| Brooke Brodack | |
|---|---|
Brodack at the ROFLCon in 2008. |
|
| Born | Brooke Allison Brodack April 7, 1986 Putnam, Connecticut, United States |
| Other names | Brooke Alley |
| Years active | September 30, 2005 – present |
| Known for | Comedy, Parody |
| Internet information | |
| Web alias(es) | Brookers |
| Web hosting service(s) | YouTube, MySpace, Revver, Blogtv |
Brooke Allison Brodack (born April 7, 1986; Putnam, Connecticut), aka Brookers, is an American viral video comedian mainly known for her short videos on YouTube, which have received 49 million views and led to a contract from the mainstream media.[1] The New Yorker called her "the first real YouTube star."[2]
Brodack has been making videos since she was 9 years old.[3] Graduating from Wachusett Regional High School, she then attended college at Worcester State College, Quinsigamond Community College and Mount Wachusett Community College, ultimately dropping out of all three. Brodack worked from 2003 to 2006 as a receptionist and hostess at the 99 Restaurant,[4] and she volunteered (2003–05) for the NEADS program (Dogs for Deaf and Disabled Americans) in Sterling, Massachusetts.[5]
Contents |
Brodack began posting her short comedic videos on her "Brookers" YouTube channel in September 2005. By June 2006, she was offered an 18-month development contract from Carson Daly, the host of a late night show on NBC,[6] however nothing came of this contract and it was not subsequently renewed. From July 3 to August 17, 2006, her "Brookers" channel was the most subscribed on YouTube. She was named a "Crossover Star" by the Wall Street Journal on its New Media Power List on July 29, 2006.[7]
Brookers directs, edits and performs in her videos, most of which have been set at her family home in Holden, Massachusetts. The New Yorker has called her videos "defiantly madcap."[2] Her single-most popular video, "Crazed Numa Fan!!!!", a lip-sync parody of an earlier Internet meme, Numa Numa Dance by Gary Brolsma (itself a parody of "Dragostea din tei" by O-Zone),[8] has been viewed on YouTube over 8.2 million [9] times. Her younger sister, Melissa "Missy" Brodack, performs alongside her in many videos, including "Crazed Numa Fan!!!!"[4]
Her video "Chips," a spoof suspense drama about eating potato chips, has been called "brilliant" by Entertainment Weekly, which has listed it among the "great moments in YouTube history."[10]
From August 2006 to April 2007, she played a large role on a Daly-hosted, NBC-sponsored video contest website, It's Your Show TV[11] posting many videos there.[12] She appeared on The Tyra Banks Show (December 6, 2006), as a judge for a student video competition. In February 2007, she released "The Sound of Your Voice," a viral music video for The Barenaked Ladies.
From May 2007 to March 2008, Brookers had her own web channel, brookebrodack.tv, which was offered through www.me.tv, a new service Daly helped to found. She participated in the 777 (July 7, 2007) YouTube gathering in New York City. In November 2007, she released, "Ozzy's Magical Glasses n' Stuff," a viral video advertisement for a live auction of Ozzy Osbourne items on the Auction Network, for which she was paid "a solid five figures" by the Palisades Media Group.[13]
Brookers has experimented with non-comic videos, such as The Falling, and she has collaborated with other talents, including the New York based comedy troupe The Tenderloins, the Los Angeles based comedy troupe Studio 8 Comedy, LLC, viral video creator Caitlin Hill ("TheHill88") and the lifecasters Justine Ezarik ("iJustine") and Sarah Austin of Pop17.
Brooke also appears in a number of WestHavenBrook video series alongside John Soares, including the Vacuum Consortium series, where she plays Agamemnon Tiberius Vacuum's nemesis, "The Brodack", and Go Sukashi!, produced by Douglas TenNapel in association with Watanabe Entertainment and Dentsu, where she plays Sukashi's girlfriend Bethany.
In addition to her "Brookers" YouTube channel, Brodack in January 2006 established a second channel, "QuietRiot," and she began posting videos there regularly in the summer of 2007. Collectively, they have received about 2,000,000 views. Since early 2006, she also has given improvised, audience-interactive comic performances on live webcam video, hosted by such services as Stickam, Ustream, and currently Blogtv, where in May 2008, she launched her live "BrookeBrodack's Show." Many of these performances have been recorded by fans, who have released them or sections of them as viral videos.
| Honorary titles | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by judsonlaipply |
Most Subscribed on Youtube | Succeeded by geriatric1927 |
