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A big theme in your show is encouraging people to be self-taught in their art.
That made me rethink my whole 15-year-old epiphany.
Whats the audience?So I was able to pursue all these different disciplines whenever I wanted to.
I hope it doesnt come across as too dogmatic.
Im sure it does a little bit, but I think everybody should do what they feel comfortable with.
You described your show as making the case for memes as an art form.
Its always people who dont make memes that say memes arent art.
So lets see what I can do with that.
So thats kind of where the nugget came from.
Im like, Whats a pitch deck?
So I learned about how to do that.
So this whole show was kind of that.
I had never written a script.
I had never operated a camera to this extent, other than a phone camera.
Id never done sound setup, audio recording, all this stuff, syncing things together.
I only installed Premiere when I started making this show.
And you made the show in your garage, right?
What was the process there?I keep saying my garage.
So it was just all kind of making it up as I went along.
On the other hand, Ive seen it argued that monetization of memes goes against the spirit of them.
And thats not in a monetized context thats just in the context of art.
Theyre not really coming from the same place that Im talking about.
And theyre really doing it strictly for the reason of monetization.
Theres no other artistic purpose behind it.
So yeah, thats really what people think memes are.
Im not really part of that in the mainstream.
People think memes are FuckJerry and the guy who runs @kalesalad.
They think that memes are these monetized platforms that people post other peoples jokes.
I think what theyre doing is obviously pretty shitty and pretty cynical.
So I dont take a lot of opportunities to shout out other folks.
Ive always kind of felt like I could do a better job at that.
That was actually the hardest process of this whole thing for me.
So whittling that down to the 11 people featured was really hard.
Theres so many people that I wasnt able to include.
Ill just have to make more of these so that I can get through that list.
Id never seen your face before the show because I just knew you from Instagram.
So it was nice to pair a human being to the work.Totally.
And I always really liked the anonymity.
And Im putting on different disguises, and I look like different things.
I actually credit myself as Teenage Stepdad throughout.
I dont mention my name in any of the credits or anything.
That was a conscious decision to just kind of hold onto a little bit of that.
Its a weird thing, and it makes me nervous.
So Im just trying to embrace it at this point.
But theres this whole art movement of memes that has been sort of ignored and isnt taken seriously.
In some ways, I think that thats a good thing.
I think were all fine with that, honestly, and theres something good about being ignored.
So Im always forever grateful for that.
Ive been kind of left in the lurch as a freelancer toiling away doing that for a while.
Its way more of a grind.
Im a terrible businessman.
I know how to sit down in front of my computer and see what happens thats where Im comfortable.
So to have found something that embraces my values has been the best part of that.
Thats something that I was way more comfortable with.
Its been a bit of a transition, and where its headed, Im excited to see.
You dont need so many of those outlets to latch onto.
you’re able to figure out how to navigate it on your own.
Thats something Im trying to figure out, because Im terrible at that shit, but its possible.
I never thought that that would be possible.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
