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Brittlestar brings comedy and current events to Snapchat with Really Great show

Stratford social-media personality Brittlestar, known locally as Stewart Reynolds, recently launched his new comedy news show on Snapchat, Really Great.

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Stratford’s Stewart Reynolds, better known on social media as Brittlestar, is bringing his unique blend of comedy and current events to Snapchat in the form of a new, weekly news show, Really Great.

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Self-described as the internet’s favourite dad, Reynolds found online fame as Brittlestar by poking fun at current events and everyday life from a comedic – and truly Canadian – point of view in videos posted across Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram and Tik Tok. Now, through his new, bite-size news show, Reynolds is hoping to create entertaining, and maybe even educational, content for a new audience on one of the few remaining social media platforms he has yet to conquer.

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“For the past two years, I’ve been doing kind of commentary pieces on social media where I’ve been either outside in front of the house or talking about public-health messaging, news events and what’s happening,” Reynolds said. “Then I thought … I don’t think anyone’s doing a Canadian perspective, comedic commentary type show in the vein of Trevor Noah (The Daily Show), John Oliver (Last Week Tonight), and what Rick Mercer (The Rick Mercer Report) used to kind of do.”

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Looking for a way to create content that was less dependent on him shooting outside in front of his house in the middle of a Stratford winter, Reynolds said he was approached by Snapchat Canada as the company was looking to partner with creators in hopes of generating original content that would appeal to the roughly 10.3-million Canadians – most of whom are between the ages of 17 and 35 – who use the platform daily.

“What’s interesting for me is this notion of the 24-hour news cycle. Growing up for me, we had time to breathe. We had the news at 6 p.m. and 11 p.m., and maybe the newspaper in the morning and the afternoon, but other than that you’re like, ‘I don’t really have to pay attention to this.’ ” Reynolds said. “Now it’s in your face constantly. It’s in your pocket. … I almost feel duty bound to say … calm down. … It’s that idea of taking something that might be overwhelming – a topic that’s stressful – and say, ‘Let’s all just take a breath (and) take a step back. Is this really an issue or what is the actual issue here?’

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“Instead of freaking out about it, let’s look at what we’re actually scared of and also point out the ridiculous parts of it, which is where the comedy comes in. It’s like, ‘Here’s the funny thing about that. This is why it’s ridiculous.’ ”

While Reynolds is keenly aware most Snapchat users use the app for person-to-person messaging, he’s excited to be part of the company’s push to popularize its Snapchat Discover feature, which is basically a news feed highlighting content created in a story format by publishing partners like The Wall Street Journal, ESPN and now Brittlestar, as well as other influencers and brands.

“Because I’ve been so focused on Twitter as a platform, followed by YouTube and Facebook, Instagram and Tik Tok after that, when you suddenly show up on a different platform, it’s really hard to port your audience over, and it’s also hard to convince the people already there on that platform that you’re worth watching,” Reynolds said.

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“When I went through Snapchat Discover’s thumbnails for shows, I sort of looked at them and I was like, ‘Well, I’m not a 22-year-old scantily clad woman, so I don’t know exactly where I’m going to fit in here.’ But then I thought, ‘Oh, there’s Steve Harvey. OK, well I guess there’s something for me there, maybe.’ I’m happy to do it, I’m grateful for the opportunity to do it, and I appreciate what Snapchat Canada’s trying to do. … So we’ll see how it goes.”

With episode lengths between three and five minutes, Brittlestar’s Really Great show can be found by searching for the content creator through Snapchat Discover.

gsimmons@postmedia.com

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