YouTube's Dolan Twins: 10 things you need to know
Teenage YouTube stars Ethan and Grayson Dolan — better know as the Dolan Twins — are bringing their humorous skits and challenges to The Paramount stage in Huntington on Sunday as part of a 40-city tour.
The 16-year-olds are closing in on 2 million followers on their YouTube channel, where they post a new video about life as a teen or twin every Tuesday. The duo became popular creating six-second video snippets on the Vine app, and later moved to YouTube, where their videos usually run from three to 10 minutes and have been viewed 109 million times. They include such titles as “Grayson Gets His Wisdom Teeth Removed” and “Guys Try Girl Products.” The twins also film competitive challenges. In their self-explanatory “Can We Tell Ourselves Apart? Baby Picture Challenge,” the loser had to run through a store wearing a diaper.
Dolan Twins 4OU Tour is coming to The Paramount, 370 New York Ave., Huntington, at 8 p.m. Sunday. Tickets cost $25, $30 and $45, and the show sold out in two days. For information: 631-673-7300 or paramountny.com.
Parent Alert: At the Dolan Twins performance Saturday night at iPlay America in Freehold Township, N.J., 28 tween and teen girls suffered minor injuries when the crowd rushed forward after the twins took the stage, according to Lt. Raymond Piccolini of the Freehold Township Police Department. Once the crowd settled down, the twins resumed the performance, Piccolini said. On Sunday, The Paramount will have standard security measures in place, says venue spokesman Adam Ellis.
Here’s what you need to know about the Dolan Twins.
1. They don’t know whether they’re identical.
Credit: The Dolan Twins
“We’ve asked all different doctors, and they’ve given us all mixed answers,” Grayson says. They looked more alike in their younger videos; they have different hairstyles now that set them apart. They’re contemplating getting DNA testing to see if they’re identical or fraternal and filming that experience as one of their YouTube videos. “It’s much easier now than it was when we were born,” Grayson says of such testing.
2. Ethan is older.
Credit: The Dolan Twins
By 20 minutes. The boys are sophomores in high school.
3. The twins recently moved to California, but they’re from New Jersey.
Credit: The Dolan Twins
“We’re from a country town called Long Valley,” Ethan says of New Jersey. “There’s a bunch of cows, barns and everything around us. It’s so country that if I wanted to go get eggs, I could just walk down the street to our local farm and get them. There’s not much to do there. Pretty much the only thing we did for fun is film videos.”
4. Dad is a New Jersey school superintendent; Mom owns a hair salon.
Credit: The Dolan Twins
Dad is Sean, and Mom is Lisa. The twins have a sister, Cameron. who is two years older.
5. Yes, they live by themselves in a Los Angeles apartment.
Credit: The Dolan Twins
They moved to Los Angeles once they signed with a YouTube multichannel network in September and with the William Morris Endeavor Entertainment talent agency, hoping to get into acting and movies. They attend school online. “Our parents come out every other week, because they do have to work,” Ethan says. “It’s not for long, long periods of time that we’re alone.”
6. They realized they were onto something in middle school science class.
Credit: The Dolan Twins
“Someone that was sitting at my table, a girl, said, ‘I watched all your Vines with my brother last night, and we were laughing hysterically,’ and I was like, ‘What do you mean, my Vines?’ ” Grayson says. “She said, ‘They’re funny. You should make more.’ At that point, a lot of people were becoming Vine stars. I was like, ‘I could probably do something like this.’ Ethan and I just started making skits and just crazy videos we thought people would be interested in. Eventually we gained a small following and from there we kept expanding. We moved onto YouTube because we felt like you could take your time with videos. I feel like the stuff we make on YouTube we’re able to be a little more proud of because it’s more of a project.”
7. They post on Tuesdays, in part because Tuesday starts with the letter T.
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“We picked the most random day of the week,” Ethan says. “What’s a random day when nothing really goes on? We picked Tuesday, because ‘Dolan Twins Tuesdays’ — two T’s.”
8. Their craziest video might be “The Eat It or Wear It Challenge.”
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“ ‘The Eat It or Wear It Challenge’ was pretty insane,” Grayson says. The boys went to the supermarket and each picked seven items that the other would have to either eat a spoonful of or, if they couldn’t swallow it, wear poured over their bodies. “We accidentally covered Ethan in cayenne pepper, and poured lemon juice on him after because it was part of the challenge, and we didn’t realize the pepper would burn his skin. But it kind of worked liked pepper spray. That went wrong.”
The boys added this warning to that video: “DO NOT TRY WHAT YOU SAW AT HOME! IT IS VERY DANGEROUS AND WE ARE VERY STUPID!”
9. They take fan suggestions.
Credit: The Dolan Twins
Most ideas come to the twins randomly when they’re “just out and about,” Ethan says. “Or we can tweet to our fans, ‘What would you guys like to see?’ Or sometimes we think of things that are relatable to teens. Or things that we think would be fun to do.”
10. The tour will be more extreme than their YouTube videos.
Credit: The Dolan Twins
They won’t give away what live challenges they’ll undertake onstage. “We want it to be a surprise for the fans,” Ethan says. “It’s going to be messy, crazy and an extreme version of some of the challenges that we’ve done on YouTube already.”
