3. Subway to Stardom

Summary

Vine: Six Seconds That Changed The World

Episode 3: Subway to Stardom

Release Date: April 22, 2025
Host: Benedict Townsend

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Overview

In "Subway to Stardom," Benedict Townsend explores Vine’s first wave of homegrown stars – ordinary people whose creative drive and unique humor led them from mundane day jobs and humble upbringings to sudden worldwide internet fame. Through interviews with early Vine celebrities from the UK, US, and Canada, this episode reveals how Vine’s unique culture and technical limitations unlocked new paths to stardom, reshaped the idea of celebrity, and created a blueprint for today’s influencer economy. The episode offers firsthand stories of the chaos, creativity, and unexpected struggles of being internet-famous—at a time when that wasn’t even supposed to be a job.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. How Vine Made Ordinary People Stars

(00:02–03:11)

• Benedict describes Vine’s early “out of control” energy, as the platform transferred from tech creators to regular users.
• The key to Vine success: find a niche, stick with it, and viewers will return.
• Aaron Craskill (UK) discusses how his “loud guy in public” sketches stood out for their raw, spontaneous energy and drew real-life reactions, even before recording them.

“I started going out and going ‘meow,’ making silly noises, and … without videoing it because I could feel people looking at me. That's when I thought, OK, this could be big.”
— Aaron Craskill (01:11)

• Comparison between UK and US Vine cultures:
  • US creators favored elaborate sketches and collaborations (Logan Paul, Hannah, Curtis, Manon, Brandon Calvillo).
  • British Vine: more solo, surreal, and “mental” energy due to geographical distance and fewer collabs.

2. The Stars’ Real-Life Origins

(03:12–07:49)

• Brandon Calvillo, a Californian, talks about his creative hunger while working at Subway and his ambition to be a filmmaker. He stumbled upon Vine and got “addicted.”
• Jasmeet Rainer (Just Rain), in Toronto, wrestled with the South Asian community’s preference for ‘serious’ jobs, but used Vine to parody trends with a cultural twist. Previously, he’d hit a ceiling on YouTube.

“They wanted the best for me. So … I was just like, all right, I'll just do this thing that's like, set out for me. I was, like, doing biomed, planning to become a doctor, but I just … didn't like it at all.”
— Jasmy Rainer (06:37)

• Vine’s accessibility allowed him to rapidly experiment and find new audiences, compared to more rigid, time-consuming content systems like YouTube.

3. Hitting the Sweet Spot: Niche Humor, Universal Appeal

(07:49–10:30)

• Jasmy’s “Drake in India” sketches exemplify how cultural specifics could become global hits when filtered through Vine’s trends.
• Comedy rooted in personal and cultural experience created surprise resonance.

“I have this philosophy … I think the more specific and nuanced it is and true to your experience, the harder it'll hit. Counterintuitive to whatever those boardroom algorithm people are saying.”
— Jasmy Rainer (09:29)

• The hosts highlight how ordinary jobs, unfulfilled ambitions, and creative restlessness connected across different backgrounds.

4. The Performer’s Perspective

(10:46–12:33)

• Manon Matthews (Los Angeles), known for spot-on impressions (e.g., Kristen Stewart), shares how she unintentionally went viral—her background in improv and stand-up gave her the skills, but Vine’s randomness launched her.

“I put up this impression, asked Kristen Stewart what her favorite ice cream flavor was … and that one Vine took off. And like the next morning I woke up to 13,000 followers. And after we got to 100,000 followers, yeah, everything changed from that one moment.”
— Manon Matthews (12:19)

5. The Art and Agony of Making a Perfect Vine

(12:38–15:25)

• Brandon reflects on Vine’s technical limitations: you couldn’t do second takes or save drafts; every video was made and uploaded instantly. This was both creative “danger” and fun—a live, high-stakes style of editing and performing.
• Aaron’s first Vine: a drunken pub sketch with a dog, highlighting the platform’s scrappy origins and initial anonymity.

“It was a nightmare to use. There was no editing … You have to make the video, then upload it straight away. … It was just such a challenge.”
— Aaron Craskill (13:43)

• Brandon compares making Vines to shooting on expensive film “in the 70s”—mistakes were costly in time and effort, which made successes sweeter.

6. Early Vine Culture: No Algorithm, Few Creators, Global Audience

(16:13–18:59)

• Explosive growth: From #1 in the app store after 76 days, to 40 million users within months, but most were spectators.
• Early on, there was no algorithm—just a “popular page” driven by immediate likes, meaning creators who figured out Vine’s timing and appeal could achieve outsized visibility.
• The platform quickly incentivized precision and mass appeal, even as its rulebook was unwritten.

“Vine did not have an algorithm … there were maybe fifteen creators making videos for a million people. … If your Vine did well enough, you would be the first thing they saw.”
— Brandon Calvillo (16:46)

7. The Science of Viral Timing

(18:59–21:52)

• Aaron describes how he developed a posting routine, learning that Vines uploaded after work (5–8 PM) or on Sundays did best. Timing around football games and “Love Island” became part of the job.

“I've never uploaded on a Friday or Saturday because … no one's on their phones … Sunday’s the most important day to upload. … After the game at least 10 minutes.”
— Aaron Craskill (18:59)

• Manon agrees there was no calculated strategy at first; posts had to be immediate due to app constraints. Later, collabs and scheduling emerged as tactics—but spontaneity remained a key ingredient in relating to viewers.

8. The Dawn of Influencer Culture

(21:52–24:22)

• Benedict and co-creator Mary Goodheart underscore how Vine democratized fame, cutting out gatekeepers and freeing creative expression from traditional media’s chokehold.
• The accessibility meant creative risks could be taken cheaply—and sometimes backfire just as quickly—heralding today’s TikTok “just film and post” ethos.

“Now we have the Manons of the world, the Aarons of the world, actually doing this, strategizing. As long as you have a phone, you’ve got that audience. And that was just so different from anything that had been there before.”
— Mary Goodheart (22:49)

9. The Real-Life Effects of Internet Fame

(24:22–29:47)

• Internet fame hits: Brandon is recognized and swarmed at Disneyland after hitting a million followers.
• Aaron and Jasmy find themselves being stopped for selfies at work, in public, at concerts—transforming their sense of self and celebrity.

“People started coming into my work for selfies … cars beeping their horns. It was such a weird feeling. It still is now, to be fair.”
— Aaron Craskill (25:45)

“I couldn’t go out into the main area [of a Drake concert]. … People just lining up. I wasn’t making crazy money … Even the meaning at that time of celebrity had changed.”
— Jasmy Rainer (28:08)

• The paradox: massive recognition, but few financial rewards; fame spread across platforms, but money lagged far behind.

• Jasmy reflects on how Vine allowed minority creators to humanize their communities, breaking down stereotypes in ways television never would.

“It's … important for people to see that we are an artsy, creative community as well. … I've had like 65 year old white dudes from Sarnia, Ontario … being like, ‘man, dude, I love your videos.’ … It's really humanizing people.”
— Jasmy Rainer (29:55)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Vine’s creative danger:
  “The way you made Vines back in the day … you could not do second takes. … It was more dangerous. I think that was … fun about it. You had to get it. You had to get it.”
  — Brandon Calvillo (12:38)

• On addiction to making Vines:
  “I ate, dreamt, drank Vine. Like I was uploading six videos a day. I was obsessed.”
  — Aaron Craskill (18:59)

• On the changing face of celebrity:
  “If you wanted to make a name for yourself … you had to work your way up … the traditional media industry. And that's just not the case anymore.”
  — Benedict Townsend (21:52)

• On why Vine mattered:
  “Maybe it wouldn't get picked up by an executive, but actually, it turns out this stuff tickles the brain of the audience and they like it … it just wouldn't have been found before.”
  — Mary Goodheart (23:32)

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Timeline Highlights

• 00:02–00:46 – Setting the stage: ordinary people become stars.
• 01:11–02:06 – Aaron discovers the “reaction” formula in public performance.
• 03:12–05:09 – Brandon on suburban boredom and creative yearning.
• 06:37–07:49 – Jasmy reflects on cultural expectations and creative release.
• 12:19 – Manon’s Kristen Stewart impression goes viral, changing her life overnight.
• 16:13–18:59 – Vine’s explosive growth, lack of an algorithm, and the “popular page.”
• 18:59–21:52 – Aaron and Manon discuss mastering Vine’s timing and distribution.
• 24:28–26:29 – Real-world fame: public recognition, stalkers, and the lack of money.
• 27:41–29:47 – Jasmy on Vine’s power to humanize and represent minorities.

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Conclusion

"Subway to Stardom" masterfully chronicles Vine’s meteoric influence on a new generation of digital talent—many of whom unwittingly led the influencer revolution. By threading together personal stories, platform quirks, and cultural shifts, this episode captures both the chaos and exhilaration of the early social-media gold rush, while provoking reflection on how far we’ve come (and what’s been lost) as short-form video continues to evolve.

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Teaser for Next Episode

“A lot of times these big Viners would literally steal ideas … and they would completely ignore you … That's the name of the game.”
— Brandon Calvillo (31:51)

Up next: Vine’s rise to cultural powerhouse, the battle for attention and ownership, and how money and big business started to warp the dream.

Transcript

[Benedict Townsend]

This is a global player. Original podcast. Vine is loose. It's unchained, it's broken free. It's out of the bag, out of the bottle, out of control, or at least the control of its inventors. From the minds of tech masters into the hands of ordinary people. And Vine's biggest stars were often the most ordinary people you could meet. In the sea of initial experimentation, certain faces began to rise to the top, cutting through the noise and the odd stop motion to become vi first wave of stars. The key was finding a niche, nailing it. And viewers would keep coming back for more. And in the sleepy town of Dover, Kent, Aaron Craskill was carving out a very particular niche all of his own.

[Aaron Craskill]

Hello, mate. I need your help. You know, I've been helping Charlotte's nan doing the chores. She offered me 50 pound to kiss her. Yeah, I did, twice. She didn't even have her teeth in.

[Benedict Townsend]

If you're British, you'll know Aaron Craskill's face. And because his fame was built on his willingness to shout out the most inappropriate thing he could think of in a public place while pretending to be on the phone, you'll probably know his voice as well.

[Aaron Craskill]

I was in Morrison's in, like 2014, and I. I done a sketch where the peanut butter was out of stock. And I remember going, oh, God. And then I, when I watched it, I thought, oh, my God, what are you doing, Aaron? This is so stupid. And when I opened my phone, I watched it. Behind me was an old woman. She went. When I did, oh, go like that. And I thought, oh, my God. I've just got a reaction from someone by making a loud noise. Then I started trialing it. So I started going out and going meow, making silly noises, and without videoing it because I could feel people looking at me. That's when I thought, okay, this could be big. Like, if I carry on doing this and being the loud guy in public, I'm looking for a Jimmy or a Jonathan. Hello. And no one has. No one's ever copied it. Yeah, which I like.

[Benedict Townsend]

Now he's got the guts.

[Aaron Craskill]

They can't. They can't do it.

[Benedict Townsend]

Aaron had the guts of someone with very little left to lose. Vine wasn't just a new horizon for him, it was something of a salvation.

[Aaron Craskill]

I. I was in and out of jobs. I was never happy at school. My school life was terrible. I. I just didn't want to be there. I hated discipline and being told what to do. So as soon as I left school, went to art college as soon as I was 16, I wanted to be a grown up. Smoking, drinking and hanging around with adults and painting for a living. And I was just. I was always a free spirit. I was never locked down anywhere. I was always on the move. I was always rushing around. I've had so many jobs. I was working in the Indian restaurant, Chinese restaurant, the Plough restaurant, key company and record shops. Then I was on piano, Argos, the co op. My last job was when I worked at William Hill. I worked at the Bookmakers, which, if no one knows, is where you do horse bets and people gamble. I was going to absolutely nowhere.

[Benedict Townsend]

But on vine. He was going everywhere.

[Aaron Craskill]

Excuse me. I wouldn't eat that. My ex girlfriend used to eat that and she turned into a right bitch. So, okay.

[Benedict Townsend]

When it came to chaos, Aaron was king, making him one of a quite small pool of British creators who found global success among the great sea of American Viners.

[Aaron Craskill]

The American was more sketch, it was more sketches. They were doing the thing with the American Viners, they was always collabing. It was like Logan, Paul, Rydoon, Curtis, Manon, Hannah, Brandon. They were all. I think they lived together at one point. The vines they were making were unreal, like, so clever. I could never do it. The Americans were more comedy sketches and collabs. I think the English stuff was more mental, I think.

[Benedict Townsend]

I think just more mental. It was because there's nothing much you.

[Aaron Craskill]

Can do in England where we're all spread out so much. Like we never collabed. Like never.

[Brandon Calvillo]

Okay, let me see something here. Sorry, guys. I'm such a Luddite.

[Benedict Townsend]

California native Brandon Calvillo was one of those American Viners. His content was definitely a different flavor to Aaron's public outbursts, but that doesn't mean it was any less chaotic.

[Brandon Calvillo]

What are you doing on the roof, Uncle Alec?

[Benedict Townsend]

I lost my Frisbee.

[Brandon Calvillo]

Are you smoking crack up there? Yeah. What are you doing at the playground, Uncle Alec? I'm helping the community. Are you selling crack to kids? No. You the guy that sells crack to kids?

[Mary Goodheart]

Yeah, that's me.

[Benedict Townsend]

Pretty. Surprisingly, Brandon's struggling to get his video going. It's been a decade since he was a regular face on the tiny screen of my iPhone 4. But as he pops into view, he looks like he hasn't aged a day. When we reached out to you, you seemed like quite happy and enthusiastic to talk about vine, which was lovely. It must hold a pretty special place in your heart.

[Brandon Calvillo]

Yeah, I mean, vine was, to me, it was like a lot of my young adulthood was just On Vine. I mean, I started when I was like, I think I was 18. And I associate most of that coming of age with vine, for sure. We lived in a little town called Placentia in Orange county. And in Placentia, nothing happens. You, it's a. It's total suburbia. You go to school, you come home, maybe get McDonald's, eat, watch TV. That's it. Like you don't do anything and. And that's fine.

[Benedict Townsend]

Fresh out of high school, Brandon was hungry for something new.

[Brandon Calvillo]

I just graduated. I was working at Subway, which was a nightmare. No knock to Subway, they have great sandwiches. But I just. That Subway I work at was hell. And I wanted to become a filmmaker. That was my thing when I was growing up. I was like, that's all I want to do is become a director and a writer. So I think I heard about vine from a podcast and I downloaded it and I just started to, like, get addicted to it, you know, like people just making these really creative, funny videos that are so consumable and so repeatable. Obviously, because of the looping aspect. It was so fun to watch on my break. It was fun to watch when I got on the bus ride home, it was fun to watch when I got home. And this was March 2013, vine had just come out. No one was on there really. And I just remember being inspired by the people who were on there who were doing funny videos, stop motion animation, stuff like that. I was like, I want to do this. I mean, this is easy. I'll just, I'll just start to make videos. I'm just going to do it. And I did it. And things started to unfold from there very quickly.

[Benedict Townsend]

Up north in Toronto, Canada.

[Jasmy Rainer]

Alright, sir, and what's your name? It's Jasmy. Jasmin, actually. No, it's Jasmine, sir. I think I know how to spell Jasmine.

[Benedict Townsend]

YouTuber Jasmy Rainer had a similar passion, but was reluctantly pursuing a career in medicine. Imagine that, choosing to be a doctor when you could be doing something worthwhile like making Vines.

[Jasmy Rainer]

And I always wanted to go into film school. I just never, you know, just never really panned out in my household. I'm a child of an immigrant, so the arts within the South Asian community weren't really encouraged. The community really wants, like, people in our community to have prestigious jobs, like a doctor or engineer. Lord. And so, you know, I was like, yeah, I guess I'll be a doctor. Even though I really wanted to do film, I don't blame my parents. I get it. They wanted the best for me. So, you know, I was just like, all right, I'll just do this thing that's like, set out for me. I was, like, doing biomed, planning to become a doctor, but I just. I didn't like it at all. Yeah, I just always had an interest in film, and I'm a big comedy nerd. And so I was doing YouTube at that time, and it was finally an outlet for me to create stuff that I really wanted to do, like sketch comedy or just weird skits.

[Benedict Townsend]

Better known by his username Jussrain, Jasmi established a loyal following for his comedy skits about his life as a South Asian Canadian.

[Jasmy Rainer]

Have you ever guys been shopping with your parents and stuff like this happens? What did you get? Okay, okay, okay, okay, good. Do you guys even listen to Drake? Guys, like, don't even listen to Drake Uncle. You to see Drake uncle doesn't even listen to Drake.

[Benedict Townsend]

But he'd hit a bit of a ceiling. There wasn't much space left to grow on YouTube and he'd saturated the platform's South Asian audience, who would complain when he experimented with different styles of content. But then on a trip to India, too busy for the faff of long form video edits, he decided to try out Vine.

[Jasmy Rainer]

I went to India for a movie shoot. I was just there for like a few months filming, and I saw a lot of big trends on vine and I just really wanted to make fun of them. I was like a bit of a trend hater at the time. I started parodying, like, big trends on Vines and just doing them in India. It was just like a weird cultural shift. Take my own spin on it. I used to go around India and ask people if they even listen to Drake. He's been popping for a couple years in Toronto, and like, a lot of Toronto guys would be like, yo, bro, do you even listen to Drake? Like, it was like a thing that I just took. But then I would do that in India and everybody would be so confused. Like, what the hell is this guy talking about? Those really started popping off.

[Benedict Townsend]

If you remember Just Rain on Vine, it's probably from these videos. With just six seconds and a niche take on a trend, he'd hit that sweet spot. His videos quickly rose to the top.

[Jasmy Rainer]

To me, I was like, these are really easy and not that funny. But let me. Why are they so popular? Let me remake it and, like, do something absolutely dumb with it. I did like a Liam Neeson taking parody. I don't think you understand. Your daughter will be dead in 24 hours. Yeah, I know. I know that. I. That sucks. But I wanted a son anyway, so. $3 million or your daughter's gonna be dead. You hear me? Oh, man, that's way too high. You have, like, a discount, anything like that? He's got 24 hours. 24 what? 24 hours till we kill your daughter. Oh, yeah, that's okay, man. I'll make another one. I have this, like, philosophy on a lot of things that I do. I think the more specific and nuanced it is and true to your experience, the. The harder it'll hit. Counterintuitive to whatever those boardroom algorithm people are saying. I'm always like, no, I just think the more specific it is. Like that Taken series. An Indian dad getting a call that his daughter's been kidnapped. They give a ransom, and he's like, oh, can. He's trying to, like, discount. He's like, I don't know. You know, people in our community are known to be, you know, bargainers. Like, I remember when I was, like, 10, I wanted. I wanted a Game Boy advance or something, and we're, like, going to the store. I remember my dad trying to bargain with the GameStop employee, and the guy's like, some teenagers, like, this is the price. My dad's like, $50. Like, no, it's like, 110. What are you talking about? Why is my dad. My dad was trying to impress me, too. He's like, all right, this is what we're gonna do. We're gonna walk out, and then he's gonna call us back. I'm like, no, that doesn't work here. They have separate. This guy's, like, in high school, he doesn't care if you buy it or not. And so, you know, it's just, like, taking those experiences and plugging them into, like, like, oh.

[Benedict Townsend]

The chalky white cliffs of Dover couldn't be more different from the sprawling suburbia of Orange county or the glassy skyline of Toronto. But Aaron, Brandon, and Jasmeet still had a lot in common. Artistic spirits, uninspiring jobs, and a restless yearning for a creative outlet.

[Manon Matthews]

Hey, Kristen Stewart. What time is it?

[Benedict Townsend]

By contrast, Manon Matthews, best known on vine for her spot on Christian Stewart Impressions, was already committed to the life of a performer.

[Manon Matthews]

I grew up in Los Angeles in the Valley area, and I think I, like, started recording videos on my dad's camcorder where he put the actual VHS tape inside the camcorder. And then I started learning to edit when I was around 12 years old and presenting to my parents These days.

[Benedict Townsend]

Her dry, irreverent humor has evolved to explore the joys and chaos of first time motherhood. Congrats on the baby, first and foremost.

[Manon Matthews]

Thank you very much. He's 7 weeks and 13 pounds about, and he's the love of my life.

[Benedict Townsend]

Manon found her comedy calling early. By the time vine launched, she was in her early 20s and staying afloat through waitressing, but she still hadn't changed course.

[Manon Matthews]

And then I started studying improv, comedy improv. And then I started standup. And in my standup, I did Kristen Stewart and Kim Kardashian impression. And so when I got on Vine, I didn't get on vine to get a following. Obviously, I didn't know that that was a poss. I just downloaded the app and started having fun with it was just like, oh yeah, this is interesting. I have like no followers, which didn't matter. I was just making videos and I think I grew up to like 200 followers or something. And one of the followers said, hey, can you put up your Kristen Stewart impression? I saw you do it at the Comedy Store. And I was like, sure. And I put up this impression, asked Kristen Stewart what her favorite ice cream flavor was, and then did the impression which was like, hey, Kristen Stewart, what's your favorite ice cream flavor?

[Brandon Calvillo]

I don't know.

[Manon Matthews]

And that one vine took off. And like the next morning I woke up to 13,000 followers. And after we got to 100,000 followers, yeah, everything changed from that one moment.

[Benedict Townsend]

35 miles away in Orange County, Brandon was already getting hooked on Vine.

[Brandon Calvillo]

The way you made Vines back in the day, back when it first started, was you could not do second takes. You had to get everything there. So you would record for a little bit and then you'd stop recording. You would record for a little bit, and that would be like editing. It would be like editing a video, but it would be in real time. If you messed up, if you got somebody saying, go in the beginning, you had to start all the way over. And if you were making just a silly little, you know, comedy video in your house, that wasn't a big deal. But if you're doing what some people were doing, which is like stop motion or, you know, traveling and trying to get a bunch of different locations perfectly for. For whatever reason, you needed to make sure that was perfect or you were screwed. So whenever you saw a video that seemed very intricate, those took a lot of work and a lot of messing up to get right. It was more dangerous. I think that was. That was fun about it. It was just like, you had to get it. You had to get it.

[Benedict Townsend]

Aaron's first encounter with vine happened naturally in the pub. And when presented with the app's clean, efficient, revolutionary design, he. Well, he wasn't really that impressed.

[Aaron Craskill]

I was in the pub having a drink on the Wednesday. Have you seen this guy called Dapple Offs? I was like, no. Like, I've not not seen him. So it's on this vine app. I was like, what the hell's that? Like, So I downloaded the app onto my phone and that's where it all began. I. I mean, it was a nightmare to use. There was no editing. You couldn't even save the video. So you have to make the video, then upload it straight away. I'll go, ah, in public. And I wouldn't even know what it looked like until I uploaded it. It was just such a challenge. It was like, I think my first ever video. What I uploaded was, it was. There was a dog called Rio in the pub and we were having a lock in. We were all drunk and the dog, I got the dog eating peanuts on the table. And then there was a cut. You could do the cut. So I pushed cut and then my friend was eating the peanuts on the table. That was my first ever video. And it did nothing. I didn't have no followers, nothing.

[Brandon Calvillo]

It was like how back in the 70s. I don't mean to compare vine to filmmaking in the 70s, but there were some similarities in the sense of, like, in the 70s, you were shooting on film, so you could only. You couldn't really even see what you were filming a lot of the time. A lot of the directors didn't really know. They only, like, saw what DP was saying and you rolled and you only had a certain amount of film. And if you checked the gate and that film had a piece of lint in it or the shot was over literate, that was it. That's all you had because you only had a set amount of film or else the budget went way over. So there's a lot of that kind of element with vine in the beginning where you had to get everything. In that time, you couldn't go back. I mean, you didn't waste a bunch of money like a film production, but you. There could be great sections of a thing you were filming, but if one was off, then you have to start over. Hey, Brandon, we got some ice cream out here. Ice cream.

[Aaron Craskill]

I'm shocked. That always works.

[Jasmy Rainer]

I know.

[Brandon Calvillo]

Let's get his wallet.

[Benedict Townsend]

Okay. He might not have been the next Scorsese. But Brandon's dark off color brand of comedy quickly built up a big fan following.

[Brandon Calvillo]

Jeff's choice was probably so dark. It was such a dark video. It was called Bad Babysitters, and it was me and my friend Jay Walker, and we're by this pool and the pool's in the background. He goes, babysitting is so easy.

[Aaron Craskill]

Yeah, I know.

[Brandon Calvillo]

Our kid's so quiet. He hasn't said anything for like an hour. And then you see a body floating in a pool, and it comes in the frame perfectly as I say that. And then somebody who's walking by goes.

[Jasmy Rainer]

Is this your kid in the pool?

[Brandon Calvillo]

And then I go, nah, our kid can't swim. It's very dark. Obviously, the person in the pool was an adult man and it was all fake. But the timing of it was perfect. And that, to me, was what vine was about, was getting everything perfect in one shot.

[Benedict Townsend]

Brandon Jasmy, Arun Manon. Just four among thousands, and then hundreds of thousands, and then millions of users that flooded to Vine. Just 76 days after it launched, vine was the number one free app on the US App Store. Two months after that, it had reached 13 million registered users. Another two months later, that leapt to 40 million. But most were watching, not creating meaning. There was a huge potential audience for those willing to put their time and talents into making Vines.

[Brandon Calvillo]

Vine did not have an algorithm. Vine in the beginning had maybe 15 creators on it, but the user base in the beginning of the app was probably like at least a million people were watching Vines. I mean, that's a small amount for an app, but if you consider 15 creators are making videos for a million people, then it's like, that's just a crazy. No one knew what to do with it except a few people. And we all just became the people that just kind of entertained everyone for a while. And then people started to go, oh, this is a comedy app. This can be used for comedy. Then more people got the groove, figured out the rhythm of it, and started doing that as well. And then more creators. But even at the end of Vine's lifespan, I mean, popular creators, like, who. Who had, like, you know, millions of followers. It wasn't that many. It was maybe like 50 to 100. Maybe, maybe. And that was with a user base, an audience user base of, like, I don't know how many it had at the end of its lifespan, but, like, tens of millions of people were watching. But there wasn't an algorithm. You just got your following. There was a thing called the popular page where if you had a Vine that got a lot of likes in an hour, and a lot of likes back then was like 500 in an hour. You got on the top of the popular page, and people went to the popular page because they just want to see, oh, what's popular? And you would be the first thing they saw. If your vine did well enough, it was, this is bringing me back. You would be like, oh, I gotta get at the top of the popular page. I gotta get at the top of the popular page. It would be like network television, like getting the most amount of eyes, like the best ratings. It was like, oh, that show got this amount of viewers on it and we didn't and this show's doing great. It was like that, but with just people recording on their shitty iPhones.

[Benedict Townsend]

Early creators figured out that Vine's simplicity demanded precision, even when chasing mass appeal. Posting at the right time, collaborating through Re Vines and doubling down on trends was part of the unspoken rule book of engagement that was forming in real time over in the uk. Aaron had finally ironed out his technique and he had posting down to a science.

[Aaron Craskill]

I was filming morning, afternoon and night time in the morning before the bookies, filming my lunch breaks, and then filming after work. I. I ate, dreamt, drank Vine. Like I was uploading six videos a day. I was obsessed. I was always uploading in my lunch breaks. The lunchtime videos never really used to do as well as the nighttime ones. It was just like, oh, okay, I'll just put two and two together at the end of the day. My videos did better after work, so I just, I just kept to it. And between 5pm and 8pm is the absolute must for me. People keep saying to me about going earlier, I'm not going to go earlier. I. If I go earlier, I'm regretting it straight away and I take it down anyway. I've never uploaded on a Friday or Saturday because that. They are just the days where no one's on their phones. I can tell you that now. Sunday's the most important day to upload. You've got a big video, Sunday's the best time. Everyone's always been out Saturday night, drunk. Next day, they're always on their phones, in bed, hanging, watching videos. If there's big football games on, don't even upload. Just wait until after the game, at least 10 minutes after the game so people can get on their phones. If there's Love island on, don't bother uploading. Around that time. You've just got to literally think about yourself. When are you on your phone? Upload when you think you would be able to see it.

[Benedict Townsend]

Nowadays, content creation is considered a relatively normal career path. Unless you're speaking to my mum. But back then, the term influencer wasn't mainstream. It was mostly confined to bloggers, YouTubers, and a handful of fashion it girls. But vine creators were connecting with their audiences daily through quick, unfiltered videos, shifting the focus to brevity, spontaneity, and personality.

[Manon Matthews]

Yeah, I mean, obviously when I first started, there was no calculated, when's a good time to post? I was just very like, oh, these are gonna. My friends are gonna see this. Okay, I'll just post whenever. It wasn't really until I started collaborating and hearing other people's ideas of, oh, this is the best time to post. And I just trusted them. I said, okay, great. It was really fun to try to catch. Okay, the kids are coming out of school. We gotta post at 1 o' clock for them coming out of school. And then the Eastern standard time is gonna be getting out of school. And afternoon is best. Morning on the weekends, around 10:00am, Pacific Standard Time. Try not to post too late at night. But that being said, I often went against it. And then sometimes I would just get a hit of inspiration and I'd be like, I'm posting this now. I don't care. I want to catch the energy of this video because this just happened. You have to. I mean, if you shoot something, especially in the beginning, you had to post it. You couldn't just, like, save it in your drafts. I don't think the app evolved. And then you could upload and post whenever, but kind of had to shoot it and post it in the moment, which was just so fun because then you felt like you were getting people's lives. What was happening in that moment? That was the beginning of that. Now you can shoot a video and then a year later post it. Know what's. When. People are just now saying, congratulations, I heard you're expecting. And I'm like, I had the baby seven weeks ago.

[Benedict Townsend]

That raw immediacy forged loyal followings. The influencer revolution had begun. Okay, so some people got popular on an app. Who cares? You can't see Mary right now, but she's. She's screaming at the top of her lungs. She's going, who cares? Why is this important? Well, Mary, first of all, check your tone. Calm down, okay? Put down the knife, Mary. It's important for two reasons. First of all, it's important because I say so, but also because you know you think since the dawn of showbiz, celebrity as a concept has been gatekept by Hollywood, by insiders, you know, people in boardrooms and suits. If you wanted to maintain your fame, you got to be in the tabloids. You've got to have access to those things. Basically, if you wanted to make a name for yourself as a creative, you had to work your way up the greasy pole of the traditional media industry. And that's just not the case anymore.

[Mary Goodheart]

Yeah. I mean, now that you put it like that, it seems quite important.

[Benedict Townsend]

You mean beautifully?

[Mary Goodheart]

So beautifully. But I mean, it genuinely is weird trying to think back to when things were like that. Before things were open and importantly, those people who were gatekeeping, it was kind of the same people who had that power, and it meant the same people would be being blocked out. Whereas now anyone with a phone has got access to an audience. Now we have the Manons of the world, the Aarons of the world, actually doing this, strategizing. As long as you have a phone, you've got that audience. And that was just so different from anything that had been there before.

[Benedict Townsend]

And do you maybe have a little bit of luck in that? People actually see it now on the other side of the coin, there are no barriers at all. So you are also able to more quickly destroy yourself if you want to. If you want to go online and make a stupid video that ruins your reputation, that is the downside.

[Mary Goodheart]

But it also means you can try things out. Right. You don't have the big costs involved. These things are being made by the very audience they're intended for, and it's the kind of content that they're making. Like, maybe it's not good, good. Maybe it wouldn't get picked up by an executive, but actually, it turns out this stuff tickles the brain of the audience and they like it and it just wouldn't have been found before.

[Benedict Townsend]

And there's something kind of beautiful about that. It means that creators can be so much more agile. We completely take this for granted now with TikTok, people just throw a video up. They're like, I've had a funny idea, I'll film it in 30 seconds, put it on TikTok, like it's nothing.

[Mary Goodheart]

They can just try something and they've lost, like a bar of battery on their phone previously.

[Brandon Calvillo]

Yeah.

[Mary Goodheart]

If you were going to put something on a platform with an audience, there were resources involved and there was going to be a loss if it wasn't a roaring success.

[Benedict Townsend]

Yeah. You haven't let down advertisers you haven't had 15 script meetings that have been.

[Mary Goodheart]

Wasted, a live studio audience not laughing.

[Benedict Townsend]

When did you start to notice any actual change to your life? Like, when did vine start to bleed through?

[Brandon Calvillo]

So I'm a bit of a shut in, meaning I don't really leave the house much. At least when I was a kid, I didn't leave the house much. But my 19th birthday, summer of 2013, me and my mom had this tradition where we would go to Disneyland every year for my birthday. And at that time I had a million followers, which back then, a million followers was a huge deal. So what happened was a lot of people were staring, but once one person comes up to you and asks for a photo and you do it, then everyone else feels comfortable and then the floodgates open and they start to come. And I have never gotten that swarmed. Even to this day, I've never gotten that swarmed by people. And I was shocked because there's this disconnect. You don't think it's real life. You don't. You don't compute that. Oh, yeah, these are all actual people that are watching these videos. And when you see it come at you in real life, it's. It's very. It's a lot. You know, I was just a little viner. It was a huge shock when I.

[Aaron Craskill]

Hit a hundred thousand because obviously by then my videos are going out on other platforms like Snapchat. I was getting popular on Instagram and Facebook. It was all kind of merging into one big cartel kind of thing, if you know what I mean. It's crazy.

[Benedict Townsend]

And of course, at that point, there's no money in Vine.

[Aaron Craskill]

No.

[Benedict Townsend]

So you're just doing it for the. For the buzz, right? Just for the love of it.

[Aaron Craskill]

Yep, absolutely. There was no money in it. I was still going to work. But then I started not. People started coming into my work for selfies and I was like, oh, my God, it's actually starting to. This is mental. But I can remember walking to work, cars beeping their horns. It was such a weird feeling. It still is. Now, to be fair.

[Benedict Townsend]

Were there any downsides that early on.

[Aaron Craskill]

No, not really. It was more. I never got hate because the content was always. The laugh was always on me. My missus hated it, so she would come home and cry. People were kind of stalking her in Morrisons and giggling to themselves and she just hated it. Not many people have got famous in Dover, you know, it's quite new and my mum loves it because, like, she's met Robbie Williams and my Family love it in a way, because it's opened up a lot of opportunities for me.

[Manon Matthews]

A lot of dopamine going on at that time. People start recognizing me on the street right away. I mean, I remember going to Universal City Walk, and people were coming up to me left and right and asking me to do impressions as if I'm some sort of monkey. I did do them. I remember one girl like, can you take impressions? And I did it, and she just looked at me and then walked away. And I was like, ooh, I never want to do that again. But generally, I love it, and I've loved it the entire time. It makes me feel like I'm friends with everybody in the world. It confirms, oh, these aren't just numbers. There are actual human beings watching and apparently laughing at this. And I miss it every day.

[Benedict Townsend]

That's lovely.

[Manon Matthews]

That's a. It's a fake cry. I'm not really crying. Although I could. If I really sat and, like, thought about it, I'm sure I could produce some tears around it because it is really sad that it's gone. I mean, the only reason I did it was because it was fun. And I think when people do that, when they do it because it's fun for them, I think that's how energy, like, transmutes. Like, if I didn't enjoy doing that, I wouldn't keep. I wouldn't keep making videos. It's been 11 years, and I'm, like, still obsessed with making videos. It's the same thing I did when I was little. So I feel like I'm gonna do. Literally, I'll probably record my own debt. Like, that's how long I'm gonna be making videos.

[Jasmy Rainer]

Yeah. I mean, I just literally couldn't even walk around Toronto anymore. Like, I could not get from point A to point B without getting mobbed, like, constantly. Like, before, if I go to an Indian restaurant or store, if I go to the Gurdwara, the temple, then I would get recognized. But now everywhere I would go was, oh, this is another level. I went to the Drake concert and. And I was just getting. I could not move. Even the security was like, yo, who is this guy? Shouldn't he have security? Like, what's going on?

[Manon Matthews]

It was.

[Jasmy Rainer]

I couldn't go out into the main area. Like, just cords of people trying to get a selfie. People just lining up. I wasn't making crazy money. I'm still sitting in, like, the most bleed section. Even the meaning at that time of celebrity had changed. Influencers were now a thing. Like, People wanted selfies from, you know, content creators even. I was like, why?

[Brandon Calvillo]

Why?

[Jasmy Rainer]

I'm not even like, I'm not, I'm not Brad Pitt. Like, what the hell? I'm not friggin Ryan Gosling. I didn't have a movie come out. I was so confused before I was just only recognized by like, you know, fellow brown folk. People were like, oh, I love your YouTube. And then all of a sudden it started changing, like I love your vines. I think it really took me to another level.

[Benedict Townsend]

You know, you had this specific audience of your community, but then you suddenly had this platform where you could reach everyone in the world but without really changing what you were making.

[Brandon Calvillo]

Yeah.

[Benedict Townsend]

What did that mean to you?

[Jasmy Rainer]

You know, there's a lot of racial tension happening in Canada right now. Just blatant racism that you see in the comment sections of any app. There's a lot of resentment that's coming forward. Like tone of like, there's too many Indians now. Canada isn't what it used to be anymore. There's a lot of that rhetoric and dialect that's being thrown around. I mean, I think it's just important for people to see that we are an artsy, creative community as well. That's what the Internet has always been for me. I've had like 65 year old white dudes from Sarnia, Ontario coming up, being like, man, dude, I love your videos, man. My wife, she's always, she's yelling at me because I'm always watching your videos on the Internet. And it's just like, what this guy? That I would have no other connection with this dude. It's really humanizing people, showing our arts and our culture and it's disruption, claiming our ancestral lineage through these new means.

[Benedict Townsend]

This was just the start of vine, but its simplicity was already redefining who could claim the spotlight. It was changing ordinary people's lives. But despite the digital adoration, Jasmeet was still in med school. Manon was still waiting tables. Aaron was a new dad, juggling shifts at the bookies and struggling to make rent. And Brandon was still stuck making sandwiches at Subway. It's a rare place to be that famous and that broke. But the million dollar question remained. How do you turn popularity into paychecks? Keep your hands and feet inside the podcast, folks, because the cash is about to come rolling in. And with all the money and the status on offer, things might start to get a little nasty. We're climbing towards the dizzying heights of peak vine. And remember, no matter how thrilling things get, what goes up must always come down. Stick around for a tease of what's to come at the end of this episode. The next installment of Vine 6 seconds that changed the World drops next week. That's Wednesday the 30th of April. Just search for six seconds that change the world on the Global Player App, globalplayer.com or wherever you get your podcasts. Next time on episode four on fleek on top and underappreciated cake Vine.

[Brandon Calvillo]

I could only describe it as like an acid trip because it just didn't feel real when it was happening.

[Benedict Townsend]

How a platform that began as a quirky creative playground became a meritocracy, a battleground and a cultural powerhouse.

[Brandon Calvillo]

Tell me that was not the most subversive thing you've ever seen, where it's like, oh, you might be an armed.

[Manon Matthews]

Agent of the state who can like.

[Brandon Calvillo]

Shoot me and not have any consequences, but I can still roast your shoes in front of millions of people. And millions of people are gonna see.

[Benedict Townsend]

It before being overrun with content theft, cozy cliques and big business.

[Brandon Calvillo]

A lot of times these big Viners would literally steal ideas and they would completely ignore you or be like, no, it wasn't too bad. That's the name of the game.

[Benedict Townsend]

You can listen to vine six Seconds that Change the World on Global Player, download it from the App Store, or go to globalplayer.com vine 6 seconds that changed the World is a Global original podcast created and hosted by me, Benedict Townsend and produced by my co creator Mary Goodheart, narrative and creative by producer Kevia Cardoso, score and sound design by Patrick Lee and mix by Chris Jaynes. Sophie Snelling is the Executive producer, Al Riddell is head of Factual Podcast and Vicki Achels is Director of Podcasts at Global. This is a Global Player Original Podcast.