YouTube channel Smosh is solidifying its spot in the new era of YouTube with a live, improved sitcom presentation.
Transcript:
Patricia Battle: OK did you grow up watching any comedians that sort of, like, inspired you?
Shayne Topp: Yeah, absolutely. My family was obsessed with Saturday night live, but in particular, older eras of Saturday Night Live. We would watch a ton of reruns of in particular, my favorites were always Chris Farley and Phil Hartman. A lot of my comedy, a lot of my characters are very clearly inspired from them. And other than them, though, I often when I was younger and even still, I would stay up and I would watch Conan O’Brien every night. I loved late night with Conan O’Brien. When he was on The Tonight show, I went and saw a couple of his shows live for the short run he had. And I’ve really been a fan of everything he’s done. I love his humor, how he’s willing to play the bad guy. But you can tell that he has so much love for the people around him. But so those are absolutely my inspirations. But there’s many. There’s many.
Patricia Battle: And how do you practice and perfect your craft as a comedian and how has it evolved over time?
Shayne Topp: It’s something you never really perfect. You’re kind of always I don’t even know if you’re improving, but you’re also just always evolving and changing as a comedian and a performer. When I started, I’d say like 10 years ago, I feel like I was the one who was always the, the insane one on, on, on screen or on stage. I was bringing the, the volume, I was bringing the chaos. And over time, with such a big cast at smosh and people who play such different roles, what I feel like I’ve developed into is also being able to play the voice of reason sometimes and being the one who’s kind of helping support the crazy people around me and acknowledging how crazy their performance is and communicating that to the audience.
Patricia Battle: You’ve played many characters in Smosh’s comedy sketches, especially in the try not to laugh challenges. Some characters off the top of my head. Courtney freaking Miller. Tom Cruise. How did you come up with these different characters?
Shayne Topp: So a lot of them kind of begin with the costume and you just go out there. We with try not to laugh. There’s no time to think or plan. So you kind of have to just go and. From that comes some of the best stuff. Courtney freaking Miller in particular. I created that character because Courtney Miller, my cast mate and my wife was sick that day. And so we needed someone to hop in for her. They were like, Shane, do you want to hop in? I go, yeah, let’s find a wig. I’ll just be Courtney and let’s just not acknowledge it. So I put on this wig and I the cameras roll. And I decide to just play the character like a WWE wrestler, the most aggressive human on the planet. And it just kind of evolved from there with every yes and, you know, other people are saying something about my character. I go, yep, that’s true now. And we just kind of keep piling it on. Every character I play is basically a snowball effect and it’s some of the most fun that we get to have at Smosh because we’re making so much content. We’re making videos week after week that there’s so much opportunity to let these characters grow and a lot of them are years old now. And they didn’t become what people remember them as until I’ve been playing them for like a year or two. It’s a blast. And I’ve told our fans, like they play a part in creating these characters because I read the comments, I see their reaction, I see what they like about the character, I see what they’re assuming about a character, and then I let that play into it as well.
Patricia Battle: It seems like you have your hands in multiple projects, you’re on a podcast, you do live events and you’re acting in multiple sketches. How do you prevent or manage burnout as a content creator?
Shayne Topp: You know, I am still figuring out the solution to that. It’s, it’s tough. YouTube is really, really hard in the sense that you really don’t get a break. You kind of have to keep making content. It’s or else if you go dark, it’s, it’s scary. No YouTubers really do that. I mean it’s a scary thing. I think it’s finding ways to rely on my other castmates is a great way. We have a great ensemble and there are days where I come in and I tell my co-host on our podcast or I tell my castmates and you know, for filming, like I try not to laugh or something big energy. I’ve let my castmates know, like, hey, I’m tired today. I’m not bringing my a-game. I’m not feeling like I’m bringing my a-game. I need to rely on you guys today. And they’ll be like, I got your back. And it’s really great to have a team around us.
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