Gary Brolsma

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Gary Brolsma
Background information
Born
Internet activity
Web alias(es) The Numa Numa Guy
Host service(s) Newgrounds
Meme Numa Numa
December 10, 2004
Official site www.newnuma.com

Gary Brolsma (age 21, from Saddle Brook, New Jersey[1]), also known as simply the Numa Numa Guy, gained worldwide attention after posting onto the Internet, near the end of 2004, a webcam video of himself miming to the song "Dragostea din tei" by Moldovan pop band O-Zone. It was known as Numa Numa, after a phrase in the song, and became an Internet phenomenon watched by millions of people, leading to mainstream media exposure for him. He initially withdrew from the attention, but returned with a band and a new video New Numa in the late summer of 2006 and began to do interviews.

He graduated from Bergen County Technical High School in Teterboro, New Jersey in June 2004.[citation needed]

Contents

[edit] History

Main article: Numa Numa

Gary has created variants of the Numa Numa video since it became popular. One version also contains some puns, among them pictures of feta cheese during the lyric "fericirea" (happiness) and a LEGO representation of Bob Ross during the singer's words: "sunt eu, Picasso" (it's me, Picasso). Other versions include a showdown between him and a German Kid getting angry at his computer. The video also had a cameo by the Star Wars kid.

New York Times article (February 26, 2005) about Gary Brolsma and the Numa Numa dance.
New York Times article (February 26, 2005) about Gary Brolsma and the Numa Numa dance.

He made appearances on ABC's Good Morning America, NBC's The Tonight Show, and VH1's Best Week Ever, but then became uncomfortable with the amount of attention.[1]

A story in The Believer (June/July 2006) explored the song's spread and global homogenization, while arguing that Brolsma's video "singlehandedly justifies the existence of webcams . . . It’s a movie of someone who is having the time of his life, wants to share his joy with everyone, and doesn’t care what anyone else thinks".[2]

Gary once had a small part on The War at Home when Dave was talking about him,[3] giving his "trademark" "Aló" to a person on the phone in a short scene.

He was voted the Number 1 Internet Icon by 40 Greatest Internet Superstars on VH1, beating the Star Wars kid at Number 2.

[edit] New Numa

On September 8, 2006, a New Numa video was posted on Newgrounds, and promoted on a dedicated website, NewNuma.com.[4] Although initially unexpected, he says he had been urged to make such a move by fans of his original video.[5] The video was produced by Experience Studios (Seattle, WA). It features Eoghan Lyons and his garage band, The Nowadays, lip-synching and dancing to New Numa.[6] The song is a repeated Russian children's rhyme and performed in Russian by Chad Russell, a singer/songwriter from Minneapolis, MN, for producer and DJ, Variety Beats, on the BeLive label.

To coincide with the video release, a US$45,000 contest, in which entrants submit their own user-created one- to ten-minute long "New Numa" music video, was launched on the website. The "New Numa Contest"[7] ended on 22 May 2007 with the winning entry "1197 Virus (Complete)" created by fan Keith3D announced on the NewNuma website on 21 June 2007. Keith3D won $25,000 for the top entry.

[edit] Numa Three: Crazy Loop

On November 14, 2007 Gary Brolsma released his third installment in the Numa series entitled "Numa Three: Crazy Loop!"[8] Like the original Numa Numa video, Numa Three was self-produced and recorded in his bedroom. Gary is lip-syncing and dancing to a new Dan Balan production entitled "Crazy Loop (Mm ma ma)"[9] The Crazy Loop contest was hosted by stupidvideos.com. However, the rigged contest caused problems when users made several thousands of accounts and voted videos poorly. In the end stupidvideos did not even bother to watch all of the submissions and just chose a winner.

[edit] Other media

Brolsma most recently appeared in the video for the Weezer single "Pork and Beans", singing along with the band while doing the Numa Numa dance.[10]

Brolsma also made a video promoting the Discovery Channel's National Body Challenge, which he stated he was joining.[11] In it, he parodies, among other things, the Atkins Nutritional Approach and Star Wars kid.

Brolsma also appeared in the music video for the Barenaked Ladies song "Sound of Your Voice", which featured a compilation of YouTube celebrities.

On October 15, 2007, The New York Times reported that Brolsma had recently collaborated on a video with lonelygirl15's Glenn Rubenstein, as well as Chad Vader's Aaron Yonda and Matt Sloan, as a part of Canon's Battle of the Internet Superstars.[12]

Gary Brolsma has also done guest appearances at many famous night clubs such as Famous. Phil Gough (Eclipse Events CEO & Famous manager) has praised Gary's performance and has also commented on how he thought the video was actually him singing Numa Numa and that his friends secretly filmed him one night at home. But after closer inspections he noticed that it was Gary after all.

[edit] Notes and references

  1. ^ a b Feuer, Alan; and George, Jason. "Internet Fame Is Cruel Mistress for a Dancer of the Numa Numa", The New York Times, February 6, 2005. Accessed November 28, 2007.
  2. ^ The Believer - The Syncher, Not the Song
  3. ^ YouTube - Numa Guy on The War at Home
  4. ^ Gary Brolsma & New Numa! - $45,000 WorldWide New Numa Contest!
  5. ^ http://www.garybrolsma.net/id11.html
  6. ^ MySpace.com - The Nowadays - Saddle Brook, New Jersey - Alternative / Rock / Expérimentale - www.myspace.com/thenowadaysnj
  7. ^ YouTube - $45,000 Worldwide New Numa Contest Promo
  8. ^ YouTube - Numa Three: Crazy Loop!
  9. ^ YouTube - Crazy Loop (Mm ma ma)
  10. ^ YouTube - Pork and Beans
  11. ^ National Body Challenge : Discovery Health
  12. ^ Callender, David. "In a City Far, Far Away From Hollywood, the YouTube Tales of a Lesser Vader", The New York Times, October 15, 2007. Accessed November 28, 2007.

[edit] External links

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