2017 is a stellar time to be alive if you’re an ambitious entertainer.
The internet has revolutionised the way we consume content, and the people who create it.
Gone are the days when actors, performers and musicians had to toil away in small pubs and clubs, honing their craft to scarce audiences, to make a name for themselves. Gone are the days of needing an agent to get work. Gone are the days of having to be ‘chosen’ to perform.
For artists today, the stage, the audience, the fans and the critics are all in one place.
The palm of their sweaty little hands.
It doesn’t matter who you are, where you live or what you do; if you have an idea, a camera and a solid internet connection, you can grab yourself a slice of the internet-infamy pie. And boy, is it delicious.
One person who could tell you first hand how sweet it tastes is 20-year-old Sydney-born performer, Alan Tsibulya.
Tsibulya has been making videos since graduating from high school back in 2014. His videos are primarily piss-takes on all range of relatable situations and humans.
He’s tackled what customers are really thinking when they shop, thoughts girls have on their period and what uni students would say if they were being honest.
Tsibulya’s work started gaining serious traction when his ‘The Rich Kids Of Sydney‘ video went viral. Similarly to Chris Lilley‘s Ja’mie King, Tsybulia’s characters were grotesque stereotypes, but the best bit was that they were unfortunately recognisable.
His close-up, raw, quick, selfie-style of recording video works well in his favour. Tsibulya’s videos look like they were created on the fly, off the cuff; and while a fair bit of thought goes into his work in the form of scripts, he’s a natural and people find that appealing. His energy is infectious.
Most recently, he wrote and shot this fucked up perfect vid for PEDESTRIAN.TV about the A to Z punters you’ll encounter at Splendour in the Grass:
We sat down with Tsibulya to discuss internet fame, his creative process, who he looks to for inspiration and how often people mispronounce his last name.
PTV: When you’re not making hot fire videos, what do you do?
Alan Tsibulya: I’m at the University of New South Wales studying a double Bachelor of Commerce and Arts, majoring in Theatre Performance Studies and Marketing. I also want to pursue a major in Business Law.
Do people at university recognise you as that guy who makes the funny videos?
I only just started this semester and today was my second day, and we had to get in a circle and introduce ourselves. A couple of people snigger when it’s my turn, ‘cause the teacher will be like, what do you do, and some of my most popular videos are ones about university – so the university community might be familiar with me.
In theatre classes, I do introduce myself as a comedian.
It’s more of a space where people are used to answers like that. In the businessy subjects, I try to stick to the more cliché business answers. Because social media is such a big part of business now and such a big part of marketing as well, I can really use my knowledge and admit that I’m in social media.
Did you grow up wanting to become an entertainer?
I grew up playing piano. I started when I was three. When you’re a little Russian kid, you’re either a ballroom dancer or you play a music instrument.
My mum is a musician, she’s a pianist. My mum’s very expressive and emotional when she plays, so that definitely trickled down on me.
When I would play, it as an outlet to express myself. I would sway all over the place when I played. Full contemporary dancing while playing a piece.
I graduated in Year 10 with a diploma in piano.
After that I was like, ‘Omg, I need to have something to keep being expressive through.’
For me, that was always acting and drama. My granddad was also in the theatre when he grew up in Moscow. That trickled down on me as well. The music and the acting definitely lies in the family so it was never a surprise.
How did the videos start?
I had a couple of videos on my personal Facebook a couple do well. They were stupid, quick little videos of me lip-syncing to my favourite songs. They kind of took off, amongst my friends, the Eastern Suburbs community.
That was in Year 10 and 11, and I remember always getting messages from people from my school and people from other schools saying “You have to make a YouTube channel” cause I wasn’t disciplined about it. I thought to myself, “Ok, why do people like me lip-syncing, this is something I do everyday in front of the mirror?”
As soon as I finished school in 2014 and went on to uni, that’s when I began my YouTube channel.
My first video was called ‘Crazy Library People’. I had just finished studying for my HSC so I was living in the library and I was exposed to the people at the library who could be really annoying sometimes, like packet crinklers and talkers.
So I definitely needed an outlet to express that. When I released that video, a lot of my classmates were really supportive, commenting “Omg Alan that was what I was thinking the whole year of this HSC”.
That’s when I realised I’m not the only one going through these experiences and there’s a level of reliability.
What was the video that really put Alan Tsibulya on the map?
The Rich Kids of Sydney did spark a lot of attention. I think for me, the coolest thing was watching what happened when I put the video up [on March 21st, 2016].
I put it up at night. At the time I was putting up two to three videos per week, but most of them didn’t go viral. There’s no secret formula to making the best video in the world.
I didn’t imagine Rich Kids of Sydney would go viral – it’s just the people I face in Sydney, it’s unfortunately normal to me.
I remember posting that video and waking up the next morning with so many text messages from friends, and people telling me ‘They just played your video of Edge 69.5!’, ‘Pedestrian wrote an article about it’ and that’s when I thought ‘Maybe there’s something in this’.
(Editor’s note: At this point in the interview, Alan told me he was surprised by the fact I pronounced his last name correctly, and so I asked) Have you had difficulty explaining how to pronounce your last name to people?
My last name is spelt Ts, so it’s hard for people to find me on the internet. So I say forget the T, and then they’re fucked, ‘cause they spell it just with an ’s’ and then they can’t find me.
But the thing is, people kind of caught on with the ‘Ts’ thing, and they started calling me Tsunami. Alan Tsunami.
I was like, ‘Omg, do I have a little stage name on my hands?!’ I started calling my following tsunamis for a while, the whole promise was that we are little tsunamis and we drown the haters out.
But then someone messaged me and said, ‘Just letting you know, that’s a bit insensitive to people who have been through natural disasters.’ My heart literally dropped and I got scared of using that reference, if I have offended even this one person I can’t live with myself.
I still stand for the fact that it’s a positive tsunami and it’s drowning the hate out.
Who are your biggest inspirations?
I kind of resort back to old schoolers. I love Jim Carrey. He’s a great actor, not just a great comedian. He’s all round talented. I love theatrical people like Bette Midler. As a kid I was obsessed with Hocus Pocus. I grew up watching That’s So Raven and I love Raven’s quirks. Naturally, I have an eye twitch and people say “Omg you reminded me of Raven”. She’s someone I can relate to.
Who are some local content creators you follow and admire?
There’s a YouTube channel called ‘The Leftovers’ and they are so cool. Tanya Hennessy is my online soul mate. Freudian Nip are hilarious; Victoria Zerbst [head writer at Freudian Nip] did really well in drama at my school, she actually came back to my school to tutor some of us when I was in Year 12.
What do you see in the future? What are your dreams?
I see myself hopefully pursuing television and film.
I just debuted at the Sydney Comedy Festival. I did my first stand up show ever. It went really really well. I had to pinch myself the next morning, it was so crazy to think that so many people out there support my randomness… ‘cause I got pretty rando on that stage. So it was so cool to have not just my friends, but Twitter handles that I know and match the faces and see them in person.
I think this is how I describe it to people. I will always be online. I am obsessed with the power of online and I think it’s so great that I can literally just see peoples reactions. Literal comments, messages, it’s the most powerful tool to work on your craft. My audience is my favourite critic. They grow the craft of comedy for me. They’re the driving force.
I can confirm I’m in a project called The Slot, which is a show starring online content creators of Australia on Fox 8.
I look up to all the people who are also on the show like Natalie Tran, The Bondi Hipsters, SketchShe, Superwog, Troy Kinne and Aunty Donna. Being equated through this show with content creators like Natalie has been such a pinch me moment.
And like a tsunami, it looks like Tsibulya’s swell will only get bigger. Stay tuned.
