“You’re a lot shorter in real life than I thought!” says the teenager in front of me, grinning nervously. “Well, YouTube makes me look bigger than I am!” I shoot back. It’s a terrible line, and given how many times my viewers have enthused about my small height, I should really have thought of a better reply by now. But it’s difficult to be sharp when you’re into the third hour of signing autographs, smiling for selfies and trying to hear what people are saying over the pounding music coming from a nearby gaming booth. I’m at Insomnia 58, a video games convention that has grown tremendously in the past couple of years. Previously, it was held in one hall of Coventry’s Ricoh Arena, before it spilled out into the adjoining football pitch, and now, Insomnia 58 has taken over the Birmingham NEC and is to get even bigger.
Originally, Insomnia was a convention where PC gamers could bring their own PCs and hook them up together in order to play multiplayer video games throughout the night – hence the name. But as Insomnia grew, it started hosting competitive video gaming tournaments, where teams could win big money playing Counter Strike, Call of Duty and StarCraft 2. Now the four-day event has expanded to include Minecraft mini-games, cosplay competitions, merchandise booths, tabletop gaming, video game booths, stage shows and meet and greets with YouTubers such as Syndicate, AmyLee33, The Diamond Minecart, NettyPlays and The Creatures.
Incidentally, hello! I’m Yogscast Kim, a YouTuber – Yogscast was originally founded by my friends and colleagues, Simon and Lewis, who found their fame making videos on World of Warcraft eight years ago. Since then, their channel and popularity skyrocketed, allowing them to expand their network to include several more personalities, each with their own YouTube channel. I’m a relatively new addition, and my channel currently has 750,000 subscribers and over 141m views. My speciality is playing horror games while hiding behind my fingers, raging out at multiplayer titles like Mario Kart, and using the wrong tools in Minecraft.
Insomnia has become a great place for YouTubers to meet their audience. It’s given the Yogscast the space for our own signing booth, where I spent this weekend, sat behind a table, next to my pile of Sharpies. Friday’s queue ran to a three-hour wait, a fact that boggles my mind. But despite the wait, everyone I met was super happy, with a fair few squeals of excitement and nerves as they’ve put something in front of me to sign.
Today, I’ve signed posters, T-shirts, phone covers, baseball caps, tickets and three people’s arms; one of which was in plaster cast. The weirdest thing I’ve ever signed has to be a ziplock bag of Tabasco sauce that was oddly warm to the touch. I’ll be honest, that bag still haunts me to this day, as does the knowing grin of the teenager who proudly put it down in front of me.
Professionally, it’s great to meet the fans at events like these; to get a chance to see who exactly it is that watches our videos and ask them why on earth they dedicate hours of their lives to do so. And it’s always a surprisingly diverse turnout. Shy four-year-olds who give me toothy grins and have to be gently nudged by bemused mums. Teenage boys who stare and forget their words. Excited couples who’ve dressed up as my Minecraft character. Amazingly talented cosplayers who enthuse about my videos, while I enthuse at their stunning costumes. Mildly bewildered parents who aren’t entirely sure why they’ve queued up for hours to meet this table full of nerds. Highly excited teenage girls who giggle nervously and thank me for showing that girls can in fact play video games. One of my favourite conversations is with a Dad who said that he felt like I was a part of his family, because his sons would always play my videos at the dinner table. I apologised to him profusely. Regardless, it’s this wonderful mix of people that makes the endless hours of signing, of smiling at cameras until my cheeks cramp up, of repeating my lame come back about my height ... it’s what makes it worthwhile.
I still cannot get over the hundreds of lovely people we meet, even though I’ve been coming to these events for a couple of years now. It is a humbling experience, and one I still struggle to get my head around. I’m just a girl who makes very silly videos playing games with my friends. But to our audience, we’re worth travelling from across the globe to meet. Just today, I met people who journeyed from Denmark, France, California and Australia. I’ve heard humbling stories from people who’ve thanked me for getting them through darker times, for being their support during exam stresses, messy break ups, serious mental health issues and bullying. I’ve even been visited by a young soldier who thanked me for keeping him sane during his service in Iraq. I still have no idea how to properly reply to these human stories, and trying to comfort a young girl who’s started crying out of nerves is not easy when the robots in the Robot Wars booth behind us have fired up again.
I’m five feet tall, so YouTube really does make me look bigger than I am in real life. And one day, I’ll think of a better reply for the fans who’ve queued up three hours to tell me so. Or just find a box to stand on.
