Popular YouTube Star Quits Denny’s. Goes Full-Time.
Michael Buckley, writer and host of “What the Buck Show,” has left his full-time job as regional assistant director at Denny’s to plunge full-time into online-video entertainment. Read about it in this New York Post article (found courtesy of this relatively new blog, “YouTube Reviewed“). Here are some quotes about his departure from a recent blog.tv show Buckley hosted.
In a phone interview, Buckley told WillVideoForFood that he’ll miss serving Grand Slam breakfasts, and his co-workers and customers. “It made me cry a little bit, and not just because I’ll miss the 30% off employee discount,” said Buckley.
It is exciting to see a person leave a day job to commit to online video, and other YouTubers (CharlesTrippy, Sxephil, MrSafety) are finding their online work brings more income than day jobs.
Note in this interview with MrSafety Tyra Banks announces that Cory (smpfilms) makes $20,000 a month on YouTube. His response: “who told you?” I happened to be in NYC with Cory the day prior, and I hope he doesn’t mind me telling you that the shirt he bought for this interview cost more than my first suit.
Now we just have to figure out how to do this when you have four kids, a mound of debt, and a giant mortgage.
Zardoz
And a giant congratulations and all the best to him.
Peter- certainly you meant Cory, right? And Marquis- I’m reading that book about the rich kid who went hiking in Alaska and they found him dead in a bus. Great stories of the secret underlife of America.
I actually meant Mr. Buckley… He’s the only one of them I watch. Not that Mr. Safety isn’t good but I just can’t get into it. Buck is fast, silly, and topical. He makes a damn good show and deserves success. It’s like what Extra should be: celeb/pop culture news with rather witty commentary. And 5 minutes.
Congrats to the hardest working guy on You Tube.
$20K a month on youtube????? Oh my god. Not only is that guy a tool, he’s a rich tool. I guess that’s what a rabid fan base of 14 year old girls will do for you.
No, those are not sour grapes I’m eating. Well, maybe a few.
Oh, you said “we.” Can I take that to mean, “WE” here at WVFF.com or did you mean “WE” as in the actors called the wife and kids in the fantasy suburban paradise you call home?
Either way, one thing I noticed all the Tubers above have in common is a constant theme. Sure they toss in a little variety now and again, but they pretty much stick to the same theme and build on that. So I think the first question is what’s your theme?
What’s MY theme?
Day jobs just get in the way.
(Congrats Michael!)
Thank you for the post Nalts and the nice comments everyone!
Love Buck
Well, that kills my plans of getting a big gay grand slam for breakfast. Oh well, it’s all good, and I’m almost as happy for buck as I am jealous of him.
Believe me, if my YouTube stuff could bring in half what I make at work, I’d probably ditch the place and wait tables for the other half. Fortunately, because of the facts that 1-my videos are pretty lame, and 2-I’m sort of sporadic in my posting of them, I won’t have to worry about that.
😀
@11
hey, if I ever make money off my youtube videos, it would be undefinably times more than what I’m currently making (figure = amount I could make [estimated at $0.01 per video] / amount I currently make [known to be $0.00 per year] it’s undefinably more because anything over 0 is undefined.
oh, and Mr. Buckley, congratulations.
No! That means that my Grand Slam Breakfast will never be the same. Will the waitress still spill my coffee with the same distain? Will I have to wait in line to get a seat at a dirty table? NOOOoooooooO!
Good luck Buck!!!
@3 Kevin
Ah, the suicidal supertramp. Yeah, that’s a great story of idealism and monumental stupidity and the hubris of youth. Contrast McCandles to another idealist who did the same thing in Alaska but with much different results:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsfB6oJ55wM
@10 thanks for the Hallmark 😉
@8 ummm something six feet under? tuberculosis?
Actually, I did a deep analysis of your work calulating hits and audience reaction and I think you should focus on, The World Of Peter Coffin; both real and animated, with an occasional song every now and again
@14 some days that’s exactly what I’d like to do
Did Mike really work at Dennys? Really? hahah c’mon you’re joking right?
Your bandwidth was exceeded when I tried to post this last night:
Most (all?) of these successful YouTube weblebrities are considerably younger and singler and less parental than Nalts. Children are a poor man’s wealth (Danish proverb) … and also a middle-class man’s. Losing proposition, investment-wise.
Nalts, if you decided to take that leap, you’d be successful, but you just can’t give up the security and the material things. You can’t get fewer children, but you can decide to live simpler … if the family will go along with it. I believe you’ll be a huge creative success one day. I do.
@16 thanks for the constant encouragement. And OF COURSE I’M KIDDING about Denny’s. I think it was an Old Country Buffet. Click article for truth.
Old Country Buffet is amazing. Buck left a mountain for a molehill if that was the case. 😛
Well, dur, Nalts would be sucessful. He knows exactly what he’s doing.
@ 17 I wasn’t. Oh well maybe about the dirty table part. But I wouldn’t eat at a resturant that didn’t have at least one surly waitress. ;^)
I of course wish Buck good luck but I know he won’t need it because he has what so many others do not and that is actual talent.
Oh and Nalts, let me know if you’re ever hiring at Nalts Inc, eh? I could bring you scones or be the fluffer or something.