The Many Faces Of Grosse Pointe Viral Video Creator Evan Breen
By @GeorgeJFox
Evan Breen's Vine account, with more than 1.3 million followers, boasts a cast of characters, offbeat sometimes NSFW jokes, observational humor and it's all anchored by his infectious personality.
Including commentary on girls named Beth
https://vine.co/v/irhhUF2e9rF
Door to door omelette scams
https://vine.co/v/iiFBIQL5J6p
Smoking beer (watch the longer NSFW language version that inspired this post)
https://vine.co/v/irzlEi71FuJ
The path to Internet celebrity isn't a straight line.
Walking away from a college degree in the final semester would seem questionable at best, but for this Grosse Point native, the change meant life or death. Only a few months away from a Western Michigan University business degree Breen said, "I couldn't be there one more day." "I basically partied and drank all the time," he explained.
Now sober, 27 year old Breen has been splitting his time between Michigan and California pursuing a writing career and making videos.
Branching out to long-form video site YouTube, the nearly seven-minute version of his smoking beer video was a hit on link sharing site Reddit. "I didn't think I would stay for the entire thing, but somehow, I did." wrote user AsIExpected.
His subscriber count has rocketed up 536 percent in the last 30 days according to social stats tracking site Social Blade.
Secrets To Internet Fame
He hates to be so cliche, but when the wildly popular YouTube vlogger Jenna Marbles reached out to him he said, "It saved me". He was becoming fairly successful, meeting people he looked up to and becoming stable and independent.
Keeping many irons in the fire, Breen pays the bills by producing for a social media agency and gets odd jobs networking with content kingpins Funny or Die and Super Deluxe Video.
Product of Detroit
He loves being from the Midwest and being associated with Detroit and the Midwest where he says people are real. The culture in L.A. can be two-faced and recalling a saying someone once told him Breen said, "In Detroit people will spit on you and then invite you into their home, but in L.A. people will invite you into their home and then spit on you."
What's Next
In a great self-deprecating move, he will tell you his girlfriend thinks he's not funny. "I'm much better at improvisation," Breen admits his comedy writing skills are a work in progress. It's hard to make the distinction, but he added, "I've always manipulated people into thinking I'm funny."
On the advice of comedian Pete Holmes and countless YouTube commenters Breen has been considering improv or comedy writing classes. "I'm obsessed with Second City, Upright Citizens Brigade and the Groundlings," he said.
He is also very early in development of a live sketch improv show with friends.
Here's Evan Breen not in character ... I think.
Do yourself a favor and like, follow and subscribe to this man on your favorite social networking site. He's on just about all of them.
