Noel Miller talks about his comedy journey at Pitt Program Council event

The William Pitt Union hosted Noel Miller, a Canadian-American YouTuber, comedian, rapper, podcaster and filmmaker, for a talk and Q&A organized by the Pitt Program Council. Approximately 450 Pitt students gathered in the WPU Assembly Room for the sold-out event on Monday night.

Noel Miller’s journey in entertainment began as a stand-up comedian, and he later took to social media to pursue his talents. He initially rose to prominence through his comedic sketches on Vine and YouTube. 

Miller gained traction through his reaction video series “That’s Cringe” in collaboration with Cody Ko, his co-host on the Tiny Meat Gang podcast. Their combined efforts have earned them a substantial fan base, amassing a total of 4.9 million subscribers across their three YouTube channels. Their podcast received the 2019 Shorty Award for Best Podcast, and they have released more than 20 songs. After beginning to explore YouTube in August 2015, Miller’s comedy skits and reaction videos played an important role in expanding his popularity. 

Miller’s online success allowed him to return to stand-up comedy, along with other endeavors. Apart from his work with Ko, Miller’s stand-up comedy show tours around the globe. He has performed at over 160 shows in the past two years. During the moderated segment of the event, Miller offered advice and insight into his comedy career. The event ended with a 15-minute student-led Q&A portion. Miller even surprised students by performing a part of his stand-up routine rather than doing the full 45 minutes of moderated questions. 

Miller spoke about his experiences in his stand-up comedy career and offered advice to people looking to pursue the career path. He said the key to having a successful set is starting with something you are passionate about. Miller says people can recognize when someone is being disingenuous on stage, and forming your routine based on what you care about will help connect you to the audience. 

According to Miller, including personal experiences can have a large impact on the success of your set. Miller recognized it can be hard to separate the personal experiences from your private life, and publicizing information about yourself can be difficult. He said for some people, comedy can be difficult in general –– some people are able to get by doing the bare minimum, while others have to put in more effort. 

As for what’s next for Miller, he said he would someday like to make a movie. Miller said he’s taken an interest in directing and that his brain has always just gone that way. 

Eli Smith, a junior philosophy major, said he enjoyed Miller’s surprise stand-up comedy routine. 

“I was really excited to see some of his stand-up material. I’ve been a huge fan of his YouTube channel, but I had yet to see any of his stand-up and I was thoroughly impressed. He was a lot funnier than I expected and I really enjoyed how he worked off the energy of the audience,” Smith said. 

On the day of the event, there was a standby line for students who did not receive tickets in advance. Sophia Gill, the lecture director for the Pitt Program Council and a sophomore political science major, said the event offered a more human look at Miller’s internet persona.

“I’m kind of excited to see people’s reactions to him. I think he’s a very genuinely funny person, someone that people get a lot of joy out of, someone that I personally have been a fan of for a while,” Gill said. “I think a lot of people have been his fan for a while, so they get to see him in person and to see him in an environment that’s different from a YouTube video or his podcast. You get to maybe even learn a little bit more about him and take a deeper meaning from what he has to say.” 

Gill said planning and organizing the event was a team effort. 

“My committee usually has about 20 people working. They’re all involved with the process, from drafting the name, to the questions, to working the night of the event. So they do everything from taking tickets, standing hands, they’re ushers, they’re moderating … we have a moderator on stage from the committee,” Gill said. “They pretty much along with me, kind of run the entire thing, put it together, the whole from the beginning as an idea to the end.”

Gill also said the process for booking Miller took months of coordinating and planning. 

“In terms of the length of the process, it’s months long, because from the idea to the event, it’s months of planning, of confirmation back and forth, of doing all this to narrow it down and to actually get it on the books,” Gill said.

Cynthia Cheng, the public relations director for the Pitt Program Council and a senior psychology and sociology major, said students can get involved in the process of organizing events.

“A lot of students really love and enjoy going to the events, and they don’t often know that they can actually be the ones who create the questions and help plan everything that goes into organizing everything from the start to the finish,” Cheng said.