It’s been almost five years since YouTube viewers were first introduced to the life of the Roberts brothers, as told by their children, in “Kid History: ‘Punching Cars’ Episode 1.”
Although the brothers — Brett, John, Dave and Randy Roberts, along with their friend Richard Sharrah — continue with the same basic concept for their videos, their production company, Bored Shorts TV, has expanded significantly.
What started out as a few men trying to win a small competition has grown beyond what they imagined.
“We laugh about it to this day,” Dave Roberts said. “We always thought it was hilarious, and (then) it started getting some pretty serious recognition … and our following got huge.”
The result is a YouTube channel with over 127 million views and an ever-growing business that offers a unique brand of clean entertainment. One of those offerings is CVX Live, a convention Aug. 7-8 in Orem that gives fans the chance to meet the stars of YouTube channels.
“There’s not enough clean comedy … that families can watch without worrying about what they’re seeing and without influencing negatively their children, themselves or their families,” Brett Roberts said. “We’re trying to create something that there’s not enough out there, which is just clean, fun, family entertainment.”
Small beginnings, big future
It started while Randy Roberts was in New York at dental school. He had previously entered a local film competition, but during his last year of school, he took winning seriously. He contacted his brothers with the idea of having the kids in their family tell a story and having the adults act it out. The film won the competition and quickly racked up views on YouTube.
“We knew we would be entertained by our dumb video,” Brett said. “We were just a little surprised and happy to see that other people were also entertained by it.”
They filmed a second “Kid History,” which turned into a third, fourth and fifth and skyrocketed from there. “Kid History 11” is slated to premiere Friday at 6 p.m. at CVX Live.
Soon, the group recognized a disconnect between the growing demand from fans for their videos and their ability to produce them.
“We would only do (videos) every few months, and that didn’t work for YouTube very well because you’ve got to be releasing more often," John Roberts said. "But the Kid History format took a long time (to make)."
The group came up with the idea to do Kid Snippets, which continues the concept of adults acting out what children say but “instead of being true stories of our childhood lives, they’re just kind of random scenarios,” John said.
These two-minute videos portray everything from a math class and drivers education lesson to a marriage proposal and dentist visit.
“It’s always just the most ordinary, everyday situation that you can imagine,” John said. “There’s so many of scenarios like that, that just happen every day that we kind of have an unlimited source of ideas for that kind of thing.”
The key, Randy said, is to film children “while they still have really wild imaginations — that everything is possible.”
“The gold is in filming the youth,” Dave agreed. “When we film the kids in an unfiltered, unscripted setting, funny stuff happens.”
Kid Snippets began to attract attention on social media, which has opened the door for the group to collaborate with the likes of Josh Groban and Lindsey Stirling. Bored Shorts, their production company, was even contacted by Lucasfilm and worked with the production company’s crew to film a “May the 4th Be With You” Kid Snippet on the Star Wars Cantina set.
Bored Shorts TV has added other formats to its repertoire, including Senior Snippets, with children acting out situations told by seniors, and Girl Talk, where Brett, John, Dave and Randy Roberts and Sharrah act out conversations among teenage girls.
The channel releases a video every Monday and has hundreds of videos posted with over 417,000 subscribers. Dave said fans can continue to see “fresh and new” content online and can expect to see it on TV in the not-so-distant future.
“We’re in the works right now for several different formats from different production companies,” Dave said.
Their success, they believe, can be attributed in large part to their commitment to providing entertainment for all ages.
“There’s not really a lot of programming on TV or anywhere that you can get an adult, a teenager and a little kid all watching, and they all enjoy it,” John said. “Maybe we’re not accomplishing anything, but at least we’re connecting all the worlds. This is humor that can be appreciated by all ages.”
Bringing ‘YouTube to life’
Bored Shorts TV is part of an ever-growing online community. That’s why the group created CVX Live, which will feature meet-and-greet opportunities and live performances from well-known YouTube channels such as Studio C, Stuart Edge, Cute Girls Hairstyles, DevinSuperTramp, KFaceTV and more. The channels collectively have "several billion views worth of shows,” Dave Roberts said.
“It’s a very unique opportunity to bring YouTube to life,” Brett said.
The convention will also feature “The Next Big YouTuber” contest, providing up-and-coming YouTube channels the chance to compete for the opportunity to do collaborations with and be promoted on social media by established, successful channels.
“We think of it as the ‘American Idol’ of YouTube,” Brett said. “We’re going to find one of these people that’s not getting the exposure they deserve and give them a ton of exposure.”
As with everything the group produces, the convention will stay true to the Bored Shorts TV promise of clean entertainment.
“It’s going to be really entertaining but also family friendly,” John said. “No one will be embarrassed by what’s going on onstage.”
‘Closer together’
When it comes down to it, the Roberts brothers are basically the same since the onset of their unexpected fame. If you ask them how the success has changed family dynamics, they’ll all respond with virtually the same answer: It’s allowed them to grow closer.
“It’s become clear through this that nothing is more important to us than family, even when it comes to this type of experience,” Brett Roberts said. “Nobody would compromise the family relationship because of some opportunity.”
The opportunity has blossomed into a full-blown business venture for the brothers, with Brett, John and Dave Roberts working on Bored Shorts TV projects almost full time with the help of Ryan Haldeman, their producer and editor, while Randy Roberts continues to run his dental practice and joins his brothers working on videos at least one day a week.
“Growing up, I wanted to do … whatever it is that my brothers were doing,” Randy said. “I love that we’ve created this thing that is totally fun to do that’s also a business because we can hang out together and work together. It brings us closer together.”
If you go …
What: CVX Live
When: Aug. 7-8, 11 a.m.-9 p.m.
Where: UCCU Event Center, 165 N. 1330 West, Orem
How much: $12 for youths ages 4-17 and $20 for adults for single-day passes, $12 for youths and $35 for adults for two-day passes, and $75 for VIP two-day passes
Web: cvxlive.com
Kid History from Bored Shorts TV expands offerings
"Kid History 11" will premiere at CVX Live in Orem on Friday at 6 p.m.
Email: wbutters@deseretnews.com, Twitter: WhitneyButters