@blakecomedyBay Street Beauty #greenscreen #financebro #financeguy #financebros #pov #comedy
Where do the characters come from?
Johnston told Narcity that his characters stem from his own life experience living in Toronto, Mississauga, attending Western University and working in the service industry.
"The main one [character] is the Bay Street beauty. He is your typical washed-up hockey player that got into finance. The other one I do predominantly is a Queen Street Warehouse bartender," said Johnston.
@blakecomedyQueen Street Warehouse Bartender #greenscreen #pov #comedy #toronto #torontolife #torontotiktok #queenstreetwarehouse
Although, those aren't his only characters. He regularly plays an ultra-hip and eco-friendly Bar Poet employee, a guy that still lives with his mom, a white Toronto man, and an improv guy, to name a few.
He has a platform of almost 100K on TikTok and almost 40K on Instagram that follows along for his Canadian POVs.
Johnston thinks what makes people gravitate towards his character-based comedy is relatability.
"I think a big part of acting is just studying people and mannerisms. I love people watching, especially when I'm out in public at these Toronto places," said Johnston.
"You can't really create a character out of thin air. I think they're always funnier when you have actual characteristics you can lean on. The restaurant manager character I do is an amalgamation of all the restaurant managers I've worked with in the past."
Johnston's comedy and acting chops are certainly working for him, and he doesn't have to work in restaurants anymore to pay the bills.
"Since about April, I've been doing content creation full-time through brand partnerships. So, I don't have to work in a restaurant anymore, which has been quite the godsend," said Johnston.
"I'm focusing predominantly on acting for film and television, voiceover acting and then the online sketch comedy."
Johnston is a villain in the children's TV show Bakugan and even recently worked on Fellow Travelers, starring Jonathan Bailey.
How to make money as a content creator
He pulled back the curtain on how he manages to support himself through content creation and supplementary income from his other acting gigs.
From February 2022 to September 2022, Johnston said he had a partnership with Fireball Whiskey that paid him per video.
"Basically, how it would work is they would outline to me a content schedule they had for holidays, seasons, back to school, you know, whatever it may be, and then I would write them script ideas, and we would go back and forth."
He explained that the typical rate for videos is $1,000 for every 10K followers you have on Instagram.
Johnston said he no longer has the partnership due to budget cuts and the company moving on from his PR rep but that a lot of people liked the videos.
"The videos I did for Fireball on my page did really well because they were really funny, and they had their own kind of story arcs. People would follow me to watch these videos, which are ads, but they didn't really feel like ads," he said.
"It's honestly such a Wild West for content creators right now. As an actor, I've been noticing that a lot of the money that was traditionally in cable media is starting to move more online now through content creators."
Johnston is also dipping his toe into IRL improv with fellow Toronto creators, so if you want to see him in person, you can catch his show on December 22 in Toronto at Comedy Bar Danforth.
This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.
