HOW TO BE FUNNY ON TIKTOK: Steven Mckell GREAT BRITISH YOUTUBERS PODCAST with Neil Mossey 011

How do you make funny TikToks?
How to make comedy videos on Tik Tok?

Steven McKell is a Scottish TikTok online influencer with 2.3 million Tik Tok followers, 53 million TikTok video likes and around 400 million views. Steven also runs @Steven Mckell YouTube channel, so he is the best influencer and TikToker I know to learn about TikTok versus YouTube.

PART 1 OF OUR CHAT IS HERE: https://youtu.be/zybwzbgLpgc
PART 2 WITH STEVEN MCKELL HERE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oC8WLSevyWk&list=PLtZM4-pHDwPmfZSonvf366y7rmJLV5dFG
NEXT PART 3 WITH STEVEN MCKELL HERE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHgOuwUe-Qc&list=PLtZM4-pHDwPmfZSonvf366y7rmJLV5dFG

HOW TO BE FUNNY ON TIKTOK: Steven Mckell GREAT BRITISH YOUTUBERS PODCAST with Neil Mossey 011



0:00 HOW TO BE FUNNY ON TIKTOK with Steven Mckell
0:55 How to make funny videos on TikTok: Original comedy content with Steven Mckell. How to start a TikTok quickly.
3:43 How to write and script a funny Tik Tok
4:50 How Steven Mckell makes his TikTok videos: how to make a funny tiktok video
5:30 How to work with brands on TikTok
7:35 What would you say to your 1000 subscriber self? Steven Mckell's advice for new TikTokers and dealing with hate comments.
9:41 What will TikTok be like in 2021? Steven Mckell on the future of TikTok.

TRANSCRIPT: (CLICK PLAY ON THE VIDEO ABOVE)

THIS IS THE TRANSCRIPT - CLICK PLAY ON THE VIDEO ABOVE!

Hello how do the best performers keep going on TikTok?
What's going to grab someone's attention in the first four seconds?
Because that's your window that you've got.

Sometimes it's shorter, depending on what kind of video it is but you've only only got your first few seconds to hit someone with what you need.

Because if you do it for the first few seconds they'll stay for 15.
If you're still good then they'll stay to 30.

This is the Great British Youtubers Podcast with me, Neil Mossey.
Hello, it's awesome to have you here.

This is a place where we share advice, experience, and tips with high achieving creators and performers just like you - and in this episode Steven Mckell!
Steven has over 2.3 million followers on TikTok clocking up over 500 million views.

He also has a YouTube channel so is absolutely the best person to talk about YouTube vs TikTok.
Steven Mckell!

What do you find are the hardest videos to make?
Hardest? Original-- original comedy content is very hard to make because you have to be-- you have to be funny and you have to have a good sense of humour.
You have to be quick.

How do you make a funny TikTok video?
What's your process?
How do you go about it?
It depends on what I’m making.

If I’m making a video like, if I’m using like a sound underneath it and it's not me talking - I think "what's going to grab someone's attention in the first four seconds", because that's your window that you've got.
Sometimes it's shorter depending on what kind of video it is, but you've only - only got your first few seconds to... to hit someone with what you need.

So my thing is how what if I make a video that I want to watch for 15 seconds or more, how can I get the punchline in there - if it's non-verbal - within the first few seconds.
So I think of that, I think "how can I get that in there quickly" then, "what's the story
after that?"

Because people love watching a storytelling that-- if it's-- and that's hard to do itself if you're doing a comedy video without you actually talking.
And you're just doing something that's funny, you're trying to tell the story through your actions or through the writing on the screen.

So you've got to have a plan and I think: "plan but don't plan too much"

It's hard, it's like "do this but don't do this!" You know "go to work, don't go to work" but anyway um so you've--
You've got to plan but don't plan too much.

Plan like: "this is the beginning middle and end" and allow yourself to have a bit of leeway of um spontaneity have been-- like spontaneous.
Put that in there as well and just do stuff that you think will be funny and watch it back, but yeah...

I think that have a plan for it, making sure you're getting that real comedy punchline the very first few seconds to hook people in.

Because if you do it for the first few seconds they'll stay for 15.
If you're still good then they'll stay to 30.
And people that are really intrigued-- if you can get them intrigued on what you're doing then great.

If it's stuff like you know, you actually want to be a character, and you want to do like an actual original comedy video where it's just you talking?
Plan your characters out.

Plan what you want to say out, film it and film until it's good you know that--
You know those kind of ones where you pretend to be people and you're trying to be like "oh I’m gonna you know" - you have to make sure - I make sure that my timing's quick, so if it's from speaking from people to people which a lot of TikToks are and you've got to get that timing really quick between the characters.

You've got to know what you're going to do, and you've got to think how is TikTok going to perceive this?
What's my caption going to be um-- is
Is it going to be a build up to the end where people know what's going to happen but are still going to watch and that's the kind of stuff that my process is.

If it's character-wise you've gotta, I’ve got to make sure it's character developed and but also be spontaneous throughout it because, if it's too planned TikTok will know.
People that are watching will figure it out.

That's why it's different to YouTube.
YouTube like... people make sketches of actual like tv shows right.
You can do that on TikTok as well and-- but if it's not authentic and you really have planned it out to the point where it's like: "My name is Stacy, and I’m doing this! My name's bit--"

People are going to click right off and be like that's not fun, the person's too much in their head.
That's really interesting.

When you-- when you're planning do you-- do you literally write it out or do you keep notes for yourself?
Sometimes I write it out, if I want to get a point of view across, if it's-- if it's not-- if it's a comedy video, but I want to get a point of view of what I want to say in the video, I’ll write it out because then-- I’ll put it in my head but then my head gets jumbled - mambo jumbo - I've got dyslexia so sometimes it's like, "what did I just say?" and, and that's why I always record if I’m doing takes and stuff because sometimes you forget what you said - you have to like watch it back!

I’ll write some stuff down and like this is what's going to be like a few of the lines but not all of them because I think you have to have a way of just ad-libbing it and doing it and-- and not everyone can do that, erm.
What you might not be good at doing comedy, you might be good at singing.

If you're not good at singing maybe dance.
If it's not dance maybe it's art stuff, maybe it's arts and crafts, maybe it's point of view content.
Some people do really really great acting on point of view content which I don't-- I am not great at, I’m not, because how they edit it and how they make the videos it's...

Yeah if you go on TikTok, you just put in #POV you'll find a lot of these like dark videos and you think you're watching like a little episode of-- it's great!

People do like 10 part series of stuff and I’m like... I’m watching the whole thing!
What you're actually outlining is basically rehearsal on camera.
Do you, you tend to just rehearse record?

See me, sometimes I wake up at 3 in the morning like "this is gonna be such a great comedy stuff"
Put my phone up and I’ll film it there then because my... my mind was telling me this is really gonna get the best kind of content for this video, now, so I’ll be in the hallway--

Mum and dad will be asleep and I’ll be like strutting down pretending to be like a character and, and I think that's really great because once you start doing that it's tough to start with - but it's like any content, whether it be comedy, singing, dancing, point of view, meme style, artsy craft and telling-- storytelling you find a way of doing it that works for you... works with people watching your content and for it to do well.
That's the one thing when you work with brands, they're stuck with YouTube and Instagram in mind.

You can't do that for TikTok.
You-- you really should, brands... if the brands are watching this.

Brands should really open it up to the creator and say "well what this is - what that's the idea that we have - and it's great whenever... when a brand comes with an idea... be like "we think this" because it shows that understanding of TikTok and that's great because any company should look into the platform, they're looking to promote on or Insta the product on - that's just the tee! um

So they'll come with a plan and I’ll say-- this is me just rambling on now-- and I’ll say that's great and then we'll take stuff out and say "but this would work on my account because of this"
So having that between-- some brands have a fully realized campaign.

Fully realized brief and I’m like "That's great, I love-- and I love the.. the you know the music or the product and that's great and that works for me and my fans or people that follow me..." I don't want to- I call them Sassy Squad because like "fans" is like a weird thing um
But I'll tell them this will work this way on my account because we're all different.
And so sometimes you get a bit sometimes and I’m like I’ll do it like I’m happy to do... because what you've got is good, but I know it won't work.

So like sometimes I’ve had-- I’ve done it and it's been alright, I’ve enjoyed what I’ve done but other times I’ve been like "if I can't do it that way then I’m not going to be able to be part of it" because it doesn't fit and-- and what it's going to do, is it's going to do an injustice to you as the artist or the brand. It's going to do injustice to me and injustice to people watching.

Where some people wouldn't do that.
Some people be like "give me the money and I’ll post to you" and that's you know, that's, that's-- that's alright.
That's people that you know will do that and they have that.

Me? I’m not.
I want to do stuff that I feel that I’m really passionate about.
That if it's a song, if I don't click with a song I won't do it.
If it's a TV show, whatever.

If I don't like the idea of it, I won't do it because then that's essentially what every creator should be doing.
You-- you should be doing it in a way that, "okay this is fun and I think my fans would love watching this"
Or fans would love listening to this.

Or they're going to have fun watching me doing this.
That's the issue that you have nowadays with brands with er--
if that's a conversation you have with someone, that's the issue that you have, is you're just-- they're so like Instagram driven.

Instagram story driven?
No.
They look like ads!
[LAUGHS] That's right, it's true!
Steven what... what would you say to your 1000 follower self?

Oh that's hard!
I would say um you'll... stick to your-- stick to your guns on, you know, how you want to be perceived and how you want to be kind of um looked at in the world I think, um.
And you're gonna have ups and downs and that's alright, um, but it's alright just to say to people like, you know, no!
Get away.

You don't have to be-- you don't, you know and people... some people might be a bit mean to you.
Social media wise some people are gonna be mean to you, or some people are going to have opinions about you that you don't... they've never met you and they never are going to meet you and you have to just really take yourself out of that mindset and just focus on doing what makes you happy.

Because I didn't do that to start with, okay.
I was like "other people--" and people didn't like me on musical.ly
I was you know my name was "Mr. Chubby" or something like that - it was so bad um
Well, I say "fat" isn't my comedy but I had my name as Mr Chubby!
But yeah I’d say to myself, just stay authentic, have fun and-- and just don't let what other people think of you, like annoy yer.

And I don't do that now, but it took me a bit a while to kind of get into that, you know, I got hate on the first-- my first day on TikTok.
On social media in general I’ve had hate comments.

I have them now so it's just about persevering and realizing...
My Mum taught me you've got two options: you can really let it consume you and reply to them and kind of defend yourself... and then like think about it or like you know really argue with them.
OR you can kind of take it in, let it go over your head and just move on.

And so that's what I did.
I said "that's it!"
That's what I’ll do, just like move on.
If someone's got an issue that's them, so 1000 follower me, keep doing YOU and don't let anyone stop you!
Steven what do you think TikTok will be like in 2021?

Oh I, I think it'll be more um... I think it'll be bigger than it is now.
I don't think it's-- good I’m looking at the wrong camera...

I think it'll be bigger than it is now TikTok 2021.
I think that... that the fight for the "For You" page is going to be a lot tougher than where it is now.
I do think it'll be bigger and it'll be better and I think that it's going to encompass a lot of stuff that the... this... all generations can get involved in more and more because it's a platform for everyone.

There's everyone of all kind of ages on it and there's not a... there's never been another app or platform that's rose to this kind of fame, in such a short time.
So for 2021 I just see it being bigger.

I see... I hopefully see creators you know getting more monetization for the the work that they do but I am, I think-- it'll be... I think it'll be harder for creators though.

I think it'll be a lot-- it'll be a tougher game, what YouTube was back in like you know 2012... 2011 a lot of people just uploading content and it's you know, it's survival of the fittest and only the strong survive.
When it comes to being a big creator on it.

But in terms of people making content, you know, I think that it'll be more people of all ages that are on it hopefully... you know, hopefully it's not shut down!

You know these things about getting banned and stuff - it never will be like that.

But yeah I do see it-- I see it being twice the size it is now and just taking over the world even more.
Should we just pose for thumbnails?!

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I'm Neil Mossey and I'll see you on the very next Great British YouTubers.


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