"I'm comic relief for dark subject matter" - interview with SrslySirius

We meet SrslySirius to talk about how he makes his videos, why he picks the subjects he does and what his victims think of the songs.

"The songs typically take me three days to complete"

PokerStrategy.com: Where did it all start for you in poker, music and video production?

SrslySirius: Poker was like for most people, it was in 2003 when it was on TV constantly. I played a lot online over the years, on and off, I never got very far.

Music I got into at a young age. Most of my songs I'm not actually doing music production on them, I'm mostly using instrumentals that I find. I did learn piano and guitar when I was young. Singing I've never been great or formally trained at.

Video production, like most things, I have gradually learned as I went along. It first consisted of learning to make animated GIFs.

My first video was on TwoPlusTwo on a troll infested section called Beats, Brags and Variance. There was a contest, somebody wanted funny photoshops of his friend who was a 40 table Sit and Go grinder, and I really wanted to win that contest because the prize was over $1,000. I made these really crude animations of this guy's head superimposed onto characters from the Matrix, which won the contest.

I liked the positive feedback and attention, so I got into doing songs. Like I said, I just picked it up and learned from my mistakes. You can see how inexperienced I was in the first song Poker Conspiracy.

PokerStrategy.com: How long does a typical song take you from conception to uploading it to YouTube?

SrslySirius: It can vary but typically it's not long at all. Typically I will write one in a day, record in one day and produce the video in one day, so turnaround is usually three days. Some are much shorter. Party at the DOJ I rushed out in a day and a half. Seiborg is at the other end of the spectrum where I spent a month on it. I was collaborating with other people and we kept tweaking it. 

The most recent video Dan is a six-minute video. The workflow was segregated because it coincided with holidays. Total work put into that was probably about a week.

"Most of the subjects of my songs have been good sports"

PokerStrategy.com: What makes you pick a subject? Is it based at all from whether you think the subject matter deserves ridicule? 

SrslySirius: It is a big factor. If there is a subject a lot of people are talking about, that can interest me into putting my spin on it and making fun of it in some way.

I've never been vindictive, I've never been like "man I hate that guy I want to roast him". I guess some of the Joe Sebock stuff was like that at first, I thought he was a dick for his UB involvement and wanted to make fun of him. But that's an exception, for the most part it's not personal at all. I've since met Joe and he is a really nice guy. 

Most of these things I have done videos on I have read a lot about backwards and forwards. Another factor is just if there is something funny I can do with it or a song that fits. If that doesn't fall into place, I won't cover it.

PokerStrategy.com: Other than Matt Marafioti (Who publicly took exception to the song written about him) have you ever been in any uncomfortable situations when you meet the subjects of your songs? 

SrslySirius: I've met many of the subjects of my videos, it's never been uncomfortable. Most people are really good sports and taken it in their stride. I don't know if they are putting on a facade that they can laugh at themselves or they really are just cool with it.

Either way, nobody has shown any indication they are angry with this stuff, Matt Marafioti is the one exception. I've met Joe Sebok, I've talked with Prahlad Friedman a few times, they were both cool with it. Daniel Negreanu laughed at the bi-curious thing. I actually met Sorel Mizzi a few days ago, who got clowned in Dan, and he seemed amused to be mentioned in it.

PokerStrategy.com: Has there ever been a subject matter you decided against making a song about because you felt it would be going too far? 

SrslySirius: I don't know if being too offensive has ever been an issue, some of the videos can get pretty crass. There have been many that I have just put on the shelf, there are quite a few half completed videos which I just never released because I didn't like the way they were coming along.

That may have been a mistake because there have been ones which I completed, which I didn't think were that good, but other people loved them. I'm a terrible judge of my own work, I was not feeling good about Dan when I was 80% of the way through, but the response has been great for that.  

PokerStrategy.com: In order to satirise the poker community, do you need to a solid and squeaky clean reputation yourself? 

SrslySirius: I guess you do. When I first got into this, I was completely anonymous, so I didn't have to care. I was just some kid on the internet, nobody knew who I was. I guess things have changed, so it would be awful if I had skeletons in my closet. As they say, people in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.

Fortunately I don't think there is anything scandalous or embarrassing about me that people could learn. If anyone else wants to get in the business of calling people out, they better be beyond reproach.

"My songs are comic relief to lighten dark subject matter"

PokerStrategy.com: What is it about the poker community in particular that makes it ripe for humour? 

SrslySirius: A lot of the situations I have parodied are not funny at all. People getting cheated and shady companies. I guess maybe why the videos have gone over so well is because you just have to laugh at this stuff.

I put out a video about Black Friday a couple of days after it happened. You'd think that would piss a lot of people off that someone is finding humour in the worst day of a lot of people's lives. Essentially a lot of people lost their jobs that day. But people found it helpful I guess, when you are tired of screaming and crying, you need to laugh.

A good way of putting it is comic relief. You see that in film and television, you can't just assault viewers with depressing stuff, you need a break from it to lighten things up.

PokerStrategy.com: As well as poker, internet forum culture plays a big part in your material too. 
 
SrslySirius: It's where I came from. When I first started making these videos I was myself a lowly internet troll. I wasn't travelling to tournaments and meeting these people, I was at home reading about this stuff on my computer and watching videos. When I made the first few videos, that was a form of trolling I guess, just in video form. 

Forum culture is the same everywhere you go. When you give people anonymity they show their true colours. They don't have to worry about people judging them for being cruel and insensitive. It's a sobering look on our culture when you look at forum culture, the way people behave sometimes is shameful. At the same time, when you take away that filter, a lot of truth and brutal honesty surfaces. If you want to see how a community truly feels about things, that's a pretty good barometer.

PokerStrategy.com: Thanks very much, we can't wait for your next song. 

You can see the full back catalogue of Thomas' SrslySirius' Keeling's work at his personal YouTube channel and also the Bluff, where he is their official multimedia producer. 

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By Barry Carter l Barry Carter on Twitter