Mary Lucia joins Jill Riley this week to talk about a couple of social media binge-worthy finds.

Transcript

Edited for clarity.

Jill Riley: It's Friday morning and Friday mornings, I'm joined by Mary Lucia and we just talk about things we're watching. Good morning, Mary.

Mary Lucia: Good morning, Jill.

Jill Riley: You know, I think the assumption, sometimes when I'm asking somebody, you know, "Hey, what are you watching?" I'm almost assuming they're going to answer with, "Here's this cool series. I'm watching on Netflix, or here's a movie that I went to." But to be honest, Mary, I don't even think that I'm ready to admit to how much time I spend watching videos on YouTube or Facebook or whatever somebody sends me on TikTok.

Mary Lucia: Yep.

Jill Riley: I probably spend — again, I haven't tracked it — but a good amount of time, especially right before bed, watching social media videos.

Mary Lucia: Well, you and the rest of the world. I mean, there's no shame in that. Everybody is doing that. And certainly we have even been playing many artists that kind of got a leg up from being heard on TikTok or something like that. And it's so yeah, it's it's, it's always watchable, like a train wreck, usually. Then every once in a while, there's like a really, really groovy story or something like that. In the case with Devon Rodriguez.

Jill Riley: Yeah, tell me about this guy!

Mary Lucia: So you heard about him last fall. It was sort of when his story was breaking. He was an art student in New York. And he really was starting at a very primitive level of drawing. And his professor saw a lot of potential in him and said, "You got to do real-life drawing." And by the time he got out, it was around COVID time, his professor recommended he go draw people on the subway. Now in a New York City Subway, most people are alone. They want to be left alone. They're looking at their phone; don't bother me. And he just would sit across from somebody, but the portraits he came out with were unreal. And then the reaction when he handed them their portrait that he had quickly done — I mean, he must work really fast — and the joy on their faces. Somebody who was just sitting there, like, "Please don't look at me, don't talk to me, I don't want anything to do with you." And then the reaction of "Oh my Lord," and it really just snowballed from there.  

[SOUND CLIP]
Devon Rodriguez: Miss? Miss? I drew you.
Subway passenger: Oh my gosh! What? This is me
Devon Rodriguez: Yeah!
Subway passenger: No it's not!
Devon Rodriguez: Yeah! Thank you, thank you so much.
Subway passenger: Thank you.
Devon Rodriguez: You're welcome. Have a great day.
Jill Riley: God, so Devin Rodriguez, just huge on TikTok. He's got 25 million followers. I mean, this like absolutely changed his life.

Mary Lucia: It did. And he actually uttered the words that I don't know anyone who's ever said these words: "I don't know where my life would be without TikTok." And I thought, he genuinely has a reason to say that it's changed his life. And yes, he obviously, he drew a lot of healthcare workers in New York during the time and it just, it was one of those things where he was crafting his own, you know, talents, and then also uplifting people in the most unexpected way. So there's one really, really awesome thing on TikTok there.

Jill Riley: And he got recognized by Forbes, who placed him in there 30 under 30. They've got all these different categories, but there's there is a social media category.

Mary Lucia: And then, on the other side of the spectrum, Jill, when in doubt, if you're bored, you could just simply type into your whatever search this: "bleach at home fail."

Jill Riley: Yes!

Mary Lucia: This is men, women, people trying to bleach their own hair, and maybe it did have a resurgence during the pandemic because what else were you going to do but fry all your hair off? So it is absolutely watchable. It's people... some people have it much more high tech; some people are literally trained to hold an iPhone in their bathroom. But inevitably, if it says "fail" in the title, there is a guy on TikTok and YouTube named Brad Mondo.

Jill Riley: Yes, yes, I'm so glad you know who he is!

Mary Lucia: He that is his specialty is just like he'll stop the video and go girl. No color doesn't live color in that 40 Volume bleach and he's just freaking out because he's a hairdresser.

Jill Riley: "You're not using a toner!" Right!

[Sound Clip]

Brad Mondo: I can't believe how much bleach, how much lighter she's put on her head and you guys, you can't keep putting lightener on that hair, it's going to actually fall off. Your hair can only get so light, especially when you have really dark hair. Typically, it stops at a yellow orange phase and kind of never goes beyond that. Oh now we're the whole head again! She literally just pulled a piece of hair out of her head.

Mary Lucia: And you know, he's just, he's hilarious, his running commentary about it, but it's also kind of cool just to see how many people were just like, you know, "I'm bored. I honestly don't care how this turns out." So of course there's tears and there's some people crying and some people go to a salon to get it fixed, but all in all, really, for the most part, it's people in their own bathrooms, bored, lonely, isolated, thinking, kind of like after a breakup somehow bangs seems like a good idea

Jill Riley: Yeah, home haircut.

Mary Lucia: No, no. And don't paint your bedroom wall, either. But yeah, so it's like it's really infinitely interesting, but again, Bleach Fail, Brad Mondo, and Devon Rodriguez, two of my favorite things of TikTok.

Jill Riley: All right, well, if it's not movies or a TV series, it's probably the amount of time we stare at our phone watching somebody that's an influencer on social media. That's where we are in the year. 2022. All right. Thanks, Mary.

Mary Lucia: Thank you, Jill.