Yousef Erakat: 'I do have my own demons with YouTube'
In The Zone: YouTube star explains the perils of the social media platform
NEW YORK – Comedian Yousef Erakat is one of YouTube's breakout stars with over 10 million subscribers and a role in the upcoming Tyler Perry movie “Boo! A Madea Halloween.”
But Erakat, who started with just 10 followers, says YouTube stardeom is not as easy as it looks.
“Me leaving YouTube wouldn’t be because I’ve outgrown YouTube. It wouldn’t be because I wouldn’t be able to handleYouTube” he told us in an interview in our FOX411 studio. “YouTube’s hard. People think it’seasy like, 'All you do is hold a camera, and talk to the camera, and make that money.' It’s not that easy.”
Erakat, 26, advised aspiring YouTube stars to treat their audience with respect.
“There’s an authenticity that I opened up to my audience so since I had like ten subscribers when I used to do livestreams for ten people for hours, I would talk to them like they were the only people I had and the only people I cared about” he said, adding some YouTube wannabes aren't grateful enough. “If they have ten, they’re not grateful for it because they’re like, ‘I should have a thousand.’ So, they miss that opportunity between that ten and thousand.”
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