Mac Kahey chats with us on his origins, rise to fame, and much more!
YouTube star Mac Kahey, aka MacDoesIt, chats with us about his origins, rise to fame, working in the industry today, and so much more! Check it out below.
When YouTube launched in 2005 as a casual video sharing platform it quickly became a go-to place for short form videos online.
In 2007, YouTube launched monetization for creators, turning it into a career defining platform for those who were garnering thousands to millions of views and subscribers.
Over the last 20 years since then it has become a staple streaming platform for millions of creators and the billions of users who consume the videos posted by them.
Many of us, including some of those reading now, most likely have memories attached to YouTube over the years and still have our go-to creators that we enjoy watching to this day.
Mac Kahey, aka MacDoesIt, has become one of those staple creators that millions have come to love since he began publishing videos in 2012 at the age of 15. With over 2.6 million subscribers, Mac has made a name for himself as an openly gay creator on the platform.
His dynamic personality combined with his electric energy and a magnetic sense of humor helped him accumulate this massive following, but it wasn’t easy for him to get there. It took him years of hard work and dedication to the craft of becoming a creator in order establish himself, and even more to maintain the audience that fell in love with him in the first place over the years since.
Mac spent his early years as a creator building a core-audience and loyal following on the platform through his comedic vlogs and satirical “how to:” videos. These videos landed him the award for Best in Comedy Vlog at the 2015 Buffer Festival.
From 2016-2018, several of his videos started to gain immense traction as he honed his craft as a comedic creator. In 2016, he garnered millions of views across all of his videos for the year, but in 2017, he went completely viral with his video “REACTING TO ANTI-GAY COMMERCIALS BECAUSE I’M GAY” accumulating over 20 million views as of today.
In 2019, he won the award for the coveted title of Best YouTube Comedian at The Shorty Awards, an international awards competition that honors the best work by brands, agencies, nonprofits, and individuals across digital and social media platforms.
Since 2020, Mac has become a multi-platform sensation and beyond. He’s gone viral on every single social media platform around, worked with OG YouTube studio Smosh on several videos across their five active channels, secured high-profile brand partnerships with companies including Peacock, Google, and Postmates among several more, and has even voice acted for Netflix’s animated show Bee & Puppycat: Lazy in Space.
His career has sustained continual success, and he continues to post hilarious videos to his YouTube channel to this day. If you’re unfamiliar with his work, I’d suggest heading to his channel by clicking here to catch up.
I had the privilege and honor of chatting with Mac about his origins as a YouTube creator, his rise to fame, the process of making new videos, and so much more. Check it out below!
Bryce Quartz: Hey there, Mac! Thanks for taking the time to speak with me, I’m really excited to get to know you better here. How have you been lately?
Mac Kahey: I’ve been GREAT, honestly! Better than ever. Really been on a mental high recently, and I think it shows, which is cool! I’m not sure how public I’ve been about my mental health journey this past couple of years, but diva has been very up as of late.
Bryce: I love to hear that, we love a good mental health journey with a positive upswing!! Now, let’s jump right into the good stuff. I want to get some background on you for myself and our readers. I know you’ve been a creative for over a decade and have built quite a successfully branded reputation that’s become a career!
Can tell me a little bit about some of your origins into being creative and some of the inspirations you’ve had over the years?
Mac: Asking an LA native about his creative inpos?? oh buckle in!
I was a theater kid growing up. I used to go to theater camp, do the school plays, community playhouse, and thespian festivals, starting when I was eight years old. I think that alone explains a lot of my personality and definitely helped shape me into the creative I am today.
Turning nothing into something, an empty stage into a full production, is the core aspect of theater, and you have your hands in every aspect of that process, especially in academic and community-run productions. That I feel really conditioned me into the type of creative I am.
I love and enjoy every aspect of a production, in both film and theater, as much as I love entertaining. I am my own producer, writer, director, editor, and host every damn week, and I’m obsessed that this is my career now.
Comedy has always been my bread and butter. Comedic theater and improv are what I always leaned on. I’m really inspired by both absurd and quirky humor, especially. The movie ‘I LOVE BOOSTERS’ by Boots Riley is a good recent example of what I’ve been obsessing over.
I’m just very inspired by creatives that really teleport you into the cooky and quirky world of what I believe is their mind, no matter how offbeat it might feel to others. Wes Anderson is one of my favorite directors of all time, and The Lobster by Yorgos Lanthimos is one of my favorite films, along with Who Framed Roger Rabbit by Robert Zemeckis.
I also use to have a hyperfixation over a genera a videos classified as ‘YouTube Poop’. If you dont know what that is, look it up. it’s cursed in a good way and hard to explain, but after watching just one, you’d understand where my editing inspo came from.
Bryce: It makes a lot of sense that you’re so in tune with theater, improv, and film production. Also, I am obsessed with I LOVE BOOSTERS by Boots Riley, everyone reading needs to go and watch it!
I’ve watched several of your videos on YouTube over the years and really love your charismatic energy that feels relatable and authentic all at once. You clearly have developed some amazing skills as an entertainer and creator in the industry.
I know a lot of work goes into creating your videos such as planning, filming, and editing. Can you share some of that behind-the-scenes information that goes into creating a video and do you have any advice for someone who’s considering starting their own channel?
Mac: Aw thank you! It does take time to really shape your voice in an entertaining space. A lot of trial and error and refining until it harmoniously fits with you. Your first project or first video out most likely won’t be a banger, and honestly, it shouldn’t be. I don’t think anyone is truly authentic in their first stages of creating.
You present yourself in a way you THINK the world wants to see, then over time, you really start trusting your own mind and intuition and your creations become more natural.
I alway try to focus on content and topics that actually interest me and that fuels the process alone. A lot of the content I’ve made wasn’t trendy content when I began until creators like me started broadcasting their interest out.
The filming process can go from about 1-2 hours on average if the video is just in one setting. Some have taken me days to film. One of my latest videos took me about 6 months due to research problems and personal complications.
High amounts of self-discipline is a requirement in this field, so I always try to give myself deadlines for every part of the process.
A couple of days to plan and order products, usually a day to film, and about two or three days to edit. I’m very specific about my style in editing so sometimes the longer or more in depth the video, the longer it will take me to edit. Some videos have taken me over a week of just sitting at my computer for over twelve hours a day.
Bryce: Keeping the content you make centered around ideas and topics YOU want to see probably makes it so much easier to create, and that process to film and edit sounds tedious but it also sounds like you’ve got a method that works! That hard work and experience definitely shows in all that you do.
Many of your early satirical videos are quite hilarious, and they also catapulted your channel with multiple viral videos one after the other. Looking back on those videos now, what are some of your favorite moments or jokes from them and how do you reflect on them overall? I am also wondering if you’d ever do a reaction video to your old videos, I think that would be fun!
Mac: I think the phrase “put it in a bag before the metal detector” is something I hear the most to this day from a video I published in 2017. Also, the phrase “we don’t sip tea when it come to intolerance, we throw the goddamn cup” from this video.
To be honest, my favorite videos are when I get to try on or do something absolutely stupid, like turning myself into a turkey for Hollister or when I became one of Beyonce’s “horses.” There are so many videos I have not looked back on since posting!
Honestly, rewatching some of them might bring back a plethora of memories. I sometimes get sent the most random clips of myself from years ago and think “when the hell did i do that??”
Like, apparently I did a video where I pretended to be Lorde and also sang a Shakira song with the sound of a frog croaking in the background, and I cannot tell you when any of that happened.
Bryce: Wait, I need to find some of these clips. I found one of you putting on face paint to become Pikachu and that had me cracking up!
I want to ask something a bit vulnerable compared to that last question. I know you had a religious upbringing that you’ve spoken about in videos before, and have made several videos reacting to homophobic and racist content to bring a comedic light and perspective to them as well. I also had a religious upbringing, albeit different than yours, but I feel that my experiences molded me into the loud and abrasive queer artist I am today.
Would you say that your experiences with organized religion growing up helped you become a more outspoken queer person today, and do you have any advice for our readers who may have similar experiences?
Mac: My religious upbringing always taught me to reject evil and project good into the world. Over time, I realized what I may consider ‘evil’ is different in the eyes of many people that followed my same religion.
I’m not religious at all anymore, but I’d like to think I still preach what I was taught growing up, just in a different perspective.
Unneccesary hate, comments, and opinions are such an evil dark pit, and being a large gay black man I experience that evil constantly. I’ve found that the best way to reject it is to belittle it and laugh at it. Put it in a perspective where it has no power, because it shouldn’t.
The church I went to growing up always preached that love and humanity is “turning to god” so my reaction towards unnecessary hate, especially people that use religion as a way to hate, has always been the way you see in my content. I guess I was conditioned that way due to my hippie-dippie Cali church.
Bryce: I love to see how you’ve turned the hatred into something positive, I imagine that’s very cathartic and rewarding. The words you just said are extremely inspiring too, so thank you for that.
Your personality shines so bright in everything that you do, you’re very clearly a naturally funny person! You’ve been featured in quite a few Smosh comedy bits, sketches, and shows which have had me cracking up. How did you get involved in working with Smosh and what have some of your favorite moments been with them on set?
Mac: The beauty of doing what I have done for so long is that you make connections in random corners that lead to projects YEARS in the future. I became friends with someone that ended up working for Smosh, ran into them at a party, and then they brought me in to host a SmoshPit video. The rest is history.
I love those guys, just a bunch of funny people with great personalities, from the cast to the crew. The Try Not To Laughs are always my favorite to record. Literally just raw, chaotic, and sometimes loosely-connected bursts of improv just for the purpose of being goofy.
They just moved into a new place and its absolutely gorgeous! I feel like such a celebrity now when I visit. It is cool and very inspirational to see an OG YouTube channel like this still become more and more legit and experience positive growth after all these years in operation.
Bryce: I think that vibe on set with the Smosh crew carries over to the camera, they definitely make it seem like a relaxed environment so that everyone can shine and be themselves. Thank you for sharing that!
Over the years you have worked with many different brands, collaborated with numerous creators, and walked several red carpets. Some of these experiences may have not been the most fun, so let’s avoid those, but tell us a little bit about some of your favorite moments!
Mac: Not to sound all haughty, but it’s always a major highlight when a brand puts me on a billboard. I’ve been on 5 different Times Square billboards so far and I don’t think many people can say that. I was dancing to a BTS song on a large screen while people were looking for the M&M store or taking photos with a bootleg Elmo. Thats an accomplishment in my book.
I’ve had quite a love/hate relationship with red carpet premieres, but I’ve recently started getting back into loving them. I like looking and smelling nice and finding more reasons to do so.
Every collaboration with Smosh is always a good time.
Bryce: That’s pretty epic to have that many features on Times Square billboards under your belt. Following up with that last question, do you have any creators you’ve worked with in the past that you’d want to work again with today?
Mac: If Conan Grey got back into YouTube, maybe we could actually make a video together and not just speak on a bunch of panels about growing up on YouTube. Haha!
Bryce: I will need to see this collab when it drops, I am here for it and NEED IT!
Not to get all sentimental and deep with this next question, but keep with me here hahaha A huge part of the human experience involves so many different changes as we grow older, including our personal interests and sense of humor. I kind of hate it and love it at the same time haha
As a creator though, there might be pressure to feel that your content should evolve with you so you can stay relatable to the audience you started with. How would you say your sense of humor and personal interests have changed since you started making content up to now and have you ever felt the need to change what you create?
Mac: You do fall into the pressure of trying to feed algorithms or follow what your audience wants to do, like, can you believe there was a time when five minute YouTube videos were the norm? I do, and sometimes I miss that girl.
Or like, when everyone was doing a challenge video, eating cinnamon, or full grown adults telling their life story with stick drawings on a whiteboard over unlicensed ukulele music? I don’t miss that era, but it was still a simpler time! Haha!
My humor has definitely changed and shifted on my channel over the years. I mean, I got older! I also progressively became not a virgin over the years on my channel, so I think my humor got more sexual. Many of my audience grew up with me, so we experienced many of life’s obstacles at the same time together. I think my humor now reflects that.
A lot of self and outer discovery mixed with “remember when we fucking did that” reflection. I feel like the level of pressure someone may feel to stay relatable only comes from the lack of connection to their environment and community.
I feel very connected with my audience and the community around me, so I don’t feel much pressure to keep up or “chase” relatability. I just gotta keep up with whatever keeps my sweet videos in peoples recommendation boxes.
Bryce: OMG I was just thinking about the 5 min YouTube video era the other day, what a time hahaha Also, your relatability factor is one for the ages and leads into the next question.
I consider you an LGBTQ+ icon in the age of digital media for your authentic representation of yourself and the outspoken views you’ve given in several of your videos. Your work has definitely helped so many LGBTQ+ people of all ages laugh when times were tough for all of us, and you continue to do this today.
I want to thank you for the work you’ve put into your career because your representation has truly made a difference. I’m gonna pull a RuPaul here, but in all seriousness, I do love this question: what would you say to your younger self if he could see who you’ve become today?
Mac: ICON! Did you hear that world?? I C O N!
I’d tell my younger self: “Hey, things may feel confusing at a point and people may not understand why you are the way you are, but you know who you are, why you are, and what you want to do. So don’t waste your time explaining and excusing yourself, just go do it.”
Not that many little black boys do theater, so it raises eyebrows and questions in the most odd corners, ya know?
Bryce: Okay, enough of the tough questions, I’d like to lighten the mood now! This is an essential question I ask every single person I interview now. Also, I’m always hungry lol
What are some of your favorite foods, dishes, or restaurants? I want all the recommendations!
Mac: As Demi would say, “I really like a mug.” But actually no! I just discovered traditional heritage soup bowls, they are like smaller, curvier bowls and I’m kinda obsessed. Haha but I’m a huge pasta lover. I love me a good noodle. I also love ramen. Jinya Ramen Bar is my FAVORITE spot.
Bryce: All of a sudden I’m craving Ramen… Thank you for that hahaha
Outside of your day-to-day work, what are some of your hobbies, favorite pastimes, and/or travel destinations?
Mac: I love Italy. I’ve been there many times now. I actually have a tattoo of a venetian mask because I’ve been so much.
I’m also kind of a gamer. That tends to catch people off guard when they get to know me and I just recently started to show that off publicly. I love a nice and chaotic co-op campaign with friends. I’m currently doing a ‘kill everything’ run on Baldur’s Gate 3.
I’m also quite a festival-goer. I love a music festival!
Bryce: I need to see this tattoo, I will be asking for a photo of it after this is published haha
Okay, so pretend I’m one of those street interview creators walking on the street and I come up to you with a mic. “Hi, can I ask you a question? What are you listening to right now?”
Mac: If I’m walking down the street, its most likely either a Qveen Herby or Audrey Nuna song. I’ve been listening to them a lot recently. But if I was in one of those videos, I’d probably try to say something ridiculous like “10 hours of silence occasionally broken up by the Taco Bell Bong.”
Bryce: Love me some Qveen Herby, she’s iconic. I really do appreciate you taking the time to chat with me, Mac. Is there anything you’d like to leave our readers with today?
Mac: I had fun! You can find me anywhere if you search “MacDoesIt”! And make sure to floss to prevent gingivitis!
Be sure to give Mac a follow across social media to keep up with what he’s doing and creating next by clicking the links below!
YouTube – Instagram – TikTok – Twitter – Linktree
