My independent web series, The Receptionist, seems to be the only artistic thing I do which occasionally puts a little scratch in my wallet. Mostly, I believe, this is because I do it alone and my budgets never reach any higher than $0.00. With no one to pay back I am the sole beneficiary of all the George Washington’s that come my way due to my construction paper world. Oh, how lovely it is to pay my phone bill every so often!

My first paid gig as The Receptionist was nearly 3 years ago when I had just started my channel on YouTube. Back then there weren’t as many personalities and people clawing tooth and nail to be popular. It was much easier to build an audience and a small group of devoted people had found me. An advertising representative recognized my tiny audience and paper-laced madness and contacted me and a few others to create online promo’s for their new movie, Let’s Go to Prison. We were to basically do a video in our own style with the idea of presenting tips on surviving prison life. I was paid a small fee which gassed up my car and got me a few nights of Taco Bell. Here is that video:

After that, my channel continued to grow. It was never a subscriber behemoth or anything, but people were discovering my shorts every day and I was developing a bigger audience. So I kept on making um! Suddenly, I am contacted by Comedy Central. They love The Receptionist and are looking to buy content for their web division (which later became atom.com). The CC bought 5 of my old episodes and commissioned me to create 5 new ones as well. This was a very exciting opportunity as I was making these shorts just like I was before, only now I was being paid. The money was nice and allowed me to pay some bills and move out of my 1 room apartment and into a place with dividing walls and rooms with names like, bedroom and kitchen. Here’s an episode I made specifically for Comedy Central:

The Receptionist: Frog Sucks

When I finished the new 5 for CC, they did not hire me to make any more. They played on T.V. a few times but eventually (like most web content) they were forgotten. I went back to YouTube and brushed the cobwebs off the channel. I never started making these for money, and money wasn’t going to stop me from continuing to make them. Thus began, what I call, The Receptionist: Season 2. I was back in production and the episodes were larger in scope, using more of my world and sprinkling in more music than before. Sure I was now a YouTube partner, but anyone who is a partner can tell you (aside from a few choice and lucky individuals) that the money barely exists. If you’re a partner for the money then you are in big trouble. So, recently YouTube contacted me (and a few other’s) to create a promotional piece for HP. They were holding a contest and needed example videos. They would pay me to make a 1 minute video about anything I wanted. I just had to be creative and not show my face. I was going to be making a new video anyway, so why not get a little greenback for it? I created this video for YouTube and HP:

3 years running, and The Receptionist is still the champ for money brought in from artistic endeavour. Perhaps someday I will be paid to make feature films, but until that black magical day arrives, I will be enjoying the process of the construction paper short…and if it happens to pay a bill here and there….so be it.

Much love

Travis

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