Before Gus Johnson would sign a deal with Viacom to produce content with Comedy Central
Before Gus Johnson would obtain a following of over 1.3 million subscribers on youtube,
200 thousand on twitter and 183 thousand on instagram
Before Gus Johnson would introduce his audience to popular characters such as Mitchell Robbins,
JK Rowling, Working Man and Pillow Guy
Gus Johnson’s comedic ways would see him grow a youtube following of over 1 million,
land a deal with a huge network, and crowdfund 10s of thousands of dollars to help him produce
more content.
With viral videos such as “Every Cat at 3AM” and “Recording A Spotify Ad”, Gus
was able to clock in millions of views and grow his brand to a point where he could do
what he loves full time, make people laugh.
We’re here to tell you guys all about Gus Johnson’s rise to success, here for you
on before they were famous.
What’s going on guys I’m your host Jarred Bronstein and today we’ll be talking about
Gus Johnson.
We’ve covered a ton of other youtubers in the past, most recently the Sidemen and Deestroying
to name a few.
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Drop us a comment with who you’d like us to cover next, but before we jump into today’s
video, I got a question.
And no, it’s not a trivia question.
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But I also have a trivia question.
When asked which actor would play Gus in a story about his life, who did he suggest?
Let me know in the comments below and I’ll have that answer for you at the end of this
one.
Now let’s get into this video.
Gustav Emil Johnson was born on June 20th, 1995 in Grantsburg, Wisconsin, a small town
of about 1,300 people in northwest Wisconsin.
His family is of swedish and Norwegian decent and his younger brother, Sven Johnson, is
also a YouTuber who makes short comedic skits.
He’s also got another brother, Thor, but not too much is known about him.
Other than the fact that he has the same name as a superhero.
Their parents, Deb and Pete are believed to be school teachers or coaches.
Although after finding this video of their dad, Pete Johnson, perform at a charity fundraiser,
I’m surprised he isn’t a stand up comedian.
But it’s clear to see where Gus and Sven get their comedic timing and energy from.
Aside from their Dad’s entertaining roots, it seems Gus’ fate would be set from a very
young age.
His grandfather owned a computer repair and photography shop, which gave Gus access to
things such as cameras and editing softwares.
He would use this to his advantage, making skits and sketches with his friends in 6th
and 7th grade.
Gus and his friend Joe would also shoot action movie parodies and upload them online, where
they would get a few views if they were lucky.
Which looking back, is laughable compared to the 5.4 million views his Every Cat at
3AM video has clocked in, posted on October 5th, 2017.
Gus would create his youtube account on September 11th, 2010, where he would upload his first
video, Ian’s Song.
This was a song written and performed by Gus, who was paying respects to a friend of his
who passed away at the age of 14 after being involved in a swimming accident.
He would continue to produce content throughout high school and upload it to youtube, but
it wouldn’t be until he was a freshman in university that he would crack the code.
Gus attended the University of Wisconsin Stout, majoring in Entertainment Design, more specifically,
Digital Cinema.
While attending school, Johnson would promote his videos on Reddit, posting the links as
part of sub reddits.
His first video to really blow up, which garnered over 150 thousand views in a month?
A clip of him banging drums to the Indian Jones Theme song.
However Gus didn’t start all of it for the money or fame.
It seems he always had a soft spot for entertaining, being a part of his school’s theatre performances
and attending open mics when he could.
But due to the fact that there isn’t an open mic or theatre production happening every
other day, Gus focused on youtube, uploading 3 times a week while in University.
His videos were and still are a series of short sketches and quick jokes that deal with
aspects of life.
When it comes to inspiration and influence, he mentioned the likes of H3H3, IdubbbzTV,
Real Big Boys, Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared and Philip Defranco when it comes to the youtube
scene.
In regards to the comedy side of things, Johnson cites Steven Wright, Louis CK, Bill Burr and
Mitch Hedberg.
In October of 2016 Gus would be featured on Comedy Central’s popular show, Tosh.0.
One of Gus’ videos managed to make it to the viewer video of the week, which helped
him gain some exposure.
He would also have some of his content featured in a Fine Bro’s try not to laugh challenge,
something he didn’t agree with but appreciated, and of course, people would repost some of
his content all over the internet.
His rise in popularity would lead to him finding work in independent films and series, but
would also get him in touch with other youtubers and content creators.
One of those creators is Johnson’s good friend, Eddy Burback who currently has a youtube
following of over 300 thousand.
The two of them would start a podcast, Ok I’ll talk, in 2017, but would discontinue
after just 7 episodes.
They would however continue making videos together.
Johnson would then produce the pilot for his web series, Par 9, before promoting it on
Kick-starter to help raise funds.
The crowdfunding would work in his favour, raising just under $6,200 dollars, exceeding
the original goal of $5000.
But I mean with perks such as being a producer, being featured in the web series, and even
getting time to play PS4 with Gus, are we really that surprised?
After raising the funds they would release all 4 episodes as promised, but the views
wouldn’t be close to majority of his other stuff.
Still it was a pretty funny series so if you’re a fan of Gus and haven’t checked it out,
I’d do that.
Now with an interest in acting from a young age, and the online following to help him
gain some notoriety, Gus would start to see an increase in auditions and gigs out west.
Eventually, this would lead to him and his good friend Eddy moving in together with their
sights set on stardom.
In the summer 2018 they’d make a new podcast and move to LA.
The new podcast would be called Gus and Eddy, and once again they would turn to Kickstarter
to raise funds.
This time with an initial goal of $8,000 to buy equipment such as microphones, cameras,
a lighting kit, and more, they were able to raise almost double their goal, totalling
13.7 thousand.
The youtube account for their podcast would be created on June 17th, 2018, and they would
start uploading their weekly podcast on August 31st 2018, consistently posting a new episode
every week since.
2019 would seem to be the biggest year yet for Johnson, who would hit the 1 million subscriber
mark on youtube while appearing on the H3 Podcast.
Aside from hitting such a big milestone and actually being a guest on a creator’s podcast
that he was influenced by early on in his career, Gus would also sign a deal with Viacom
to create content for the channel Comedy Central.
While Gus juggles all of his ventures, he also continues to put out funny short comedic
clips on YouTube.
At the time of this recording he’s got over 1.3
million subscribers and it seems like he’s not slowing down anytime soon.
Now to answer that trivia question, back in 2016, while still in University, Gus was interviewed
by the school’s local newspaper.
He was asked which actor would play him in a story on his life, to which he responded
Sheesh, how many actors have big foreheads and homegrown haircuts?
Maybe if Macaulay Culkin got cleaned up, he would sort of look the part.
Here's hoping.
So there you have it folks.
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Check out our new patreon account as well to see if there’s any cool perks you’d
be interested in and as always I’ve been your host Jarred Bronstein, connect with me
on social media @bronst7 and I’ll see you in the next one.