Mark Phillips and RDCWorld have built a DIY content empire.
NBA icons and Hollywood producers are taking notice.
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The scene opens on a kitchen in a suburban home.
The restaurant supervisor, played by Mark Phillips, cannot abide this respectful conduct.
He shoves the employee aside and steps in to berate the customer while purposely botching his order.
This aint no five-star restaurant this isPopeyes, he yells, his eyes bulging.
Pick it up with your hands!
The 29-year-old who writes the groups sketches is RDCs driving force creatively and operationally.
Some of the premises seem flimsy until theyre heightened in unexpected directions.
The first time I saw that show, I didnt know you coulddosketch comedy about hip-hop, he says.
(The resulting sketchhas over 9.3 million views.)
They say all the shit that everybodys thinking, Irving oncesaid.
Clicking through the archives of RDCs videos is an exercise in watching its members grow up on-camera.
For 40-minute intervals, adds Newton.
The room explodes into cross-talk.
Patel jumps in to defend himself.
I justbein there, he says.
Its my alone time!
When UTA came calling to offer representation, for example, the agency signed Phillips solo.
He maintains a firm party line about wanting to bring the group with him wherever he goes.
I dont want to work with random people, he says.
I want to work with people I have chemistry with, andtheseare the people I have chemistry with.
Phillips grew up the youngest of six siblings.
His father was in the Navy, and his mother worked as a registered nurse.
He says being funny was, in part, a coping mechanism for being ugly as a kid.
They received one reply, from Tokyo-based Kodansha: It said, Keep going.
Where they went next YouTube they could explore their various interests without the restriction of gatekeepers.
So they picked up a camera, called some of their friends, and started shooting.
In 2012, the RDCWorld YouTube channel was born.
Manigo starts to point out gaps in the shows logic: Pokemonhas been going on since 95.
Why hasnt Ash aged at all?
But I still think its funny.
Separately, they began filming and posting of-the-era vlogs with titles like College LifeThe Cons of Having a Roommate!
(Very Funny) and Confessions of a Krispy Kreme Employee to keep their channel alive.
He started shooting 15-second sketches solo and posting them to his personal account,@supremedreams_1.
He also came up with a plan to increase the accounts visibility.
Most of them didnt respond, but luckily two or three did, and they liked the videos.
If it doesnt, Ill pay the money.
He never had to pay.
Deadass, Id drive off on people, he says.
Each member of the team took on a role to ensure the operation ran smoothly.
Harris became RDCs go-to cameraperson and postproduction specialist.
Skinner oversaw audio recording and handled business administration.
Patel was in charge of the technical coordination of livestreams, and Newton handled the organization of Dream Con.
Phillips oversaw it all.
Hes so dedicated, says Skinner.
Ive never been around someone like that.
Thats the reason I decided to follow him on this journey.
Phillips prefers the termentertainertocomedian.
I want to make movies, he says.
I dont want to be the token comedian in a movie.
I want to be a director; I want to write.
It makes him appreciate the comparative freedom of YouTube.
Thats why Hollywood is being overtaken by content creators, he says.
Content creators are gonna work for it.
Hollywoods gonna go on 19 vacations and then have a go at put a movie out.
Max dropped it post-WGA strike.
Before that, it had been tied up in development logjams for two and a half years.
Jordan is still attached, and he and Phillips plan to shop it around to other networks.
Phillips and Hoorae remain engaged in talks to develop other show ideas in the future.
Hes just objectively funny.
He reminds me of a family member, says Rae of Phillips.
She sees some of her own journey in his.
They are anAvengersof sorts, and I think hes better because of them, she says.
But shes hardly representative of the industry at large.
Phillips doesnt roll seven deep into pitch meetings with executives because he understands the optics.
But believe: Im always going to ask, Can my people be the cast?
Cause thats what its got to be.
In a brief lull between conversations, I see his eyes darting around the party.
He turns to me and asks, Do you see any of my group?
