Recess Therapy Launches New Show: "Celebrity Substitute"
Julian Shapiro-Barnum is re-defining the blueprint for "talk shows" on YouTube.
His channel, Recess Therapy, gained 1.2M subscribers for interviews with kids and celebrities like Rihanna, Dua Lipa, and more.
Last week, he launched a second channel, Celebrity Substitute, to bring stars into schools as “substitute teachers”.
His first episode starred Florence Pugh and Andrew Garfield. We spoke with Julian to get the inside scoop.
Backstory
Our Take:
There's a reason why Julian is now part of press tours and red carpets.
His formats are so well defined and family friendly.
Everyone tried to adapt Hot Ones' dual-storytelling approach (interview and eating hot wings).
But Recess Therapy put a fresh take on it by involving kids in their show.
This new format is an even smarter evolution of that.
"Celebrity Substitute feels a lot bigger than Recess Therapy in the sense that these are fully produced episodes that I hope people watch in the long form. Where Recess Therapy is very much made for the short form," Julian said.
It gives him more to offer talent and brands, including Amazon who was involved with their first episode.
Plus, it's scalable because he's always involving new kids and talent.
"After four years of getting advice from kids, it felt like time to flip the script," he said.
"Recess Therapy is so much about the kids [whereas] Celebrity Substitute is so much about the guest imparting something."