[Music] welcome to ear biscuits I’m link and I’m Rhett it’s time once again for another candid conversation with someone interesting from the internet this time we are conversing with the creator of the amazingly successful YouTube channel Epic Meal Time the sauce boss himself Harley Morenstein we talked to him about his very hyperactive childhood and also just how many things he tried before he became a success on YouTube with Epic Meal Time and also what kind of mindset results in a successful YouTube series and the relational casualties that are a byproduct of that mm-hmm but you know okay so I you know I’m excited about you guys here in this conversation we had with Harley but I will say that we have a chip on our shoulder we have a pilot I said we have a beef with Epic Meal Time Oh pawn because I’m very into puns yes you are and well okay it is a little bit more of a chip maybe it’s like a potato chip on our shoulder to use it’s not really an epic Meal Time spawn well no but it’s just food okay meaning that I’m glad you know I hardly is a friend and I’m glad they’re successful and we went red is trying to say that he stole our idea no I am saying that first of all I feel like it’s in one sense our past the there’s a lot of ideas in our past that we do something and it kind of doesn’t work and then a couple years later we see somebody else do it and they’re like oh and we’re that’s how it’s supposed to be done that’s how it’s supposed to be done and be done successfully okay so you’re talking about we made an epic rap battle and then it turns out you add of history to it and it just turns out to be one of the most amazing musical series in the history of the internet and in not V in and if and when we have the opportunity to talk to nice Peter about that we’ll tell him we’ll talk about that but in the case of Epic Meal Time our story is that you go all the way back to 2000 it was probably 2004 2005 when we made a video called the burger Zeebo we invented a fake fast-food restaurant called Burgas B you are Gaz right and the only item sold at burgers was well two items it was the bur gazebo which was a burger that looked like a gazebo it was like held up by like edible sticks of some kind well they weren’t edible and that was supposed to be edible in the in the you know in the fake world of the burger Z we made a fake commercial we showed the gazebo shaped burger and then we made some videos where we went and I had a mega tater I wanna oh yeah it was the mega tater commercial which was a really large french fried it was just one french fry that you would put in a french fried box it was just a huge big ol basically a baked potato well a raw potato was shaved into the shape of a you know a square or whatever so we may I mean not really epic meals but just kind of ridiculous that was the that was the seed to an idea that later happened in 2008 was that summer 2008 that we did the alka-seltzer good American road trip yeah so part of one of the videos as part of that great American road trip was in Chicago in doing this idea where we were like what is the best food what is the best food in Chicago is it the Italian beef is it deep-dish pizza or is it the hotdog because those are like the three main food offerings from Chicago and we had this idea hey what if we put all these together and we created what we call an epic meal the Chicago ziba we did not use the terms epic or meal no he didn’t we could time the Chicago Zebo which wasn’t a huge double-decker Italian beef pizza that was held together by basically like a gazebo but the pillars of the gazebo were large hotdogs I think our problem is we thought the key to this thing was it needed to be shaped like a gazebo and that doesn’t matter at all it just needs to be epic and melee in these videos I don’t know if the the burger Zeebo videos are still on the internet but I know the Chicago Zeebo is still on our Channel and you can see that we went on WGN we went on that the WGN motion show Chicago and we sang a jingle we introduced the Chicago z-bo on the air anyway no one cares about the video it hardly has any use but you know it just it hits me when I when I when I think about epicMealTime I was like you know what were we doing wrong I mean we had this crazy creation that was a pizza and hot dogs and Italian beef all together in the shape of gazebo we even wrote a song about it but it just didn’t work for us yeah all the elements didn’t come together I mean if you want to know how to do it look at their first video and everyone afterward right you know and the thing that I love about our conversation with Harley is that you see everything that led up to him coming up with that idea and then how he was so ready to execute it and pull the trigger once he saw a little bit of success or maybe what at the time was a lot of success so let’s get into this conversation with Harley amazingly successful almost 6 million subscribers on youtube.com slash Epic Meal Time and over 600 million views here it is our ear biscuit is it an epic biscuit I think it’s just a regular ear biscuit but I mean this is epic this is about as epic as an air biscuit as you can have in terms of the meal analogy here’s our conversation with Harley why don’t you take us back we like to go back to the the not the conception but you know our the inception but the the beginnings of Harley uh all right I got some good stuff what are you from I’m from Montreal Canada so it’s like six hours north of New York it’s very French I’m fully English uh you speak French yeah they force you you have to learn French if you were I’m some French honest hot to mention no I hate the way I sound I speak French very ugly to Mars led back on Baku just we Renee just we Aloha those are good those are good accent listen my French you know Bonjour Mon Oh a Harley has a memoir the lair diet coke avec mares at me read a link so in other words you don’t try to to cop the French accent at all no oh no I can’t like cuz then it’s just it’s it’s almost this fake attempt at trying to like I would be acting in my speaking you know right listen if it’s like a roll and I gotta embrace it then maybe I would approach it as such but to just talk to you guys like I don’t really speak French like that so why would I you know like even you guys did voices when you spoke French you know no no no no that was that’s my voice that’s not your friend speak French in a French accent I think I actually kind of had of like an Italian thing going honestly but yeah we both had a horrible thing going it’s a beautiful language very musical I’m just not a musical or beautiful person so I don’t really carry the language that well but people in Montreal going around speaking French this is what they say so when you’re when you’re 16 years old like I live in the West Island at 75 percent English that place but it’s in a city that’s you know 75 percent French but when you go for a job you sit down for your interview and he’ll start asking you questions and then halfway through he’ll just turn to French and you have to turn to French and keep going and then he’ll have a conversation with you and French and English as he’s interviewing you and it’s not like yeah if you don’t do the French party you’re like sorry can you say that in English you’re sorry I didn’t get the job son Kylie yeah you blew it didn’t speak French properly so in grade school I rearrange that or in your house so if you’re I mean you guys can research further but this is from what I believe and it’s pretty close to this or it was like this at one point I’m not exactly sure if this is how it is now but if your parents one of your parents are both your parents are immigrants you must learn French you must be in a French school so all French so that means like everything is French except for English class and this is this is what’s messed up is because you learn you know math a certain way and then you get to fourth grade now your is in French and if you’re not grasping math the last thing you want to do is learn it in two languages yeah that’s French numbers are the same though right yeah numbers are the same numbers are the same but saying them out loud is you know it’s that’s where it like it’s for example what is it you know uh you know bummed ass yeah been bass brackets exponents multiplication division yes the order of which you approach something orders operation so this is the time that I’m getting to that in the fourth grade them – associative and then you get then you get to French and now bem – is something different because all those letters are different words so like it’s that’s just an example fractions you want to talk fractions it’s like you know two thirds in in French duty are it’s like something completely different right that’s where it gets confusing so in fourth grade your life got turned upside down when it comes to math and language I brag I’m good I was good okay I was good at French not speaking it but I can read it I can understand it but I was just kind of speaking just I became a teacher later on in life and I just loved it stuff like that differently I like just when I started to see how people teach you stuff like that like that was in those weird to me because it’s like what’s the point of teaching math and French and you know it’s the whole French thing it’s it’s cool but I just remember it being a headache at the time I don’t if you guys ever read Malcolm Gladwell books I have actually haven’t actually read one but I do know point all this stuff yeah this whole thing of like why you know his theory of white Chinese people are better at math and it comes down to at the basic form just numbers themselves are shorter and easier to remember and instead like you know stay it’s not set up so sinks I’m like 11 12 13 you say 10 1 10 to 10 3 so when you speak it it scent makes better sense than when you’re like 6 and you’re like what the fuck is at 12 1 2 3 4 10 and then what’s at 12 and then it’s 22 mmm it’s now 12 is abandoned 12 is its own word for you know rent – but in China it’s like you know – 10 2 3 10 – 10 100 a word is 10 10 in Chinese Samara multiplication yeah exactly so so he was saying that you know because it’s easy to grasp just in a language base they’re more and when you’re good at something you’ll do more of it so the kids are better at math because they grasp it easier just from the way that they speak and you know then it just they try harder at it and just trying harder at it makes you better at it later in life because you you know follow a certain path whereas when you’re huh graduate or you drop out of school because you’re like math you know I’m super good at it and sports great cool but what but then there’s kids you know it’s like they’re learning French for you know geography like now right no United States you’re trying to find where it is on the map but here’s the catch it is a different name now now it’s called a tazuna and so it’s like that messes you up so you’re trying to grasp these two languages and life at the same time but it makes you smarter well it makes a smart visual brain but now I’m happy because now I come to LA you know and French is cool to know you speak French and it’s like yeah and then I say things you know say something and shins burger like bacon extra meal what does that mean just means me beautiful but really I’m just I just said cheeseburger with bacon extra mayonnaise and a French accent but it doesn’t matter just knowing French is a cool thing now and now it’s like I download like duolingo on my iPhone I can I’m gonna learn Spanish to I do it a little bit I don’t really learn anything but yeah it’s cool I wish I learned I wish I learned six languages growing up you know my brother talks to his kid in like Spanish they don’t even know Spanish but they throw all these Spanish words at the kid and learn sentences and throw it at the kid maybe they pick up some Spanish too you know so okay so you were you were good at that you were good in school even over that obstacle well let’s bring it back after second French I actually in first grade okay mm-hmm and the first grade we had our teacher and and this other teacher would come Miss Monroe and when everyone was doing like the alphabet and math like she would come and get Harley Douglas and Newton and we would go to roll clay ball so like when I was like five or six and Miss Monroe would come yeah yeah like we’d like play with clay or they’d show us how to hold a pencil and like trace okay so everyone’s like doing like writing and I would stand up like suckers I’m willing miss Monroe she’s so nice and so encouraging yeah and at the end of grade one I’ll never forget this the teacher did this she goes everyone passed except for Douglas and Newton and I remember my heart stopped gin-san Harley I don’t never forget that she said it in front of the class the whole teacher and it’s like 91 but still he’s a 91 that’s like what 20 30 years 20 years ago right yeah so like it’s just different time announce it in front of the kids – kids failed and it wasn’t me and I was happy cuz redoing all that would have destroyed me if I had to do that sooner I went into grade – and that’s when I was good at school now what was this some demented art teacher was I was retarded in grade one right and like yeah Harley is retarded like Douglas Newton or mentally slow I don’t know the exact word of what I was okay and I don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings out there if we if we keep going with my life we’ll get to the part where I work with mentally challenged people so I want to go around the r-word right listen listen you know I don’t know how to describe myself as anything else than retarded so they I went with Douglas Newton who when I was in grade one I was like these guys can weird you know like Douglas didn’t speak Douglas couldn’t speak and Newton fought everyone and I swear to god he was four years older than everyone what do you get group with them two reasons or or curious one I was retarded maybe that’s worked in you my my mom like a neurotic Jewish mom was like I want to make sure my boy really gets help and and he’s gonna get this extra care or you know I’m gonna make sure my son is or maybe she was like my son’s a little retarded but um you know who knows or maybe I want my son to learn how to roll balls out of cameras like you knows I feels like I’ll never forget because was like Christmastime and we were like taking Klan she was like enrolled balls like smooth out the line so it’s perfectly smooth out looks like Joe this is awesome and I got my buddy Matt Wilson in there like writing the alphabet Thunder you made it in under the wire into second great you got it we got a second Greg comes around okay subtraction comes into the picture and just like that addition subtraction like I like I was literally like math and I swear I was the best at at math and grade two I’ll never forget that like I got like eight pluses you guys do you guys ever have mad minutes a mad minute mad minute was the sickest thing I’ve ever get angry with each other but no madman it is like it’s the teacher would give you a piece of paper and it’s flipped upside down and you have one minute but K flip it over now and your time and you’d flip over the mad minute and it’s just like 30 examples like you know 2 minus 1 3 plus 4 and you’ve got a you do the whole thing 1 7 1 minute and if the teacher if you make a mistake on the first one that’s where she stops correcting you know oh and if you get 30 out of 33 I’m not having a streak and you can’t make a mistakes where ever you make a mistake that’s where she stops and that’s cool cuz you would do it and like and then you would flip it over when you’re done and you would go just but you would say that loud enough so the other kids knew that you were done so near like the forty second 55 seconds all these kids were like crazy and right at the end and when I was I killed those nice garden I didn’t know understand how the alphabet translated into looking up words in a dictionary no this couldn’t been kindergarten when you started looking up words in a dictionary and having to write the definition I mean what was this first second grade looking upward yeah that’s gotta be about maybe third grade you were learning how to write like I have kids who I should know this right I remember not really knowing how to look up words in the dictionary to write the definition and I got little camel to look him up for me really then I would write down the definition I was I could I did not know about that or alphabetical order yeah do you want us to explain it now or do you know it now I figured it out later thanks to the aw how long did it take till you figured it out I don’t know maybe by the next year I think I don’t remember when I got it but I do remember the instance when I didn’t have it and I was like oh I’m I’m losing it here I need Lynwood you got to help me buddy okay so that’s what things were like at school what about home what kind of home did you grow up in I have an older brother and an older sister my sister seven years older than me that my brother’s nine years older than me I got a mom and dad my dad’s really pink so I really pink like addition got pink skin he’s just like a white ass mouth like a like a baby pig like he has to wear like a hat and the Sun okay he’s like just like a pink ass like he’s hair all my buddies call him Papa pink yeah and they’re still together your pink yeah yeah yeah he’s got my dad’s got a nickname doghouse money that’s like his Twitter don’t go look at those really geeky so you got this like Jewish family they devout Jewish that work they’re like you know they’re like oh go to synagogue on Yom Kippur cuz you know Zadie you’ll be sad if you know so like guilt-tripping me Jewish guilt tripping me into Jewish holidays mmm it’s a tea with your grandfather grandfather grandfather bubbies a tea our grandmother grandfather and you know I would go and do like I would go to some holidays like I would join him at the synagogue like you know go there for a couple hours for that but like I mean you know we didn’t milk and meat bacon and cheese there was no we weren’t that Jewish so the whole the the later in life when bacon became a pretty big part of your identity it wasn’t like there were Jewish relatives who were like the only thing that happened is in one episode I put a pig head on a plate and give it to someone in an episode who’s wearing a Tallis and a kippah something like no no looks at her like sad and like and then yeah so he was an actor and so that episode when my parents saw you can’t do that you can’t sound like we’re talking about and they’re like the Jewish community will write you off for some some bullshit or not you know as a car bomb the Jewish community like it didn’t matter you know anyways I ended up doing it like I ended up still being written in like the combined Jewish magazine like like the next two weeks later but it’s just funny cuz written up meaning reprimand I interviewed inter okay so you’re you were the youngest child yep does that mean you were spoiled as a child yeah it’s definitely spoiled like my brother you know my brother got made fun of like when he went to school cuz you know the my parents are driving like a poas vehicle but by the time I come around ten years later it’s like they’re more human now my parents what did they do both had jobs my dad’s a contractor windows and doors my mom was a secretary at like an accessories place like belts and stuff like that she doesn’t do that anymore no shouldn’t do that anymore now she ships t-shirts for epicMealTime she is an employee yeah up in Montreal yeah and whenever this time I know my mom causes problems I’m like y’all what’s up with the t-shirt orders and she’s like there’s some where I’m like mom there’s a lot of other moms out there that would love to work for Epic Meal Time right now so you can shut up and ship these t-shirts you know so that’s your mo hire moms you’re like it’s working I’m gonna keep this going it’s actually it’s funny we had a I think like a relationship with a t-shirt company before that and they were just they just fell apart they didn’t they just didn’t expected the man when we first epicMealTime first rolled out of church there was just bacon strips shirt that sold like crazy and this company they just instead of handling it or like just like saying like we can’t do it or whatever they just kind of shut down and it ended up being this ugly stink and I’m almost like well I’m gonna clean up this mess for my boys you know it just came in as he’s been an employee – killed it she just did it yeah but have you added belts because I mean she knows about that kind of thing shed that’s it that’s when it comes to buying and purchasing she had already had the experience we don’t do the belts though we did have belts – a hot topic for a while oh you did yeah they said bacon strips on it it was like a Cadillac seatbelt and I said like bacon strips on the belt very pretty neat yeah so tell us more about growing up in that household oil well you know like buy spoiled I mean bike by comparison to how my brother experienced it you know but my brother like you know my brother and sister like they still had a Nintendo no entertainment system you guys will you’re reborn in so a time a seven so you’re my brother’s age was having a Nintendo Entertainment System like a big deal absolutely you guys have those yes okay that’s because you made it a point right like you needed the Nintendo oh my god like really wanted it but my brother had a Nintendo like you know and when I grew up like video games became like a big deal to me because I just like grew up watching my brother like beat Mike Tyson’s punch-out you know and then like I’m playing it later and then you know and then shortly after that like Mortal Kombat rolls out so when when Hanukkah was coming around like it was a big deal that I got like a Sega Genesis or a Super Nintendo mhm but I was spoiling the sense of like in the third grade I had a TV in my room with the Sega Genesis and that was like a big deal like I had like a little TV Sega Genesis like that’s how I was spoiled when I got through high school I realized I’m not so spoiled because I had a lot of rich friends and I couldn’t even like roll with them on the weekend because something would like you know I’d get you know I’d have like twenty bucks for the week basically and this is out like 14 years old and I’d go and go hang on the buddy and be like yeah let’s uh let’s get a lunch sure like let’s get some beers it’s like yeah we’re gonna badasses and drink beers yeah it’s like let’s go for dinner it’s like no my money’s done it’s like well we’re going to party after that and tomorrow we’re going to the water slides and but well I already used my twenty bucks so I I guess I’m gonna I guess I’m gonna roam the streets lighting things on fire right and what kind of game were you were you were you a troublemaker I think people would want to believe that you’re a Hellraiser as a kid I was very loud I was like like my parents would go pick me up at my friend’s house and his parents would be like if Harley’s gonna come over again in the future he can’t have soda pop and stuff like that because he’s very wild you know like I would do things like like like throw myself down the stairs friend magnet for entertain yeah and like scream and like you know like a run and scream and you know like I was the kid like as soon as I was done eating at dinner I would like slide under the table I’m like you know like crawl out and like give me the keys to the car are and you know I want to go on the card one outside only another restaurant anywhere last crazy kid I played football at the time as well and basketball why were you like that you just didn’t get spanked enough no I got I got socked a bunch times my dad he’d slap yeah that was cool actually I genuinely thought that was great my my buddies as well like they also would get whacked by their parents if they looked around are you thought you said slap do you mean spank or no or like a like like a slap like a on the face yeah like shut the really yeah yeah we’ve definitely liked the car like I’m gonna pull this car right off over if you guys don’t shut up back there it’s typically when someone would say that it would be like in a moment of anguish confession of abuse but you seem to be saying is like I have I have because you know what I was a wild kid like you have to imagine this I’m 10 years old like it’s the 4th grade and I’m five nine right and I’m I’m insane I’m insane so I had an older brother so my brothers like would beat me up all the time like you know you get beat real the brothers friends like that but like I was always antagonizing I was like a really big antagonize er like no one ever hurt me you know like there was never like a black eye or anything like that but like no I’ve been like slapped on the cheek numerous times and my buddies their parents would slap them on the cheeks as well when I grew up like if you fucked up like your parents gonna slap you are you gonna get a slap yeah that’s how it worked and I was good cuz I had like I had like a goofy bunch of friends we were all crazy so it didn’t really help no but at the time like case by case you know like I’m in the back like yelling screaming pulling my sister’s hair my dad reaches back and whack it’s like you know now I’m like seeing the corner man go y’all you know just the way it was the amount of times I thought is it worth a slap right now my buddy he his dad was great his dad would slap him and give him like an ese lately yeah like his like my paper she stole from his mom once like was stealing like you know like five dollar bills here and there then his dad like marked one he took the five dollar bill and like came home and his dad was like let me see and he was like this is my money I found it and there’s a little mark on it whack I was there for the slap live when your body’s getting slap you’re just like you get like a little shiver you know right little shiver like goose bumps like oh yeah I can’t wait to go home and not be getting slashed and then and then like he’s also slapped with an essay hmm yeah like like it was intense really yeah grace so good it was just a great punishment I remember being like young and being like I’m like ten and I’m like that I say that’s crazy that’s crazy like not even for school or anything just for dad cuz you stole from mom so that it ever progressed the point where you know you’re having to get disciplined at school or I mean go to jail no see the thing is at school I was always I did really well but I my teachers were always calling my parents like mm-hmm you know harley’s not getting enough attention at home he keeps making jokes like he’s always making jokes that was my thing like class clown to the maximum and and like ridiculous class clown antics as well like falling onto the first desk like when I walk in and like just being loud and and it’s funny because when I was a teacher later on in life mm-hmm it was like I I experienced the Karma of that I sat there and watched some kids and I was like so unfunny such like jokes there and their buddies are laughing and I’m there and I’m like I deserve this like their buddies don’t think it’s funny but they’re laughing cuz it’s how it works in high school and I’m like and now I get it cuz now I’m the teacher and like I got to sit there while like you know those kids like throwing papers and his buddies are laughing and it’s just like it’s not funny and I’m like this is what I get it all it all comes back right like closed it off like I remember like in high school I faked a seizure on a teacher’s desk well my buddy filmed it like it was like a whole thing I like I was like oh mr. rose I have a like I fall on his desk I’m rolling around this is like the time that like Tom Green’s really popular yeah so I’m like just enjoying that type of stuff and and we had this awesome video file of me like shaking and like like on the desk and the teacher knows my antics is just sitting there not moving does it move muscle and like just lets me like roll off and walk away and like I understand him now but I was like you see that bitch I’m all about his desk and he’s like he could just see there can’t do you know – bro that’s bro and then now as a teacher like I understand you’re just like this there is nothing you could do to help this child yeah so I I ended up getting it back my first time teaching ever I was substituting for my brother and I’m I’m sitting at the desk and this teacher this stood like these kids come in and I’m kind of setting up and this kid walks in like real slow like cigarette on his ear and he looks over me and goes as he goes who’s this like to everyone and that’s like major offense right so I’m I’m there I’m now it’s the first I’m having my first confrontation live in high school me first is unknown 14-year old former mean yeah he’s got a cigarette on his ear and I’m like got like a pink polo shirt tucked in I feel like dress pants and I’m like I’m just doing it like I just needed something fancy was one of the only things I had that a collar on it that’ll do it and I’m just there and I’m like okay I’m going to pretend like I didn’t hear it and I’m just kind of like humming let that slide right yeah I like yeah and then select they’re just loud kids and stuff like that and I got Mike you know trying to get control no one’s controlling so I was taught in elementary education not high school so I I go over and I shut the lights off and cross my arms because that’s what you do in elementary school and then high school there’s no windows in the room the lights are off for like a split second when I’m like oh pitch black back on desks like four desks got flipped over and like everyone’s standing like just instantly and I’m like oh man I’m blowing it anyway that’s just my first encounter at at school and that’s when I was like this is gonna be like a slow like balancing of my Karma for how I was in high school and it was I had like I had bat like some bad classes I love all the kids they’re great but like there’s just like disturbers Amega who they were and I knew I was disturbed when you learn later on like you know you probably could have done so much better with the girls in high school if you weren’t being a disturber I watch that every time and it like the girls when I watch like the female students never are impressed by jackassery of male students and it’s like this weird parading and beating of the chest that I definitely took part in they’re kind of embarrassed and yeah it’s just they get it like that’s how you know like they’re more mature like to just know it’s just like you know obnoxious and stuff then what’s your journey with the ladies like see here’s the thing I used to go to Juke camp in the summers Jewish camp is basically so throwback you know to the hitler times camps were made to erase Jewish people basically right Jewish people made camps to introduce Jews to Jews so Jews will make more Jews you’ve got it so like a Jewish camp you go there for you know 60 days it’s sleepaway and you know here’s your your are you supposed to mate they’re your tensile here I’ll tell you your tensor here the girl tents are like you know 30 feet away and you have counselors that sleep in there but the counselors go out at night and they like go in and be like hey guys turn out the lights don’t go sneaking into the girls tents I don’t like they don’t make more Jewish people yeah base wink don’t go doing something we wouldn’t do and then you know they leave you and then you go and you know obviously like run across and finger some girls cuz that’s to camp and you know maybe a little hand job in the woods or something like that you know do camp yeah you suck on boobies and stuff like that and you just maybe just suck on a pair of boobies at 16 and you know fast forward eight years you’re still together and you guys are making Jewish babies now so it’s like a breeding ground so the way it works is when I was younger and I would do all that ah sure but when I would get to Jewish camp and I would like a girl she’s trapped you can’t go anywhere it’s camp like if you don’t like me today or tomorrow or the next day or a week from now like I’m still here mm-hmm and I’m still gonna like you how long is the camp it’s 60 days that’s a lot of time where a girl down exactly so you know by the time the 60 days are up I you know if I put a finger a girl for each finger basically at the end of it mm-hmm but then you know you go to school it’s more than one week school is a different ball game school like you know there was a I don’t know I didn’t really like have have the money to kind of play or the freedom with my parents to kind of just you know go out and like just hook up with girls or go on dates really plus I never took things seriously I was never good at like asking a girl out on a date not being a goof but I can only see things in like a goofy way I was very childish yeah it only took until probably my last years of high school that I start realizing you know there’s an art to this right then what happened towards the end of high school towards the end of high school I mean I graduated like it like a jackass while walking to get my diploma every every year I would get principals on a roll and I would go get my diploma and I would fall on purpose unlike the principal there was almost a different ability okay oh my god like help me up you know they grab my diploma and limp off it was like a thing it’s like when I graduated I actually I took a big spill like a huge one and the principal again came but like everyone knew I was gonna fall and they all stood up like you know I start applausing clapping and I have this like awesome you know standing ovation this awesome video like really bad quality unlike my dad’s old cell phone of me falling and and everyone like just standing up and you know did your parents know you’re gonna do this they they knew my dad knew I told him and then what does he say he’s like shake his head or he’s like that was like that culminated yeah my dad thought is all right but that culminated and summed up my high school experience like here’s this big dummy like just falling on his face and like you know just being an idiot and just doing it for like claps really like what are the clap you know at this time when you kind of developing an idea of what you wanted to do I was working at summer camp I went to summer camp every year cuz you know I was always trying to get it up so I just pounding lots of summer camp bringing back year after year I went back to staff because on your staff you just get that much more Jewish I would go back to camp all these years I’m working with children I liked it it was fun and then so I decided to go into education because it’ll actually make my mom happy my dad will be happy and I am also worried that if I go into filming I’ll waste my time and it’ll just be like that was stupid so and then I went into university and I ended up being in education there as well and I go to school McGill University in Montreal yeah it’s in Montreal it’s it’s a good school it’s good school and so I went there and I started doing education and that was great because there’s actually there were some classes where I’m an elementary education there might be 350 people and there’s me and a gay black dude and everyone else’s girls really yeah like the program like I would do group work and it would be me and like six girls and yeah I don’t know my advice if anyone out there is the type of person like this were some national lampoon’s script go into education yeah was anything did anything formative come from that the school and before you became a teacher I hated school I hated it I hated it like cuz University was modeled to be like kind of like a elementary or high school atmosphere so we would go into classes and we would like do counting with like M&Ms and stuff like that and you know everything that like we would we would experience lesson plans meant for kids to like we would teach one another elementary basic stuff like that’s how we learned like to learn how to think like a child almost in a weird like it was like to get you back like you would do all this learning them it was like a night let’s bring it back to grade one what’s an interesting thing to teach kids how to do the alphabet and trick them into learning the alphabet without them knowing that they’re doing the Alpha you know what’s something fun oh we can show them how to draw a picture where there’s letters as the picture there’s a million things just but we would welcome any lesson plans and do it to each other and yeah I didn’t I wasn’t a fan of it because teaching wasn’t my passion that’s doing it as a plan-b and right you know I go into the first class and it’s like you know I’m uh people would be like yeah like I’m here because my mom was a teacher and my mom’s mom was a teacher and now I get the children yeah and they’re crying and then it gets to me and it’s like I work with kids and I’m pretty good at it so I don’t give so already it’s like I’m working with these people and if you ever been around something like where everyone’s so passionate about and you’re just like whatever it makes you more whatever yeah yeah it makes like just Black’s about the kids that you’re not teaching yet right relax bring it back and I was always late but my antics carried over into university to an extent I was always late as you guys know I something I never figured out and as a teacher I showed up thirty minutes late to this podcast everyone by the way as a teacher like you can’t be late you can’t show up to class late they don’t teach there so they’re 14 and there’s 30 of them you know leave them for 10 minutes alone because you’re late they’re not gonna sit for the teacher to come so in a elementary education like it’s like you I show up late to class all the teachers give you it’s like you can’t do this you can’t be late and it’s not like a big university class for the most part there were some where you could just show up really late and or not show up like they took attendance um and I remember like showing up late in this teacher just be like you know what in front of everyone she’s like you show up late one more time and I’m going to give you an F because there’s a teacher you have to be on time and you have not come on time to any of these classes so you come back again late you better be focused and be on time cuz I’ll give you an F I swear but you made it fast forward to the next week I wake up I’m running late ooh genius idea I snatch a red apple I walk into class probably 20 minutes late she’s looking at me and I go over just like real quiet and pull this shiny red apple out of my jacket and put it on her desk and like go and sit down quietly and she just picks it up and she looks at it she looks at me and she’s like you you really know how to charm an old elementary school teacher and she’s like Touche Harley Touche and like just let me say and I didn’t I didn’t come late to any other classes after that but I did get the by just for being like kind of like you know a little a little you know you know playing the hates me yeah you know you don’t wanna read I have this guy in half big dummy he said it was a plan B so if it was a plan B like what was it more specifically what was plan a plan a was I’m going to I’m gonna I’m gonna make movies I’m gonna be in movies and I’m gonna make them are you doing any yeah so in university this was the best part of elementary education was you would do presentations things like that how can you teach the kids to to do something that’s fun and to make it fun so one thing that maybe wouldn’t charm the teachers now but sure as hell worked in 2005 was you make a video as your project oh yeah so if I had a video that would accompany what I’m doing that like the teachers always love that I got I got a 100 percent every time we did group projects I was talking with my cans deal we’re into a video I’m gonna do the filming I’m gonna do the editing we’re gonna be cool I’m gonna write it you just gotta come meet me at school on this day we’re in a film it you just play this person this person this person we’re gonna include everything we need in the video and we’re gonna let the video play for our presentation and I always cleared it with the teacher first and I always made these these goofy silly videos and the teachers always loved them so I was making videos in class too so by the time I got to my last semester it was like people were kind of excited about what would be my school project video that I would that I would be and it was like you know like 75% of time it’s like a rap video you know like we have to teach like like I did one like sodium and you there’s like this like hardcore gangster rap video you know teaching kids about sodium and and and was it censored with um no there was just no swearing it was very very capitated PG sure okay so I was doing that at the time and what I was also doing was when I was substituting I would bring a notebook with me because I’m still to this day there’s nothing nothing more amusing than being in a class at least for me of like 14 year olds 30 14 year olds and I’m watching how they interact and speak to each other and everything it’s just so it’s so funny it’s just we don’t act like that anymore it’s just everyone completely uncensored with the mix of people that would just shut out the whole world depending on who the student is and who the students are they’re just you’re just looking at like intense personalities it’s you know you see people on the bus and everyone’s just sitting there mm-hmm you know you barely get personality but in high school in class is like yeah the next 10 minutes you guys could do what you want you know just keep it like at a level these kids would interact with and you’re getting like 30 personalities like clear-cut like you see it like quiet kids go over and like start pulling out like magic cards and like talking and like you know so other guys like trying to be cool in front of the girls and being loud and you know like and just like sitting on the desk like the things that they say and everything like that and what the focus is I just would bring in a notebook and I would like write so I would write you know script ideas like you know show ideas things that I thought were you know good ideas and then I would go home and on the weekends I would film these and and I made a rap video once and and my brother shared it with one of his students who ended up telling all the other students so when I got to the school once like he was also a teacher yeah yeah same school that’s how I got into substituting our substitutes for his classes so when I got there like got to the point where these students had seen like my earliest videos before epicMealTime or anything but just like you know a whole bunch of them like what type of rap videos are we talking about sodium you know it’s called pop and Perrier and it’s just like me and like two buddies and it’s you know where the whole chorus was three straight guys in a Crown Victoria pop and Perrier and we were like three dudes like sitting in the front bench of a Crown Vic Crown Victoria car pouring like bubbly water all over ourselves in slow-mo and rapping with like girls shaking their asses and it was like a weird video like I don’t know we just did it to be like ever look let’s share this on Facebook for our friends sounds great so you’re making rap videos and then but when you talk him about wanting to make movies what did you have a vision for was it like I’m gonna do YouTube stuff because that was already a thing no it wasn’t like YouTube it was like 2006 like no one’s getting paid on YouTube it’s like you know Time magazine has the reflective cover that says you are the star you are the man of the year or whatever remember that year yes and it’s like you know they’re writing about Smosh a million views combined crossed and it’s like I’m all big deal but like to me it was just like I can film something and I could put it on the Internet finally there’s a place where I could put it because now I could share it on Facebook so no one is you know no one has to come over and we have to find a VHS or VCR that’ll play this you know yeah and we get to share it so I ended up you know I would I would film some stuff and a buddy of mine wrote this script where I would be a I’m like I’m big and hairy and I’m just like a big kid and I I’m gonna open up a lemonade stand I open up a lemonade stand and my mom ends up like taking my money from it and it’s like a funny like four minutes short movie kind of but it was filmed with an awesome camera and I kind of saw it was the first time I had been in something that looked like professional lose my buddy was in this film program and so he had this awesome camera and like lights and there was a director and I got to begin and like watch myself after and I was like this is awesome I was like this is like you know I finally got to do something like this so when I started writing stuff I wrote one that was like it’s this like the guy’s a gangster and it’s he’s remembering his accounts of like how he rose to becoming a gangster you know only talking about like a 20 year old dude and he’s like it’s all like takes place in his apartment I’m writing this kids show so I’m like I’m an education I could leverage being a teacher into making kids show whenever I used to do that I used to always talk with my buddy I’d always be like lunchbox money like that’s what we call the working title for that kid show what’s called lunchbox money because I was like your dude you know the Wiggles are billionaires yeah sigh gap dude kids show let’s do this so it’s all about a kids show so I thought it was like that’s what was gonna be the money make I’m gonna be a pee-wee Herman and it’s gonna be great and it’s and we’re always like yellow lunchbox money that’s what used to say we’re gonna sell lunchboxes and it’s funny cuz lunchbox money ends up being YouTube money right on Epic Meal Time but at the same time I’m writing things and filming things and I entered this contest called John Tesh rock rap dribble dance contest and it was John Tesh the NBC NB NBC and it was taken the Peppa Peppa Peppa parapa parapa parapa uh-huh one minute that John Tesh sample you have to rap dribble or dance in the video I thought John Tesh was the guy from Entertainment Tonight the same guy you know live at Red Rocks John – yes exactly oh really yeah I saw him in a sushi place about a month ago oh really yeah Sherman Oaks well he started Epic Meal Time he did this this contest and I I came in first place in the contest me and a buddy of mine so the first-place prize with five was $5,000 American fact then you say American is if I thought I was American cuz it meant to us 7,500 Canadian oh now it’s like $5,000 got it it’s just dollars all around so I got five thousand dollars American so seven thousand five hundred dollars by winning first place in this contest this goofy contest where I’m like rapping and dribbling and dancing with my buddy and it’s all just goofy and early in a basketball yeah but like poorly okay the video is on the internet you can look it up well you won I can’t argue with that so so we we took the money we bought this camera and we were like we’re gonna go we’re gonna film rap videos and we’re gonna and now I got into production now I was like I’m going to edit I’m gonna learn how to film and lights and all that I’m gonna learn the backend of it you know and at the same time I started taking Meisner acting classes and I would go to auditions and I go to auditions and they’re like you know read these lines and read them they’re like you know what you could play thug number three your big dude stand in the corner cross your arms and like that kind of a seen nothing yet happened numerous times plus I live in Montreal so the acting is in French there’s lots of French productions not English ones because the way it works in Montreal is if you’re filming in Montreal your crew has to be French 75% of the crew or something like that so if you don’t speak French you have to get a translator so now a lot of people don’t work there under those conditions so a lot of the filming is in French so I can’t act in French and you know I was getting like just never really getting roles so I was like I’m gonna buy a camera learn how to film and edit I’m gonna make my own show starring me and I’m gonna get all the lines okay so that’s what I’m gonna do yeah all English and so I’m still a teacher at this point yeah I’m doing at the same time so I I got this contest me and my partner we won and we we started filming like weddings trying to and wrap videos and like a show like a gaming show which is actually still the Internet’s called the game haters and it’s like actually still there this old with one guy that’s on Epic Meal Time now a mayor and another old buddy of mine and I’m totally behind the camera like filming it I’m just not in front of it oh really Danny oh game yeah it’s like reviewing video games okay and like yeah it’s just like a video game review show it’s just and it’s just me learning and it’s the first thing I’ve ever filmed and edited so uh one day were filming wedding and just briefly the cameras under a blanket but in the middle of day like 3:00 p.m. on the busy street someone smashed the window and took the camera somebody stole your camera camera so I had it had it insured though at everything insured and what happened was it was the time that about the 7d the Canon 7d came out with an update to let it film mm-hm so when I went back to get a camera the guy pitched me on the 7d and when I got it it just looked so much better than any other camera I’d ever had at the time it looked like really official right so that’s when I was like some things are in focus and some things out of yeah it was nuts it was great that’s really what came down yeah yeah yeah that’s just there needs to be a lot of lights yeah and needs gonna be $2,000 for every lens uh-huh so yeah I bought it and I just started filming like crazy and I started filming everything and then I saw one day I saw a pizza I used to go to the site called this is why you’re fat calm and I thought I saw a pizza and someone put french fries on it and a hamburger and a big stack of money and a gun and it was just like such a funny picture cuz it was like just to take french fries and put it on a pizza was just so stupid but like to put like a burger also like a happy meal mm-hmm but the idea that there was a gun there in a stack of money was so like just that whole mix mm-hmm like I looked at it and I was like can happy meal on a pizza player gangster exactly so I I you know I called up my buddies and I’m like here’s the deal look at this picture we’re gonna do is we’re gonna go to all the fast food place and we’re gonna put it on this pizza mm-hm and that’s what we did and I just had my camera and I was like you know I had my buddy film it and you know we go we got all the stuff and put it on and I’m just kind of like riffing like yeah Mac baby and I’m just saying doing it it’s just genuine excitement it’s just like a real life like experience we throw it on and anyways I put it on my computer and I start focusing on lunchbox money cuz like I’m gonna make a kids show mmm and it’s gonna it’s gonna be baller dog be rolling in lunchbox money and wiggles where’s that we were it was all like it was like experiencing learning through like rap and hip-hop it was supposed to be like a real you know funky fresh learning experience you know a lot of yeah I I thought or it could be you know it’s never too late but she was sitting on this other footage just think yes that was fun yeah that was filming music videos going over like filming local rappers like telling them I’ll film their video for a hundred bucks they’re telling me 20 bucks now 80 bucks after the video getting stiffed 480 bucks like doing all that and meanwhile I have this like folder on my computer that’s just titled worst pizza ever and like I go back and at the time I’m like I’m editing it like it’s a trailer like it’s all like I’m editing it just for fun and it’s like you know like 2010 two men go on a quest for the most epic pizza of all time and like I’m kind of piecing it together and it’s just like it’s this seven-minute weird trailer there’s like a lot of burping footage in it that we all thought was really hilarious these ugly faces that I’m making them as I’m really burping and I just kind of start cutting it up and cutting it up and like I’m usually out it no no no vo okay I feel at all on that one and I’m just kind of like cutting it and cutting and cutting and then I just like was like you know what like between lunch box money and everything like I just want to release this video cuz I think people will like it it’s cool and when I cut it down to about like the two-minute mark and I watch it I like watch it again like I wanted to see it again and I watched it a couple times and I was like this is really like good I’m like now that it’s a two minutes this is like one of the best things I’ve ever done so I I shortened it more and I threw on a calorie counter by like researching everything that was there and I was like when I go on this is why you’re fat or when I go looking at food on the internet like just for fun because one of the things I look at like the calories is always interesting to me so how many is this and I do the couch I’m like oh 5,000 calories yeah this is crazy so I add it and I look at it I’m like this is this is a great video in my opinion and I think this video will get 10,000 views so I need to think of a name for it so I started like throwing it out and all my buddy who’s like I’m inviting people over I’m going over my buddy’s house a lot of my buddies would mean a friend’s backyard a bunch of the guys that are on Epic Meal Time now even and like we’re watching this video and like what are we gonna call it what will it be called you know now you called the folder worst pizza ever the video title was ended up being put up as the worst pizza ever okay cuz we wanted to say it something that would be like oh I want to see what the worst pizza ever is right yeah so we ended up before it even goes up we settle on the name Epic Meal Time so for the channel for the channels you want to show yeah and the whole thing was if this video does well and gets like 10,000 views we’ll do another one next week okay cuz I go on this is why you’re fat calm a lot and there’s some there that should be in video form only in pictures so I put the video up and I I go to to BuzzFeed and read it and Buzz Sweden read it essentially made the first epicMealTime popular you got 125 thousand views I got an email from BuzzFeed being like your video is uh is being pushed to the front page because one of the editors likes it and like I look on Reddit and it’s like my buddy tells me it’s like on the front page so I’m like crazy and it has 125 thousand views I’m like this is this is so nuts you know so I’m all but you’re also you’re like this it’s not because like this is working yeah you were thinking in terms of a show I’m gonna do this again yeah and so when it actually happens it’s different than if it happens oh wait actually is happening yeah so now there’s like a pressure almost so I go back to like this is why you’re fat I see another idea that I want to expand on it was a poutine sandwich between two slices of french toast and it was called the the French Quebecer and I I thought there I was like throwing up to the buddies and everything like do we come out as Canadian or do we play it like were you know like Americans and yeah we’d like crazy and just not kind of talk about it mm-hmm and I ended up just deciding like you know what will come out as Canadians because the second meal is gonna be a french-canadian idea and we I think we’ll kind of bypass the whole obstacle of yeah Americans would do this you know cuz there’s always to this stage to like they’re Canadians you idiot that still is there so we kind of bypassed that whole obstacle by just being Canadian and we came out the next idea was the angry french-canadian which was a baguette french toasted with poutine and hotdogs and syrup and bacon and we made the video and it got 600,000 views that’s a good episode – yeah and is great and I went to I was substituting that week like three days after that six hundred thousand feet video came out and I got to school and every single kid had seen the video like everyone that’s the second video and everyone’s seen it so the thing about Epic Meal Time is people always are like oh yeah it’s you’re lucky cuz it was popular right away mmm it’s like you know how many school projects and like video game review shows and music videos right I put on YouTube how many other channels did you had you create it on YouTube up into that point trying different stuff five channels before that trying things but like that no one saw right cuz they just never got popular they never got more than like 4000 views and so yeah so when this one did that 600,000 views and the kids were like that in school I immediate was like nope done done I’m like this now this now I’m like I’m going to I have like some teaching money I have like 4 grand in my bank that I save just from teaching and I’m going to put it in this like we it’s just got to happen every week I realized like at the after five days after video goes up you’re forgotten like it’s the view stop when the video was just done and so that’s when I was like it has to happen every Tuesday like we can’t miss one it’s got to keep going because right off the bat you quit your job in the second video and then week three you’re like every Tuesday I’m doing this yeah and this is 2010 yeah my brother does a lot of the background stuff but everything creatively would funnel through me which has now changed because you know we have I trust a lot of the guys now back then I didn’t really trust anyone I was taking on too much for myself and there was employment there was a point where I thought I wasn’t drop dead like I was gonna die just because I was editing the videos myself setting up the production for the next one is taking every calls so I was working like 10-hour day because like I didn’t want to give the editing to someone else for example for how long of a period of time the first like 85 episodes Wow so over a year and how crazy did a gift for you personally and mentally at that point if you said you’re about to drop dead it was just because like it was at a time like like doing this buyout like traveling like to go film in different places and like breaking up with a girlfriend at the time and just everything was shows like no rest ever oh so you’re still going to do camp no there was that you can do camp was done after so I mean so it specifically if you had a girlfriend you camp yeah right so how did that go down I mean in terms of how did what you were doing that mealtime get so involved that you couldn’t carry on a relationship because it was like I would be going and editing late night and the guys would be there but her presence wasn’t nesting get along with some of the guys it wasn’t necessarily conducive to the creation and the creativity was she in some of the early videos yeah she was actually because written I watch the videos and we’re like okay there’s a whole bunch of guys and a whole lot of food and there’s one girl we’re wondering why isn’t there more of a girl yeah well yeah we do remember watching some of the early episodes and then when the girls would start eating was like what it’s a lot more enjoyable to watch a female for me personally watch a female even a male eat so I was like well why don’t they do more of this well so like early on I was like the fifth episode and I was like this is getting kind of good let’s get some girls in here that’s when even in that episode like I’m like I’m like a Macallan you want girls we got girls cuz like we had one girl before people are like more girls so we made a point being like more girls and they went through this whole point was like girls and like we did like videos with like 16 girls eating mac and cheese and like 40 girls eating sausages and the sausage fest and it was like such a thing and then we got kind of like we still love girls on it but we stopped doing like girls for the sake of just being like yeah you know like I mean there’s plenty of place you can go Koff on the internet you don’t need to watch up in real-time cough so we just kind of like just when it when it when it when it comes to you know when something is like you know like we’re not like we never we always thought about it we never went down the path of just having like you know girls in bikinis just cooking every week just to be doing it you know I didn’t want to detach the personality of you and in a crew away from yeah we thought it was very funny that there wasn’t girls in the kitchen like it’s it’s like dudes like cooking like a girl’s cooking it kind of ruined it for us you know in a way kind of like yeah we got to do we like the idea of us cooking for girls ultimately but you know girls but it status a theme throughout like we still have females on on episodes but we just never you know we have specials like we did meat cake and I was like we have like nine girls in that episode that came out in February right so 85 episodes and you’re doing this thing essentially single-handedly and it’s it’s all you can commit your time to it’s taking its toll putting all your energy into this thing first on that relationship now was that just because you put her in the video and then all you broke up it was because you were none of the video it’s like so like like I would edit I would be editing until 3 a.m. and like where are you like I’m working you’re not working you’re hanging out with your friends well that’s the tricky thing is I kind of have this awesome show where my work is hanging out with my friends you know and that’s like so we would you know we’d like kickin me and my buddies and we’re editing like I’m editing but I would haven’t hooked up to a big screen and everyone’s like you know laughing and we’re all part of it like you know watching it people early epicMealTime like people would come over and like watch the editing it was you know I’d have like 5 people there and we’re editing in like Reno do this do that people suggesting is fun like having some drinks was cool so she wasn’t good in those scenarios cuz how much longer and like that sucks when you’re trying to be funny and stuff like that but yeah that just eventually got to the point where it couldn’t just couldn’t happen anymore it was just wasn’t good we were out once and and like I got rushed by some fans one wearing a t-shirt on Epic Meal Time t-shirt but they were female and she didn’t like that and so it turned into an ugly situation but I kind of like was torn between the fact that you know no matter what this person they support what I’m doing like because that person bought a shirt like I don’t maybe we don’t have to go teach one more day you know and I could continue doing this something that’s fun so when when that started to be compromised like basically after that point anyone who kind of got to the point where they were compromising the show or anything like that like that that would just be the end of it and so she got the one which she started to compromise it and then so it just ended you know and a mat carried on like same thing with like the chef who kind of overstepped his boundaries like he would my tear and you know before epicMealTime happened like I sat down and read it was just by chance but it’s it’s so funny because like I said I read the secret mm-hm and I read these Malcolm Gladwell books like tipping point and and if you’re a read who moved my cheese familiar with it I haven’t read it whom I choose a good one it’s basically saying like you know these these mics are stuck in a lab and there’s a big pile of cheese it’s like 60 60 pages this book there’s a big pile of cheese and like they’re there and they’re eating the cheese and you know they they split up because one is like you know this cheese isn’t gonna be here forever I want to find more cheese and say but we have so much cheese here and it’s like yeah but that cheese isn’t forever so let’s go find something else and they all split up and you know the mouse ends up finding you know a lot more cheese like infinite cheese essentially from what I remember and the whole point like being like if that cheese was like my teaching job leaving it on the second week to go find more cheese which would be you know production and stuff that I love then that would be the equivalent of it and then you know you read the seeker it’s all like positive thing is basically a mumbo-jumbo like you know just visualize and laws of attraction but like I just got caught up reading it because it’s just you know this is I like to be positive and I want to be positive and reading this makes me feel like that’s positive and then reading something like tipping point where it’s like you know how this and that makes something popular and then I read outliers outliers was interesting because when I when I read outliers it saying how certain people are good at certain things like how in hockey people born in January February March make up most of the NHL now why is that so that’s because when you’re born in January February March people born in January and people born in December let’s say are both five years old so they’re on the five year old team but someone who’s born in January is still a year older than someone born in December and at five years old that’s a big difference mentally and physically that kid is a much better human than the other one so he’s good at hockey so now that kid because he’s good at hockey at five years old he makes the Triple A team December kid makes the double a team just have happened triple a because it’s triple a they practice five times a week the double a kid only practices three times a week because it’s doubly it’s not as big a deal so then that he was going and years later this self-fulfilling prophecy of the kid being born in January oh he’s better well no he’s just twelve eleven months older he’s not better let the other kid grow for eleven months that continues as he practices more in plays more so now he actually is better and that goes into this whole thing of him talking about 10,000 hours to be great at something and so I sat and i looked at youtube and i was looking at the top youtubers and everything and i’m looking at them and i was just like you know they’re the top 20 at the time they were all male and they were all born from like you know 1980 to 1988 and i was just like i fall in that and it’s this time where it’s like i’m not too old that i can’t grasp something like uploading a video and editing on software and installing software and working on a computer and uploading but i’m also not too young that i grew up an elementary school playing call of duty online and being on facebook i was a human and i went outside and played so i’m like in my head I’m like I think I’m an outlier in this respect that I can I I’m tech savvy enough to go in front of a camera but I’m not you know socially awkward having only played battle Call of Duty online or anything like I’m a human being I could probably go and be relatable and and that’s when I kind of went to youtube and that went to epic Meal Time and I just kind of followed this flow of of the books at the time but you know it gave me like a drive and you know Epic Meal Time and everything we do is something that I got really protective over that whole cheese analogy is something that will always apply in life so how about if you ever just orient if you ever stop and look at your cheese and be like hmm like then that’s when you know that you know you just chase the next one and before you know before epicMealTime views now or at like thirty percent of what they used to be before that even happened I just looked took one look at YouTube and was like my whole business relies on the on another company like another business controls my business if at any moment they’re like oh no more videos it’s it’s over or like you know it’s happened before a change on YouTube can affect some people in certain ways and other people in other ways but not just them their entire business so right from the beginning YouTube was just a cheese that needed to be moved from an epic meal time itself is also a cheese that doesn’t necessarily need to be moved from but there is other cheese out there so Epic Meal Time is something that you know when it first started when I think meal time first first started and it started to roll and you know it was getting like at the time two million views in a week I looked at it and I was like this will go on for five years it will be five years of this show and there was just a number I had now we’re like at year three and I’m like like maybe I was wrong maybe YouTube isn’t even around for that five year so I was talking about you know can Epic Meal Time be around for two years can-can YouTube be around for two years are we all gonna be watching videos on our phones and stuff still is it still like the right thing is it still the right business like you know what is it at the end of the day happy that you know I kind of went out there performed got to do that I have the experience I have a full-on production company I can go and I can go and make a movie like I always wanted to do right now yeah I mean it’s I think we’d all agree it’s a privilege to do what we’re able to do for a living and you know I’ll say it’s also privileged to talk to you and to get to know your mindset and so we we look forward to more from you sir and thanks for the thanks I drafted by the way yeah you got to sign the table I know I’m looking at it I’m like I I’ve been trying to figure out where I’m gonna sign it grab that sharpie up there make it make it official hell yeah I do ice get the sign at wall talking you guys yeah yeah kind of 3d block letters you can do anything you want but that’s encouraged actually that was out here biscuit with Harley Morenstein I think that we have a more complete if not complete picture of the sauce boss you know he was a teacher for a while but I think the thing that I’m kind of coming away from the conversation with is that he was a student you know a student of the students that he was teaching you know and the students of YouTube he was a student of YouTube and how to make that a success extremely committed to that reading books being influenced as a calculated business man very impressive right for so for those of you out there who are like you know I want to be a youtuber for a living that’s what I want to do I think maybe that was a little profile in this isn’t just okay I got one idea and just somebody’s got to give me the chance to do it we’re talking about a guy that saw success in his sixth youtube channel but then he was totally ready I was I mean released two videos within the span of two weeks then quit his job and was totally ready to do it every single week after that there was no second guessing it was just like he was like oh this is it I’m cleaning out the bank account and I’m going for it and well it worked and you know and in a guy like that who has so many different ambitions and he’s trying so many different things and he’s always busy trying to work on another idea you know I’m excited with somebody has a mentality like that it changes changing so much I would just like to be able to fast forward like 10 years and be like alright what happened in the next decade because we feel that way about ourselves and what we what we hope to accomplish and where things are going there’s so many question marks right and so much of our thoughts are similar to his I mean it was encouraging encouraging talking to him especially with such a positive outlook and a confident outlook on things so thanks to Harley and thank you for listening to this ear biscuit again Hank we do this every week and we can handle more people if you want to invite them to listen to your biscuits along with you or through their own stream we encourage can do that we encourage you to share the biscuits they have the ability to be divided infinitely and taste as good to everyone else thank you listen to us next week [Music] [Music]