Sometimes all it takes is a good idea and some luck. These folks had both. (The Internet helped.)
How it happened: Escola and his friend Jeffery Self
had each grown up filming videos. But VGL Gay Boys, the YouTube series that made them
famous, was so simple: just the two of them chatting or performing skits pegged
to pop-culture headlines and loaded with plenty of personality and gay humor.
They'd been slowly gaining fans since the show launched in 2008, but it was the
"Gay Marriage" episode, which they posted in May of 2008 amid much
debate about the issue, that very quickly garnered them more than 100,000
clicks and a cult following. Cole still has no idea how the series caught on.
"We were just two guys making stupid videos," Escola says. Still,
Escola and Self had been wanting to break into theater and showbiz"But
Escola and Self had been wanting to break into theater and show biz, so they
jumped on the wave of support and announced a live stage show at Joe's Pub in
August 2008. That's when the Logo executives came knocking. The guys have since
produced two seasons of the Jeffery and Cole Casserole as a TV show for Logo, and a third
season is in negotiations. Self and Escola have both landed gigs outside of the
Internet: Escola guest-starred in an episode of Law
& Order and
helmed a one-man show at Joe's Pub, and Self made a guest appearance on 30
Rock as Liz Lemon's
gay cousin last year. They've also written a film script that they're currently
shopping around.
His advice: If you want your YouTube videos to
get attention, make them topical—The "Gay Marriage" episode that made
them famous aired right after the California Supreme Court had overturned
the state's ban on gay weddings.
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