These days, the world is full of Internet celebrities. There are Sexy Saxophone Players, Sneezing Pandas and that guy Fred, who I believe suffers from some kind of rare genetic defect in which his body ages but his voice, sadly, does not.
One of my favorite Internet celebrities -- whom I recently had the absolute pleasure of interviewing -- is Grace Helbig, star of My Damn Channel's Daily Grace show. With over 460,000 YouTube subscribers and over 72 million hits on her channel, Grace knows a thing or two about Internet Celebrity-ism (is that a word? Will someone look that up before this is published and edit accordingly? Also, while we're here, when I climb into bed at night, am I "lying" down or "laying" down? I can never remember that one).
As you'll see in this week's episode of Geeking Out, Grace Helbig and I became fast friends during our interview. At one point, when I even told Grace that I could feel the friendship sparks between us, she concurred, adding, "Something's definitely causing friction." I love her sense of humor.
I was able to win Grace over with a few simple gestures, which I'm happy to share, should you wish to meet and befriend your own favorite Internet celebs, like Jenna Marbles or that Charlie-Bit-My-Finger kid.
1. LEARN AS MUCH AS YOU CAN. I'm talking everything from allergies to family lineage to preferred brands of toilet paper. I wouldn't have been able to offer to clothes-sit* for Grace when she's out of town had I not known that she lives exactly 1.6 miles away from me!
2. TALK TO THEM ABOUT INTERNET-Y THINGS, like IP addresses, DHTML and click-through rates.
3. TALK TO THEM ABOUT CELEBRITY-Y THINGS, like One Direction, that Pregnant Duchess, and Steve Guttenberg.
4. WHEN YOU LEAVE THEM VOICEMAILS, GIVE YOURSELF A COOL NICKNAME. "Hey, Daily Grace! It's me, Minute-by-Minute Kerri! Wanted to make sure you got my last 3 messages about meeting up for scones and spaghetti tonight! I'll call you back in 15 minutes!"
5. INVITE THEM OVER FOR SCONES AND SPAGHETTI.
*clothes-sitting is like cat-sitting, but with clothes.
Kerri Doherty is the creator and host of a brand new show on Official Comedy called Geeking Out - a fanatic and often awkward celebrity interview series hosted by everyone's #1 FAN. Don't miss the next episode, when she asks writer/director/comedian Michael Showalter to read her a poem about bums and twine.