Hey there, thank you for joining me for another episode of YQG In Bloom.
My name is Tracy Martens and today I am here with Mason who is a YouTube guy and you do
Mason's explorations?
Yes.
So, tell me about what made you start that?
So it happened a few years ago, maybe two years ago when I wanted a YouTube channel.
My parents said no and then eventually they said yes.
And it was originally just me doing it and then my dad decided to help me with a few
things and then he ended up helping me out with it and then my brother wanted to be in
some of the videos for it and then we convinced my mom into being in some and then it just
went on and then my dad originally said I'm only buying you one thing for the YouTube
channel and he said it had to be below like $100.
So I got this little tripod thing to hold the phone and a light to shine down on the
table to get the right lighting.
My dad ended up getting me more things and more things for the YouTube channel and he
spent more for it and now we got a camera for it and he keeps getting more stuff for
it and we keep going more and doing more stuff with it.
Yeah, you have to because you have an awesome YouTube channel and like me you end up with
all these cameras and the lights and the microphones.
And then we even go like we bring like for our YouTube channel we bring people to or
the people that watch it to like on like our family vacations like the last one we did
we filmed in Disney and stuff.
I didn't get a chance to watch that one.
Did you guys do anything cool there?
We went on like a bunch of rides.
We filmed some of them but we couldn't film on the roller coasters and stuff.
I think we filmed in some of them.
I don't remember since it was in October last year that we filmed it.
Yeah a little ways.
Yeah.
Then I think we're going to be filming for our next video or next vacation where we're
going on a cruise.
I think we might be filming then.
So you guys you film a lot of different things because I know you do experiments and you're
just all over the place.
Yeah.
Now can you tell everybody about the Oreo experiment that I was watching this morning?
One we have a few.
Which ones do you have?
First of all.
First I think we have an Oreo roulette one.
There's one that we roll it down like a hot wheels track down the stairs.
Then it'll hit like a board.
So we have like some boards here.
Forget what it's called though.
But we glued on it like things of what would be there or what you had to dip your Oreo
in.
We had like a little table off to the side where you dip it in there and then you'd have
to eat the Oreo.
Okay.
Was it yummy or gross?
Some of it was bad.
All of it was bad except one was milk.
The rest was like for example there was like pickle juice.
There was mustard, Caesar dressing and juice.
What did you get stuck having it?
I don't remember.
I think I had I had a pickle juice.
I remember that.
I had a milk and I don't remember what the other one was.
Pickle juice that was probably pretty gross.
Yeah.
I watched the I'm glad I didn't watch that one but I watched the one this morning where
you guys were trying to stack them.
Oh yeah.
The Super Mario.
Yes.
So how far I didn't get all the way through who holds the record.
So for the first one or I don't know if the second one's posted yet.
It might be.
But for the first one I won because at the end it was tied up between me and my one of
our neighbors Nico.
I think I got 10 or 11.
Oh but then he I think got eight or nine.
So wow.
That's a lot.
Yeah.
And then we had another one where we had to slide the Oreo down like the table.
Oh the table.
We were supposed to roll down but we couldn't get it to roll so we just slid it.
Then I got barbecue sauce for every single one or for all the times I kept getting it.
We got like eight to 13 times.
I got barbecue sauce.
Then my dad said we each get one milk.
Right.
So we had two barbecue sauces then instead of getting keep getting the barbecue sauce
after we kept rolling and rolling and rolling until eventually I got the milk until at the
end we couldn't get it in and we're like we're wasting too much Oreo so we just dunk it dunked
it in the milk anyway.
You can never waste the Oreos.
Just eat them.
That's OK if they're on the ground.
No dad the barbecue sauce and stuff.
OK.
The barbecue sauce on it was bad though.
Was it was this spicy barbecue sauce.
No.
So remember what is the craziest experiment or thing that you've done on YouTube.
I don't know.
I've got a few ones like the rocket ship one though.
This thing or this one might be because when we shot up I went to go catch it because I
wanted to catch it.
Well the rocket ended up I think the bottom parts got off.
We still have a rocket in our basement actually.
Oh wow.
We're going to try to repair it and maybe do a part two.
That'd be fun.
And then but I went to try to catch it but I forgot we had a wired microphone on.
And it pulled my dad's phone down and cracked the whole back of it.
It shattered.
Oopsie.
Then he got a new phone and then he dropped it twice.
Sounds like me.
That's why when I leave this store I never leave the store without a case because I break
my phone.
Yeah.
Now he got a new phone.
He doesn't know.
He says he's holding it off a death grip because he doesn't want it to break since he doesn't
have a case yet.
So just make sure you're wearing a wireless mic next time.
So that's the next thing you guys can buy now.
We actually kind of have one.
We have a big microphone attached to the GoPro.
Oh you're lucky.
I want a GoPro.
I don't have one of those yet.
I just got the big cameras.
So you've been doing this for two years and your friend and all your family are on it.
Do you want to keep doing these?
You having a lot of fun doing them?
Yes.
Yeah.
And it's nice that you got the whole family helping out.
Do you like doing it or do you still get to do some of your own without them?
I like doing it.
Sometimes I might.
Like once we went to our trailer or our grandparents trailer just me, my mom and my brother drew
and then I filmed a video of like how to start a campfire and then my dad ended up editing
it because I tried editing it but it was like an hour or two long.
So my dad edited it down to I think 15 minutes or so.
All the videos were edited by my dad.
Even if I tried editing it, I wouldn't like it.
So I'd ask him to edit it.
Then even some videos, some of our videos used to be like a half an hour to an hour
long or like one of our newest videos.
It actually took place over the course of like the whole day.
We left at about maybe 10 or 11 o'clock.
Then we got back at 5 p.m.
So it's pretty good that your dad helps you out so much.
Yeah, because he used to be a graphic designer.
So like all the thumbnails, he designs them himself.
Yeah, because you got a lot of cool artwork on your page.
Yeah, and like our YouTube profile thing, my dad edited that and stuff made the thing
and like our logo, he also edited that.
Oh nice.
So it's a whole family affair.
That's great.
I just interviewed Mason from Mason's Explorations and I have his little brother Drew on.
Hi, how are you doing?
Good.
So you get to be on the YouTube videos too, right?
Yep.
Your brother Mason was telling us about some of the Oreo experiments, the Oreo games.
Have you got stuck eating one of the yucky things?
Yep.
Yeah, which yucky one did you get?
So it was on the first challenge.
I got ranch.
It was all over my Oreo.
Oh, and my Oreo was falling apart.
And did you have to eat it?
Yeah.
And we're like, no, you have to dunk it.
We're like, oh, come on.
And then we made me like dip it almost whole.
I like ranch, but I don't think I'd like ranch with Oreo cookies.
It's kind of gross.
Yeah.
And we haven't ate Oreos in a while.
So do you like being on YouTube?
Yeah.
Do you give them any ideas of things to do?
Yeah, I do.
My dad put me on trend duty since I used to always scroll through YouTube shorts until
I got banned from YouTube shorts and then I got banned from YouTube.
You did?
Yeah.
So now I can't watch YouTube.
Oh no.
Why did you get banned?
What did you do?
Just because once inside was really tiring and I woke up at two.
I didn't realize it.
So I was watching YouTube on my tablet.
And then that morning when I woke up again, because I had to wake up my mom to fall back
asleep.
And for some reason it was always on my mom's turn no matter what.
Oh, so you're watching too much YouTube.
So they're telling you to take a break.
Like at first they banned me from all electronics.
This is true because I know sometimes when you wake up in the middle of the night and
you start watching videos, it's hard to stop.
But I want to thank you for sitting down and talking to me today.
I really do appreciate it.
And what grade are you in?
Grade six.
And do you know how many followers you have?
We have I think five or six hundred.
You have more followers than I do.
Okay.
Any of Mason's followers, please follow me.
I'm going to have to get in on one of your experiments and one of your challenges and
try them out next time.
Maybe we can put it on there.
We got actually used to have like a hundred, like when we went to Disney and stuff last
year, we actually only had a hundred or so subscribers.
And then we got this one good video that got us to three hundred subscribers.
Then we had another really good short.
Now we try to do like a video and then we turn it into a bunch of shorts and link them
all together.
Because when we do that lately, we've been getting a lot more subscribers and faster.
So that's a good idea.
Yeah.
So then we got one really good short that got us to like four hundred.
It just kept going up and up and up to six hundred.
Wow.
And then my dad said that his goal was from for this year was to get to four hundred subscribers
by December.
And he said the goal for next year would be to get to seven hundred subscribers.
And he said, at this rate, we're going to get to this next year's goal by this year.
That's great.
So you are doing awesome.
I can't believe it.
That's wonderful.
Hey, I am here with Mason's dad, Joe.
And thank you so much for being here.
Thank you for having us.
This is great.
I really enjoyed meeting Mason and Drew.
So you guys started this channel about two years ago.
Yes, it was about two years ago.
Yeah.
And it turned into a whole family.
It did.
It was originally Mason's idea.
He's wanted this for quite a while.
And we were a little hesitant at first, but we're like, OK, let's just go with it.
And then, yeah, it eventually became like a family project.
So even though it's Mason's explorations, it's kind of like our explorations.
Well, you have to start a different channel.
Exactly.
Yes.
Do you guys enjoy doing this as much as the kids do?
We do.
I know I do.
I think sometimes my wife is a little, some of the ideas we come up with get a little
crazy.
And I come home like, hey, you got to be in this video.
And she already knows it's not going to end well for her.
No, it never does.
Same here.
So who comes up with the different experiments or competitions?
It is kind of a combination.
The competitions are usually the stuff that I come up with.
Some of the shorts, like you'll see the grimace video there.
That was kind of Drew's idea there.
And that was a good idea.
Yeah, it was a big trend at the time.
So it was he wanted to do a video.
And I'm like, all right, sure.
I was just kind of humoring him at the moment.
And then it kind of exploded.
And that was actually the video that got everything kind of growing for our channel.
Everything kind of started rolling after that video.
Yeah, there's usually one thing that it'll just hit the right way.
Yeah, a lot of times I feel like it's timing.
It's true.
And that's what Mason was saying is you guys have almost hit next year's goal this year
for followers.
We did.
Yeah, we tried to set realistic expectations.
So yeah, this year by December 31st, we want it to be a 400.
And then next year, we want it to be a 750.
As of today, as of this interview, we're at 636.
So which is great.
Yeah, I think so.
Yeah, it's been a pretty good few months for us.
I'm going to have to learn from Mason on how to build my viewership, maybe pull out some
Oreos and ranch.
Yes, yeah.
Pickle juice, although I don't agree with Drew, I still think the pickle juice is grosser
than the ranch.
I agree.
From your perspective, what is the weirdest competition you guys have had?
It's called the Death Straw Challenge.
That's where the nacho cheese came from.
That was one where all four of us were participating.
So one person would, there's three boxes.
They're blind boxes.
You don't know what's in them.
And one person would put a good drink and two bad drinks.
And the other three would pick which box they wanted to drink out of.
If you got the good drink, you got to pick the drinks for the next round.
And so two of them were awful.
And one of them would be something simple like juice or milk or coke, something like
that.
But then you'd end up drinking ranch or pickle juice or lemon juice was one of them.
Oh my goodness.
So habanero sauce was the one I got stuck with, which yes.
So I would say that was the weirdest video because there was a lot of craziness going
on there.
That sounds like a lot of fun though.
It is.
The whole family and friends.
Yeah.
That's the one thing I really took out of this is a lot of the stuff you see on the
videos, the experiments are a little crazy.
It's not something we'd ordinarily do.
We're not drinking pickle juice regularly, but that really is us on film.
We really are like a tight knit family, the four of us, and we are constantly doing everything
together.
So it is really truly genuinely us you see on the videos, which is one of the things
I wanted to make sure stood out.
And it's great because I mean, the kids are still young, so you get it while you can.
Exactly.
Once they become those teenagers, forget it.
Yeah.
Yeah, exactly.
Yeah.
So Mason said you guys are going to be recording on a Norwegian cruise.
We are.
I mean, there's a lot of crazy rides and things on there.
Like there's there's like a plank dangling off the edge of the boat.
And I want to see if we can kind of film us seeing who can stay out there the longest.
One I want to do, I don't know if we can do that.
There is apparently like an ice room in there.
I'm not sure what the purpose of this ice room is.
I think it's in the spa.
So I kind of one of the challenge ideas I got is we go in there and who can stay in
there the longest, who's going to like break and have to leave the ice cold room.
I'm hoping they'll let us do that.
But I also don't know if they have to allow us to be in there for a long time.
Well, hopefully I thought it was just going to be a normal vacation, but having having
some fun competitions would be great.
I mean, normal and us doesn't really go together.
So same here.
Yeah.
I need to get out there and get on your, your channel because you guys seem to have a lot
of fun.
We really do.
Yeah.
Which is great.
Next time you do one of those Oreo things, invite me over.
I want to, I want to watch you guys.
Yeah.
I think the Oreo ones are like due to best and yeah.
Yeah.
Everybody loves an Oreo and everybody loves when you have to eat something yucky with it.
Yeah.
We're planning to do another one, I believe.
Well, thank you so much, Mason.
I really do appreciate you coming on with me today and telling me about your YouTube
channel because I love it and everybody make sure that you follow Mason on Mason's explorations
on YouTube.
And my name is Tracy Martens and I want to thank you so much for joining us for another
episode of YQG In Bloom.