Dutty Berry makes it official

Over the past five years, Dutty Berry has worked tirelessly to build an online brand, which has surpassed his expectations. These days, fans of the comedian can find him hosting award ceremonies and other corporate events. Those gigs are a direct result of the inarguable success of his YouTube channel, ‘The Dutty Berry Show’.

Consistent and positive feedback has encouraged the comedic personality to take things a step further. Starting Monday (January 28), Dutty Berry plans to up the ante by relaunching the ‘show’.

“The show coming is going to be another angle. It will have a Wendy Williams vibe, where I talk about viral videos and hot topics of the previous weeks,” he toldThe Gleaner.

“For the first episode, I’ll be talking about the plastic ban, D’Angel and Spice – who I thought was wrong in the entire situation – all these different stories. I’m trying to get Lisa Hanna on it, so I’ll have either Lisa Hanna or D’Angel as a guest,” he revealed.

Dutty Berry became a popular personality in the wake of Tessanne Chin’s competing in ‘The Voice’ (2014) singing competition. Charming the social-media world by christening the singer with the endearing nickname ‘Chinita Goodaz’ weekly, the comedian led Jamaicans through the competition in hilarious fashion. After ‘The Voice’ ended, Dutty Berry’s momentum continued, and what he did as a hobby turned him into a local vlogging sensation.

Plans to revamp the Social Media Countdown – one aspect of his YouTube channel – stems from view counts. “It consistently pulls over 100,000 views. That one is like my Prime Time News,” he said. “I do everything myself. I record and edit myself,” Dutty Berry revealed of his one-man show. He explained, “I make a list which usually comes up to about 20, then I narrow that down to 10. After that, it’s three to four hours of shooting and an additional 15 to edit and upload.”

Bigger Dream

While traditional YouTubers do it all on their own, Dutty Berry has plans to build a dedicated production crew to achieve his bigger dream. “I want to bridge the gap between traditional and new-age media. That’s what I’m setting up to do for 2019.” He has aspirations to be like late-night talk show host Jimmy Falon, or day-time talk show host Wendy Williams, but worries that potential guests will not loosen up.

“Artistes are not very interview ready – to bring charm and humour to set. We don’t have that culture where celebrities come on and show a different side of themselves. Can you picture a Tommy Lee playing a game? Carpool Karaoke with Popcaan? Or me and Bounty Killer playing a hammer challenge? – fun interactive stuff like that. Some of them would come and haffi gwan like bad man,” he surmised.

Worries aside, the first episode will be uploaded on Monday, January 28, at 8 p.m., and weekly thereafter.