Channel4
British comedian Oobah Butler
Oobah Butler’s new documentary is a deliriously entertaining journey—and an ingenious satire on the obsession with extreme wealth. But incredibly, in a final stroke of genius, the comedian achieved his goal.
The irreverent British comedian and documentary filmmaker Oobah Butler decided to face the call hustle culture — the culture of hustle and bustle and get-rich-quick — trying, himself, get rich in no time.
His odyssey through the world of CEOs, cryptocurrencies and online courses, now reported in ““, a documentary that premiered on Thursday on Channel4, reveals the dark side of this universe. And the result is, without a doubt, a comic preciousness.
On the eve of the premiere of his new program, Butler explained to the magazine what he learned from temporarily give up one’s life to relentlessly pursue money.
The documentary follows the comedian, for three months, on an epic journey to accumulate, from scratch, a fortune of one million pounds — around 1.15 million euros.
“The idea came about as a response to my generation’s obsession with schemes of quick enrichment and the culture of hustle“, says Butler.
“After seeing videos on the subject coming into my eyes 25 hours a day, I started to question myself not only about the origin of this phenomenonbut also about if my priorities change and learn to think about money it would bring me real financial security”, explains the British comedian and director.
“What would you learn if give up, for a while, my life to chase wealth? Would you become rich? What lessons would you take from this experience?”, he asked himself.
Here’s What Butler Learnedafter completely exhausting himself trying to make a million pounds in 90 days.
“Old money” is irrelevant in the US
As part of this experience, the British comedian moved from London to New York, in the USA, and infiltrated venture capital circlesinvestment and private equity.
He quickly realized that “old money” is something outdated in the United States — unlike the United Kingdom, the North American financial world is not impressed by old fortunes. What Butler found was a completely at ease with the so-called nouveau riche.
“For example, I accompanied an investor to a hotel suite that cost $25,000 a night — and the carpeting looked like it was taken from a fairground in Birmingham,” says the comedian
The notion of “old money” is still somewhat ingrained on the East Coast, with echoes of early settler times, and survives in the seedy clubs of midtown Manhattan, says Butler.
“They do not respect inheritance or status. This makes conversations about money less tied to people’s identities and much more open, but also very more grotesque“he explains.
Which brings Butler to the next lesson…
Who doesn’t ask, doesn’t receive
“One of the most embarrassing experiences of my life as a comedian was, a few years ago, ask friends for no small sums for a project yet to be revealed. Just remembering the coffee tables and couches where this happened makes me I want to bite my lip in embarrassment“Butler remembers.
But, at the end of his epic 3-month journey, the irreverent comedian can say that lost this lock.
“My first strategy for making a million pounds was simply get in touch with very rich people and… ask them directly. I had the illusion that, if I looked a billionaire in the eye and shook his hand, I would be able to convince him that it was worth the investment”, he says.
“I did this with Jim McKelvey, multi-billionaire and co-founder of Squarea charming guy, but who basically laughed in my face“, says the comedian. “I realized that I needed to be taken more seriously…”.
You can buy an article about yourself on Forbes
Butler then decided to change his approach to convince investment funds or millionaires to buy a stake in his company, which he had called Drops.
The company’s business model was simple: carry out controversial actions and then sell limited edition products linked to these exploits.
“The problem was that, when searching my namepotential investors found my past: ‘How I Created TripAdvisor’s #1 Fake Restaurant‘ or ‘I took All You Can Eat Restaurants to the limit‘. It didn’t exactly inspire confidence”, explains the comedian.
Butler gained worldwide attention in 2017 with a project for Vice magazine, in which he got a completely fictitious establishment“The Shed at Dulwich”, fosse Ranked as the best restaurant in London on TripAdvisor, calling into question the reliability of the algorithm, recalls .
In his first Channel 4 documentary, in 2023, Butler applied his irreverent tactics to a much bigger targetrevealing flaws in Amazon’s age restrictions. The documentary got children to order knives through Alexa and reported poor working conditions, something the company denied.
Butler needed change your public image to be able to present yourself to potential investors.
“It was then that I discovered that we can pay an agency external to publish a article about us in Forbes magazine“, says the comedian. I managed to do it with a piece called ‘How One Entrepreneur Turned Viral Success Into a Global Empire’ (something like ‘How an entrepreneur turned viral success into a global empire‘, in free translation).
“The play talked about my ‘my’global empire‘ and my plans to open stores around the world — all pure fantasy. But from then on, I could advertise on my website: ‘As reported in Forbes.’ It officially had the credibility of Money Man“, knee Butler.
Selling online courses is a scam
Butler says that when he was a kid in the 1990s, his parents were caught in a famous pyramid schemeseduced by a charming man who promised them financial security.
“They were desperate and they believed. Today, almost nothing has changed. One of the infallible strategies of hustle culture and sell courses that teach others to ‘be successful’. Figures like Luke Belmar or Tai Lopez They brag about how much money they make this way”, he notes.
Butler decided to try it. “I wrote a three-hour course called ‘Million Dollar Ideas‘, where he tried teach the public to get rich through creativity.”
“My collaborator Tristan Cross created a platform for us to sell the course to 100 pounds each; another partner, Dan Lucchesi, handled editing. We released a promotional video in which I convinced an art collector to buy a simple pau for 500 pounds“, he reports.
“The video had two million views, and I I thought I was going to get rich. But in the first 24 hours… we sold a single registration”, laments the comedian.
Always claim a victory
Throughout this process of trying to make a million in 90 days, Butler failed countless times.
One of his projects, a clothing brand he called , generated 10 thousand pounds in sales and it did, but its results fell far short of expectations.
“I also did work for a cryptocurrency company promoting a same cornerwhich ended up imploding”, says the provocative comedian. “And my educational course was a silent humiliation“.
But the comedian noticed something curious among his new millionaire friends: no matter how disastrous their failures were, they presented us with always as victories. Everything was “fantastic”. There was always room for “innovation”.
Butler then prepared for his final thrust on the path to riches: gather a group of investors in a room and auction 10% of your income for the rest of your life.
“I decided follow the example of my millionaire friendsand I sold all my experiences as resounding successes”, says Butler. And this strategy, in the end, would end up earning him a piece of paper that made him a millionaire.
