'When I started I thought I would get 100 subscribers. That was the goal," says Alfie Deyes, the man behind the YouTube channel Pointless Blog. "I remember when Fred, a YouTuber, hit a million subscribers and I made a video about it. I was like, it's crazy how these YouTube people have gotten a million subscribers and have gotten so popular. I never imagined I would ever get the following that I do now."
As Deyes says this, hundreds of screaming teenagers wait outside for him to reappear. He has just written his second book, The Pointless Book 2, and they are standing in line with signed copies for the chance to get a selfie with him. It's a ticketed event, and the location – Eason on O'Connell Street in Dublin – is secret even for ticket holders until just beforehand.
The hundreds in line aren’t a patch on the 8,000 who turned up to Deyes’s first book signing in London. Piccadilly was cordoned off, police helicopters and horses attempted to usher teenage girls along, and Waterstones had to shut its flagship store. Since then, his audience of 4.4 million online followers has only grown, and little-publicised, ticketed events are the only way to avoid chaos.
Despite this, fans without tickets camp outside Eason all day, tweeting Deyes to let him know they’re waiting for a glimpse of him. Only 500 tickets were issued, but Eason estimates that more than 1,000 people have turned up on the day.
What’s the appeal?
Deyes himself isn’t quite sure what the draw to himself or his channel is.
“There could just be a video of me playing with my dog in the garden for half the time, and that does happen,” he says. “I don’t understand why people watch it, but they do . . . I would like to hope that the attraction is that I’m just a normal person, that I’m just the same as the person watching the video, but that I just happen to be on the other side of the screen.
“Crazy times happen like today, with a lot of people turning up to see me. But then I’ll also be sitting in my hotel, watching YouTube videos for the rest of the day.”
The Pointless Book 2 is described as "another instalment of his unique brand of nothingness. Bigger, better and even more pointless".
It’s an illustrated book in which Deyes encourages readers to take part in challenges, games and other activities, filling the book in themselves: “Continued by Alfie, finished by you.”
“When I released book 1,” Deyes says, “I had no idea how it was going to go, because I have never ever asked my audience to pay. The stuff I do online is just free videos, so I didn’t know how it was going to go down. But everyone seemed to enjoy it. So we then came up with the idea of doing book 2.”
By April of this year The Pointless Book had sold more than 250,000 copies, topping the paperback nonfiction chart 16 times. The challenge in doing a second book in the same style was designing something that was worth buying for fans who had already bought the first book.
“Obviously, the pages are different,” Deyes says. “It’s got an app, because all my following is online, so I was, like, we have to have something digital. Book 2’s app has some crazy stuff that I didn’t even know was possible. The publishers were, like, we can do this hologram kind of stuff, and I was, like, let’s do it. It’s also got a lot more exclusive content, videos that I’ve made that aren’t on YouTube anywhere.”
In addition to making videos and writing books, Deyes has side projects on the go. Recently, Madame Tussauds in London approached him and his girlfriend, Zoe Sugg (who, as Zoella, has 8.6 million subscribers on YouTube), about creating wax figures of them. This, Deyes says, has been one of the more surreal opportunities he's been offered in the recent past.
“It’s unbelievable,” he says. “I never thought anything like that would ever happen. It’s only a couple of years ago that I was in Madame Tussauds taking pictures with Emma Watson. When you leave it you get a slip of who you wish was there, and me and Zoe were the most-voted people last year in London. I didn’t even know you could vote. It’s even more insane than Madame Tussauds just picking us.”
No celebrities here
With such large followings, and opportunities such as book signings and wax figures, it’s hard to believe Deyes’s claim that he’s just the same as his fans. He is adamant that he is not a celebrity, however.
“It’s super-interesting,” he says. “Of course you can’t deny that people have massive loyal followings, but the term ‘celebrity’ comes with such bad, negative vibes that I would never call myself or any of my friends a celebrity. I’d say maybe some people that I know are well known or have big followings, but ‘celebrity’ seems so negative.
“We’re completely normal people living normal lives,” he says. “I don’t walk around when I go shopping on a Saturday with security; I don’t take security with me. I don’t do anything like that.”
Celebrity or not, Deyes’s audience are predominantly young teenagers. Although he also doesn’t accept the title of role model, one of the main aims of his videos is to spread positivity.
“I think naturally I’m just a very positive person. But being a role model? That does scare me. What if I ever did something stupid? It’s scary. I just don’t really think about it too much. I just hope that people are inspired by some of the positive messages that I portray, like do more of what makes you happy. That’s it.”
