Finding success on Vine
By: Jeremy Goldberg, Contributing Writer
Since joining Vine, the social media app for creating and sharing six-second videos, in 2013, junior electronic media and film and public relations major Matthew DeHoff has created an online footprint for himself that is rapidly growing.
DeHoff’s interest in comedy and creating videos started as a middle school hobby, inspired by the hit YouTube channel Smosh. He started out recording homemade sketch comedies with his friends using his mom’s old camera and posting them to YouTube.
Today, he is a full-time college student and a recurring content creator on Vine with over 100,000 followers and over 87 million views of his videos.
DeHoff is known by his friends and fans for the wacky comedy he pursues in his videos—sometimes making no sense at all—and the eccentricity of the characters he creates.
DeHoff displays a wide spectrum of absurdity and creativity in his humor that frames his videos and his mind.
“A year and a half ago, I did these ‘Billy’ Vines and it evolved into my alien character and, I mean, I guess there’s the one where I f—ed a vacuum,” DeHoff says. “I also made these Vines based on the X-Files. I kind of laugh at my Vines after I do them, but I tend to create stuff that I’m just like ‘this is so f—ing stupid, but it’s hilarious.’”
With the new online community and fan base he has established with his videos, he is nothing but humble for the opportunities Vine has given him as an outlet to express his comedic imagination and spontaneous creativity.
“I make sure my growth does not affect my creative process because I want to keep going and keep gaining new followers,” DeHoff says. “Sometimes, when people gain 40K [followers], their ego takes over and they’ll make s—-y Vines. I never thought it was possible for me to get to this point and it’s crazy.”
Beyond the camera on his phone, DeHoff shows an undying passion for acting and film production. In his past two years at Towson, he has starred and worked on multiple local, student short films that have won awards at Towson film festivals where he received honorable acclaim for his performances.
DeHoff is also an active member of the media-production society Lambda Kappa Tau. By integrating himself with students of similar passions, the amount of opportunities to collaborate with the other members seems endless.
Networking with fellow undergraduate members and alumni, he has seized multiple opportunities to thicken his acting portfolio, taking on new roles in feature films while receiving additional offers to prepare him for the next ones. Additionally, DeHoff writes and directs his own films, with help from members of LKT, simply for the fun of it.
“I’m acting in ‘Campus Police’ by Ryan Konig, a friend of mine, which is going really well,” DeHoff said.
In addition, he was also recently cast in the film “The Sisterhood of Girls Who Won’t Date Me,” a feature-length film written and directed by Towson alumnus Max Radbill.
As a result of an ambitious approach to following his dreams, DeHoff has gained knowledge in his field of interest while producing an abundance of content.
Whether through social media, in or out of the classroom, DeHoff seems to be on the right path to achieving the life he has dreamed of.
He kindly shares a few words of wisdom for his fans and those with similar ambitions in acting and filmmaking.
“My advice is that content is everything and that you shouldn’t over-promote yourself,” DeHoff said. “If the content is good, then people will see it, and it will get shared around.”
DeHoff also encourages others to keep creating art regardless of schedules or circumstances.
“There’s always this war with art that people have if school is taking over or they’re just too busy,” DeHoff said. “You got to just fight through that and create no matter what the situation is. As long as you’re creating content, you’ll get better and better and that snowball will keep rolling and rolling.”