BALTIMORE — Imagine someone exposing your family dynamic, your private conversations, your embarrassing moments and putting it all online for everyone to see.
One Baltimore family doesn't mind being laughed at, or laughed with, because the jokes on them, on YouTube.
You might have heard the expression, the family that plays together stays together. Meet Brandon Walsh, his sisters Kennedy and Claudia, and Mama Jen, they're the family which YouTube's together.
Claudia Walsh said “it feels like we're all hanging out, doing dumb stuff, and honestly, we do a lot of things we wouldn't normally do if we weren't doing it for a video, like cool things.”
Kennedy Walsh said “like going on a boat.”
“Going on a yacht, renting a school bus,” Claudia Walsh said.
YouTube content creator Brandon Walsh, said “my family is definitely not normal, like we're the type of family you would see on one of those reality shows or something.”
Something that turned into a series of viral videos which are the brainchild of 26-year-old Brandon Walsh.
“As a kid, I always had an obsession with using a camera. I would film everything. I would make little youtube videos. They weren't good by any means, but I would still put them out on the internet and I would always force my sisters to be in the videos,” Brandon Walsh said.
With titles like “I Locked My Sisters' Phones in a Safe for 24 Hours" or “My Sisters Almost Killed Me,” Brandon's still getting his sisters Kennedy and Claudia to play along.
“We love our brother,” Claudia Walsh said.
“It’s just like a given,” Kennedy Walsh said.
“Yeah, we're like, fine, we'll do it, whatever. I mean it's always worth it in the end. The videos always turn out funny, and it's like the outcome of it is always worth it,” Claudia Walsh said.
“And he knows our limits,” Kennedy Walsh said.
“Yeah, he'll know if I’m just like, no i'm not doing that. He's like alright,” Claudia Walsh said.
What about getting Brandon's mom on camera? Mama Jen? There was that one time when Brandon tried setting up his mom on a blind date which didn't go exactly as she expected.
Jen Seidel said “it happened to end up being a 25-year-old, his age. And I told him not to do that, and he did it anyway. I think it was the funniest video, for me that I was in, but there's just so many of them because he keeps coming up with better ideas every time.”
The idea to capture the family's antics for all the world to see, started with Brandon shooting videos to promote his mom's business as a body painter.
“We posted a few videos online. I think it was on Instagram, of my mom's body painting. I started managing what she was doing as I was in college, transitioning to out of college, and the videos went super viral like we would post a video and overnight, I woke up and it would have 10 million views on it,” Brandon Walsh said.
“We all went traveling for a year, around the United States. We just kept going, going, and going, making these videos and it went super viral. Before we knew it, we're known as ‘Jen the Body Painter,’ so then they kind of branched off from there and started their own channels,” Seidel said.
YouTube channels which have gained this Baltimore family, fans from their home state and abroad.
“I would say out of our entire audience, maybe one-percent is from Maryland. A lot of people do know us in Maryland, like if we're out wherever, people do recognize us constantly, but the audience is everywhere,” Brandon Walsh said.
“I will say there's been a few times around here, like when I’ve been at the gym, and someone will come up to me and be like 'oh my gosh, your family is so funny, I watch you.' It's pretty cool when it's around here because it's my hometown,” Claudia Walsh said.
