Another artist whose work slides between acting, performance, and performance art is Ryan Trecartin. His small but growing body of videos displays an ability to use overly dramatic acting that does not become hammy or overly ironic. In a Family Finds Entertainment Trecartin bounces between vloggeresque direct camera address (Skippy locked in the bathroom) and large ensemble dialogs. His ability to weave the vlog into soap-operatic grand narrative is both intuitive and masterful. The way he uses his body on camera bridges the gap between acting and performance. He strikes a balance between clowning it up for the camera and discussing the serious issues of a young gay man in a web 2.0 world, but of course everyone is clowning it up in front of the camera these days. I can't praise Trecartin enough for his willingness to put his videos on YouTube. I just wish he had more hits.

A Family Finds Entertainment:



Here's a link to his YouTube channelWianTreetin.

I've realized my more specific problem with Tamy Ben-Tor is that I see better acting from YouTubers like LisaNova, Smosh, and HappySlip everyday. If they are professional amateurs then Ben-Tor seems stuck in the amateur amateur mode.

LisaNova has a long list of characters that she does, this one is Teenie Weenie (notice how she doesn't ram the character down the viewers throats):



I can't believe that I'm writing this but the following video displays how much better or maybe about equivalent the acting skills of Smosh and Ben-Tor are:



In fact, now that I'm looking at HappySlip again I think I've found a performer that could teach Tamy Ben-Tor a thing or two. HappySlip aka Christine Gambito makes videos that use humor to illuminate different aspects of life as a first generation American immigrant. Her acting isn't that different from Ben-Tor's except for the fact that she has the ham-factor seriously toned down in comparison.



I think we're seeing a moment in video art where YouTubers might be doing the job of certain artist better than the artists.

Labels: a family finds entertainment, happyslip, lisanova, ryan trecartin, Smosh, video art, vlog