How I got a TV SHOW on The Travel Channel

before we get started I just want to say

please check out my TV show on the

Travel Channel premiering Tuesday April

17th 11 p.m. 10 p.m. central and another

episode right after that it'll be airing

immediately after Andrew Zimmern's

Bizarre Foods my show is called crazy

delicious and we went all over Florida

and the Bahamas hunting down the

craziest food we can find a new guys are

not gonna believe what we came up with

I'm so excited for you to see again

crazy delicious on the Travel Channel

Tuesday 11:00 p.m. 10:00 p.m. central or

check your local listing and thank you

so much

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all right guys let's get into it um I

have there's a TV show I have a TV show

it's called crazy delicious how did we

get to this point how did I get from

being some fat kid in Korea to having a

TV show but first I want to say thank

you to all the people out there who have

commented like yo Travel Channel scoop

this guy up what are you doing and the

whole time I wanted to be able to write

you and be like yo they did Scooby of

but I had to keep it on the DL I

published my first video to my channel

of December 13th 2015 I was reviewing a

grilled cheese sandwich and I had no

idea what I was doing

what credibility do you have sunny as a

food reviewer um I used to weigh like

300 pounds I've eaten more food than

most people in the beginning I was just

reviewing Western food in Korea

experimenting with the format and all I

knew for sure is that I wanted to mix

Young's and lols and put them together

in one format I'll be honest I was so

ready to die until God bought this

octopus top goes to my life after doing

about six to eight episodes I realized

that this demographic of people watching

food reviews of Western places in Seoul

South Korea that was a really small

audience and so I decided to pivot and

kind of change the whole format of my

show in order to have a more broad

appeal instead of reviewing local

restaurants I'm gonna be reviewing weird

strange interesting food from different

countries I moved to Korea in 2008 when

I was 24 years old and I really had no

idea what I was doing I knew I wanted to

move out of Minnesota I grew up in

central Minnesota in a community with

almost no diversity I mean if I ate

sushi in the small city I came from that

to me it was crazy

like whoa people eat raw fish during my

time in Korea I started out teaching but

while I was there I taught myself more

and more about filmmaking I started

directing I was directing some TV

commercials I did a couple kpop videos

that I worked with this guy namjoon part

of my influence for moving to Korea in

2008 was Andrew Zimmern's show Bizarre

Foods because I saw these interesting

crazy places he went to and I just

couldn't imagine places like that so

about six or eight episodes in

to pivot and focus on strange foods

that's a topic that had always been

interesting to me for me it was just

inherently interesting content putting

myself in really unusual uncomfortable

situations and and pushing that my

boundaries on camera I thought would

make some really compelling content

oh boy crunch fail two months into my

youtube career I started publishing

videos from the Philippines

my very first more travel focused video

was eating Esau or the intestines in the

Philippines and that is really the video

that kind of started everything you see

on my channel today two more baby but

while I'm in the Philippines I'm still

really trying to figure out my channel I

mean I have a ton of self doubt in my

mind I'm just thinking like who the hell

am I to go somewhere to assert my

opinion about food to try to insert some

comedy into it one two three okay okay

now say best ever food review show okay

hold on in that time in the Philippines

it was really difficult trying to figure

out what is the show and what am I

trying to do and is anybody gonna like

this at all it's very easy to see the

confident persona but I think for a lot

of creators under that there's a lot of

doubt and just wondering what the hell

am i doing August 24th 2016 6 months

into doing YouTube videos I get an email

from a television production company in

the US all right let's see what it says

here and the email went like this I am

the casting producer for a high noon

entertainment we're known for shows like

Cake Boss fixer-upper and so on we'd

love to get on a call with you and talk

to you about being talented in a TV show

and at this point my mind is like what

in the eff is going on I still don't

even know what I'm doing on my own show

and that is where my path to television

began almost a year and a half ago with

that email and from there I've gone

through all the steps to finally having

a show that's gonna air on television oh

what's happenin besties I make it this

TV show and so I stayed today so we'll

look at all of that

get all of that forehead TV itself is

really slow there's a lot of steps so

first you need to talk to me see if I'm

interested they need to do kind of a

sizzle reel showing the different

networks my personality to see if

they're interested in the first place

like you do not just go shoot a pilot

I'm gonna introduce you to people and

then if they don't mind that that'll be

good you go step by step we shot a

10-minute video they like that and then

finally we built up to doing the whole

proper pilot which is gonna be airing in

a couple days this is Matt knees the

showrunner he runs the show this is

gluten-free food look at all these gears

snacks are in here that's I like this

thing a lot cold water that's good I

think there's also a lot of confusion

about how TV works like Travel Channel

did not reach out to me there's these

television production companies who find

talent who develop shows and then the

network's choose from those people from

those groups what they want to buy in

the shows that they want to put on their

network waterproof mic being put on me

very important because we're gonna go in

the water after they contacted me

obviously I felt extremely fortunate and

my channel at that time had less than

20,000 subscribers I have no idea how

they found me actually I do have an idea

how they found me and it's really funny

so a year later after we've gone into

the TV process I asked them hey can you

tell me where you found me exactly they

have researchers at the production

company the researchers were looking at

a blog called like top 10 travel

channels and was my channel featured

there no but in the comments there was

one comment that said hey you guys

should check out this channel it's

called the best ever food review show

and from that comment this researcher

found my channel and then eventually

contacted me I asked them hey please

show me this website I need to find this

person who commented who led to this old

TV thing happening like I really want to

thank whoever put that random comment on

there she sends me the link and the name

of the person who left the comment was

sunny

that's right literally the TV people

found me because on a blog post I

spammed the comments and I said hey you

guys should watch the best ever food

review show hilarious the behind the

scenes action continues we finished on

the boat we are doing one of our last

scenes for the whole pilot I is this a

good angle all of this is just it's

super fortunate the whole thing it's

very lucky and believe me I know that

fun food videos at this point I've been

doing best ever food review show in

total since the very first episode for

almost two and a half years and you know

the reason I started it is because as I

looked at travel content when I began I

didn't see anything that really suited

me I saw a lot of content that looked

like it was trying to emulate what

already existed polish perfect hosts and

I wanted to be the anti host a little

more rough and funny and unexpected

you're doing a food review or a food

that doesn't even belong to this

restaurant you're just in a random

restaurant that makes a lot of sense and

insert a lot of silliness into videos

along with good food good information

and have it all mixed as one and that

was really my initial vision for the

channel you have to leave my full review

we can't both do a full review first one

of the guy who can't do the yummy face I

think it's it says right I can do a

yummy face I moved to Vietnam in

November of 2016

explicitly to pursue the success of this

channel now you have to understand when

I moved to Vietnam

I hadn't even monetized my channel yet I

had around 30,000 subscribers I wasn't

making any money and I had no idea if it

was gonna become successful in any way

and yes I had the TV possibility thing

there at any step of the TV process

somebody can be like ah someone didn't

like you sorry maybe next time I mean

around one year ago I was really

considering quitting I was putting up

one video a week and I wasn't getting

any traction like my videos were getting

about 2,000 views and then that's where

one trip stepped in one of the big

reasons I moved to Vietnam was because

of one trip and them helping me

facilitate my content they put resources

into my production allowing me to do two

videos a week and so if some of you

wonder well why do you

so many Vietnam videos well one I live

here and - I like Vietnam and three if

it wasn't for one trip it well if it

wasn't for Vietnam there would be no

best ever food review show and as you

know it today so I'm super thankful to

one trip for making all of that possible

also I need to say thanks to my buddy

Andrew that bonafide Vietnam expert it's

him you saw him in the hundred dollar

video cuz he basically was the guy I was

talking to everyday where I'm like uh

what am I doing this I should quit and

he'd just be like hey just keep going I

I would completely disagree I don't even

think it's that subjective this is my

show

and at the time you know that was enough

to keep going it's gonna break awesomely

enough one of the things that helped my

channel break was my second trip to of

the Philippines the jollibee video on

Facebook got seven million views the

Rico's latrone video got 10 million

views and all that started to translate

into YouTube as well somehow and then it

was on and I knew I knew it was gonna be

dope in November about six months ago I

flew to Florida I flew to the Bahamas

and that's when we shot this TV show the

clips you're seeing right now are from

the Bahamas I'm in the Bahamas right now

what we're doing here it's a

super-secret project and I can't tell

you anything about it all I can say is

it's not for youtube so pretty exciting

right now finally in just a couple days

my show is gonna air on the Travel

Channel right after Andrew Zimmern's

Bizarre Foods one of the big reasons

again why I moved to Asia in the first

place was because of him and now my show

is gonna air on television right after

his it's crazy crazy delicious 11:00

p.m. 10 p.m. Central that's a little bit

about me a little bit about the show let

me know if you have questions about the

TV show and maybe I can answer those in

a separate video but please watch the

show in actuality it is a pilot what is

a pilot it is kind of a test and they

put the TV show out there they see how

people like it how people review it

there's probably a best ever TV show

review show out there and they're gonna

look at my show and review my show if

people love it will make more and if

nobody cares then

they'll put it in the trash I think so

please watch it so many people I want to

thank for helping me get to this point

first of all the best ever

food team KY all right everybody this is

ty the camera got me her name is me

there's never been any confusion

regarding that name she has discovered

the amazing locations that we're going

to today new editor Leon and I couldn't

make the content that I'm making without

this team one trip has been huge in

facilitating these videos and making

more of these videos possible so guys

next time you come to Vietnam go on a

tour of one trip would you I knew and

entertainment for even finding me in the

first place I don't know how you did it

Ashley and Matt who I worked with

they're amazing people I want to say

thank you to all the different guides in

every country I've been to this show

would be nothing again without the

guides and the local people who show me

their food and their culture so thank

all of you so much lastly I want to

thank all of you who watch this show

trust me I read 98% of the comments it

means a lot to me that a lot of you have

made the best-ever food review show and

me part of your life that you're

watching and consistently like twice a

week seeing the videos come up people

getting excited about it giving feedback

suggesting foods and countries it means

a lot to me

there's an amazing community around

best-ever food review show a very

positive supportive smart cultured

people who like seeing the differences

among us that also bring out our

similarities and show that we all have

these different unique qualities but we

also have so much in common - for the

last time

Travel Channel Tuesday 11 p.m. 10 p.m.

Central Time two episodes check your

local listing or check on on the Google

there and let me know what you think we

did some pretty outlandish stuff in this

pilot there's two of them there's two

episodes one in Florida one of the

Bahamas and it just it gets pretty crazy

you're gonna have to see it to believe

it

I'll see you next time a piece

run anywhere return I'll see you all the

time

oh why

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try to keep up going in your pace but

now I'm up back up in your space

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