Ze Frank
About
Ze Frank is the stage name of Hosea Jan Frank, an Internet comedian and performance artist who is credited with pioneering the vlogging format through his web series the show with zefrank and numerous other projects.
Online History
In March 2001, Frank launched the website ZeFrank.com,[4] which featured Flash animations of the comedian performing a variety of dances (shown below).[5]
Frank continued to create various projects for the site, including an online birthday invitation that brought millions of visitors to his site through a widely circulated email, several Flash games and short films. In 2002, Frank won a Webby Award[6] for Best Personal Website. In February of 2004, ZeFrank gave a talk at the TED Conference about his experiences with performing comedy on the web (shown below).
In September 2012, the viral content site BuzzFeed acquired Frank's startup company to produce video content for the site.[7]
The Show
On March 17th, 2006, ZeFrank launched the online video show The Show with ZeFrank on the Blip[1] media platform, which took the format of a daily news show providing commentary on current events. The show rain until March 17th, 2007 but has since had all episodes removed.
A Show
On February 27th, 2012, Frank created a Kickstarter[2] campaign to fund a new show titled A Show. On March 9th, the funding period ended with over $146,000 of the $50,000 goal pledged.
On April 9th, 2012, Frank launched the new show with a video titled "An Invocation for Beginnings" (shown below).
True Facts Series
On December 7th, 2012, the first in the series of comedy animal videos titled "True Facts" was uploaded to YouTube (shown below), in which Frank narrates humorous factoids about the echidna monotreme animal from Australia (shown below). In the first 10 months, the video accumulated more than 4.22 million views and 3,000 comments. As of November 2013, 21 additional videos in the series have been released.
Notable Videos
Search Interest
External References
[2] Kickstarter – A Show With ZeFrank
[3] Wayback Machine – ZeFrank.com
[5] ZeFrank – How to Dance Properly
[7] All Things D – BuzzFeed Hires Web Video Pioneer Ze Frank
Top Comments
Mreep
Nov 02, 2013 at 12:42PM EDT
Afksz
Nov 02, 2013 at 11:26PM EDT