remembers. “I thought this might be exactly what I was looking for. It’s
like I felt Mr. Electric giving me a nudge. So, I sent him a private message
asking what he had in mind.”
The person on the other end of the PM was a young man named Seth
Leach, and he also was looking for a rebirth of sorts. Coming at the end of
what might be called the Jackass Era, Leach invented himself as the sort
of homegrown stuntman Johnny Knoxville would be proud of. He and his
buddy, Horne, would record themselves jumping off roofs, surfing on cars
and lighting themselves on fire, and then sell the videos to online outlets
for anywhere from $600 to $1,000.
When the stunts got too dangerous (one of them landed Leach in an ICU
ward) and in an eerie prognostication of outrage culture, Leach got a new
partner and started producing what were called “morality viral” videos, in
which hidden cameras record people not living up to what we’d consider
society’s highest ideals -- often because the situation was a hoax.
In both cases, Leach’s videos racked up millions upon millions of views.
And, in both cases, Leach’s videos earned him a reputation for being
opportunistic at best and mercenary at worst.
“I love the excitement of producing engaging content that you just
know is going to go viral,” said Leach. “But, I didn’t want to keep getting
misunderstood for what I was trying to do. When I saw Murray’s videos
online and all of that unrealized potential, it just fell into place.”
Leach didn’t just stumble upon Murray’s videos by accident. He was
already a fan.
“I had caught his act at the Tropicana when I was in Las Vegas with my
girlfriend a couple of years before,” Leach said. “I was actually one of those
volunteers Murray pulls from the audience, and he used my shoe to do
one of his tricks. I love it! The whole show! Afterwards, we got our picture
taken with him and I bought a bunch of his merchandise. That’s why I was
sort of upset when I saw his videos and the low -- to me -- viewer counts.”
After some back and forth, Murray agreed to produce four videos with
Leach to see what would happen.
“That was on a Saturday night,” said Murray. “I sent him part of the money
on PayPal and told him I’d be back in Vegas on Monday. He says, ‘Great!
Meet me outside Main Street Casino downtown on Tuesday!’ Tuesday? This
coming Tuesday? I couldn’t believe it! I had done enough TV by that point
in my career that I knew how much things generally cost, and what Seth
was promising to do, and for what I thought was a low amount, well, talk
about magic! I figured that I’m either being conned big time or this could
be exactly what my career needed, and if I was being conned, at least I’d
have a good story at the end of it.”
They met that Tuesday, and Murray felt an immediate kinship with Leach.
As a self-described Type A personality, Murray told himself to put a
damper on it and trust the younger man.
“I met and became friends with this young violinist named Linsdey Stirling
when we were both on ‘America’s Got Talent,’” Murray said. “I helped her
out with some publicity, offered to let her guest star in my show, and so
on. A couple of years passed and suddenly she was blowing up YouTube
and on ‘Dancing with the Stars’! She was getting millions and millions of
views per video! I started to research her and realized that she had dated a
guy who goes by the name Devin Supertramp. He was one of the first viral
YouTubers -- and still is. I thought maybe Seth could be MY Devin.”
16 JUNE | 2020
16 JUNE | 2020 JUNE | 2020 17