My current favorite Internet Celebrity is Norma Geli, who has built her own little network on YouTube. Norma is a former hotel concierge in Las Vegas whose career now is making weekly videos about the city — where to go, where to eat, what not to do, etc. She sometimes goes on little adventures and takes us — and sometimes, some of her friends — along.
I used to go to Vegas a lot, partly because I was briefly obsessed with counting cards in Blackjack, partly because I was dating a lady in Lance Burton's show, partly because I enjoyed being around so many people having such a good time and partly because there was still a lot of "Old Vegas" there and I found it fascinating. "Old Vegas" is pretty much gone now and so is my relationship with the showgirl. Also, when I gave up Blackjack — forever, I vow — I stopped getting all those great comps for rooms, food and shows. And Vegas has gotten beastly expensive.
But I can still visit it, sort of, through Norma's videos. She's smart and funny and a very good tour guide…and she does something else I enjoy. In addition to the video guides she shoots (and produces and stars in), she goes out once or twice a week in the evening and "broadcasts" live from The Strip. With a cell phone in a hand-held steadicam, she walks around for a few hours, taking questions from folks in the chat room and showing us what's going on at that moment on Las Vegas Boulevard.
Usually, more than a thousand people are watching live and many more tune in later. She's like a walking TV network…a kind of "broadcasting" that simply did not exist a few years ago.
Here's a link to a page where you can watch one of her recent livestream videos. It's more fun to watch them live though and you can do that on her YouTube page if you catch her when she's in the mood to make one. She's usually out there Wednesday or Thursday evening starting around 7 PM Pacific Time.
And here's what I think is her most recent tour guide video. In this one, she and a friend take a helicopter trip from Vegas to the Grand Canyon and back. Usually though, she stays within the Vegas community and shows you where to eat, where to drink, what to see, etc. I think it's great that she's built up a little cottage industry for herself. She has an awful lot of imitators but I haven't seen one yet who's as good at this as she is…