The Vlogger Interviews : Boomer9168

About This Interview:
Boomer (Boomer9168), from New Port Richey, Florida, sums up his YouTube experience in one phrase: "YouTube saved my life."  Like many people, he began vlogging (and later, creating skits and collaborations) simply because he liked what he was seeing on other YouTube channels - and it looked fun.  With the fun he found creating for a YouTube audience, he also discovered an opportunity to expand and enrich his own social life.  In addition to friends around the world, he's also connected in person with local YouTubers in Florida.  Online community has helped Boomer recover enthusiasm for life that he thought he's lost.

Today, he says, If he somehow lost access to a  camera and couldn't be part of the YouTube community, "I would be heartbroken."

The Vlogger Interviews: TheSchwartzcaster [Eric Peter Schwartz]

About this interview:

Why would a grown man play with a puppet on YouTube?

A while back, I interviewed Spiggitz the Cat on The Vlogger Interviews.  Spiggitz is a ratty-looking, opinionated vlogging feline puppet created by Eric Peter Schwartz, and featured on his YouTube channel, http://youtube.com/TheSchwartzcaster  With this interview, I meet Eric himself, and find out the question asked of most YouTubers by the uninitiated:  Why?

Eric Peter Schwartz, a resident of Aurora, Illinois, has a long history in writing, theater and comedy (take a look his extensive resume on his home page).  He thinks of himself as a born performer, but his comedy efforts had been been in hibernation for a while when he learned about YouTube a few years back.  As you'll discover, YouTube reignited his creative flame.  Spiggitz, once a crowd favorite in his live comedy shows, was adapted for this new venue, and has since evolved into Eric's alter-ego.

Eric is fascinated by the opportunities that online video is beginning to offer.  In live theater, ad sales in a show's program booklet is an important supplementary source of income.   He believes that with some hard work, YouTubers could be quite successful monetizing their work beyond the Google Adsense model, which allows YouTubers to share in the revenue generated by advertisements placed by Google on their videos.

The Vlogger Interviews: Oliver6596 (Ollie)

I'm not a big fan of snarky comedy vlogs on YouTube - the mean-spirited channels that find humor through ridicule, almost as if they're inspired by the celebrity scandal sites.  If I'm looking for comedy, I tend to enjoy generally good-natured vloggers of the Charlieissocoollike variety.  I also like uninhibited comedy - off the wall, random and sometimes physical goofiness that is probably best created by teenagers who haven't acquired the layers of cynicism that restrain so many adults.




15 year-old Ollie (Oliver6596), who spoke with me from his home in Birmingham, UK, admits that he doesn't usually spend much time planning his vlogs, and maybe that's what I find entertaining about them - I don't think he knows any better than his audience where each vlog is going to end up, or when he'll throw himself into a random door.   His little brother is his sidekick  / antagonist, but you'll never take the brotherly name-calling seriously.

Ollie's vlogs are already working for him - he offered a few in his college (referring roughly to the UK equivalent of high school in the US)  application - and was well received (more in the interview).

Ollie's definition of vlogging is one of my favorites (or, in this case, favourites):

Vlogging is...being social awkward to a camera.