The Realness

On a lot of personality-based reality shows (ANTM, RPDR) there is this constant thing the judges always ask for. They want people to let go of the persona they're presenting and let who they really are shine through. They often refer to this as 'vulnerability' though I believe that isn't exactly the proper term. It's close, but being vulnerable means exposing weakness. I don't think that showing the genuine side of who you are is the same as that.

However, I believe the reason Shane Dawson has been able to sustain his YouTube career is that he is, naturally, so good at letting who he really shines through. Mind you, most of the time he's in character. He's playing the persona of Shane Dawson, a constructed YouTube personality based on his funnier side, his more whacky side. He's very entertaining when he does that.

However, there are also moments when he drops the character and is just himself. These moments aren't planned. There is no script of 'now I'm going to be me.' He just lets himself be open enough to the moment to allow himself to do this.

The latest example of this happened on the third installment of his day of pretending to be Jeffery Star.  Dressed as Star, Shane followed the fashion icon around, seeing what it was like to live his life. Shane was overwhelmed by the expense of his Gucci clothes (well over 3000$) and price of the bag he was carrying (36,000$). He marveled at Star's cars, all custom and expensive and on brand Star Pink. He expected that stuff though, so while he knew it would be expensive, he was still able to roll with it, cracking jokes, playfully mocking things, being the clown.

Then Star took him to his warehouses, the place where his empire is really founded. Suddenly faced with the fact that Star had truly created an empire requiring a block of business buildings, organization, and true business savvy, Shane was left speechless. He stared at things in quiet awe, trying his best to ask questions, to process what he was seeing. You could watch as it dawned on him that Star wasn't just this amazingly queeny internet personality, he was a true businessman, with employees (over 100), and someone who had built his brand into a viable business.

Seeing Shane react to this is the true genius of who Dawson is. He didn't try to control or produce the moment. He let it happen as it happened. He let himself stammer, asked questions off the top of his head, repeated himself. He let himself be a real person, as it was dawning on him that Star was, also, truly a real person, a deeper and more complex person than he allowed himself to be shown in public. And as he did this, he allowed everyone watching with him to realize this same thing, all without hitting them over the head with it.

As I've mentioned before, Shane Dawson is someone I've followed for years. He's talented, but even more than that, he has a very beautiful charisma that radiates when he is open with what is happening in his moments. Even though he has admitted to a lot of insecurity about who he is, I think that the inner core of openness, of being so real,  is what draws people to him.