Jack and Dean Interview

While writing, filming, and editing a fifteen-minute short may seem like enough to keep the guys busy, they also manage to perform monthly live shows in which they essentially take their sketches into the real world. On top of that, they somehow squeeze in regular weekly shows for BBC Radio 1 called Click-Bait. With the help of Phil Deccan, who they warmly refer to as the cuddly ‘Big P,’ the show is posted each Wednesday and features Jack and Dean, as well as their snarky alter-egos Mr. Howard and Mr. Dobbs discussing the most important pop-culture moments over the past seven days.

With a growing presence ‘offline’ the boys acknowledge that they do get recognized more and more frequently. Jack discloses that he finds if he remembers someone’s name, it’s usually a memorable experience. He says, “There is a fan called Victoria who comes to every single one of our live shows. She’s maybe 15 years old and she’s absolutely brilliant.”
“Yeah, she’s probably the Jack and Dean fan,” Dean decides. With grins, the guys begin to gush a bit, admitting their awe and gratitude for Victoria – and her mom.
“Her mum is so sweet,” says Jack. “She always comes up to us and is like “keep going, you’ll make it!’”
“What is quite cute though is that even at first when we met her, she didn’t get it. She had that begrudging sort of ‘I’m a mum and I’m being dragged to something I don’t want to go to.’ I think the more and more she’s been subjected to us, we’ve actually grown on her,” Dean jokes.
The boys confess however that not every fan experience is as positive of one.  Dean tells me about a particularly odd encounter he had with a fan at London’s MCM Expo. He says, “This fan comes up and says, ‘Do you want some gum?’ And you know, I probably shouldn’t have accepted gum from a random stranger, but I did. Then she goes ‘Can I have that back when you’re done?’”
“I just remember looking at Jack and he gave me this silent no, but in my head I was going ‘you know what, I’m going to see what happens.’ Now, I would never do this, but I did, and so I gave it to her and she just popped it in her mouth and swallowed it and goes ‘now you’re inside me for seven years.’”
“Which isn’t even true!” Jack disputes, quick to fire. “Honestly, that’s the bit that annoyed me the most because that’s a myth!”
Even with the sometimes bizarre situations they find themselves in, they both clarify that they are forever appreciative for all of the support they constantly receive which is behind their surreal opportunities.
Being invited to film premieres, rubbing elbows with celebrities (like McBusted, for which I am forever jealous), and having Hollywood fund your projects may seem peachy-keen, however, Internet stardom comes with its own set of challenges.  Jack admits that there is a unique type of pressure put on those whose presence is based online. He illuminates, “There is a pressure of ‘oh, I should probably tweet something,’ or, if you don’t make something for a while, there is a fear that you’re going to shrivel into irrelevance.”
“Yeah, it’s knowing that your career can dissolve in a week if you don’t do anything,” Dean agrees.
Jack lightheartedly pleads to the Twitter-Gods, “Yeah, it’s like – ‘please don’t take my blue tick away!’”
Similarly, there is also the anxiety of figuring out where the line is between what you want to share with your engaging and invested audience, and what you want to keep to yourself. The scripted sketches on Jack and Dean’s combined channel doesn’t rouse this problem, but their individual channels do. Jack comments on this saying, “That line for me changes every time depending on what the thing I’m making is. I think, the best way of putting it is, I want to make stuff. I want people to know me for the stuff that I make so I feel like if I reveal something about my personal life that is going to outshine my actual work, than I won’t do it. I don’t necessarily want everyone to know ‘me for me,’ but rather I want to be, ‘Jack who makes this.’’

On his personal channel, Jack has a fairly regular upload schedule. Dean on the other hand is less active on his own and so I ask if he has plans to make more personal vlogs. He admits that it is something he thinks about, but doesn’t have direct plans for yet. He says, “Honestly, if I get struck by lightening – creative lighting, not actual lighting, there won’t be any vlogs if that happened.”
He pauses for a moment, as if to deliberate the idea before continuing on to to say, “Actually… I think I would vlog if I got hit by lightning. Could you imagine, I’m just walking through the street like ‘oh just trying this daily vlog thing’ and then ‘agh’ and it cuts to me, ‘hi guys. I’m in hospital.” That would be the greatest vlog ever.”
Although their success has been on a gradual incline over the past six or seven years, the two show no signs of stopping anytime soon. With the momentum of the past year behind them, combined with passion and talent that seemingly seeps out of their pores, it won’t be long until they take over the world.
GFC premieres June 16th on OMFGItsJackAndDean!
Make sure to check out more Entertainment Interviews on ClicheMag.com
Jack and Dean Interview: Photos courtesy of Rebecca Need-Menear

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