popular demand (from his 1 million followers) he is due to return to the comedy scene.

 

Amir Blumenfeld

Amir Blumenfeld is a senior writer and actor at College Humor (College Humor is a comedy website based in New York City.  Amir rose to internet prominence with the Jake and Amir web series, and Prank Wars with Streeter Seidell.  

It is from these endeavours that have led him to presenting Pranked on MTV.   He is due to appear in the third film of the highly successful Harold and Kumar pictures. 

Philip DeFranco

Philip DeFranco is an American video blogger on YouTube, and a YouTube celebrity. His videos are centred around current events, politics and celebrity gossip in which he gives his opinion, usually presented ironically and with frequent jump cuts to create a fast-paced feel. He has over 1.4 million subscribers, and is the 11th most subscribed YouTuber of all time.

It has been claimed he makes over $250,000 from a number of sources on the Internet, not just YouTube, but he has denied it in several videos.  He has been paid by companies to create videos to promote Carl's Jr.'s burgers, and the US television series Lie to Me and Fringe.

In October 2008, DeFranco started acting and he became the star of Hooking Up, a promo from HBOLabs (the online arm of HBO).  Hooking Up is a scripted 10-episode Web-based series set at a fictional university where the students spend most of their time emailing and using Facebook, but still manage to miscommunicate.

By the show's second day on YouTube, it had received more than 450,000 views. Bobbie Johnson of The Guardian said that many Web surfers had "scoffed at what they see as a cynical attempt to cash in."

Lisa Donovan

Lisa Donovan is an American actress and writer. She self-produces comedic short films, published under the username LisaNova on YouTube.

Donovan moved to Los Angeles with the hope of becoming an actress.  Upon the realisation that it is very hard to get noticed in the industry, she set up her own production company (Zappin Productions) specializing in viral videos.

Donovan has parodied a number of celebrities and public figures, including Keira Knightley, Hillary Clinton, Sarah Palin, Lindsay Lohan, Heidi Montag, Lauren Conrad and Kim Kardashian. LisaNova is listed as the 33rd most subscribed of all time and 9th most subscribed for directors with 594,423 subscribers.

She is also part of the YouTube channel 'The Station'. She worked in parodies with other YouTubers such as ShayCarl, Davedays and Ceciley.

Donovan was chosen as the Youtube representative to interview Katy Perry for a feature interview for the site.

Lisa once said in an interview that she would love to meet Jane Fonda, this sparked a splurge in online traffic from Lisa’s followers to Jane Fonda’s blog.  The comments that Lisa’s followers left on the blog convinced Jane Fonda to agree to the interview which took place 5 days after Donovan said she would love to meet her!

Lisa Donovan was given a featured player role in MADtv.  She debuted in a spoof of The Ellen DeGeneres Show, where she played Salma Hayek.

The Vlogging Revolution

There is a new wave of what I like to call self made reality TV shows on Youtube.  People are filming their mundane lives and putting them on the web for the world to see.  I believe this is an incredibility weird thing to do but the secret behind it is that these people are making a lot of money out of it.  For a number of people and families in the US this is their main source of income!

2 Vlogs that are at the forefront of this movement are;

• The Shaytards
• Internet Killed Television

The Shaytards

The main character here is Shay and he is from Pocatello, Idaho.  The show follows him and his wife Mammytard and his children BabyTard , PrincessTard , and SonTard.  Shay never says their real names to protect their identity (so he playfully and quite disturbingly calls his family “tards”).  The show has amassed an amazing following and he has 734,081 subscribers on his Youtube channel and since the shows inception it has had 261,668,303 Million views!!! The reason the show has become so popular is simply because Shay is such a likeable person, a typical episode would be 15 minutes long and would feature him and his family just going to the park and playing with their dogs and that would still get half a million views!

The show has meant Shay could quit his job and him and his family now live on ad sales from Youtube, Merchandise of the show and public appearances.

Shay has subsequently joined a Youtube sketch comedy show called “The Station” which brings together fellow Youtube "celebrities" to make comedy skits.

Internet Killed Television

Another "home-made reality show" is, the show with the inspired name, Internet Killed Television. This follows Charles Trippy and his fiancée Alli Speed.  The episode on which Charles proposed has been feature on numerous chat shows and it won the 2009 Mashable Open Web Award for the Youtube Video of the Year.  The future Trippy’s are now on to their second year of making a video every day.  They have amassed 137,745,288 total views and they are the 36^th most subscribed comedy channel on Youtube.  That’s quite an amazing achievement for normal people that just decided one day to film themselves.

They now run 4 Youtube channels;

1. The Internet Killed Televsion channel.
2. Charles own channel.
3. Alli's own channel.
4. Charles iphone 4 channel.

Like or loath these forms of entertainment, they are incredibly popular.  I wonder what people will be watching if or when the Internet does kill television!

McDonald's predicts an amazing future for the League of Ireland!

Youtube view count not always reliable!

Ministerial Launch of Irish Offshore Training Capability

SEFtec NMCI Offshore Ltd (SNO), a public / private joint venture between SEFtec Global Training Ltd and The National Maritime College of Ireland (NMCI), was launched on the 17^th December 2010 at the National Maritime College, Co. Cork, by the Minister of Enterprise, Trade & Employment, Batt O’Keeffe.
This venture is a shining example of how to bring together state of the art public infrastructure, in the form of one of the world’s most advanced maritime colleges, with private enterprise’s expertise in not only offshore training, but in the design, manufacture, installation, commissioning and service of training simulators for the global maritime industry.
The Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Innovation, Batt O’Keeffe TD, who launched the public-private joint venture, said it would support jobs and the growth of the Irish offshore exploration and wind energy sectors.  ‘The future is bright for the partnership we are announcing here this afternoon. The maritime sector is a diverse and developing global industry that requires huge levels of skill and technical capability,’ said Minister O’Keeffe.

Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Innovation Batt O'Keeffe speaking at the launch of SNO. Picture: Pascal Ungerer

Focused on supporting the successful and sustainable growth of the Irish offshore exploration sector, SNO has successfully secured the approval of the Offshore Petroleum Industry Training Organization (OPITO) for its programme of courses. In a sector that is completely focused on safety, OPITO has become the global industries focal point for skills, training and workforce development.
“SNO is very proud to have achieved its OPITO approval this year, the approval came about in a phenomenal time frame and this wouldn’t have been possible without the combined efforts of both public and private joint venture partners. This will mean that we can service not only the growing needs of Ireland’s offshore sector, but train for the global industry as well”                Conor Mowlds, Managing Director SNO Ltd.

Colman Garvey, Co-Owner of SEFtec, Conor Mowlds, Managing Director of SNO, Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Innovation Batt O'Keeffe, and Darren O'Sullivan, Co-Owner SEFtec at the unveiling of the OPITO plaque at the SEFtec NMCI Offshore joint venture launch at the National Maritime College of Ireland in Ringaskiddy. Picture: Pascal Ungerer

SEFtec, an Irish SME with a global focus, commenced trading in 2004 and has quickly become one of the world’s leaders in the provision of offshore simulation equipment. Based in a state-of-the-art facility in Cork it has diversified its activities from the design and fabrication of offshore training simulation equipment to training and already operates an OPITO centre in Kazakhstan.
The NMCI, a public private partnership between the Cork Institute of Technology, Vita Lend Lease and the Irish Naval Service was opened in 2004, represents a €60 million investment by the state in maritime training, and is one of the world’s most advanced maritime colleges.

Delegates on the OPITO approved BOSIET - Offshore Training Course, at the National Maritime College in Ringaskiddy using the Helicopter Underwater Training Simulator, HUET systems are used to simulate a controlled crash landing by a helicopter onto water. Picture: Pascal Ungerer

The future aim of SNO is to break into the offshore renewable energy sector, with the development of their Offshore Wind Energy Safety Training course (OWEST) ear marked for further development.  The OWEST course currently involves Helicopter Winching Techniques, Life Saving Appliances and Vessel Abandonment which is key training for anyone working on or near Offshore Wind Energy Sites.

For further information visit www.seftec.ie or www.nmci.ie