Thumbs Up, Thumbs Down: The Best And Worst Bits About Being Marty Smiley
Marty Smiley on the state of viral videos, new-world broadcasting and the tyranny of popularity metrics.
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He’s the mustachioed rapscallion who in 2012 was chosen from over 6,000 applicants to be a presenter for Channel V. Since wrapping up his post there in July of this year, Marty Smiley has taken up hosting The Drop on 2Day FM and YouTube Radio — a national radio show all about YouTube. He’s basically the human example you give your mum when she asks what a Millennial is.
He’s hung out with the likes of Jack Black, Smashing Pumpkins, Lorde, Tame Impala and The Offspring, and this month he’ll be hosting our very first Thumb War championship. Here
We asked Marty what three things about being Marty Smiley he gives thumbs up to – and what makes his thumbs frown.
Thumbs Up
1#: Learning A New Medium
“I’m still a newbie to being a presenter/broadcaster, but doing three years in television gave me some great experience in presenting live shows, talking and working under pressure, and learning the art of the interview. Radio is a whole different ball game: it’s a faster pace and you’ve got to be able to talk about any topic in a way that is clear, concise and entertaining to everyone listening. On top of that, we’re making videos for YouTube everyday. I’ve rapidly learnt that what works on TV is completely different to what resonates with an online audience.
“Sometimes Dad listens too, so I have to remember to ‘articulate and annunciate’ all my words.”
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2#: Heaps Of Live Music
“Working at Channel [V] gave me the chance to see some of world’s best bands and musicians live, and that’s only continued on radio. Music is deeply entrenched in my life. I get to talk about it everyday. I get to watch it when I want, and I sometimes I get to meet the people making it. It’s a blessing. I’ve lost count of the amount of shows I’ve seen, but I’m sentimental enough to have kept the ticket stubs.”
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3#: Meeting Inspiring, Hardworking, Self-Made YouTubers
“You don’t have to be viciously good-looking with gleaming white teeth to make it on YouTube. You just have to be genuine, authentic in your character, and consistent. I really respect people who’ve hustled hard enough to make YouTube their career.
“My favourite YouTuber, Nat Tran, has been filming skits and talking to a camera in her bedroom for nine years, with the aim to upload a video a week. She now has 1.7 million subscribers, and half a billion people have watched her videos. Michael Cusack, the animator of Damo and Darren, is a young dude with a passion for animation. At the moment he’s still working at the Pancake Parlour, but YouTube has given him a platform to test his stuff out. He doesn’t care if it doesn’t get any views. He’s almost oblivious to the fact that people all over the country are quoting his characters on a daily basis.
“I get a real buzz from forming a genuine connection with the person I’m talking to, finding out something new from them or creating an environment where they feel comfortable enough to speak their mind.”
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Thumbs Down
1#: Viral Videos That Are So Bad They Makes You Question Your Own Existence And The World In Which We Live
“Sometimes I get very angry and little down about some of the vile stuff people share on their personal pages or to their friends, whether it’s content that is clearly prejudiced, YouTuber ‘pranks’ that are borderline entrapment or just simply misleading headlines on videos. ‘JUSTIN BIEBER THROWS THE BIGGEST TANTRUM THE WORLD HAS EVER SEEN’ and then the video is just him accidentally knocking over a pot plant. “We have to trawl through it all when we get in to work and sometimes I wanna punch the screen. But then I just watch videos on YouTube where someone vision impaired sees colour for the first time, and I feel okay again.” –
2#: The Shrinking Music Scene; We Need To Invest More In Australian Artists
“It’s really sad that we’ve lost so many great festivals in this country, but I’m really stoked I was able to cover some of the major ones like The Big Day Out, Future Music Festival, Parklife, Harvest and Homebake before they went kaput. Channel [V] used to do live specials from almost all of them (when more people had Foxtel).
“I think it’s really important that we hold on with all of our might to major festivals like Falls, Splendour, Bluesfest, Laneway and Soundwave. I try to do what I can to support our local scene, but working on commercial television/radio, you’ve got to fight pretty hard sometimes to get Australian music played, particularly unsigned or independent artists. The government needs to increase the quota of Aussie music that stations are required to play.”
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3#: Likes, Subscribers, Faves, Tweets, Retweets, Hearts…
“Our obsession with these metrics can be exhausting. My show relies on it much like the music industry relies on charts. I try to treat my social media like a job. I’m happy to be involved with all the different platforms to connect with our audience but outside of that, I value my life more than I value my social media presence! I like having the ability to share things I’m interested in and create my own voice but I hate when it creeps into your life and influences the decisions you make on a daily basis. Life’s rad and I don’t want to get distracted from really living it. PREACH!
“But for real, you can follow me on all my social media pipes here: @martysmiley”
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Check out Marty in action and feast your eyes on the night of glory that was Thumb Wars here (video hyperlink), which includes Alex Gardiner winning the $5,000 prize with just the Power of his Thumb.
Views expressed in the article are those of the writer.