Lessons from Fred Figglehorn

For anyone who’s witnessed the irrepressible, obnoxious, high-pitched YouTube character Fred Figglehorn, you know that he can be a very annoying force of nature. The energetic and erratic Fred rants, raves, whines and fibs, yet he has endeared himself to his digital audience since 2005.

Lucas Cruikshank, the character’s creator and performer, started making videos to “spoof scary movies and mock talk shows,” for his friends. But Fred became an instant hit on YouTube to the point where JKL Productions, the channel he and his cousins created in 2008, became the first channel to hit one-million subscribers.

With this much appeal, it wouldn’t be long before Cruikshank starred in Fred: The Movie, which aired on Nickelodeon. Although this film received negative reviews, Fred became the second-highest-viewed TV cable film across all the networks. From there, Nickelodeon created a franchise for the childish and socially awkward Fred with two sequels (Fred 2: Night of the Living Fred and Fred 3: Camp Fred) and a one-season spinoff called Fred: The Show.

Although all of Cruikshank’s Fred movies have been critically panned, they’ve managed to attract millions of viewers, with the initial Fred videos attracting tens of millions each. Cruikshank regularly releases vlogs on his YouTube channel Lucas, which has over 3 million subscribers.

Over the years, he’s become a screenwriter, actor, comedian, television director and producer. Cruikshank even received a Teen Choice Award in the Choice Web Star category and has also appeared in other shows including iCarly, The Tyra Banks Show and Hannah Montana. Not bad for a guy who started joking around with his cousins and a video camera at the age of 16.

Lucas’ success in the entertainment industry demonstrates that if you put yourself out there and do something entertaining–even if the character is a bit out there–it’s possible to make it as long as your performance is genuine, unique and compelling.

If posting your performances online interests you, Cruikshank says, “If you’re into writing and making people laugh or just want to video blog something, you should get a simple digital video camera. And all computers now come with an easy video editing software program. Just mess around with that for a little bit, try to figure it out, then just put stuff online and have fun. Never give up!”

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