FEATURE
LIVING
THE STRE
M
SIRVAPINGALOT ON HIS AMBITIOUS
PLANS FOR THE MONTHS AHEAD
- BY GORDON STRIBLING -
You cannot overstate just how great an influence YouTube has
had on our culture since its founding in 2005. Built on the labour
of a vast network of content creators, the website had provided
a platform for everything from piano-playing cats to political
speeches and has forever changed the way we
consume media.
Producing high-quality YouTube videos is
cheaper and easier than it has ever been,
mirroring the increased accessibility and
cost-effectiveness of vaping. This has led
to the emergence of a thriving YouTube
vaping community, with many of the
UK’s prominent figures vlogging from
May’s Vaper Expo UK.
Vinny Luciano aka SirVapingAlot is one
of the brightest stars to have emerged
from the UK YouTube scene in the past
couple of years. Vinny’s channel is now
sponsored by Vapouround and he played
a key role in our annual awards.
I caught up with Vinny on the final day
of the expo. Despite having recorded
hours of footage over the past few
days, he was in a buoyant mood. He was
exhausted after three days at the
show but excited to have
been part of such a
huge vaping event
and after having
met so many
of his channel
subscribers
over
the
weekend.
“We’re
truly
32 | VM17
blessed to have a spectacular event like this here in the UK. I
especially love that you can go into the Build Area and have the
well-known pros build your stuff for you,” he said.
Vinny’s vaping journey began at a camping trip.
“We were sitting in a pub and I saw a guy vaping. That piqued my
interest so I bought myself a basic device which I kept topped-up
with refills from the petrol station.”
This health-conscious lifestyle change soon developed into an
all-consuming hobby. As Vinny’s mod collection grew, so did his
desire to become more involved in the vaping community. But it
was his family who suggested YouTube as a route to reaching
and helping a bigger audience of vapers and curious smokers.
“I wasn’t really into YouTube before, so I had a lot to learn. But I
picked it up quite quickly and now I love doing it.”
As well as attracting a growing subscriber base, Vinny has forged
relationships with prominent figures in the scene, such as Tony
B of Vapor Trail, famed for the Pulse squonk mod and RDAs he
developed with Vandy Vape and VapinGreek, with whom he co-
hosts ‘Let’s Talk’ on his channel.
“The show gives us a platform to catch up, share knowledge and
advocate. We respect each other as reviewers, we’re all focused
on vaping and we are all passionate supporters of this industry.”
Keen to evolve beyond the confines of YouTube, Vinny leapt at
the chance to help judge our annual juice awards, trying some
800 e-liquids over three days.
“It was an honour to be asked to judge but it really took it out of
me, so much so that I didn’t vape at all between tasting sessions.
Too much of a good thing I guess.”
With a firm grasp of the e-liquid landscape, some of Vinny’s own
juices could be up for contention at next year’s awards. He’s
currently working on a cocktail range alongside Vaping with Twitch
and hopes to have a dessert line out around Christmas time.
A month after the e-liquid judging took place, Vinny attended the
Vapouround Awards ceremony where he sat alongside fellow
YouTubers The Vaping Bogan and the recipient of the Vaper of
the Year award, Dean the Vaping Biker.