Interview · moment 6 of 23
Building a Following From His Mom's Basement
from Behind the Youtube (with Joe Santagato) · #52
Audio-only archive episode — no video to seek.
5 minGuest
Joe details starting on YouTube at 18, getting demonetized for years, refusing to censor himself or chase young-girl-friendly content, and the slow grind of one video a week for years while filming behind a bedsheet in his mom's basement.
- 16:52Tim got his first camera as a kid and has been interested in filming since he was super young.
- 17:09At 11 or 12, he and his friend Frankie shot skits on cassette tape—American Idol parodies, wrestling matches, character bits.
- 17:43In his family, everyone's hysterical and loud; he figured filming and writing jokes was the only way to get heard.
- 18:24Tim argues comedians criticize YouTube creators out of envy and jealousy, but many standups put out garbage too.
- 18:58Creators build huge, engaged fanbases in ways that take standups years, and most never get there at all.
- 19:41When he started at 18, he didn't think of it as a career—just a place to upload videos and look back on them later.
- 20:06His first videos were of him and a friend at a summer house in Connecticut, drinking by a fire and going on boats.
- 20:24He decided to curse, not censor himself, and not appeal to the young girls who were the majority of YouTube users at the time.
- 20:43His first video was ridiculous—an entire rant about sluts—which he's pretty sure he privatized because it wasn't good.
- 21:17Tim advises people not to assume they're starting a career, because it takes three or four years to build any real momentum.