Today I received my second mention in the Daily Northwestern That Guy.
 ”We know that a few NU kids have graced the YouTube scene with renditions of bad songs or Cribs-style videos. This music video, created by senior Steve Persch, is by far the best. You’ll not only love the lyrics, but it’s just funny to see senior Travis Greisler’s head poke out randomly from behind the Rock to sing the chorus. There’s even a Facebook group for it, so you know it’s good. We might be a little biased because we think Steve Persch is hilarious, but it’s still worth checking out. It’s quirky. It’s fun. It is Northwestern.”

They included me on a top ten list of youTube.  Who’d have thought I’d be mentioned on the same list as OK GO, R. Kelly, Borat and the Crazy N64 kid?   Thanks to the the writers over at Play.  I’m glad you guys like the video.

I hope this will drive up hits again.  I got quite a surge after the first article.  I’m sitting at 2,499 right now.  It reminds me of something I read while at Lookingglass this summer.  They had me going through old press clippings and there was a quote from David Schiwmmer saying that he realized that more people see a single episode of friends than have seen every Lookingglass performance combined.  Is it possible that more people have seen this video than all of my Titanic shows?  Maybe.

In an case, Titanic Players end of quarter show: December 1st.  8pm.  Location-TBD.

Steve

That Guy presses on.  I got featured on NNN, Northwestern News Network on Monday.  It’s a good clip.  I’m glad to see it getting coverage.

Also I did a live performance tonight.  I took my vocals and Travis’ main vocals out of the audio and we performed in McCormick with the video playing behind us.  Travis and I had fun doing it.  Wish more people would have seen it.  Anyway it was a great exercise in media theatre.

Wow.  Special thanks to The Daily Northwestestern.  the youtube view count jumped above 2000 since the article that ran in the Daily.  That’s awesome.  In case you didn’t see it…

And… On tuesday at 8pm in Norris, I am competing in the Homecoming talent show with a live performance of the video.

Be there

Steve

Today I got an Email asking me about the use of “tup” in the final verse and whether or not it was an Othello reference.  While I didn’t mean to call up Othello in particular, the play is where I first heard the word and I have no problem with the a connection to a very sexual play in that verse.

I wasn’t sure whether or not to keep “tup” because I thought That Guy Who Never Shuts Up might just say “fuck.”  “Fuck” would have fit the rhyme, though not as well.  However I didn’t want to get that profane and I liked the implication that That Guy Who Never Shuts Up is smarter than he lets on.

Steve

The Daily covered the video today.  How awesome.

I’ve had the odd experience of many people asking me what that that guy thing is all about.  People whom I know have received the facebook invitation, even some people in the group still don’t know that it’s a music video.  I guess people don’t look at facebook groups to closely even when it says WATCH THE VIDEO BY CLICKING ON THE LINK BELOW.

 So I think I need a new advertising campaign.  I’ll go with direct Email pretty soon I think unless I come up with something better.  What would That Guy With Business Cards do?

I was walking past the Rock today and a girl on a bike going past me whom I didn’t know said “Hey That Guy.”  I was wearing a button up shirt and a blazer from acting class.  I was That Guy Still in His Acting Class Costume.

Steve

In the time since the video has been up I’ve heard a wide range of responses.  Watching other people watch it has been especially interesting.  For the most part people watch each verse a half-confused look on the faces, sometimes laughing softly at a few moments.

Then Travis appears out of nowhere.  And people erupt.  I’m not sure if it’s the surprise, the ridiculousness, or Travis’ way of absolutely selling every thing he does.  Regardless it is an essential part of the experience.  The chorus, like all the lyrics, were written suddenly and almost took me by surprise.  After working in the library for two hours trying to form a beat myself (this was before I got Matt Sax on the project) I went home frustrated.  I opened my computer and started listening to “Hypnotize” by Notorious B.I.G., trying to figure out exactly what the beat in that song was doing.  Instead I found myself drawn to the simple chorus.  I stopped the song and within a minute I had the chorus for “That Guy” written.

A week or so later when I went to Matt to get his advice on the beat. “Do you have a chorus?” was the last question Matt asked me before he decided he wanted to do the beat himself.  I later found out while interviewing Matt for the Lookingglass Magazine that B.I.G.’s “Ready to Die” was the first first hip-hop album he ever had.
Steve

Hey That Guy fans, Feel free to use the comment features on this site to discuss the video. I can answer any questions you may have about the project. In the next few days I’m going to post my thoughts on some of the guys. Look for an explanation of the intended and unintended parallels between That Guy Who Always Wears Sandals and Stephen Colbert’s character, an entry with a more specific explanation of the inspiration for the Guys, a discussion on why I think Northwestern University Radio Drama is the group that most influenced the humor of the song and more.

Stay tuned,

Steve

In winter quarter of 2006 I took a class called “The Creative Process” With Professor Ann Woodworth. This class, among other things, encouraged fearless creativity. The final for the class was a 15-minute, two-person performance of anything. Faced with such an open-ended assignment by partner, Matt Sheelen, and I narrowed our focus to “comedy” and “maleness.” With this brewing in my mind I one day found myself coming up with rhymes in the shower. It was a Sunday morning and I still had a few hours before I had to head over to N.U. Radio Drama. So I started writing down the lyrics I had just come up with and within an hour I had most of the lyrics for three of the four That Guys. Only two were performed as part of that class but I knew that the song would have life beyond the Struble Theatre.

Over Spring break I wrote the entirety of “That Guy Who Always Wears Sandals” while driving alone from Milwaukee to Madison. When I got there I told Addy Stoiber, the friend I was visiting that I had written a verse for a rap song in the car. Her response was one that I have heard often throughout this process: “Why, what for?” After I performed for her the lyrics I had written she did ask “why” again. This too became a common response. When I asked Matt to do the beat, when I asked Travis to sing the chorus, when I asked Ian to do the video the all responded with an optimistic skepticism. After reading the lyrics or hearing the song they no longer asked why.

It’s hard to say whether or not I would have continued writing this song on that Sunday morning in February had I known of all the difficulty that faced me ahead. I did not foresee the deletion of all the vocal files or the challenge of throwing a party in a college town in the summer. What initially started as a one time performance for an audience of seven people has become a six-month odyssey that I want the world to see the result of. For six months I’ve had people asking me why I was making a music video. I knew the answer from day one. Now that answer is visible to all.