Sunday, July 20, 2008

Internet Video Star: Bwana McCall

Justine, Veronica, and Leah D’Emilio are all very beautiful and talented Internet video stars. But let’s face it, all three of them probably aspire (some of them already successfully) to actually be on television. While they’ve put their talents to good use, I don’t see them utilizing the new technology in particularly new ways. This isn’t a slam on any of them, especially as many of the old ways have been proved over time to be very effective.

For a whole variety of reasons that I’d wind up naming Justine, Veronica and Leah, is no surprise. But my favorite Internet video person, at least in terms of using the new medium as, well, a new medium, is actually a man. Sorry, Lon Harris, I'm not looking at you, though I do enjoy your videos too.

My favorite on the net, at least tech-wise is someone you’ve probably never heard of. His name is Bwana McCall. A few people apparently pitched in to buy Bwana and his wife new 3G iPhones. I know, yet another frakking post mentioning the 3G iPhone. It probably won’t stop until I break down and buy something I absolutely don’t need to buy. Sorry.

Anyway, Apple should just give Bwana phones and free phone service and let the man make videos. Some of his screencasts/tutorials are wonderfully produced and extremely informative.

Other times, like this one where Bwana unboxes his new phone are just fun. Watch the video in that link and stay until the end for the “Muahahaha I got a new iPhone” evil laugh. Anytime someone is as talented as Bwana and loves the tech so, so much – you have to encourage it.

It should probably work out where Bwana winds up a superstar who is even more popular than Louis Gray and Scoble. They’ll all have nice gigs, but Bwana has a great presence in his videos and over the long haul, presence in videos on the Internet will be a very, very useful skill to have. Truth is, there are many aspects of what the kids are calling “social media” that can be easily faked. But good video presence is not one of them.

Many opportunities will open up for people with great video presence. While Apple is probably best off just giving Bwana gadgets, if they don’t figure that out some company that is developing applications for the iPhone will surely be able to put Bwana’s skills to excellent use, pay him a respectable wage, give him free phone service and be delighted with the proposition.

3 comments:

Ken Stewart said...

Robert, I couldn't agree more. I stumbled across Bwana on Plurk, and quickly found that his vids were intriguing to me, but it was Bwana's warm and personal nature that set them apart for me.

Anonymous said...

Thanks Robert :)

Outsanity said...

Yeah, Bwana is a cool cat. You know you're very liked when people donate for not one but two iPhones.