The Gregory Brothers Auto-Tune the World of Online Comedy
“South by Southwest was good for us to pilot our live show, since we’re about to go on tour,” says Evan.
They’ve Headlined the DigiTour
The DigiTour was a live music event that brought together some of the biggest names in YouTube on stages across the country. The tour featured headliners, such as The Gregory Brothers, Dave Days, DeStorm, and MysteryGuitarMan, who played most of the shows. Other acts played a few of the shows. The event attracted YouTube as a sponsor, which was a natural fit. When we spoke to Evan, the tour was days away from starting.
“It involves bringing together a handful of prominent musicians on YouTube that came up and found their following online, and built their fan base solely by distributing their music on YouTube and on online video platforms,” explains Evan. While the Gregories are comfortable on stage, Evan says that isn’t true of all the tour’s performers.
The fact that the tour exists is a sign of the power of online video. It’s one thing to get people to watch a video while relaxing at home; it’s another thing to get them to pay money and plan a night out. Online video is growing in power, and younger people especially are tuning in for cutting-edge work.
“They love their favorite stars,” says Evan of the viewers. “The musicians on YouTube are one of the biggest things that fans connect to. There’s this whole growing segment of the population where it’s like their primary entertainment medium, just to go on YouTube and watch the regular shows that are put on by everyone ranging from vloggers to musicians to filmmakers to people with camera phones.”
To appeal to younger concertgoers, the tour kept ticket prices low, between $8 and $20. Shows were held in small arenas and theaters. The Gregory Brothers planned to play 30- to 45-minute sets. Of course, there was a video component to their performances, and there were surprise appearances by Antoine Dodson himself.
“The DigiTour is the inevitable next chapter for the live appearance of those people who have gained popularity through the medium,” says Evan.
Their Work Was Featured on the Oscars
An even bigger honor hit The Gregory Brothers in January 2011, when the producers of the Academy Awards reached out to them to create Auto-Tune segments for the ceremony.
“It was just exceedingly flattering to get a phone call from them,” says Evan.
It turned out that the Gregories had been on the producers’ radar for a while, and they were looking to appeal to younger viewers with this year’s show. Viral video creators were a perfect fit.
The collaboration was the longest process that the foursome has so far experienced, since it involved creating a concept and then delivering work that all the producers were happy with. Evan is pleased that the producers approached them directly, rather than getting other talent to simply copy the Auto-Tune format.
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