Interview with YouTuber Emilia Fart
Emilia Fart
Montreal YouTuber, Emilia Fart, has made a career of being bizzare, loud, and unabashedly herself to the tune of 750,000+ subscribers on her channel. Wearing oversized clothes that cover her face to her chin and adorning a look that she describes as “an evil Disney villain mixed with a drag queen who has half done their make up” she delivers candid statements about life, her thoughts, and her feelings. In this way, she balances between concealing herself and baring all.
With her upcoming event, One Night of Fart taking place on June 28 at Café Cléopatra, I took the time to ask the popular entertainer about having her own channel, watching it grow, and putting together a live show.
Fart seems to have always been something of an exhibitionist. “My mom says I’ve always been like this,” she says. But starting a YouTube channel took a little longer.
“The short answer is that I’d been watching YouTubers for a long time and thought I would like doing it. I tried it and I loved it,” she says. “The real answer is that for most of my life, I didn’t believe that I could do what I really wanted to do, which is entertain people. I wanted attention always. I wanted to be in the entertainment field at some level. I didn’t believe I could do it for a number of reasons. Then my dad died and through grieving him, I kind of had to rebuild myself up, and it was through that that I was kind of able to believe in myself and I admitted I wanted to try YouTubing.”
There are millions of YouTube channels out there, so Fart explains how she got her first subscribers. “It was a hustle. I got my first 15,000 subscribers purely from commenting on other YouTube videos. I’d leaving a long strange comment and then talk about my channel.” As people began to click, the YouTube algorithm picked her up. The next 740,000 came on their won.
“It was cool,” she says in regards to watching the growth happen. “The real cool thing is to realize as this goes on, more and more, you can realize turn your life into whatever you want. And you really can. And as lame and as obvious as it is to say, your limitations are only as far as your mind will let yourself go.”
Fans of the show attach to Emilia Fart’s persona, which naturally leads them to question if she’s anything like her YouTube person. ” To me, it’s just me,” she says. “They ask if I have a secret wardrobe. I would say I am less obnoxious when I’m around my family and friends. The videos let me be more obnoxious.
Since the show is Emilia talking about whatever she feels like, I’m curious where she gets her ideas. “Different places,” she says. She references Jackass, Andy Kaufman, and Kenny vs. Spenny, as well as fellow YouTuber Trisha Peytas as inspiration. “I like the idea of mixing mischeviousness and a prank bro attitude with performance art. “
“Emotionally, I’m an exhibitionist,” she says. It should come as no surprise that when I ask her what her favourite video is, it is the one where she shows what she looked like when she was normal. Shen she was normal, she craved the attention of boys and fitting in. There’s a lot of emotion in the diatribe she delivers about being who you are. “It’s the first video that I filmed where after I filmed it, I walked to the post office and felt like I was flying. I really felt like what I was saying in that one. It’s a good summary for my channel.”
Even the most challenging video she had to make also is very vulnerable in what it reveals. “The one where I talk about being molested was gnarly,” she says. “Obviously. I don’t even fully know why I talked about it. It was a catharsis. But, it was hard to edit hours of footage of you crying. It’s not fun.”
Fart has received mostly positive support from her fans. “It’s a very sweet energy that I get most of the time. It’s like we’ve all kind of found each other.” She gets some negative feedback too. “Yes, there’s negative comments here and there, which I will think about for 48 hours straight.”
Being on YouTube has made her visible in public. “Yeah, people come up to me,” she says. “It’s amazing. You’re meeting a. friend who you haven’t met yet. People have said, such sweet things. It means so much just to be able to meet someone in person. If I think about it too long, I’ll cry. It’s moving. It’s meaningful.”
“In that moment, you know you’re doing something. Doing videos feels very self involved and self-centred, because you’re talking about your own life and then spending hours editing yourself. When people connect, it’s a moment where it’s not so selfish and it’s refreshing.”
This makes even more sense when Fart tells me that she doesn’t look at her own stats. “I think it’s easy to tie your worth in with relevance when you’re doing this kind of stuff. I just don’t think that’s healthy. It’s impossible to avoid getting excited by numbers, but I don’t think it’s good. It’s the same energy that I had when I equated my worth with being wanted by guys. How much you matter is tied to to things outside of you. Also I hate numbers. Addition as a whole… I just can’t.”
Another part of her success is not just being recognized by fans, but also the fact other YouTubers have connected with Fart as well. She began watching them long before she made her own videos.
“I was watching YouTubers in the darkest period of my life. These people who I hadn’t met — I felt like they were my friends when I was too fucked up to even be around my real friends,” she says. “Now to meet them and hang out with them. It’s crazy. I feel like I’m a fan. I don’t know if I’ll ever feel like I belong with them. It’s really special.”
The upcoming show is Fart’s first live show. “It’s going to be videos come to life, so there’s going to be moments of absurdity and self-reflection and weirdness. Probably tears. Interaction with the audience. My friend Jonas, who I make videos with is hosting.” She regrets the fact that fellow YouTuber Trisha Paytas isn’t going to be able to make it, but was excited by her intention to come. “Afterwards, there’s a pizza party meet and greet. I intend to hang out until the wee hours of the morning playing sleep over games.” Sounds like a night one won’t forget anytime soon.
Emilia Fart’s One Night of Fart takes place Friday June 28th @ 8PM at Café Cléopatra. $30 for the live show, and $60 for the pizza party. Buy Tickets HERE.
