The Amazing TATINOF Review Is Unashamedly On Fire

Earlier this year, two nerds from YouTube took their massively successful UK stage show, The Amazing Tour Is Not On Fire (aka TATINOF), to America, where they ended up staging the final US performance at the very same theatre that's used for the annual Academy Awards ceremony.  Yes, a stage that has been graced by the feet of Hollywood royalty became the setting for Phil Lester to chant "mount the llama" at Dan Howell.

What a time to be alive.

I was only introduced to Dan & Phil (Danisnotonfire and AmazingPhil, should you be unaware of their YouTube channels...) towards the end of last year, when my best friend excitedly declared that she'd found "the male version of us!"  The timing wasn't great - I discovered two people I could enormously identify with and who made me laugh and kept me entertained no matter what mood I was in when I clicked that "play" button, just as I realised I'd missed out on their UK tour.  They had played in my best friend's hometown, too.  We were gutted.

But, despite having missed out on seeing TATINOF - and despite being rather older than the pair's general audience, at 30+ - I delved into their channels and, within months, I was writing on this very blog about how I had come to think that Dan & Phil were the cat's whiskers.

Fast forward to October 5th, when finally, those of us who missed out on the chance to see the show in person, were gifted with the release of TATINOF on YouTube Red (along with a "Making Of..." documentary).  I waited patiently until October 8th, so my best friend and I could watch it together, with a massive bag of popcorn and a box of Malteasers.  It's what the boys would want...

If you've not seen the show, this is the point at which things might get spoiler-tastic, so consider this your warning!

Okay, so...  Wow.  Like, seriously... Wow.

Let's face it, at this point in their careers, Dan and Phil have a massive audience.  They know that no matter what they do, people are going to watch.  Their live show could, therefore, have comfortably taken the form of the bare minimum.  Perhaps a Q&A, maybe the odd funny sketch.  But if you could think that these two would choose the "bare minimum" route, then I can only assume that you're reading this as someone with no idea who Dan and Phil are.  Because this pair took the idea of doing the bare minimum, ripped it into shreds and created something massive, instead.  And not only did they decide to create a fast-paced, action-packed, thoroughly entertaining stage show that would test their limits as performers and push them to learn new skills along the way, they also made the absolutely perfect choice to fill that show with in-jokes for their devoted fans and, even more crucially, to give the whole thing a vital message that would leave everyone watching feeling uplifted, cared about and encouraged.  More of which, later.

The show's storyline might, to the uninitiated, seem slightly bizarre, but then, if there's one thing we fans have come to expect from Dan and Phil by now, it's a trip into a world that celebrates its own wonderful weirdness.  And so, we just kind of accept the idea that Phil would decide to microwave his laptop to improve the battery life and that doing so would destroy the Internet and bring everything online out into reality.  Why not?!  And of course Dil - Dan and Phil's "son" from The Sims (their joint gaming channel is an incredibly entertaining rabbit hole to fall down...), would turn out to be behind the whole thing.  WHY WOULDN'T HE BE?!

Critics too often like to look down on YouTubers as being people making an easy living by creating very simple content and basking in the adoration of their mainly teenage fans.  Haters like to write off many famous YouTubers as being "talentless."  The simple fact is that to become good at YouTube (and arguably, you have to be "good" at it, in order to become successful), you have to be prepared to spend hours filming and editing.  You have to commit to the time it takes to turn a long piece of footage, with all its "ums" and "aahs," into something shorter, snappier and much more entertaining (believe me, this is a lesson I've learned since starting my own YouTube channel).  You have to be willing to put yourself out there for scrutiny by the general public.  You have to have an idea of what your audience wants and how to deliver it, consistently.  These are skills that Dan and Phil have by the bucket-load.  Not only are they incredibly aware of what their viewers want from them, they are able to ensure that the quality of their uploads remain at the same high level.  

And now, they've proved that their skills extend way beyond YouTube.  Talentless?  Over the course of a ninety minute live show, these boys prove their ability to translate from screen to stage.  They act.  They sing.  They dance.  There's improvisation, so that parts of the show are different each time it's performed.  Phil even learned magic tricks, for crying out loud!  From start to finish, the evidence is clear that both Dan and Phil have invested time and effort into making this the best possible stage show it could be.  They haven't shied away from learning new skills in order to improve it.  They haven't taken the easy route.  And for that, they should be applauded, because it pays off.  Big time.

Be honest, we all quoted along and did the hand gesture, right?  "My name is [Dan]."

From start to finish, TATINOF is an absolute treat for fans of this pair.  If you have a favourite video, there's probably a reference to it.  If you're fond of a particular in-joke, they're almost certainly going to make it.  At the end of the ninety minutes, my mouth hurt from smiling so much.  I laughed more than I had in ages.  I clapped spontaneously just watching it through a screen.  And yes, there was even a moment at which my eyes got a bit... Moist.

Because, beyond the glittery gold hats and the big song and dance routine at the end, beyond all the fan-service and in-jokes, there was a message to this show.  And I don't just mean "hey guys, don't microwave your laptop."

Dan and Phil have, over the years, come to represent the nerdy kids.  The weird kids.  The people who are socially awkward.  The ones who don't necessarily fit in.  Whether or not it was intentional, this pair of "obnoxiously tall" guys from YouTube have come to mean something to those who worry that they're not "cool enough," or that their lives don't have a purpose.  And they know it.

Maybe it could have been schmaltzy, had Dan and Phil themselves suddenly decided "hey, let's talk about how it's okay to be nerdy and that you don't have to change to fit in, or that just making people happy in some small way is a really important way to spend your life!"  I mean, I wouldn't have thought so, but I'm sure there'd be critics who'd eye-roll at it.  So, it was something of a touch of genius to have Dil - the Sim whose lives the boys control - be the one who imparts that message onto them - and by extension, the audience.  

He's got some killer moves as well as some A+ life advice.

We should have known that two people so very aware of their audience and their influence would choose to use their stage show to put out such important messages.  I'm just so proud that they did it in a way that's as delightfully whacky as we've come to expect from them.

So, when it came to Phil finally getting to burst into song (as he had attempted to, several times throughout the show, only to be thwarted by Dan), it should come as absolutely no surprise that the song he (and Dan) sang was about rejoicing in your online activities and the friends you've made through the Internet.  It was a song all about being okay with your life and the person you are, even if society thinks you're weird.  It was a song celebrating Dan, Phil and every single one of their fans.  It even featured a tender nod to the fact that the pair themselves met online ("if it wasn't for the Internet, we never would have met").  

As our favourite YouTubers disappeared back into their microwave (not a sentence I ever thought I'd be typing...), I had SO.  MANY.  FEELINGS.

Gratitude to these incredibly talented performers, for putting together a show that fully celebrates their creative output so far and which makes it obvious that they were thinking of their fans every step of the way.

Pride at just how far they've come (and how far I know they're capable of going).

Encouragement to be me, even though I know I'm weird and I think too much and I sometimes feel like a square peg in a world full of round holes.

Determination to carry on with my own YouTube channel and create something that could, perhaps one day, make people as happy as Dan and Phil's videos have made (and continue to make) me.

Joy at knowing that I wouldn't have met my best friend without the Internet, either (she's the Dan to my Phil) and I am so, so glad I did find her.

I can't wait to watch it again.

Thank you, Dan.  Thank you, Phil.

Never stop being you.

Let's Talk About Beauty...

 

"I'd date Belle because she saw the beauty within the beast.  She knows it's what's inside that counts." - Phil Lester

I've been thinking a lot about beauty, lately.  And no, not just because my "pictures" file on my laptop is steadily filling up with Phil Lester's face (although also very much because of that).  

What set it off was stumbling across a photo on Facebook, which featured my former real-life crush.  I looked at him and realised that - and bear with me here, because this may sound like one major backhanded compliment - his looks weren't necessarily what mainstream media likes to tell us is stereotypically attractive, but that I found him utterly gorgeous, based on who he was as a person.  

I'm not saying he wasn't physically appealing.  He had (and I'm assuming still has) beautiful, big blue eyes and a very sweet smile.  But his real beauty, as with all of us, came from within.  I thought his smile was cute, but I thought the love he had for his family and friends was beautiful.  I thought his eyes were lovely, but I thought his cheeky sense of humour was even lovelier.

It's become something of a cliche to say that beauty comes from within, but it's absolutely true.  Only the most shallow of people could see a gorgeous person acting cruelly and still prioritise their looks over their behaviour.  The most stunningly beautiful exterior is useless if it's hiding an ugly soul.

So, it stands to reason that the opposite is true.  A person who we might think of as average-looking can quickly become almost perfect in our eyes, if they're kind, funny and caring.  The inside of a person starts to shine out and we see them for them, rather than as merely their face and body.  

That's actually what happened in the case of my number one celebrity crush (Phil Lester; come on guys, where have you been the last few months?!).  At first, he was just "the darker haired one" from Dan & Phil.  Then, he was the "funny, really sweet one."  Then he was the "funny, really sweet and incredibly thoughtful one."  Only after I discovered more about him and learned what sort of a person he is (or at least, what his Internet persona is), did he go from being "the darker haired one," to being "the most gorgeous human being on the planet."  Don't get me wrong, Phil was gorgeous to begin with, but I didn't see it properly until I realised that he was also a sensitive soul, a creative force and a total and utter weirdo (I say that with love and as a fellow weirdo, so it's cool).

MOOSE HAT.  Your argument is invalid.

Of course, I say all of this as someone whose own looks have never been anything close to being stereotypically beautiful.  My nose is too big, my chin is too pointy, I have ridiculously curly hair, I'm incredibly short and my belly sticks out at the moment, because I recently discovered "Golden Oreos."

And I do awkward rock-horns in photos with alarming regularity.

The thing is, the older I get, the more I'm starting to realise that literally none of that matters.  Would I like my hair to be manageable and for all the Oreos I consume to be entirely fat-free?  Yes.  But would I change who I actually am inside?  No.  Because, without getting all Christina Aguilera on your asses, I am beautiful, no matter what they say.  

It's absolutely fine to worry about things like doing our hair and make up nicely, or wearing a really good outfit if we're going somewhere special.  But it's also absolutely fine to not care a jot about any of that stuff, if you don't want to.  Equally, it's fine to acknowledge someone's good looks and find yourself attracted to a person based on their physical appearance.  We just all need to be better at remembering that the outer shell is just that; the outside packaging.  And the packaging only goes so far.  Eventually, we have to realise that a person isn't just their eye colour, hair style or bra size.  It's about their humour, their warmth, their empathy and their ideas.  Looks fade over time, but a beautiful soul will stay that way forever.

And if you're sitting there, thinking "this is all well and good, but I'm ugly, so nobody's going to bother getting to know my beautiful soul," then let me stop you right there. 

You might think you're ugly, but I can absolutely guarantee you that there are plenty of people in the world who don't.  How do I know?  Because for years (and I mean years), I thought I was the ugliest girl on the planet.  Nowadays, whilst I don't look in the mirror and see a total stunner, I don't see someone hideous, either.  I see someone who tries to be kind to others.  I see a weirdo with a strange sense of humour (and I like that about myself!).  I see someone who will always be there for her loved ones.  Those are the things that make me beautiful, regardless of whether anyone else can see it.

SELF CONFIDENCE CONFETTI PARADE!

It makes sense to me to end this blog with a quote that is often attributed to Audrey Hepburn, but which I think I'm right in saying she actually borrowed from a poem/letter and used in a speech, hence everyone thinking it was hers in the first place.  Regardless of whoever came up with it, this pretty much perfectly sums up my belief that real beauty will always come from within, no matter what we look like on the outside:

"For beautiful eyes, look for the good in others.

For beautiful lips, speak only words of kindness.

And for poise, walk with the knowledge that you are never alone."

Beauty is more than just skin deep.  

Beauty comes from the soul.

Why I Think Dan And Phil Are The Cat's Whiskers!

Dan and Phil. 

A few months ago, my best friend excitedly told me that she'd discovered "the male version of us!"  

It turned out that Lydia and Emma in male form were called Dan Howell and Phil Lester and were best known for making hugely popular videos on YouTube.  "They're so like us," my bestie said, when I next went over to her place.  "They even met online, just like we did!"  It was pretty clear that Lydia had fallen down the rabbit hole and had absolutely no desire to return, so we sat on her sofa and watched a few videos.  

And I smiled.  Then I giggled.  Then I proper belly-laughed.  By the time I climbed into my car to drive home, I was already planning which videos to check out when I got back.  I ended up spending my whole evening watching stuff online and I grinned like an idiot the entire time.  By the following morning, it was abundantly clear that I had joined Lydia down the rabbit hole and I was more than happy to stay there.

Why would I want to leave these weirdos?!

It's fair to say that I'm probably not really in Dan and Phil's target audience.  Visit the many fan pages that have been popping up online over the years and the general conversation ranges from what homework everyone has to do that night, to what they want to be when they "grow up."  Dan wasn't even born until June 1991, by which point I was 8 going on 9 (a fact that makes me feel seriously old).  But somehow, I've taken these two to my heart in a way that I haven't with any other Internet personalities that came before and almost certainly never will with anyone who follows them.  So, why?

Well, to answer that, you need to look at the reason for their enormous popularity with teenage viewers.  

Your teenage years are notoriously tricky.  You're growing up and trying to work out who you are.  There's all this pressure on you to do well at school and decide what you want to do with your life and beyond that, you're supposed to look and act a certain way in order to fit in with the "cool" kids.  If you're being bullied or you're going through any kind of personal problems, it all just adds up to a hugely confusing and sometimes scary period of your life.  I can barely believe the person I am now, compared to when I was a teenager.  I'm so much more comfortable in myself and, for the most part, a lot more confident.  In a lot of ways, I really am a completely different person.

For a start, I had surgery to remove that dog from my face.

So, just imagine you're 13 or 14 and you're not one of the particularly cool kids.  Imagine you'd prefer to be at home playing computer games, rather than trying to sneak into some dodgy nightclub with sticky floors.  You have all these aspects to your personality that you think are weird and it feels like there's nobody who gets you.  Then, one day, you're browsing the Internet and you stumble across someone who seems really confident, friendly and funny and they're saying: "Oh God, I'm so not cool."  And they're okay with it.  In fact, they're more than okay with it.  They revel in being comfortable with their own nerdiness and - as a perhaps slightly awkward, shy teen, struggling to come to terms with who you are - you think: "maybe it's okay to be me, after all."  

That random person online, for a lot of youngsters, was Dan.  Or Phil.  Or, let's face it, both.  

Suddenly you feel less alone.  And have an irresistable urge to draw on your own face.

Visit any Dan and Phil fan page and you'll find comments from teenager after teenager saying such things.  These two, slightly nerdy, wonderfully weird guys have taught youngsters that it's okay to just be yourself, whatever that means.  They've somehow made being mildly uncool the absolute epitome of cool.  I can say, with my hand on my heart, that when I was a terribly shy, scared and awkward teen, I would have given an arm and a leg to have discovered someone older and wiser who was proud to be themselves on camera, telling me that "school won't last forever" and "life gets better."  

And what's really, genuinely lovely is that both Dan and Phil know that they have enormous influence over a huge proportion of young people and have used that influence to speak out against bullying, to reassure kids that there's nothing wrong with preferring to stay in and play computer games rather than trying to keep up with the "in-crowd" and to let young people know that they're not alone with the problems they're dealing with and that things really will improve with time.

And so we come to me.  I'm not a shy, awkward teenager, anymore.  No.  I've blossomed into a shy, awkward thirty three year old.  YAY!

Seriously though, regular readers will know that I delight in my own weirdness.  I think it's so important to be accepting of yourself and know that whatever makes you you should be celebrated, not put down or hidden away for fear of ridicule (I even wrote a blog called "Embrace Your Weirdness!" a couple of years ago).  So, to find people who not only agree with that sentiment, but embrace it wholeheartedly and try to ensure that the concept is shared with the people who really need to hear it, is actually rather beautiful.  It makes me want to give both Dan and Phil the biggest of squishy hugs (avoiding touching Dan's neck of course, not that I could reach it).

I guess what I'm saying is, in amongst the hilarious videos, the games, the "day in the life" anecdotes and the general fun of Dan and Phil's world, there are genuine lessons that you're never too old to take to heart.  With great power comes great responsibility and these two aren't afraid to speak to their audience about real life and how to treat other people with respect as well as respecting yourself.  That's worth more than just a "thumbs up."  That's the kind of thing that makes an isolated person feel like they're not alone.  It's the kind of attitude that we want to be encouraging the next generation to adopt.

So, thank you Dan and Phil.  Thanks for making me laugh and for encouraging me to bake more, blog more (seriously, every video makes me want to write, for some reason), play games more, cherish my best friend more and be proud to be the weird little nerd that I am.  Don't ever change.  You're the cat's whiskers.