nicole_powers

Philip DeFranco is a next generation celeb. Known to many by his YouTube moniker, sxephil, since joining the video-based site on September 15, 2006, he's become one of the biggest stars of its pixelated small screens.

DIY broadcasting from a ubiquitous eggshell and beige room in his home in Atlanta, Georgia, the fast-talking 23-year old self-confessed geek delivers often funny, always sarcastic and biting commentary on subjects as disparate as penis sniffing housewives and the mysterious and convenient (if you're a senior Republican who's into a little election tampering) death of Karl Rove's IT guy, Michael Connell (who was ready to spill his guts just not in a plane crash-y kind of way).

It has to be said, The Philip DeFranco Show is a cut above most made-for-YouTube fare. But as his salary begins to match his online status, DeFranco threw a curve ball into his satirical mix, announcing his retirement towards the end of 2009 in a recent show. In the meantime, he's enjoying a new wave of web-based notoriety, as one of Wired.com's Sexiest Geeks, as decided by an annual online reader poll, which he is topping at the time of writing by a very healthy margin.

SuicideGirls caught up with DeFranco while he was in Utah, not staying at his girlsfirends Dads house (the trip itself provided the subject for DeFranco's Dec 30th Douchebag of the Day), to find out more about the man behind The Philip Defranco Show and its companion PhillyD.tv blog.


Nicole Powers: Where did the inspiration for your show come from? And how did you start out?

Philip DeFranco: Honestly, it all really started just out of boredom. It was around finals, 'cause I was a junior at East Carolina University. I was stressed out, finished finals, and I realized over the course of finals and school that I didn't really do anything other than school and I needed to find something new. So I started making videos about being me, being opinionated and likeable or annoying depending on who you are.

NP: How many people are involved in the PhillyD TV operation now?

PDF: It's just me. I try and help produce smaller shows here and there, and I think that's where it's going to go in the future, but the Philip DeFranco Show is just me. It doesn't really have a script, it's just adlib I film it, I edit it, and I push it out.

NP: You've got a massive following online. What are the stats on that right now?

PDF: We have a core audience of about 300,000 people, and the show has been viewed about 135 million times.

NP: There's not much info about you online. While on Wikipedia, I noticed your entry is being "considered for deletion in accordance with Wikipedia's deletion policy." You're also scoring high on the Wikirage. What sparked this online ire?

PDF: There are people out there, when you make online video there's pretty much two worlds; there's YouTube and then the podcasters. The ones that consider it's their real job are podcasters, those are the shows like Diggnation, which I think defined the [podcast] back in the day. And a lot of people, when they look at YouTube, they don't consider us to be significant in any way. I mean that being said, we completely crush them in views, but there's still a lot of people out there who say we shouldn't really be recognized. But as more and more stuff comes out a lot of people are seeing this is the way that videos are being distributed, there's a huge audience, and, you know, it's a job.

NP: So YouTube is too mainstream for podcasters, is that what you're saying?

PDF: Well yeah. It's not even mainstream, it's just they don't take YouTube and the people on it seriously.

NP: There's some kind of snobbery there?

PDF: Kind of, yeah. I mean when you think podcaster, it's usually very professional. They have someone that does distributing, someone that does editing, someone that does the video. And a lot of YouTubers such as myself, Michael Buckley, Shaycarl, a lot of people, it's just 'I'm in my room talking,' and a lot of people don't think that means anything.

NP: Your broadcasts are very well informed. How do you get Philled in?

PDF: I started making videos based off of what I knew, and what I liked. Everyday since I was thirteen I'd pop on TV and I'd check stuff out. As I got out there more and technology advanced, I got broadband, I started checking out news websites, and I realized that a lot of media out there is kind of just BS, and you have to actually put in research and that's what's awesome about the internet. I mean Twitter, when that earthquake happened in California, it was up there, and there was in-depth and personal experiences. And I guess it's really finding a story, researching it down, and getting personal experiences to verify.

NP: You were one of a select group of net celebs that were sent a letter with a DVD and a key leading to a storage facility nearby. It was all very mysterious, and turned out to be an elaborate promotion for the game F.E.A.R. 2 Do you feel used?

PDF: It's weird. I feel used because usually the way it works is, promotion, it's kind of a paid thing. But the thing is, I'm such a geek that I was actually happy just to be a part of it because they only sent it out to eight people. I was like, "Oh! This is kind of cool." But obviously, they are using me, and I'm not getting anything except the experience.

NP: They weren't paying you, but other people have been. On your MySpace page you list your income as being "$250,000 and Higher." Is that for real, or just to up your sexy geek ante?

PDF: As of this year, that is real. It started out as a joke. It comes from a lot of sources, and a lot of different things, it's not just YouTube, it's all over the place on the internet. There's a lot of money to be made there.

NP: You've just been nominated as a contender in Wired.com's Sexiest Geeks of 2008 contest. Isn't sexy geek an oxymoron though? Playing devil's advocate here, if you're an 8 or above, aren't you just really a hot guy or chick using a computer?

PDF: [laughs] I mean, honestly, it's kind of cheesy. Someone sent it to me, and I was like, "Really?" And then I looked through, and it's all the same people like Olivia Munn. Essentially, like you say, it's a hot chick most of the time that was in a movie about a video game or she owns video games or she can use a computer. So I kind of just promoted it because I thought it'd be funny for a normal guy to be at the top of the list. I don't take it seriously. The voting movement I pushed my people to do was just kind of a joke.

NP: At the moment you're ranking higher than Rosario Dawson, Olivia Munn, Tina Fey, and even Stephen Colbert. I guess you're benefiting from the fact that Colbert's off air, otherwise he'd be looking for a Colbert Bump from his viewers.

PDF: When you compare those people, people that are mainstream on TV, and then you look at us online, that's our own field. In the past we've used it to our advantage, like with the Spore, a video game. Their promotion, they had TV and online people, and it was like whoever gets the most votes gets $15,000 for a charity. So I did that for PKD Cure and we completely obliterated everyone. [PKD or Polycystic kidney disease is genetic disorder and something DeFranco inherited from his father, who suffers from the disease.] I think we got 200,000 votes, and then the closest person was like 70,000 from the Sprouse Twins from Disney Channel, and then any other person that was on TV was like at 2,000.

NP: It's the power of the geek.

PDF: I don't want to say it's ours, because it sounds melodramatic, but it's where we are with life.

NP: You're YouTube user ID is sxephil. Obviously you signed up for your account prior to becaming the massive net celeb that you are today, but many of your online fans now know you by this name rather than your real world one. In retrospect, do you wish you'd have chosen a different online handle?

PDF: Yes. I actually used it because I just wanted to post a video of my friend doing something stupid and it said, "User Name?" and I was like, "OK? That must be like my email address." My email address was like from when I was fourteen...And now people come up to me on the street and are like, "Hey, sxephil!" And I'm like, "Oh, my God!"

NP: Following on from that, what advice would you give to those entering the world online with regard to choice of user names? I mean the MySpace and Facebook account you set up when you're eight is going to be the same account a potential boss or girlfriend scrutinizes before committing to you. Learning from your mistakes what would you suggest? I mean you're going to be sxephil when you're 84!

PDF: Oh, please don't say that. [laughs] I guess it's kind of like a tattoo. Think, OK, I'm going to get a tattoo right? I'm going to be, like you say, 84 with this tattoo. Do I want to be known as sxephil? Probably not. It'd probably be even more ironic than it is now. I guess it's really just like the tattoo.

NP: That's a very good analogy. It seems like you've just got started. But you've actually announced your retirement, a year from when you first revealed it, which was on your November 3rd, 2008 show. How will we get Philled in after November 3rd, 2009?

PDF: I don't know. I mean I've been trying to get behind a few shows doing different things not exactly The Philip DeFranco Show because I kind of just feel like that should die. I don't want to overrun my time because it'll mean a lot less to me. And so as far as where people will go...I don't know, I'm not sure where people will go. I mean I plan on ending The Philip DeFranco Show, but I definitely want to move on to something else non-Philip DeFranco Show-like.

NP: Aren't you just pulling a Cher, doing an endless farewell tour that you'll extend and extend?

PDF: I don't want to be like that rock band, no. When I say the show is over, I'm saying The Philip DeFranco Show. Will I make something online later? Possibly, but it's not like I'm planning on it, it's just The Philip DeFranco Show that's being done now is definitely going to end. Like you say, when I'm sXephil and I'm 84, I don't want to have that still on.

NP: I think a lot about living and dying online. We have Living Wills for those dying in the real world, but I think we also need to start addressing the issue of living wills for our online lives. I mean just because our real world brains and bodies expire, doesn't mean the plug should be pulled on our online beings. Would you want to set up a trust to pay for the upkeep and maintenance of sxephil, so geeks in a thousand years time can still find inspiration from you?

PDF: [laughs] I thought the world was ending in three years, and a day. I don't think what I have to say is that amazing that it should be cataloged and saved for the future. Like if people look back on my videos and are like, "Wow! This guy had problems growing up and decided to make videos everyday to somehow justify his existence." I don't know, I'll say "no" to that question.

NP: So you just want the plug pulled?

PDF: Yeah. I'm just not one of those people that's like, "I wanna leave my mark." What am I going to care?