Nat’s hilarious cooking videos went viral during lockdown, but it’s not recipes he wants you to take-away from them.
Key Takeaways
- Australian comedian Nat (who has withheld his last name) went viral during covid lockdown thanks to his hilarious cooking videos
- He’s since leveraged his success to write a cookbook, a book, sell wine and release merchandise
Australian comedian Nat rocketed to internet stardom during lockdown, when his hilarious cooking videos (End of Days Bolognese, Carbo-Rona Sauce) went viral. But few would know he’s been on the content creation scene for around eight years.
“I love making videos, but it really struck a nerve in lockdown with those cooking videos,” he says.
And yes, he really does know his way around a kitchen – it isn’t just for the views. “Cooking has been a big part of my life,” he says. “It’s helped me afford to eat good food and not just takeaway shit. But turning it into video content is a fairly new development.”
As a comedian, Nat tells Forbes Australia he always looks for whether the joke makes sense – in other words, whether it’s funny. If it does – and it is – people will want to share it.
“When I pointed out that people were just buying all the stupidest shit at the shops during lockdown, when you could be cooking awesome food, I think that resonated with a lot of people,” he says. “Something about that worked, and I wasn’t being an asshole about it.”
He wasn’t. Nat’s style – while filled with a lot of profanity – is actually tame. There are enough bullies out there, he says, and he doesn’t intend to be one of them. Instead, he prefers to just be himself.
“I’m more or less how I am in those videos,” he says. “I think that’s important – to be fairly authentic. People can pick your bullshit.”
But before he had a following of 450,000 on Instagram and was a comedic cooking sensation, Nat, who goes by the handle nats_what_i_reckon, worked in a prop shop.
“I think when I started to make merchandise, and once we started to see revenue come in from a couple of things, I realised that, ‘hey I can put all my time into this’. It’s the real dream as a creative person, to be able to afford to fund what you’re doing.”
Now, he and his partner Jules work on his brand full-time. He edits and stars, she films. They’ve also launched a cookbook, a book, sold wine and merchandise, and intend to launch a rainbow fur tissue box (if you know, you know). But Nat, who hasn’t shared his last name, admits the publicity of it all can be daunting.
“When you put [the views] in stadium terms – it’s like the whole city has watched me,” he says.
“I don’t have heaps of privacy anymore, and I also have quite chronic mental health problems. So, having some things that are mine that aren’t the internet’s is pretty good. It helps keep me feeling safe and able to navigate all this stuff. But it is pretty bananas.”
While Nat wants you to laugh and enjoy his videos, he also wants you to take home another, more serious message.
“Just have a laugh and give yourself a break. Be kind to yourself, it’s a tough world.”
It’s something he says he needs to do, too. “People think this is some cruisy gig. I’ve never been busier in my life.”