Greetings,
Have you ever known that one person who knows a lot of random facts about random things and they talk about all of it all the time, but they're so interesting and entertaining that you just can't help listening every time they start up? Well, everyone, let me introduce you to the subject of today's YouTube channel, Austin McConnell. Although, considering he has almost 400,000 subscribers, you may already know about him. But whatever. We're doing this.
Austin McConnell has quickly become one of my favorite YouTubers. He's a film maker and a writer and he talks about things I'm interested in. And even when he talks about things I'm NOT interested in, the way he talks about them suddenly makes me kind of interested. According to the YouTube stats, he posted his first video about five years ago, and things were a bit sparse for a while. I think he only did about twenty videos in the subsequent few years. But then, in August of 2016, he posted something that changed everything. Apparently. It was about what was wrong with Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. Now, I do not like Harry Potter, so I don't click on anything that has to do with it. But this looked like it was gonna talk about it negatively, so I was in! And I'm so glad I watched it, because it was thoroughly enjoyable. Other people must have felt the same way, since it was pretty popular and seemed to lead to even more and even better videos.
Now I don't remember how it is that I came to discover this channel. I think it was one of those cases where YouTube recommended it to me based on other things I've watched. Of course, that doesn't always work out as their wires seem to get crossed sometimes. It's like, no, YouTube. I want to watch people MOCK BuzzFeed videos. I don't want to watch the actual BuzzFeed video. However, in this case, it paid off. I watched that first video of his, then I moved on to the one where he told me about a book called House of Leaves, which I am very grateful for, then on to the one about Gilmore Girls, which proved to be more entertaining than the actual show. And as time moved on, I watched all the videos. I have not been disappointed.
The really fun thing about this channel is that you kinda never know what you're gonna get. I mean, one time he's talking about Star Wars, then a film challenge, then something about KFC! Waiting for a new video from Austin McConnell is like waiting for a birthday gift from that one relative that always gives you something great. You don't know what you're gonna get, but you always know it's gonna be good. And that's an important thing, because the best way to build and keep a fan base is to establish trust with your audience. He has certainly done that.
On a more serious note . . . I guess . . . I'll say something else about Austin McConnell. He seems like a really, really nice guy. The good kind of nice guy, I mean. He proved this back in January of 2018. See, YouTube has this new thing that says you can't monetize your videos unless you have a thousand subscribers and log a few thousand hours of having your videos watched. Well, that was a blow to a lot of people who didn't fit that criteria, even though we all know there are fantastic channels that are flying just under the radar. Well, in an effort to help, Austin spotlighted five channels that had under a thousand subscribers but that he felt deserved more. Considering I ended up subscribing to them, obviously, I agree. Now he didn't have to do that, but apparently he, like many of us, has decided that if YouTube isn't gonna take care of us, we have to take care of each other. And it's not enough for big channels to just complain, but rather, they can help. It's clear that he appreciates the hard work, talent and creativity that comes from the people who run those channels, so he helped them to reach more people. And it paid off. I think they all hit that thousand and beyond.
In addition to all that, something that really stands out is how personal Austin lets himself get in his videos. He talks quite a bit about his own experiences. The good, the bad, the successes, the failures. And he's not afraid to get emotional about all of it. It makes him seem even more like a real person, which he is, which is something that we can forget when we only see someone on a computer screen. He's not perfect, he knows this and he has no shame in admitting that. Especially because, despite everything, he keeps going and he encourages us to do that same.
In closing, I will once again say how much I love this channel and the man behind it. It's just nice to see someone who is so passionate about art and books and cinema and all things creative. For lack of better phrasing, being passionate about the arts seems to be a lost art. Thankfully, though, Austin McConnell is keeping it alive through his channel. He's informing us and entertaining us and putting smiles on our faces. That's more than I expect from most things on YouTube and it's much more than we could ever ask for.
Love and full moons,
Becky the Writer
Austin-McConnells-Channel
