I didn't mention him quite as much as I wanted to in the last post because it was actually supposed to be more about MyMusic than good ol' Jack here - which is quite remarkable because I mentioned Jacksfilms quite a lot.
But I decided he deserved his own post because there's something about his channel(s) and his videos that kind of..... I can't think of an appropriate verb. It affects me. In a positive way.
Let me explain.
Jack is around..... 25. Thereabouts, methinks. He majored in film and minored in music when he went to college (which I could totally completely see myself doing) and now he makes his living by making Youtube videos. Literally. That's his job. His job is to make music videos or sketches or parodies or whatever that make people laugh.
And he doesn't take it lightly. Every Monday you've got a new PMS (parody/music video/sketch), every Friday we've got a new Your Grammar Sucks video. I mean, now and then the videos are a little late, but they come. They're made. And when they're late they tend to be really good.
And you can tell, when you really think about the videos you're watching that there is a LOT of TIME and EFFORT and ENERGY put into his videos. I mean, you can tell. They're not feature films or anything, but it's a production nonetheless. It's obvious.
But what you can also tell from those videos is that Jack LOVES IT. He loves working on his videos. He's got his own green screen and he buys new equipment like microphones and he animates stuff into his videos. AT LEAST half the time he's working on them with friends and stuff - there's a remarkably large community of relatively big Youtubers all kinda in one area in California - so in a bunch of his videos you've got Tobuscus who has his own dedicated fanbase (Jack does too..... we're called his "biches" [pronounced BIH - HES, extra H, Hebrew style]) and you've got Sean Klitzner. This trio in particular are known for working together and being friends, to the point where they've sort of been dubbed the "Sideburns Crew" - all three of them have really fantastic sideburns. He's also friends with Olga Kay and has appeared in her videos and she's appeared in his and a lot of the time he's just goofing off with his friends. Right?
Jack has been making videos for seven years. And still going strong. This gig just doesn't get old for him.
And maybe this is the "two o'clock in the morning clearly haven't gotten enough sleep - holy crap it's three thirty, when did that happen?!" talking, but I think that's admirable. That he's still going strong, and enjoying it.
I mean, especially in Your Grammar Sucks, it doesn't look like it takes that much effort, right? I mean, he just stands in front of a green screen and recites bad comments. But the thing is, he narrows down like sixty comments to about thirty - seriously, he showed the process, he read all the submissions and picked the ones he thought were really funny - and then he reads them all, out loud, individually, sometimes in different voices that he can choose from in the editing room. I mean, I would say Your Grammar Sucks is probably his most low-maintenance series he has going and that's still a lot of time and effort. And I can't even imagine how long it takes to edit that. Hours, I would guess.
And then.... well, I mean, just look at the rest of his videos. Lots of time, lots of energy put into that.
^He wrote that. And shot that. And edited that. Colour me impressed. (Even if he doesn't have the chest hair.... most of his videos where he's shirtless you can see that he shaved his chest hair into the batman symbol. Because he's a badass, that's why. Yeah, I heard you questioning it all the way from here.)
I mean, then you've got, my personal favourite at the moment:
Never mind that it's Christmas themed. That's a LOT of energy put into that. I mean, come on. You can tell. Right?
I've realized recently that I'm always attracted to (and then tend to get obsessed with) things that have a lot of passion put into them. Things where you can tell that the people making it actually really enjoy themselves and put all that time and energy into it not because they have to but because they genuinely want to. It makes a difference in what the thing ends up being, right? Can you imagine what Whose Line would have been like if they were sick of doing improv? If they didn't enjoy each other? It wouldn't have lasted eight seasons, I can tell you that.
You can just tell. That's the thing. It comes off kind of stale if they're not really enjoying themselves (that's also what I loved about Community - all the cast members are actually friends, and it definitely is part of the show's magic). And Jacksfilms just is not stale at all. He loves what he's doing. I mean, he's the first Youtuber I've seen where he seems genuinely delighted everytime he gets fanmail. Seriously. Like, almost equal excitement for the smaller things -
As well as the bigger things -
And I really like that.
So how is this post an allegory?
Well let me tell you.
My fondest wish is that when I am grown up and I have to start making a living for myself and earn money and everything is that I am able to make money by doing something that I love to do, that I am happy to put all my energy and enthusiasm into and I don't get tired of. And Jack does just that. I mean, I'm not saying I'll be a Youtuber - I'm not NEARLY entertaining enough - but I do want to do something that I'll be happy about doing every day. That is my wish. And people like Jack give me hope that I can do that. I watch his videos, I see the time and energy he puts into it, and the fun he has doing it, and it just lights me up.
See, no matter whether he's doing a sketch with his friends -
- helping one of them with THEIR videos -
^ classic Sideburns Crew right here
- or just messing with them -
- he has as much fun doing this -
- as he does doing this.
(This is my favourite song now, actually. Thank you Jack Douglass.)
And I think that's remarkable.
NAILED IT.
P.S Look, I would completely spam you with Jacksfilms videos and trivia, but that's kind of a jerk thing to do. I will, however, give you just one more video:
There's a lovely trend you may have seen on Youtube recently, the "Draw my Life" phenomenon. Every Youtuber is doing it. And usually I'm not into big Youtube trends (I only found out about Harlem Shake LONGGGGGG after anyone cared anymore) but this particular trend is actually kind of beautiful. People just..... tell their life story. Which is just so fascinating, to see a different depth to someone that you only know from Youtube or whatever, to have people be that open about stuff. It's awesome. And when I saw Jack's video....... let's just say that I connected.
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