ZANY YOUTUBE STAR SCORES DEVELOPMENTAL DEAL Indie Maverick Discovered By Moving Pictures

Santa Monica, CA -It’s been a long time coming, but his hour (and his potato) is finally at hand. NickyNik (comedian/actor Nick James), the YouTube star notorious for keeping a raw potato stuffed in his underpants, has landed a developmental deal with Moving Pictures, DPI. Moving Pictures is the television division of Denis Publishing, who boasts ownership of magazines Maxim, Blender, and Stuff. DPI, intrigued and fascinated by NickyNik’s YouTube comedic videos brought Nick James aboard to develop the "NickyNik— Man of Action” TV show.

Originally, James had gone into the Maxim offices to pitch a reality show to the Head of Development, Peter Jaysen. An intern recognized the YouTube star and later asked Jaysen why “NickyNik” had been in the office. The intern quickly logged onto NickyNik.com and showed his Jaysen his videos. Jaysen was impressed and a second meeting was called in which James was offered a deal.

James shot his first video for YouTube called “Fashion Tips: The Denim Edition” which was a response to another YouTuber’s video about men who wear jean shorts. His spoof-response featured himself stuffed into a pair of too-tight Daisy Dukes, wearing a fake handlebar mustache, looking like a perverted Magnum PI.

“I got sick of the audition grind,” said James, reflecting on the grueling and sometimes heartbreaking circuit of Hollywood casting calls. “It’s so agonizing going on call after call and not getting the part, or only getting parts as an extra that barely pay the rent. I have a family. I have a mortgage. I’m getting too old for that.”

James has been writing, directing, and producing his own videos and posting them on YouTube since late 2006. With his zany and occasionally bizarre skits, James has garnered a vast and loyal following among the YouTube community. It’s turning out that YouTube and other Web-based platforms are the hottest place for new (or not-so-new) talent to get discovered.

“This isn’t the first or the last time something like this has happened,” said Robert Hegyes, former star of Welcome Back Kotter. Hegyes, AKA “Juan Epstein,” has also been busy self-producing his own Web-series which has caught the attention of Sony and has been picked up by several Internet platforms.

Self-producers like Hegyes and James are paving the way for modern stardom. Hegyes’ show is about to be purchased and James is getting noticed by everybody from the average On-line Joe to studio executive big-wigs. James recently appeared on Leno with another YouTuber performing a stunt with a giant rubber band. Currently, he’s working on plans for a Web talk show that will be shot in a friend’s garage and is also honing his stand-up comedy act, basing his routine on biographical material gleaned mostly from his upbringing as a white kid in a predominantly black neighborhood in late 70’s Cleveland.

To view NickyNik videos, visit (NickyNik.com) or search “NickyyNik” at Google.com.