There is something particularly human and appealing about Internet Superstar’s Live ROFLcon show, and I doubt The Networks will ever be able to match it.
ROFLcon is a conference held at MIT that features viral stars of the Internet. Homestar Runner creators The Brothers Chapman, xkcd cartoonist Randal Munroe, or JibJab founders Gregg and Evan Spiridellis meet with fans to talk about making and consuming all the silly, viral stuff that your boss is furious that you were watching on company time but is secretly glad he discovered through you.
Internet Superstar is basically a talk show, and this live episode is shot in a classroom. The hosts sit behind a small table. Guests sit on those chairs with the flip up desks. The name of the show is written on the chalk board. Middle schools produce TV shows with better sets.
And yet, that’s the appeal. Even though it’s called Internet Superstar, the show is completely unpretentious. These people are genuinely and authentically goofing around, making a TV show about all the wacky stuff on the Internet. Martin Sargent plays the host and does a good job getting his guests to tell their stories. Not that these people need much of a prompt. His sidekick Gator plays a southern hick who delivers a lot of laughs with references to Warrant tapes and such like.
To be sure, just because the set is decidedly downscale, don’t assume the production values are. The image quality is very good. And everybody’s wearing well-configured lavalier mics, so the audio - that could have sucked in a concrete block classroom - is crisp and strong.
The guest? Well, they’re what you’d expect from ROFLcon. There’s the Leslie Hall, who turned a love of gem sweaters into a Midwestern Internet media empire. Denny Blaze (link below w/ note), whose early ’80s white rap video became a viral phenomenon, propelling his career to new heights. And Jay Maynard, the Tron Guy. That is, the guy who dresses in a helmet and skin-tight unitard with faux circuits drawn on them. Y’know, like, Tron? He turned a Halloween costume into a painfully awkward skit opposite Mike Tyson on a Jimmy Kimmel show
I think I’ve said enough. Watch, and you shall ROFL. Except for a particular portion of the intro that should definitely have found the cutting room floor. Digitally speaking.
Note: If you click this link to www.dennyblaze.com you will be met with auto-playing audio media. To shut it off, scroll to the very bottom of this long-ass page. This is worst practice. So why don’t you just not click it at all.
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