Ben Preiss
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Matt Sloan and Aaron Yonda never dreamed of the size of the audience they would find when they sprung for a $600 Darth Vader costume to film a Star Wars parody in a local Madison, Wisconsin grocery store. Now “Chad Vader: Day Shift Manager” is one of YouTube’s biggest hits. YouTube chose them to be among the first performers to join their new partnership program. Now all doors are open for Sloan and Yonda in the entertainment world.  The eight-part saga is one of the site’s biggest hits, having been viewed more than 19 million times since its debut in July 2006. The series has put Mr. Sloan and Mr. Yonda among the site’s top celebrities, along with performers like Jessica Lee Rose, the actress from the LonelyGirl15 series, and Terra Naomi, the singer whose breakout song on YouTube is called “Say It’s Possible.”
While Mr. Yonda and Mr. Sloan may not have much name recognition, they do have big-name professional representation, a choice of projects, and enough money to pay people for their work on season two of Chad Vader, which they say is forthcoming.
This month the camera maker Canon brought them to New York to make a “Battle of the Internet Superstars” video along with Glenn Rubenstein, one of the writers for the Lonelygirl15 series, and Gary Brolsma, who gained YouTube stardom for his vigorous lip-synching of a Romanian pop song (he is better known as the “numa numa” guy).
(nytimes)References: upi, nytimes Filed In: |
