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Opportunity LOL's Spotlight Interview: Writer and Comedian Streeter Seidell
Published: August 30th, 2011
Streeter Seidell joined CollegeHumor in 2005 and has played an instrumental part in making the humor website a longterm success. From writer to front-page editor and now Editor-In-Chief, Streeter has risen to the top due to his comedic sense, writing, acting, and tons of hard work. If you have heard of CollegeHumor, it's very likely you came to the site due to Streeter and Amir's Prank Wars series. Following those successful videos came a massive library of Original videos shot by the CollegeHumor staff, in which you can find Streeter playing the "Overgrown Guy Girlfriend," the "Best Buy Manager, "Phantom of the Office," and himself. One night after watching CH videos for hours I had a wild thought - "Would Streeter do an interview with Opportunity LOL?" Yup! It turns out Streeter Seidell is a very approachable guy and said yes plus sent back his responses in an extremely timely manner. Not only that, but I'm proud to say this is one of our best and most interesting interviews to date. Enjoy! Congrats on becoming the Editor-In-Chief of CollegeHumor! What are your responsibilities and how much time do you spend working for CollegeHumor in a given week? Streeter Seidell: "Thanks. I work a full week at CollegeHumor, so 40 hours (though closer to 60 in practice). As far as duties go, I'm responsible for planning the site's content and overseeing the editorial team. There is a lot of boring business stuff I'm sure your readers don't care about, too. Then there is writing and acting in videos and doing the live tour, though neither of those are really tied to my job as EIC." I remember going from dorm room to dorm room showing people your Prank Wars videos. They were really great! Can we expect more episodes in this series? Streeter Seidell: "Never say never." How did Pranked and The CollegeHumor Show come about? Streeter Seidell: "The CollegeHumor Show came about when MTV approached us and asked if we'd be interested in developing a show based around our sketches. The more we developed the show, the less it became about the sketches and it turned into a narrative, which was fine with us. Pranked happened when Amir and I were approached by a production company looking for hosts and writers for a the show. They had seen the Prank War videos, they knew we had a relationship with MTV and, most importantly, we work cheap. We did a camera read and got the job." How much stand-up comedy have you performed in 2011? Do you have aspirations to make stand-up a career? Streeter Seidell: "I did quite a bit in 2011. A lot of colleges and clubs. I'm writing this from Florida, where I'm doing a college tonight. I was also a new face at the Just For Laughs festival in Montreal, so I had to get ready for that. I'm getting married in a few weeks so I've had to pull back on how often I'm out at shows at night. Standup was my first foray into comedy and I would love to make it a career but I also really enjoy my work at CollegeHumor. So far I haven't had to choose so I'll keep riding it like this for as long as I can." You've written for many popular websites. Is this a result of you sending content first or do you make requests and then write or do these websites make offers to you? Streeter Seidell: "I don't know that I've written for very many. With freelance it's a lot of networking. You met this editor though a friend and they need a funny article on this or that. I wasn't too big on blindly submitting ideas at publication where I didn't already have a contact but I've certainly have done it a few times. As CH has taken more and more of time I've really cutback on freelance work. There's also a lot less of it around since magazines and newspapers are having hard times." You've played a part in all three CollegeHumor books. Most recently, CH released "CollegeHumor. The Website. The Book." How profitable are books for CollegeHumor and what other benefits do writing/producing these books yield? Streeter Seidell: "I didn't really have anything to do with our second book, in fact. That said, I love doing books. They're not really profitable in the sense we rely on them as a source of income, though. They're more pride pieces and very good for branding (not to mention fun to write). I remember with our first book a lot of these old media guys would sort of dismiss me when I said I worked at CollegeHumor. And then I would mention "our new book" and that would get their attention." You regularly blog, post to your Facebook page, and Twitter account. What are the coolest things to have come out of being social on the internet? Streeter Seidell: "I guess the only real thing that has come directly from all these social platforms is a measure of connectivity with my, and CH's, fans. It's cool to be able to answer some kid's question in Ireland who really likes your videos." I would think articles turn up in Google frequently for college-centric keywords and videos are often shared. Beyond my assumptions, how much value is there in creating a given article and how much value is there in videos? Streeter Seidell: "It's extremely difficult to put a number on either but they're both very valuable to the site. The articles are great for SEO since they contain more text and they're much, much cheaper to produce while still garnering views just a little below our videos. However, advertisers are hungry for video, so video generates much more money even though it costs much more to make. Both are great outlets for our talent but video allows you to write and act (or direct) your idea, which is very exciting for a creative." Now that you have a very active fan base for CollegeHumor's Original videos, is there much value in curating user-submitted videos? How much time is spent on processing other people's videos and how much traffic do they generate? Streeter Seidell: "Absolutely. I adore stupid viral videos. Most people do. There are some people who could care less about our sketches and articles and the things we pour our collective hearts and souls into. They really just want to watch funny cats. And that's cool. We like to cater to that crowd as well. And our video team takes their jobs very seriously. They really do try to find the funniest, best videos for the site. It's not some afterthought." Could you talk about your website, WhiteWhine? With an 80k Alexa and 11k Facebook fans, it seems pretty popular. Does it bring enough ad revenue in that you could rely on that income alone? Streeter Seidell: "Not sure I could live on it alone but I would be able to eat I suppose. I started WhiteWhine in 2007 when I realized, shockingly, that that domain was available. It used to be all text and then people started sending me screengrabs of funny White Whines on Facebook and Twitter. Now it's almost all images with the occasional video." How much time do you spend on WhiteWhine per week and how have you generated such a large readership? Streeter Seidell: "White Whine takes about an hour of my morning, usually just after I wake up. The submissions have been coming in like crazy lately so it's become more and more of a commitment. I think getting on Tumblr early on was a good move for White Whine. It let's your fans follow you directly and there is a bit more of a community vibe to it. That's certainly helped the site grow." Do you think you could start a new website today on your own, hire nobody, and produce enough popular content to make a living? How much time do you think it would take you? Streeter Seidell: "Man, I don't know. I suppose I'm in a better position than most because of my years at CollegeHumor. When I started at the site it was 6 people and we all did a lot of jobs. I think I've done every job at CollegeHumor with the exception of ad salesman. I've come up with some ad campaigns, but I haven't actually sold the deal. So all of that training - marketing, editing, writing, promoting, etc. - would come in handy if I had to do something on my own. It would certainly take a lot of time, too. People have this idea that Internet millionaires just got lucky and didn't do much actual work to make all that money. It's bullshit. The guys who started CollegeHumor worked like dogs for years and years and Ricky, who is still the company, is still in the office every day. You really have to commit if you expect to get a big payday down the road. Unless you have a porn site. Then I think you just make money." What comedy podcasts do you listen to and who are your favorite active stand-up comedians? Streeter Seidell: "WTF, of course. My co-worker Jeff Rubin has a new podcast called the Jeff Rubin Show that's great as well. In terms of comedians, I like all the ones everyone else likes. I'll call them Louis CK and Friends. Mike Birbiglia is excellent, though I don't know if you can call what he does standup anymore. It's so much more. Pete Holmes and Anthony Jeselnik are great. There really are too many to name." Many Opportunity LOL readers collect toys, art, or other items. Are you a collector? If so, could we see your collection? Streeter Seidell: "I'm not much of a collector, though my grandfather has the world's largest collection of wooden coathangers with writing on them. Not joking. He has thousands of them. And, I believe, the 2nd largest wooden coathanger in the world. So I imagine the collector gene will switch on in me at some point." Do you know something that you could teach someone in the comedy world within 1-3 paragraphs? Please educate us :) Streeter Seidell: "Ha. I guess the things that have worked for me in the past have been to put your material out there and be proactive with your career. And to make use of the Internet to market yourself to, hopefully, a non-annoying degree." What can the Opportunity LOL readers look forward to from Streeter Seidell in 2011 and 2012? Streeter Seidell: "I have no idea. If you find out, please tell me." Great interview right? Get more Streeter Seidell on his
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