"Is you OK? Is you good?" Good, because GloZell would like to know.
The YouTube sensation and UF alumna, class of 1997, is steadily creating a promising career in entertainment, mixing stand-up comedy with her online personality. Her outrageously hilarious videos, including her most-viewed entry, "My Push Up Bra Will Help Me Get My Man" (which has more than 17 million views), have gained continuous notoriety on the Internet thanks to her zeal, enthusiasm and sing-song humor.
The comedienne, who graduated from UF with a B.F.A. in musical theater, began her rise to fame after an unintentional sidetrack from her personal blog.
"I started off with a blog, and then one day I was doing some videos and the blog wouldn't upload, so I started uploading them on YouTube only to copy and paste it onto my blog," she said. "Then one day I looked and I'm like, ‘Oh, people are commenting on YouTube, interesting.' And it kept going and I was like ‘Oh! YouTube is good!'"
Three years and more than 150 million views later, GloZell found her niche making videos of celebrity impersonations, random musings on life and the occasional Internet fad. Her costumed parodies of Lady Gaga and Nicki Minaj earned responses from the celebrities themselves. GloZell received retweets from Minaj and Bruno Mars and managed to score an invite to Toby Keith's concert by the artist himself.
"What's good about [the videos] is that the artists themselves are very kind to me. I don't dislike them at all, and I think they're seeing that, that I'm just being funny. When I talk about [the artists], there's more people that go to that video," she said.
More recently, her take on the "Cinnamon Challenge" added another five million views to her rapidly growing video resume, proving that viral success has a price.
"Well, I learned the hard way, because to this day my eyes still burn, my nose hairs are gone. I was hallucinating that day. The headache is still there, but hey, people enjoy watching me almost die! I haven't even watched [the video] but looking at the comments and they're like ‘It came through her nose!' Well, that explains a lot. People say ‘don't do drugs.' I'm gonna start campaigning ‘don't do cinnamon.' This will kill you. Somebody gonna die!"
GloZell recently added "actress" to her growing resume, taking part in the online Web series "Dr. Fubalous" alongside fellow YouTube stars Antoine Dobson and Miranda Sings, as well as actor Danny Trejo and rapper-turned-reality star Flavor Flav. From wigs to makeup, costumes and beyond, her musical theater training helped bring life to Ma Cakes, Dr. Fubalous' ranch dressing-loving secretary.
"When I went to the University of Florida, we had to build the sets. We had to not only sing the songs and learn the lines, sometimes we had to write the scripts. I was also in [Theatre] Strike Force. That definitely helped set me off to the right start, especially musical theater. You're doing everything. Anything I ever need to know how to do, I can do it all by myself," she said.
GloZell's "bucket list" consists of many comedic milestones, from hosting "Saturday Night Live" to meeting fellow funny-lady Ellen DeGeneres. But the most special goal GloZell holds dear is one closer to The Swamp: performing at Gator Growl.
"One day I want to be the comic to come back, so that is the dream," she said. "In 1997, when I first went, I wanted to do Gator Growl. I couldn't even tell you what that would mean. That is beyond a television show or anything."
With her career taking off, the steady rise to success can be traced back to her Gator roots.
These lessons are some that anyone can use to kick-start their own careers.
"When [you go] off to college, it's up to you to get your lessons done and be responsible. Let me tell you, you can have a whole lot of fun at UF, but the goal is to graduate and have a good time. Gators love being a Gator, and I enjoyed every single moment of it, so I'm very proud to be a graduate of UF."
Check out GloZell's YouTube channel (youtube.com/GloZell1), Facebook and Twitter feeds for constantly updated information on stand-up dates, video uploads and more.
GloZell certainly knows how to capture audiences on the Internet. Could she do the same thing at Gator Growl?
