I was a strange child who grew up in Austin, Texas, the strange city. I didn’t start talking until I was five years old since I was so silent. I suppose my lack of confidence caused me to rarely talk at home or at school. I unavoidably started shooting and editing rubbish for the remainder of my life once my dad taught me how to use his computer and my mom got me a cheap flip camera for Christmas.
Filming was done for my voice that wasn’t there.
Based in Austin, Texas, Isaiah Shepard is a humorous YouTube filmmaker. As a director, writer, and actor, he is best known to his 3.7 million YouTube subscribers as “Steezy Kane.” He creates a variety of content, from written narrative pieces to goofy prank videos.
Through sponsored video content on his channels, he has collaborated directly with companies including HBO Max, Audible, Hulu, and Converse. Additionally, Isaiah wrote a humorous sketch for The Weeknd’s cover of Vanity Fair.
Isaiah is currently working on a comedic TV series called “VIEWS” that explores his experiences in the social media realm in an effort to distance himself from the digital world and move more toward the traditional film and television industries.
Around the age of 14, I started creating YouTube prank videos with concealed cameras after I turned into a careless adolescent. It was a good method for me to come out of my shell a little. I would pull some pals from school and get them to video me as I made jokes about strangers from the bushes. My timidity vanished as long as the camera was rolling, so it was like having superpowers.
I later started to take my artistic goals seriously and created a new YouTube account called “Steezy Kane” to represent my alter persona. Immediately after high school graduation, I found myself with $200 in my pocket and flying to Los Angeles for a week with the goal of making the most viral video I could imagine: jumping from the Santa Monica pier for a girl’s phone number. It went viral, as I had predicted. After being picked up by World Star, a well-known media business at the time, the video went viral, garnering over 50 million views online. My YouTube channel grew from 2,000 subscribers to one million before I realized it.The rate of growth was so rapid that I recall my brain truly struggling to comprehend what was going on. The largest sum of money my family and I had ever seen was $17,000, which was my first monthly check from YouTube advertisements. I had a full-fledged profession right out of high school. I succeeded. To capitalize on the momentum, I launched additional series, such as my most well-liked one, “Songs In Public,” in which I perform well-known songs while upsetting onlookers on the street.
It’s crazy how quickly things happen when you’re young and careless, and I was making decent money when I was eighteen. After I acquired my own apartment, bought a lot of clothes, and went out to eat, my entire YouTube channel was copyrighted a few days later, which caused my income to drop back to almost nothing. Once more, I was broke. But broke in a different way. How uncomfortable was it that I was getting seen on the street and that fans wanted pictures of me as I was picking pennies off the ground? I could at least be impoverished in private back then, but today it seemed like my lack of resources was being flaunted.
The only thing fame ever did was make poverty much more difficult.
In addition, since I was now running a sizable YouTube network, I still had to pay for video shoots and other costs that I had gotten myself into, including rent for the expensive apartment. Imagine the embarrassment of being served an eviction notice for nonpayment by a leasing agent who enjoyed my vids! One admirer in particular stated, “I can’t believe I’m meeting a millionaire!” when they came up to me on the street. Is it the amount of money that they anticipate me earning? Since I essentially stand with Logan Paul, I suppose so.
I gradually learned how to make money from my channel over the course of the following rocky few years. I had to jump through hoops like signing with predatory multi-channel network firms and getting scammed by low-paying advertisers, but these experiences taught me my worth.As of right now, I have 3.7 million subscribers, have sold thousands of goods items to my audience, and have landed sponsorship relationships with major companies like Converse, HBO Max, Hulu, and Audible. However, my earnings have consistently been much lower than those of my industry colleagues. I would watch other creators who had lesser fan bases than mine announce new homes they had bought. I was never able to earn money for my house.Perhaps I don’t fit here, perhaps I’m too real, perhaps I’m too obstinate, or perhaps I lack the skills necessary to be an online celebrity.
I mean, I am still just a shy kid…
How did I survive while everyone else seemed to be extroverted? Yes, how in the hell did I survive? How did a debilitating introvert become a role model and powerful person? A silly prankster with the audacity to sing in public and leap off piers? What on earth? Later on, though, I understood that this confidence was still merely a superpower and that it was only effective while the camera was rolling. Fans shouting “Steezy!” at me in public make me feel like I’m not the right person. They are, after all—I’m Isaiah. The person they see on film is not bashful, but I still am. I unintentionally created a fan base that wants to see me dance about like a zoo animal and leap off things all the time. As a result, I started to change by embracing my true calling, which was filmmaking, by creating more “art-house-y” movies and posting them to my YouTube channel while still incorporating a few of those recognizable childish prank videos. This paradigm shift was brought about by projects like “The AirPod Curse,” “The Coronavirus Apocalypse,” “Steezy Kane Cancelled,” and “Whole Lotta Red (In Public)”. My audience started to notice my genuine dream, and I now frequently receive comments from supporters who want to see me succeed as a filmmaker.
Right now, I’m working on a semi-dystopian dramedy television series called “VIEWS” that explores these bizarre side effects brought on by the amazing World Wide Web. It will be a glimpse of a new world where nearly all jobs are now done online. An examination of how internet clicks might now encourage risky behaviors like jumping off a pier. An investigation on how individuals can learn new skills using only YouTube tutorials. An examination of how humorous TikTok videos are now used by every company, even law firms, to promote themselves. An investigation of the unintentional rise to fame of a mute child on the internet.
“One for me, one for you” is how I would describe this endeavor to my audience. “VIEWS” will reveal my filmmaking skills and provide my followers an inside peek at those old prank videos. Launching me into a field where my voice can actually be heard is the ultimate catapult.
Written by Isaiah Shepard.