Today's interviewee is actually someone who reached out to ME on Reddit after I had said I would be willing to chat with people who've created Bo Burnham remakes/recreations (of which there are many online).
Will had posted the entirety of Still Inside in August, and I had chimed in that there had been a slew of popular ones, including Sean Himmelberg's similarly titled parody that was my favorite Inside-related video of 2022.
So, after Will reached out, I rewatched his take on Inside and gathered together my thoughts on his terrific video. He covers the major Bo songs and moments of the special as well as adding his own flavor of humor. And he aspires to be a stand-up comedian, so my site seemed to be a great match for his current interests!
Here is my interview with Will_Glitch, which has been edited and condensed for clarity purposes.
Stand-Up Comedy Historian: Hey, Will! Thanks for chatting with me about your fascinating Inside parody and your burgeoning stand-up comedy career.
Will: No problem!
SUCH: Awesome. So let's get to it!
First, can you please tell my readers a bit about yourself and your background?
Will: Hi, my name is Will—I've gone by the name of "Will_Glitch" online for about 3 years now. I am 21 years old, from the UK, and I am currently in my second year of a Media Production course at university.
SUCH: Excellent, and good luck with your studies!
So how many YouTube channels do you have currently? Any series?
Will: I currently am running two channels.
These include my main channel ‘Will_Glitch’, which I have been making content on since 2016, and second channel called ‘GlitchedOut’, which I basically use as just a place for lower-effort stuff, or videos that I make which I'd like to put somewhere, but don’t think fit the theme of my main.
I have had two other channels in the past (also at the time being a main and secondary call of duty channel), but I moved on from those in 2016 after making the decision that I wanted a fresh start and wanted to try YouTube creation more seriously.
SUCH: You first started on YouTube posting your videos nine years ago, correct? You weren't even a teenager...wow.
How has your channel evolved since then? Do you ever feel like you didn't know what you were getting yourself into at such a young age? Any regrets?
Will: Yeah, I started my first active YouTube channel in February 2014, I believe, and started posting to it not long after that.
A lot of stuff has changed since then, and I would like to believe (and hope lol) that my quality of video-making has improved a lot since that age, although I still have a lot to learn.
Back then it was mostly just uncut videos of me recording my screen on an awful, laggy laptop as I attempted Minecraft or Flash games for example, and I have gone through loads of different phases of content types since then.
I don’t regret starting YouTube at all, but I do sometimes believe that maybe it wasn’t the smartest decision at such a young age to dedicate so much of my time and life to it.
I definitely did pass up a lot of time I could have been spending doing other things to editing or recording for example, which isn’t so bad as I was in love with it for years, but I feel like the years of working on the channel have definitely contributed to me feeling guilty over the past few years when I spend time gaming or doing any hobby that can’t be considered “productive” as it could be spent editing, for example.
It’s definitely a complicated thing, but I don’t think I would go back and change anything even if I could—even mistakes, made online or offline, make us the people we are now, so I am overall content with it all.
SUCH: So you're content with your content, huh? ;)
Jokes aside, that is a really mature approach to your past and accepting what you chose to do without feeling ashamed or embarrassed by it. Kudos!
So what's your favorite video that you've ever made? Least favorite? Any ideas that you wanted to do that never came to fruition?
Will: Still Inside is the biggest video project I have ever spent my time creating by far, so that would be the one I’m the most proud of (as cliché as that may sound).
I definitely have other regular YouTuber-style videos that stick out to me for their own reasons though. For example, I made a video satirizing ASMR in 2021, which I remember due to that being the peak of my YouTube editing style (in my opinion), so that’s a proud one for me.
I also had another one I made not long after turning 18 where I applied for a Twitch dating show, which I remember being one of the first videos I made of that scale.
I’ve made a lot of stuff over the years, varying in types and qualities admittedly looking back. A lot of the older content is just cringey in retrospect, which is expected due to my young age, and just generally learning over time and realizing that something I thought was good or impressive at the time actually...isn’t.
There’s still a lot of ideas I have had that never got to be created, often because I put them off to make other videos first and they just got put off forever.
I have lyrics for a musical skit I wrote back in like 2019, with the intention of being put at the end of a video about YouTubers that transition to making music, as well as lots of other random footage from other never-completed projects. Just happens. May go back to some of them eventually, who knows. Would be cool to at least have them to look back on if they were completed.
SUCH: Yeah, I can completely relate to having a lot of ideas and half-written drafts. I would enjoy seeing your musical skit though!
When did you first discover Bo and his works? Are you a longtime fan or a newer one because of Inside?
Will: Weirdly enough, I actually first started delving properly into his stuff in 2018 because of the mobile game Geometry Dash.
A level was made for the game called 'Eff,' which used Bo’s song of the same name from the what. album, and I just remember finding the level really cool, then eventually looking into what the song itself was from, and making my way to the full what. special on YouTube as a result.
I remember being obsessed with the special after first seeing it, and watching it multiple times over, especially the We Think We Know You finale.
After that point, I slowly made my way through all of his specials (only up to Make Happy was released at the time), including struggling to find a way to watch the full Words, Words, Words special, and finding his work so bafflingly impressive.
Before that, I had been sent the live clip of him performing Repeat Stuff from what. by one of my online friends, which I remember finding interesting, but I didn’t really go much further into his work, or realise that it was even the same person really, until a while later.
SUCH: That's cool. I went through a similar process a year later where I started with Make Happy (which is still my favorite comedy special) and then went backwards through his stuff. It's funny that a mobile game is what got you interested in Bo!
So what compelled you to create Still Inside? When did you get started, and how long did it take to complete? And what software/tools did you use for filming/editing?
Will: I think part of it was just loving the special so much and wanting to make something even a fraction as good as Bo could.
As I mentioned in the beginning of Still Inside, Bo as a comedian and his work has really inspired me for a long time, but I knew I could never even approach trying to create anything like he could—it was out of my reach.
But with Inside, I knew that I had SOME of the skills needed to create something like that. I was confident in my editing abilities, I had recently learned more about lighting, and I just really wanted to prove myself I think.
I think some of it too was being in a bit of a creative rut at the time personally. I had been creating YouTube content for so many years, and still wasn’t really getting anywhere with it, and I think honestly was getting a little bit tired of making the same types of videos.
So I wanted to see what I really could create if I gave myself the time and idea to do it, and this seemed like a great, fun way of doing so.
On top of all that, the college course I was attending at the time involved us creating our own independent creative businesses, and projects to go along with them to show the skills we had in that business type, with mine needing to revolve around video editing in some way, so it all kind of came together in a way that really allowed me the time and freedom to attempt to create the video project I was envisioning in my head at that time period.
The project in its very earliest ideas and notes started in 2021. As for completing it, all the footage in the video (except for my final talk to the camera in the purple room) was finished filming by roughly August 2022.
I took a big break after that point, as there were still a lot of other segments I wanted to film and make that never actually came to be, but I knew I didn’t want to just give up on the project and never publish it.
Eventually this summer though, I decided to finally go back and finish editing what I had already filmed and put it all together to what it is now.
I did all of the video editing on Premiere Pro, which I have been using to edit on exclusively for 2–3 years now. Some of the audio stuff was done on Adobe Audition, and some equipment—such as the camera used to film the majority of the project—was a DSLR I borrowed from the sixth form college I was attending at the time.
SUCH: When did you come up with the title for your video? Sean Himmelberg used it for his spoof that he uploaded before the Outtakes came out, and it's one of the ICU logos for 2026.
Did you just not notice the identical names, or were you already working on the special and didn't want to derail your progress? I'm guessing the latter.
Does the similarity in name irritate you at all (doesn't help the keyword search on YouTube, I can tell you that haha)?
Will: The similarities don’t irritate me at all; I just really hope it doesn’t irritate Sean at all either.
I decided on the title at the beginning of 2022, before either of those projects had been made public yet (as far as I know). I remember coming across Sean’s film midway into making my own and noticed the name was the same.
By that point though, I had unfortunately already filmed my beginning mirror monologue footage, in which I mention the name a couple times, as well as having some lyrics written in which the title came in to play, and my opening graphic intro being made as well.
I ended up just deciding to leave it as a result. Then of course, the Outtakes came out too and the ICU gag popped up.
Me and my girlfriend watched it together on release and when the ‘Still Insiiide’ logo came up, she looked at me and I just thought “well fuck” lol. Just unfortunate coincidences really.
I don’t mind the similarities though like I said. From what I’ve seen of Sean’s film, we both took them in different directions, and his is definitely more than solid enough to stand out on its own merits, and I’d love to think that those who watch both could say the same for both of us.
I have decided to add ‘2023’ in brackets to my title recently, so I guess people can see when they’re side by side that they are different. At the end of the day though, my film is a personal project that means a lot to me, and if people come across it and watch it, that’s a massive bonus, especially if they enjoy it.
I never realised until recently just how many Inside-inspired fan films existed, and it's so cool to see, and I’ve seen some really cool titles as well for them. I will just need to try and be a bit more creative when it comes to my own titles in the future lol.
SUCH: I can't speak for Sean, but I would guess he's okay with it. I think adding "2023" is a really clever solution to the dilemma!
Yes, there have been SO many Inside parodies. Some of my favorites include Sean's (naturally), Marcos Zapien's Inside: The Remake, and—of course—Dylan Case's phenomenal Insider (my top Bo-related video of this year...SO damn impressive). I recommend checking out all three!
So back to your video.
Why did you film yourself in a shower for your Sexting segment? Was it a play on "taking a cold shower" to avoid arousal, or did you just want to switch up your location? It's certainly surprising!
Will: Honestly, my humour is just stupid and I found it funny. I basically wanted the close up to appear at first glimpse like one of those shots you’ll see in some music videos of water running down the singer's face, only for it to be revealed in the next shot that it’s just me standing in the shower, fully clothed.
I’m glad it was a shock—honestly, whatever interpretation people like the most, I will support lol. It was definitely one of the weirder and surprisingly more difficult shots to film. Getting out of the clothes again once they’d moulded onto me from all the water definitely took a while…
SUCH: I bet! Yeah, it was certainly a shock to this viewer. And the water on the singer's face bit was also parodied brilliantly by Flight of the Conchords (definitely check them out if you haven't)!
I had noticed you cut out the "baby from Eraserhead" verse. Any specific reason? Didn't want to pretend to take a dick pic like Bo does in Inside? Completely understandable if so haha.
Will: Surprisingly no, I don’t think I would have been against that if it was funny enough lol. There were a couple reasons I decided just to stick with making the video to the verses I chose.
One was partly the whole "college project" side of the video. I knew that at one point, the teachers and markers of my course were going to have to watch the entire video, and while I knew I was allowed swearing in the video, I wasn’t quite sure how far they would appreciate me pushing the Sexting segment…On top of that, the more I thought about it, I only really had good ideas in my head for the beginning and end of the video, and wasn’t sure what to include during that verse.
I didn’t want to just stretch out the shots I already had and risk making the segment feel repetitive as a result either, so just made the decision to cut a little of the song so as not to worsen it at all.
SUCH: Ah, the academic factor makes perfect sense. Probably a good idea to excise that section of the song!
Why did you don a Cat in the Hat top hat for that line in Sexting? Was it just something you had sitting around and thought it might work? The incongruity adds to the humor at the very least (and I spotted your YT plaque too in that shot!).
Will: As silly as it sounds, the hat was a secret santa present that I had bought for a friend the previous year. When I decided on making this project, and wanted to include Sexting as a segment, I knew that hat was out there, and thought that it would be a missed opportunity not to include it as it fit so perfectly. I’m glad he let me borrow it—he had to bring it into our college for me. (about the plaque — probably the most expensive piece of wall decoration I own lol).
SUCH: Oh, I had no idea you bought the plaque! Well, it looks cool at least haha.
I adore the way you turned the little boxes of you in Sexting into the words "PUSSY," "TITTY," and "BALLS"—very creative.
How did you come up with that idea and was it difficult to execute?
Will: Thank you so much, I really appreciate that. Especially because it took me so many hours to pull off lol.
I think my original idea was for them to look like phone screens lighting up to create the words, but I eventually settled on the way it looks now. As for actually executing the idea during editing, it just took me a lot of time to sit down and work out how to best make the final product look the way I was envisioning. That being said, I did enjoy having the freedom to really spend time on working out how to solve the puzzle I had put onto myself, and putting it all together.
It doesn’t look exactly perfect now, for example when the video clips are close up at the beginning of that part, the clips do look lower quality than I would have liked, as well as a couple other small imperfections. That being said however, I am overall really proud of the effect, and I’m glad all the time I spent on it was worth it.
SUCH: Why did you include someone named Misha recording lines about creators? As a behind-the-scenes bit or something? It's confusing for the average viewer, at least it was for me.
Will: So, this was a piece of audio recorded on my phone of an opening script I wrote to what was initially going to be my own version of Bo’s Left Brain, Right Brain song from what. The concept was going to be similar, how I would perform both sides, and Misha’s speech was going to be what introduced the segment, quite like how Bo has a robotic woman voice introduce his.
My version was going to be called "Creator vs Created," with the concept going into how someone (that being me) was changed as a person due to starting creating things at such a young age, which for me would have been by starting YouTube at 11 years old.
I have the full song written out, and was quite proud of a lot of it to be honest, but no footage or audio was ever recorded, except for Misha’s lines. This was just one of the cut/never finished segments of this project, all of which do feature in some way or another within the video though (which is something I will explain more in depth later as an answer to one of your later questions).
SUCH: Ah, thanks for explaining. I'd love to see the full song you wrote!
Speaking of music, what compelled you to rewrite That Funny Feeling? Why did you decide to sing it if you're not a singer at all?
Is it your favorite song in the special? Also, nice joke about the "bug" of your camera not showing you playing the guitar lol.
Will: The That Funny Feeling rewrite was the first part of this project I actually worked on, a few months after Inside released in 2021, before Still Inside itself was actually a thing in my mind.
That time of life (meaning the pandemic) was really difficult for everyone, with each person having their own unique struggles and challenges to overcome, while also sharing a lot of the same ones with the rest of the world. I think part of the reason I started writing it was because, like everyone, I went through a lot of ups and downs throughout covid, and wanted to write about them in some way, and I also just generally really liked the song and the idea behind it, so those things went together in my mind.
After I wrote my very first draft, I ended up never recording or going anywhere properly with it. A few months later, the YouTuber Ethan Nestor uploaded his own rewrite of the song, which I also loved, and it gave me the confidence that a personal rewrite of That Funny Feeling was a good idea after all.
As a result, when I finally started the planning stages of Still Inside, ‘My Funny Feeling’ was a section that I knew I definitely wanted made and included at some point.
As for the camera bug joke, I knew going in that I wouldn’t be able to play the song myself. I own a guitar, but have attempted only a couple times to learn it, and haven’t really gone much further.
I did want the imagery of me playing the guitar though, as the original version had that, and I didn’t know what else could really work for such a lowkey feeling moment in the special—I didn’t want any crazy editing, or much editing at all really, during this segment.
I ended up finding an instrumental cover that the musician Phil Marques created on YouTube, and that bug joke was my way of making it obvious that it wasn’t my playing and giving Phil credit in that moment, while not taking the viewers out of the moment too much.
SUCH: I'm so sorry to hear about your mother having cancer during COVID. I can't even imagine how hard that must have been on you and your family.
Were you actually nervous that you had cancer simultaneously, or was that just a setup for your clever dick joke (how very Bo of you lol)? I'm glad to hear she's doing better now though!
Will: Thank you, I appreciate that. It was definitely rough for her, but we were all pretty confident throughout that everything was going to be fine by the end, as hard as it must have been for her, and she has recovered super well from it all, which is the best outcome we could have hoped for really.
I don’t think it was simultaneous, I think I just had a check during the covid phase, which I had been putting off actually sorting out for years. It was literally nothing in the end, but I had seen a few videos around that time about how important it is to get stuff like that checked if something feels off, which is extremely true, so I just finally built the confidence up around then.
I still need to get better with that kind of stuff personally, but it is true what all the ads say about it best to be safe and catch stuff early, for both men and women, so anything that encourages someone to go out if they have worries is only a positive. (Also, thank you, I was quite proud of that joke lol, glad people caught it).
SUCH: Anytime! I'm always down for some good misdirection.
It's funny you bring up "Happy New Year glasses." I wrote a whole article about them last New Year's (so the start of 2023).
What's your take—cool or stupid at this point? I personally think they have looked dumb since 2011.
Will: I definitely find it interesting to see how they attempt to still make the glasses “work” each year that passes, despite the lack of conveniently placed zeros anymore. I feel like I'd wear them for a night though—the worse they look, the better. Also, am definitely interested in reading that article now.
SUCH: Aww, thanks! It got like no views, but I thought it was a fun read haha.
So I feel like I'm too old to understand the YouTuber challenge portion (but my kids would probably find it funny!). What exactly is the point of that part—just mocking inane people online who think their audience cares about their every thought on some other YouTuber's video?
Will: I made the segment as its own video for April Fool's Day a few years ago and included it in this project as I thought it worked as my own version of Bo’s reaction video parody he included in Inside. It was moreso a satire/parody of the no-effort type reaction channels, who add nothing to the content they make videos on and expect the world in return.
For example, I’ve seen some reaction channels complain when they get no ad revenue from their reaction videos due to copyright claims, meanwhile their videos are just them sitting and watching other people’s content or music with zero editing, so of course that’s going to happen.
This has become a bigger issue people are speaking about again more recently, due to streamers watching others' content in full then reuploading the footage, and even walking away from their streams while the videos play to their audience in extreme cases, then acting entitled when people call them out for it. This segment was recorded and uploaded originally in 2020, but it’s cool to see people on Twitter and YouTubers like Jacksfilms finally making it a big talking point in the YouTube community again.
The reason I had the music muted in the segment was to parody the idea that some of these creators will do anything to get around the copyright claims they get from making content like this so they can still make money.
It’s all just my personal feelings on it all though, and others can disagree of course. I just see YouTube these days as split between people making videos, and people making content—some make stuff that only works with the algorithm and get the most growth and money, while others want to make videos they enjoy and/or think are entertaining, with the hopes of making money as a result at some point (which is the side I feel like I’m on).
Feels like a lot of the platform are more on the first side now, or at least that’s what YouTube likes to push, which I feel is a shame, as that wasn’t the case as much when I first joined.
SUCH: Yeah, that's the whole "IV drip of mediocre content" that people put out to make a quick buck. I would say your work demonstrates a lot of thought and effort, so I agree that you're on the truly creative side.
What exactly is the concept for your Welcome to the Internet parody? Are the captions the images you WOULD have included in some unmade video? And if so, are you ever planning to make that video, or was it always going to be just the text?
Will: What was shown in the final project was the in-progress editing timeline that I had made while originally working on the video. I had written what I wanted to be on screen at that time as text, almost like my own weird version of a storyboard, and only actually made that one “DM a girl” bit. The full video was to start with me in front of a green screen (which was set to the section of the song shown in the final project), then as the song breaks down a bit, shift to me using the lighting stuff I owned to do some cool stuff with to the song.
I never ended up making it due to time and, due to the lighting stuff needing a lot of space and time to set up properly, I was limited to where and when I could actually film the segment. There is a big part of me that is hoping to one day properly make it, as I do really like the song, and the plans I have for what the final, completed segment could look like are, I think, really cool. But we shall see.
SUCH: Well, from the looks of your text, you have a solid outline ready to go, and I would certainly be interested in seeing the final results!
So why did you include the bizarre stand-up show portion? Was it to show that your character has completely lost his mind like Bo's did in Inside?
Were you perhaps inspired by Bo's utterly insane "acceptance speech" where he says "Thank you" repeatedly and kisses the camera? It's nothing if not memorable haha.
Will: The segment was mostly inspired by the section of Inside where Bo is doing what seems to be a stand-up set in his room, where he just tells the viewers to “shut the fuck up” repeatedly.
I think I liked the visuals to that segment of his, as well as the weird, empty stand-up routine feel, and wanted to make my own segment based loosely off of it, so settled on what is seen in Still Inside.
The lack of an audience and the routine itself that I do in the video does help with it feeling quite bizarre and uncomfortable lol.
It was definitely a little weird to film. I booked out the ‘cinema room’ of the college I was attending and filmed there after finishing my course, as this was actually the last proper segment I ended up filming for the project. While I was alone in the room, the college was still open for the years under mine, so I could hear people walking around outside, and was quite self-conscious of what people would think of me if they heard me yelling about toast and shouting “who here likes sex?” over and over lol.
Will going on about toast
SUCH: So my site is ostensibly about stand-up comedy. Do you enjoy that form of entertainment? Have you ever considered going into comedy as a profession?
Will: I absolutely love stand-up comedy, and have for years. I feel like Bo may not be considered a stand-up comedian in the usual sense by most nowadays (even though some of his more regular feeling stand-up routines are probably some of his funniest bits to me personally), but comedians such as Russell Howard, Lee Evans and—from more recent years—James Acaster and Randy Feltface are up there for me as legends.
Russell Howard
Lee Evans
James Acaster (my favorite comic after Bo!)
Randy Feltface
I have actually just started trying to get into stand-up myself as of this summer. It has been something I have considered in the back of my mind for years, but not until this year did I really start seriously considering it and writing material, and I actually did my first open mic performance in mid-August.
It was fun, and I have a lot to learn and improve on but am really hoping to do more in the future and see where it goes.
SUCH: Yes, I saw some of your routines online. They looked great, and I'm sure you will improve over time. Awesome that you're having fun up there too!
So where did you come up with the toaster analogy for politics in the UK? It's pretty clever.
I'm guessing you've seen James Acaster's take on Brexit since you're a big fan of him. It's absolutely brilliant, in my opinion.
I have to say, though, that the US is in a much bigger mess than you guys are right now lol.
Will: Like I said earlier, my humour is just extremely broken and stupid, and I for some reason found the insanity of rambling about toast for ages and making it a political point at the end a funny concept lol.
The analogy actually came from a real argument me and someone I used to be friends with had about British politics not long after the Tories were voted in again.
It was my best attempt at explaining that taking a chance on something new, however scary it might be, is likely the better decision than sticking with something which has been objectively bad for so many years, and hoping “this time will be different”—when there is even less reason to believe that the longer time goes on.
Apparently, I ended up settling with comparing the Tories to a metal fork as my best way at explaining that opinion.
SUCH: It's a smart routine though. I think anyone slightly left-minded will appreciate your sentiments!
You've included a lot of scenes of fiddling around on your computer. What do you feel the purpose of these bits are?
Also, would you consider yourself a computer geek? You seem pretty adept at navigating that software.
Will: There were a lot of planned segments to this project that never actually came to be. These included the ‘Creator vs Created’ song, a new music video for Welcome to the Internet (similar to the new one for Sexting which appears in the final product), and an All Eyes on Me rewrite. These unfinished/unmade segments are part of what took this video so long to be completed.
Once I had started university, all of the main, completed segments shown in the video were filmed, and all but one (being the stand-up skit) were fully edited.
With the college course ending though, and my university course beginning, I did not have the time to properly film and complete the rest of the planned segments. For a long time, the video sat half edited on my computer, in a limbo state of half “complete” in the form of an abridged version that I had put together in order to submit for my college course, but not yet in a complete, intended form I had originally envisioned it to become.
This overall meant it was not at a point I was happy releasing publicly yet. Eventually this summer though, I made the decision that it would not make sense for me to wait until/if I decided to finally film those unmade segments to finish the project, as at that point the video would be inconsistent, with half of the video filmed in 2022, and the rest filmed in 2023 and beyond.
I also really didn’t want to give up on the video, I was, and am, really proud of what I did for it, and it means a lot to me still. I settled on re-forming the video into the state it is now, where all the 2022 filmed segments were fully complete, and able to be watched, while all of the incomplete segments would still make an appearance in one form or another, being shown to be watched or listened to by myself on my computer throughout the video’s runtime. This way, the video could be released, and still hold what its original purpose was, while also acting as a bit of a time capsule for that specific year for myself, and all the personal growth and emotions that came with filming and creating this project.
As for “computer geek”, my family definitely thinks I am one, but I’m not too sure lol. If there’s ever anything crazy I’ll want to try and do with a piece of technology which I find and think looks cool, I’ll usually just find a tutorial and use that. There’s a lot I definitely can not do, for example, the idea of building a PC still terrifies me lol.
In terms of the computer stuff seen in this video, I feel like it just comes from lots of time spent doing them. I’ve been editing since I was like 11, and began on something as simple as Windows Movie Maker, but have slowly moved up to more complicated ones as time went on and the things I wanted to create were too complex for my old editing programmes. I still have a lot to learn, and university has definitely helped me realise that even more, which is great. Helps keep things interesting.
SUCH: I totally get why you felt the need to post this sooner rather than later. 2020 seems so far away now even though it was only 3 years ago! So good choice on that, and you should definitely feel proud of your hard work.
Why did you decide to rewrite All Eyes on Me? Is that another song you really appreciated Bo including in his masterpiece?
Will's webcam takes the place of Bo's camera—clever!
Will: On my first watch of Inside, All Eyes on Me really stood out as a highlight for me. I think it was a mix of the visuals, the overall overwhelming feel of said visuals and audio effects combining together with his performance—just overall, as simple as the song may seem in comparison to some of his more wordy, lyrical songs from the past, I feel like this was one of his best songs and moments from a special yet [Ed. note: The Grammys agreed with you!]
Even the Outtakes version I love, with the way the two takes build up to matching each other in the middle, it’s just so great.
In the case of my own version, I really wanted to create it in full, which I never ended up managing to do timewise. I wanted to see if I could match the colours of the scene, and do like a cover/own take on the video.
I had lots of ideas for it which obviously never made the cut, such as new lyrics (which were still heard in the final project), flipping the room between red and blue as the song starts to pick up in the middle, my own personal monologue for the middle breakdown section, and for the ending part, I had planned on unplugging my microphone and taking the camera through my house and outside, then “breaking” the camera toward the end.
Similar to the Welcome to the Internet concept, maybe I will go back and create it in full one day, and finally be able to show what the original Still Inside was going to be, in its full form. The lyrics which can be heard in the final project currently were the parts of the song audiowise that I had most changed, hence them being the only real inclusion of the song in the video.
While they may seem a bit random, especially in the half-finished form they appear in the video, they did have quite a personal meaning while I was writing them, and it would have made more sense paired together with the monologue I feel (although admittedly that was also something I never finished, although multiple drafts were written). For now though, they stand as another example of “what almost was” in the final special, which I am content with (for now).
SUCH: Thanks for explaining! That makes perfect sense, and I'd certainly check out a final and complete version of your video.
So what exactly are all of the YouTube items you have in your bedroom? Are you a successful streamer as well? And are you really done with your channel?
Will's YouTube plaques and framed letters
Will: I had a random phase during lockdown where I started using my Furlough money from work to purchase YouTube awards off of eBay, and even made a few videos on the subjects.
From what I can remember being seen in the background of this project, the main two are the silver 100k play buttons, which again I should make clear, I did not earn lol. One is a modern one, and the other is a more classic model which was discontinued in 2016.
Next to the modern plaque, I also have three letters framed, which usually come with said awards. The wording of the letters has changed a few times over the years, and usually if people are selling their YouTube awards online, they’ll be completely fine with selling the letters separately if requested lol. I’m pretty sure on the wall, two of them are 100k letters, and one is for a million (I also still have a fourth letter I bought a while ago under my desk, which I just never put up).
I understand that may sound like a waste of money to people (which it one hundred percent is), but to me, it's similar to like purchasing memorabilia from your favourite film set or a signed instrument or something. The awards are literal history, and I find that super cool [Ed. note: I'm ALL about pop culture history, so no complaints from me!].
For a while, YouTube was one of the only things I could really attribute to what I felt like made me who I was, and I felt like having those things on display showed that in a way.
When it comes to the future of my channel and my general "career" going forward on YouTube, I honestly don’t know. For so many years of my life, YouTube was all I wanted to pursue, and so I did that.
I’ve spent probably hundreds, maybe even thousands of hours of my life, recording, editing, and thinking about my YouTube channel and the content I made for it. I had years where it was all I could think about, and I had such a drive for it.
I had a phase where I would wake up, upload a video, go to school, come home, record, edit, then go to sleep, so I could keep up a video going public up every weekday. And I loved that. And this was when I was 14 years old.
But honestly, I don’t think I have quite that passion anymore. I will always be proud of what I did manage to accomplish with my channels, because even though I haven’t succeeded in every way, I have made a lot of accomplishments which I never thought I could do when I first started when I was 11 years old. I will also always love video making, and I don’t even see myself completely abandoning my channels and never posting again, ever.
As silly as it sounds, that part of my life is engraved into me now (literally, I have a tattoo of the word ‘Glitch’ on my right wrist). YouTube as a platform has just changed a lot since I first began, which is completely understandable in some respects. But it isn’t a site that is nice to up-and-comers anymore, and it hasn’t been for years, but it becomes harsher the more time that goes on. Even if I did “make it”, and this video went extremely viral and I had an audience overnight, I don’t know what I’d do.
Being a YouTuber was a dream of mine for years, but I don’t know what I want anymore, and that’s okay. That’s mostly what this project was for me—coming to terms with the fact that something I dedicated most of my childhood and, so far, adulthood, working really hard to achieve, both might not happen, and might not be something I want to happen anymore.
That’s something that is really hard to face, as it makes you wonder, “well, what else is there for me?” I’m starting to figure out ideas of what I might want to work toward next, and I’ve learnt over the course of this project beginning in 2021, and being uploaded, who I am outside of my channel, and what my other passions are. And that can only be a good thing.
As for streaming, I have considered getting into it many times properly, and a few of my friends have, sometimes to pretty decent success for a while. It’s just never been a thing I’ve dedicated my time to fully and actually followed up on. As fun as it can be, video making is what I prefer, by a lot.
I feel like my editing is what makes a lot of my videos as good as they are, partly due to a lack of confidence in my uncut personality, but also I feel like it allows for a lot more humour and passion to be packed into the content. That’s just me though. Maybe one day I will try streaming properly, but video editing will always be something I dedicate a lot of my time and effort time in to whenever it comes to online content, sometimes to my own detriment.
SUCH: I hope I didn't sound like I was forcing you to get into streaming! I was just curious. I think trying out new things is the best approach at your age—and see what sticks.
Speaking of YouTube, are you planning to add subtitles/captions? I highy recommend not simply relying on YouTube's garbage autocaptions, especially if you want more people to appreciate your hard work.
Will: Maybe one day if I ever find the time and decide to have a proper sit down and spend a day on it, but to be honest I don’t think I will end up doing it. I have no idea how to use YouTube’s subtitles in the slightest and feel like I would just end up making it worse somehow lol.
I do understand the importance and worth of accurate subtitles on videos however, and I massively respect all the creators who do spend their time doing it, whatever their size. To be honest though, I have been super surprised recently as to how good YouTube’s English auto-captions have become in the past year or so. They definitely still aren’t perfect, which I feel like they never will be, but even a few years ago, they used to be basically pointless to turn on if they weren’t custom done. Nowadays though, at least in personal experience, they seem to be pretty accurate like 90 percent of the time, which I feel like is a great step in the right direction…as scary as AI is.
SUCH: Totally hear you on that. AI is slowly taking over everything (which is why I left proofreading to learn the more viable skill of software QA). I have to say the captions have improved, yes, but I still see plenty of typos lol.
Which videos of yours hit 1M views? Were you proud of that content? That's an impressive milestone!
Will: Funnily enough, it wasn’t exactly something I ever expected (or really wanted) to become my first viral video lol.
Pretty much, I made a short meme using a clip from the movie Monsters Inc, where Mike Wazowksi is running down a hallway away from Randall, and set it to some music and visuals from the video game ‘Dead by Daylight’. It was originally just to make some of my friends at the time laugh, but I posted it on my second channel just for it to be somewhere to look back on. Randomly a couple weeks later, it blew up, and is now sitting at like 1.6 million views, and is my most viewed creation by miles.
Kinda sucks it wasn’t a piece of content from my main channel, as it ended up giving a lot of attention and eyes to a channel of mine which I didn’t exactly use much at the time, or the times I did it wasn’t to post long-form, high-effort stuff like my main was, but that’s just how things go on YouTube – even so many years in, the algorithm is never something to underestimate at any point.
SUCH: That's crazy and, yeah, seems like creators are at the mercy of the almighty algorithm. Did you feel like you had to churn out constant videos once you were monetized?
Will: As a result of the viral video, I did actually start using that second channel quite consistently for a while for like bonus content, and tried making it higher quality than it used to be, and it did actually end up getting monetized as a result, which was really cool for a while.
It wasn’t so much because I felt forced to, but consistency definitely does help a channel stay alive and in the algorithm’s good books. Unfortunately, the monetization only lasted for a few weeks before YouTube demonetized the channel again under the guise of ‘re-used content’, which I made a main channel video going through all of the reasons that claim was unjustified or unfair—but it is how it is.
After the demonetization happened and my fights to get it back failed, I was massively demotivated, as after feeling like I was finally getting somewhere with the whole ‘YouTube career’ thing I had been trying towards for like 8 years at that point, it was taken away from me again unfairly and I had no power to fight it.
The channel can’t be remonetized now in its current state, as all the steam it had gotten from the viral video is gone, as the demotivation on top of the amount of time I was spending on college and work at the time added up to me stopping uploading to both channels for quite a while. YouTube in its modern state does feel a bit anti-small creator at times, which has definitely contributed to my distancing from the love of the “grind” a little.
SUCH: Ah, that's understandable. Were you experiencing creative burnout? It seems to be very common for YouTubers (and I recently had a bout with it myself—I left my marketing job because of burnout).
Hope you are feeling less pressure and are more well-rested!
Will: Definitely. I feel like it's inevitable in any form, even in things you love. Doing something for years, especially if there is a kind of ‘end goal’ you are thinking of while doing it, can have an impact on your enjoyment of that thing if it isn’t moving as quickly as you’d like.
I’ve definitely had a few times where I’ve taken a few months away from making, or really even thinking, of creating for my channels. But then I’ll randomly have spurts of super high passion where I’ll edit multiple videos in a day or keep up a consistent upload schedule for months.
I have a back and forth in my head where I like some aspects of having no schedule to my creative output, as it allows me to take my time on projects that may take more time or care, and I can enjoy the process a lot more and maybe produce something I’m more likely super proud of by the end (such as this video, or the recent Documentary I made and a few other random videos), but I also really enjoy the feeling of consistently keeping up an output of stuff, and feel proud of feeling more like a YouTuber.
I definitely go back and forward a lot, but I think I’m at a point right now where I’ve taken away a lot of the pressure of typically considered “successes” on my projects, and find it easier to celebrate the smaller and more personal accomplishments that come with them. I’ve just generally tried to live a lot more positively since starting university last year, and I’ve felt a lot happier overall doing so, in a lot of aspects of my life.
SUCH: Your final message of accepting failure is pretty inspiring to me (since I'm a perfectionist who struggles to accept errors or problems in life). I think that's a very healthy approach to viewing your work as a YouTuber.
By the way, did you see Eighth Grade? Bo has his protagonist, Kayla Day, also create a video explaining why she was ending her advice channel.
Will: Thank you, it really took me a while to come to that acceptance, I’ll be honest. I spent a lot of time really trying and wanting to be a YouTuber as a career, so the closer adulthood got, the more scary it became that not much was really happening.
Nowadays, after giving myself the time to properly step back from it all and reflect on a lot of things, I think I have managed to finally figure out what my life could be past YouTube, partly because of making this project.
As for Eighth Grade, I unfortunately still have not seen the film, but I have heard nothing but good things. It never released cinematically anywhere around where I live in the UK, which was a shame, but I do intend on watching it at some point. I’m definitely interested to see what Bo’s directing style is like when it comes to making a studio film like that.
SUCH: Oh yeah, you should definitely stream it if you can. I adore that film, and it's what got me obsessed with Bo and his brilliant mind in the first place. Highly recommended!
So I noticed you've uploaded a comparison video between your special and Bo's.
Any reason you made this in particular? Were you concerned people weren't catching your references and homages to the original?
Will: To be honest, this was just another video which I’ve had completed in my files since I finished my college course.
My teacher hadn’t seen Inside, and neither had some other people in the course, so when it came to doing the presentation of my proposed business and the abridged version of the project alongside it, I thought it would be good to create a video to turn into a gif for my PowerPoint showing the specials side-by-side.
When I finished the final version of Still Inside and uploaded it to my channel, I thought it would be good to put the comparison video public, since I already had it on the second channel unlisted. In terms of worrying about people not catching the references, I feel like that’s accurate, but moreso that I wouldn’t want people who hadn’t seen Inside to think that the things I remade or copied were thought up completely independently by me. I feel like the special does a decent job of wearing my Bo inspirations on its sleeve, but that can only go so far for people who have maybe never heard of Bo Burnham for example.
SUCH: Gotcha. The comparison video is well-edited too, and I'm glad you decided to share it with your viewers.
So what's your favorite Bo song? Special? Feel free to name more than one.
Will: I genuinely love all of Bo’s specials, even Words, Words, Words, all for their own reasons. I feel like each of them is so distinct and has their own style & features that make them unique compared to each other, and that’s so inspiring to me.
I feel like my favourite would probably be Make Happy though. There’s just so much to it, with the incredible lighting and some really smart jokes throughout, and some of the songs, especially the Kanye rant at the end with the really cool use of live autotune, which you can see him fiddling with on stage, are genuinely amazing.
I feel like that special is what solidified him as one of my favourite comedians ever, and I really hope he goes back to live comedy and makes something like that again in the future, if he ever feels up to it.
SUCH: I totally agree with you. All of his specials are amazing, but Make Happy is like astonishingly good!
Have you ever met Bo in person? Seen him perform live?
Will: I have not, unfortunately by the time I got into his stuff, Make Happy had already been released for a while and he was on his break from comedy.
I would love to see a show of his live though, especially if it was still in the same style of his pre-Inside stage specials. Being in the UK though, and with the general uncertainty of if he ever will do another stage special for the last few years, who knows how likely that will be. If I had the money, he’s definitely one of the few artists who I would be perfectly fine with travelling overseas to see live though.
SUCH: You and me both! Fingers crossed he decides to tour again.
Fun fact: Bo actually was just in London a few months ago while Kate was playing at Soho Theatre! So it is possible to see him in the UK even though he's not performing currently.
Speaking of fun facts, please tell me one about yourself that most people don’t know about. Do you have any special hobbies or interests?
Will: As of the start of 2023, I started logging almost everything I did in some way or another. For example, my girlfriend got me into this app called ‘Daylio’ where you’re supposed to log how you’re feeling at the end of each evening and give a brief description of what happened during the day, almost like a journal sort of thing.
She also showed me an app which you’re supposed to upload a video or image to every day, so at the end of the year, or however long you decide, it will create a quick cut compilation of all those videos, so you can remember what you’ve been up to and your best memories throughout the year. It’s quite fun and doesn’t take too long, although to be fair, I haven’t uploaded anything to the 1 second app since like May at the moment, but I’ve still been filming things for it…mostly lol.
I also was convinced to get a Letterboxd account by my friends on my media course at university to log all the films I’ve seen and make lists and silly reviews on, (which I enjoy more than I’d like to admit), and I found a music equivalent to do a similar thing with albums, but more seriously. I don’t really know why, but I’ve really enjoyed just having ways to log and look back at the things I’ve been up to, even if not to post publicly, but just for myself to look back on. Can be relaxing and nostalgic.
SUCH: Oh, those apps do sound entertaining! And I totally get how it's oddly nostalgic for you...my website is like that for me as well.
What's up next? Any future projects in the works?
Will: I have recently made a start finally actually trying to get into stand-up comedy.
I’ve always thought about doing it, even as a child, but at the start of 2023 I started properly spending the time to write jokes and routines, and I finally built up the courage to try my first open mic.
Will doing stand-up
I have a lot to improve on, and a lot to learn, but I’m proud of myself for actually doing it and with how well it went all things considered, I feel like it's something I want to keep trying. So, at the moment, unless something changes, that seems to be what could be next for me.
I will always love YouTube and video creating, and will never full on quit making videos. Even though I have spoken about the possibility of that quite a bit in this interview, I still don’t actually know what I want to do. But I am learning slowly.
Will performing in his Tour shirt (LOVE it!)
Stand-up right now is so new and exciting, and I’m learning how performing works and what the scenes in my local areas are like, and I feel like if I really put my time to it, it could be something I really enjoy. So, that’s what I’m most likely going to be spending a lot of my creative time and passion on in the foreseeable future. It’s very scary in some ways, but also really exciting, and I can’t wait to see where it all goes.
Another comedy short posted by Will
SUCH: That sounds thrilling, and I'm so glad to see young stand-ups embracing the craft of writing and performing good comedy. It warms my heart to see that passion for the performing arts!
How can people best support your work? And do you have any social media you'd like to plug?
Will: For the stand-up stuff, @willglitchcomedy on Instagram is where I intend on posting all updates and content based on that going forward, so any support there would be massively appreciated, as that is gonna be my new, big project going forward as things stand.
As much as my future on YouTube is still a little uncertain right now, I still have a feeling I will definitely create and post more video content in the future, of some kind. It’s something that has always been a big part of my life, and that won’t ever change, so if I ever create anything else to this scale in the future, or even more YouTuber style stuff, that will be where they will be found. So with that all being said: Youtube.com/@Will_Glitch is where the rest of my content can be found, and anyone checking that out if they are curious to do so would be massively appreciated!
Thank you so very much!
SUCH: No problem at all. Thanks for explaining your excellent Bo remake, and best of luck pursuing stand-up comedy as a career!
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