Drew Durnil: Geography Jester and Empire Builder

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Drew Durnil is one of the most prolific creators we know, and he’s dropped over 500 videos since we talked to him a year and a half ago. All that may have culminated in a theory that the next great world event will center on a tiny city-state with a 12-person army. Or maybe not.

It’s extremely difficult to slap a label on Drew’s content, because it’s not just geography anymore – his content runs the full gamut of history, current events, and just plain interesting elements of the world. The running theme is the exceedingly rare ‘Jester’s privilege’ he enjoys, which a whole lot of people try to pull off… and fail. But the hidden beauty is in Drew’s efficiency, which extends through editing into sticking to what he does best. All that output can come with a tremendous cost, though, and Drew’s old enough now to be cognizant of how to avoid the pitfalls of becoming too wrapped up in his channel.

For better and worse, Drew admits that his 20s sort of flashed by, and now he’s looking to take advantage of his time and resources. Germany, Italy, Japan? His travel wishlist is a little bit suspicious on the surface – but he’d like to be a new version of Dennis Rodman uniting the Axis of Durnil. Kevin points out how absolutely incredible it is to be in a foreign country where you don’t speak the language and everyone pretty much leaves you alone. Drew experienced that in Sweden, Matt did it in Israel, and Kevin did it in Kyoto… all of which are much, much better than Los Angeles.

Drew details his post-apocalyptic nuclear wasteland of a Discord and we reminisce about how hundreds of his devotees jumped into the TCU server, which surprisingly wasn’t a problem at all. Some are still around, and they’re awesome. His audience is rabid in the best and worse ways, and it’s actually a phenomenon that probably couldn’t have existed 5 years ago.

Is a fart jar different than a pizza? It depends. But we hatch a plan for Drew’s future endeavors – creating a harem of Geographe-girls to do… well, we actually didn’t figure that part out yet. After a bit of MMA chat, we hit questions about cursed countryhuman drawings, whether Drew would play it straight and become a traditional teacher, and advice to help 16-year old Drew (and everyone listening) develop into an interesting person who’s recession-proof and content evolution-proof.

We had as much fun recording with Drew as we did hanging out with him at VidCon, and we were thrilled to be able to share that experience with everyone who showed up to the live show. Thanks to the Patrons who make this show possible each and every week – you really are the best. And thanks to MAINGEAR for powering all our PC endeavors. Now that wallpaper for the studio has shipped, Matt can start setting up soon!