Kyle Gordon has gone viral several times with his character-based sketches. Characters like DJ Crazy Times and Greg The Kid that Nobody Likes have garnered Gordon more than 2.4 million followers and 90.4 million likes. Natalie Burdick also goes viral consistently on both Reels and TikTok. Burdick uses a blend of musical comedy and absurdist sketches to make content for her 250K TikTok followers and 140k Instagram followers.
First, I wanted to learn how long each of these creators has been doing comedy, as TikTok comedians can range from inexperienced to very experienced and still gain massive followings. Gordon has been in the New York comedy scene since he graduated college in 2014. I was on the same bill as Kyle for a 2019 show before his TikTok success, and can safely say he was killing rooms well before his focus on social media.
“I think my ability to grow my account and get popular on TikTok is due in large part to the kind of comedy I was doing before," he says. "I was doing short solo character pieces and I think the way TikTok is structured has worked really well in my favor. I really have had to change almost nothing about my style. I just created 10 times more than I ever did pre-TikTok.”
Burdick, on the other hand, says “I never really gave value to the silly songs I would write, but then I saw pages like yours and Austin Archer and people who were putting their songs out and I was like ‘Oh I can do this too.’ I didn’t think it would have any value. It was really surprising because when you go from writing stupid songs in your parents' house to 100 thousand people watching it and enjoying it, it's like omg what I played this for my parents yesterday and now it got me a job at Nickelodeon.”