He had promised for a long time that he would return to the Czech Republic, but given his lifestyle and career, it did not seem likely. However, the popular Czech-American YouTuber Jon Mariánek finally kept his promises and flew in with one of the biggest influencers in the world, Jake Paul. And although both of them have more or less controversies behind them, thousands of people arrived at their announced meeting with fans in Prague’s Riegrový sady. We came too – and wondered why the event was so chaotic and unprepared.
Despite all possible opinions about his personality, Jake Paul is a huge name in the Internet show business. Previously, he mainly filmed on YouTube, where he became a polarizing figure with millions of fans, but also millions of detractors. The fact that he has a brother, Logan Paul, who is facing accusations of crypto fraud, did not add to his reputation. But in recent years, he has been profiled as a boxer who has already had several fights – and now he has a historic fight with the legend of the sport Mike Tyson, which is even broadcast live on Netflix.
Coincidentally, he also has a small reach into the Czech Republic, through his teammate Jon Mariánek, who edited his videos before he became an independent creator with almost a million subscribers on YouTube, most of whom are Czech. After all, a magazine Forbes to ranked to first place among the highest-earning domestic YouTubers with an annual income of over thirty million crowns. This was primarily earned by videos on the topic of life in the United States, where he has been living for several years.
That’s why when a native of Hustopeč in South Moravia, who flew overseas to study and then stayed there, announced that he would return to the Czech Republic after five years and bring Jake Paul with him, it was expected that there would be an uproar. We also went to the event, where it was already clear in advance that it would attract mostly teenage fans with distinctive banners and Mariánka’s official clothes. And nothing happened that we didn’t expect. Except for one thing.
The meet-up took place in Vinohrady, on the premises of the local Sokol. And it took place on Tuesday, when the temperature in Prague was over thirty degrees. This would not have mattered so much if a queue of up to a thousand people had not formed before entering. It took over two hours to get to the turnstiles. During them, one boy even ordered a courier with a pizza in the heated queue. In places we wondered if it was really worth waiting any longer in such early evening heat. And it didn’t pay off.
Jake Paul and his team could be forgiven for being late, arriving two hours later than originally planned. After all, it could have been intentional, because it was supposed to start at five, but there were still hundreds of people in line around seven thirty in the evening. But what could not be forgiven was the schedule of the event – it was practically non-existent. Which turned out to be a great shame considering how relatively well the background worked. Mainly for the fans.
The center of the entire area was a music stage, where a DJ played, and the aforementioned actors performed on it. Including Štěpán Šrámek aka Steven Gash, a Czech YouTuber who collaborated with Mariánek several times on content. Of course, they couldn’t deprive the audience of a viral hit Breadwhich they recorded at Paul’s house in Puerto Rico, but even that didn’t do much with the audience. The event seemed amateurish and at times boring, which was also caused by the fact that the main stars appeared on stage only sporadically.
Mariánek himself admitted that he did not plan the course of the meeting in any particular way, on the contrary, he let spontaneity permeate the whole event. But that punkness rather damaged the whole event. It didn’t even save the ten attached Mini, Audi and Tesla cars, which Mariánek “gave away” without much thought to people depending on who had the more interesting banner or who grabbed Paul’s deodorant of his own brand W. The right word to describe the meeting is chaos.
At the same time, we again offer to say that it is actually a shame when we think about the splendor of Mariánek et al. directly to the site – they arrived in several Mercedes, one Ferrari, one Rolls-Royce and a “monster truck”. Rock fans will be pleased to see their idols live, but the meet-up definitely had more potential to interest even those who don’t follow the boys that much. It generally felt like being pricked with a hot needle. As if it was impossible.
But what we have to appreciate is former bodybuilder Filip Grznár in the role of Mariánka’s bodyguard, who arrived in an expensive car and his protective vest naturally fell to his body. Definitely more than cage matches. And of course Paul’s constant promotion of the new W deodorants, for which he launched a massive campaign in America. It is a marketing machine – and sometimes it is interesting to watch its advertising steps.
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