Gawker
Everyone, meet Craig Stevens. Craig is a recent college graduate from Murfreesboro, Tennessee who's just moved to New York City to pursue his dream of becoming an actor in Broadway musicals. He's brought along his girlfriend Janine. (But they're far away! He lives in "a part of Manhattan called Inwood" and she lives out near Coney Island.) In the four YouTube videos he's made so far, Craig seems like a nice boy , innocent and wide-eyed as he applies for jobs, goes on an audition, and navigates the bewildering wilds of, well, mostly just Times Square. He's charming in a rube-ish kind of way. Though, there are few details that are a little... suspicious.
First off: girlfriend Janine. She does, in fact, exist. She's shown, shrieking things, in the third video. Despite being proven "real," she still remains a bit Bonnie St. Clair-esque. Something about Craig's constant raving about Broadway starlets ("Sieerrra!!") seems a bit out of keeping with his, you know, having a Janine. Other suspicious tidbits: their favorite restaurant is TGIFriday's, he works at a store called Broadway Babies, while she toils at the merchandise counter for The Little Mermaid. Oh, and then he talks about going on an audition for The Lion King (as non equity? How often can/does that happen?) But, oops! The call was for Young Simbas. They let him sing anyway, but it was still super embarrassing. That can't possibly be true, can it? I mean, um, aren't all the Simbas black? And why would they let a 22-year-old sing at all? Doesn't this all seem a bit too convenient, too hilariously and gently tragic? I honestly can't tell! Thing is, I've known actual living, breathing people like this. And even they seemed made up. As commenter MCCreighton says on one of the posts, "If this is fake, you are a genius." Indeed. Watch the videos (two of which I've posted here) and decide for yourselves.
The First Video, March 11
The Janine Video, March 17
Comments
FAKE!!11!
Can we export him back to Murfreesboro?
He is the dumbest person that I've seen today so far.
Um. There is no way, no how, that guy is straight. Janine is obviously his sister.
Nice tags, btw.
I totally want to steal Janine from Craig. She's adorable.
I had to duck the flames coming out of my computer.
I love cute little gay boys though.
He also kind of reminds me of the Japanese girl that filmed herself eating french bread pizza on Youtube.
um real. murfreesboro is totally full of rubes. its a really small, insular town about 35 minutes from nashville. the second biggest college in the state is there. their mascot is the blue raider, which is a klan ref. the town also hosts the world's largest wooden bucket.
huzzah!
Smacks of Edward Norton and the nice guy routine before the revelation of his demonic alter-ego's. Can't wait til' he discovers The List of Craig and how neat it is that his name is also Craig.
And now they're Gawkstars.
Making fun of this young rube is like shooting fish in a bucket. I love the part when he rolls his eyes and tells us he has learned SO MUCH in the past two weeks. Call me in a month when you are a bitter and jaded queen chatting up old men at The Townhouse!
This totally reminds me of a friend's "straight" musical-theater-obsessed cousin, who came visiting from somewhere tiny in the Midwest. If I linked his blog, you guys would be absolutely certain it was some sort of hoax. Rest assured this type certainly exists....
Wow, Brooklyn is a borough and Coney Island is "like a beach". You learn something every day.
While there are real people this clueless cluttering the industry, I think he's a fake. C'mon, a young musical theatre sissy (complete with "girlfriend" ripe for conversion to hag) who doesn't know that Simba is played by an actor of color? How is that even possible?
Inwood to Coney Island? That's like a 3 hour trek! Long distance relationship in the same city, only in New York, kids.
Janine is like a poor, thin, dumb, white Star Jones.
He's totes cute. like a gay Patrick Moberg. (btw, wotever happened there?)
I want to believe.
There are no gay men in Murfreesboro - only men who like to get together watch musicals and have sex.
verdict: Gay
@City_Dater: Exactly. But! That detail could be either: A) Evidence that it's complete chicanery, or B) Evidence that he's just lying to the people from home who want to hear about big Broadway auditions.
The Pirate Queen poster is a dead giveaway.
Is he channeling Kenneth?
@lele: To know so much about such a place - no good can come of it. I pity you. Just promise me you won't, you know, do anything crazy. Life's too precious.
@Nic Fit: On the whole, I'm not sure i believe it, but that little tidbit is truth beyond suspicion. 100% certifiable, grade A fact right there, my friend.
@Pesquyist: exactly. The poster is the high brow wink-wink in this little bit of performance art.
I love him (and her) of course.
Y'all haters ....
Holy S, I just watched those videos, Craig, put the camera on the desk, JEEZ, shaky camera motion-sickness. Too nauseated to finish the Janine vid.
Craig Stevens was Peter Gunn. He's no Craig Stevens.
simba may portray a person of color but I don't think that theaters are expressly allowed to discriminate like that... seems to violate EVERY fairness statute that exists...
@Calitri: you found me out. i do know too much...
I was going to suggest that you take this one as The Gays, but I guess you already did that.
@hypocriteoath: Not really true of casting, actually.
The shaky camera is making me nauseous.
And that voice! It has the unmistakable cadence of a gay... a gaydence if you will.
Hellooooooooooooooooooooooooooo! Sashay!
Oh please. If any more gay was present my monitor would shoot rainbows and be called Tucker.
janine's so cute, acting or otherwise!
There is a Law and Order episode almost EXACTLY like this kid's life: Aspiring wannabe-Broadway boy comes from Tennessee with girlfriend and goes to auditions. Except in L&O, Chris Noth and Jerry Orbach are investigating the kid's death, when it turns out he's killed by a john (turns out being a Broadway star was more difficult than expected and he had to pay the bills).
Obviously, this is a case of life imitating art and not the other way around.
That's not Craig Stevens. Inger, maybe.
This is obviously fake. White kids are silly as fuck.
And, Janine seems, uh... yummy.
They're too adorable for Gawker. Maybe Cute-Overload needs to fill a hole.
Expect to see Craig on one of those "ironic" child-role-played-by-adults kind of off broadway shows, like Home Alone - The Musical.
After spending thirty seconds and one and a half Dolly Madison Donuts on this, I have a metaphysical inquiry: what difference does it make?
If you graduated from "Tide Water COMMUNITY College" how much would you need to save to live in the Inwood section of New York City? At least enough for $800 to $1,200 a month for rent, plus background checks, key fees for the super, etc. What kind of job could you get in the Portsmouth or Virginia Beach VA area that would allow you to save enough money for such an adventure? Chiropractor, crack whore, village idiot, fake resident with some kind of corporate backing perhaps. Oh wait just one minute, perhaps Michael Eisner, yes I smell Michael Eisner.
Most of us are laughing because we were there once...
Unwatchable with the shaky camera.
This is totally, totally real. im not going to say how i know, but i am all to familiar with the case of the southern theatre geek with his "janine" and thinks Craig is "fun & silly and not like other guys."
I send them the best of luck. Especially because he's going to need it when his audition repertoire includes female musical numbers and his theatre program probably consisted of doing scenes from "Steel Magnolias."
And I wish it weren't so, but there's also that big hurdle that involves Janine finding out selling Mermaid merch makes you incredibly bitter coupled with the fact that Craig is spending an awful lot of time with Steve at "Therapy."
Pirate Queen indeed.
The posters are all just too strategically placed (and self-consciously poorly at that) for me to think he's not putting us on.
New York really needs two more annoying people talking constantly and recording it for the world.
Fake AND nausea-inducing. Bummer. I would have liked to have been rooting for those crazy kids.
Definitely a fake - viral ad campaign for this shitty idea: [www.thebatterysdown.com]
Each video's tagged with the words "battery's down" for god's sake. Not a hard nut to crack.
OMG please make them a guest columnist a la Tionna, although no one can even come within an inch of her. If this happens I might start reading Gawker more than once a week now.
There's been an outbreak of gayboys up here in Inwood.
Real? Fake? Who knows??? Gay? DEFINITELY! He may not have realized it yet. I give him 3 months before he's hitting the Cock. The bar, that is...
Fake or real...he's famous!
@Richard: But even an idiot knows his friends have Google in Mufreesbro, right?
@northerner: So far on my block they tend toward older couples who smile politely though I can tell they are thinking, "Hmmm...Chloe sunglasses from three seasons ago." I haven't seen any of this tiny, singing, semi-closeted variety yet.
The gay southern twang is definitely authentic.