Rutgers YouTube trickster Aaron Desire reveals his next prank
‘The only difference between try and triumph is a little umph’
Rutgers has some of everything, but until now it didn’t have its own YouTube famous pranksters and impromptu street interviewers.
Junior Aaron Desire created the YouTube channel UMPH last fall and posted his first street interview video, called “Pillow Talk,” in May. The interviewer asked Rutgers students what they thought about masturbation – pillowcases with drawn on faces covered their faces for anonymity.
The Tab caught up with prankster Aaron Desire and got behind the scenes access to his next prank.
After the Pillow Talk video hit YouTube, sophomore Amro Ahmed and junior Allan Vanterpool joined the crew to gain experience with video making and practice their on-camera personalities.
The channel name, UMPH, was crafted from the Marvin Phillips quote: “The only difference between try and triumph is a little umph.”
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MrCrdBbJOUI]
Aaron said: “We have audacity. There’s a realism in the spontaneity.”
Inspired by successful YouTube pranksters like LAHWF, Aaron spent his entire refund check on new video equipment. He even told The Tab he spent his birthday editing.
Their second prank video “Up Top” reached over 1,600 views. It was an unexpectedly good start even to Allan, who hopes UMPH will hit much bigger milestones.
He said: “I hope to hit 100k with more original videos in the future, but this video definitely got our foot in the door.”
UMPH isn’t restricting their channel to one category as they mix pranks and interviews, and they’re excited to try out more extreme pranks. Aaron says expanding the crew and keeping students anonymous is key.
They’ve been filming solely on the College Ave campus, but they plan on branching out to the other three for their next videos.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VW5QFRwVEjI]
Their newest video – one minute with ‘Donald Trump’ – featured Amro as a fake Trump and asked students to argue with the candidate for 60 seconds.
The Tab followed UMPH to see what the video process entailed.
Many students rejected the YouTubers. “I really want to participate, but my job…” was a common phrase. So the self-proclaimed audacious UMPH strayed to a different crowd.
A homeless Saxophone player, personal fitness trainer and soon to be Scarlet Knight high schoolers all participated.
There’s really nothing better than seeing a friend or fellow Rutgers student get pranked or caught in their most embarrassing moment, so keep an eye out for new UMPH videos – you may find yourself in one.