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CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Pull up a YouTube video of Danny Coleman, and kids may yell out "Danny Go!"
With 308,000 subscribers and millions of views on his YouTube channel, creating content for the platform has now become Coleman's full-time job.
Born and raised in Charlotte, Coleman’s first job out of college was working for Lowe's, which he did for nearly 13 years.
“I ended up shooting a décor series,” Coleman told WCNC Charlotte Anchor Sarah French. “It was a friend of mine that was seeing me do those videos for Lowe's. He had young kids, and so, he was kind of familiar with what was on YouTube. And he was kind of like, 'You know, I think you could do this in the kid space and do really well.'”
His friend ended up being right.
“The Floor is Lava [video] has, like, I think, 27 million [views] right now, which is our biggest," Coleman said. "We made a second one like a month ago that already has 25 million, so he'll probably be the new king up there."
Coleman admits it's hard to wrap his head around numbers like 25 million views.
“I don't even,” Coleman said laughing. “It's beyond. I can't picture. When ... we were getting 500,000 views, that was almost more like I could picture a stadium of 5,000 kids. Wow! It's incredible! I don't even know what 27 million looks like. That's wild to me.”
And he’s doing it all side-by-side with his two childhood best friends.
“We just kind of pulled into the Danny Go! team that is the team today,” Coleman said.
They tape almost all the videos in his garage in front of a blue screen.
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“It's kind of shoestring I guess,” Coleman said laughing about the production. “It’s not a huge operation. But we're having fun, and we're trying to put up a ton of videos.”
Coleman said he's more inspired by what the platform does to help him raise awareness for something very important to him.
“I have two sons: Isaac is 11. Levi is 7,” Coleman explained. “My son, Isaac, was born with a pretty serious genetic disorder that had kind of a lot of effects on his body. Like, he's missing some bones. He's had a bone marrow transplant. He's had a kidney transplant. So he's had a crazy life. He's an incredible kid. He's super tough.”
WCNC Charlotte first profiled Isaac and his need for a bone marrow transplant in 2015. Isaac is his motivation to keep the YouTube content coming.
“There's a piece of me that kind of enjoys growing a platform with Danny Go! because there's a lot of causes I care about that, you know, causes that chose me, like, Be The Match,” Coleman said. “We had to wait a long time to get a good match for him. So like, I'm very passionate about more people joining that registry in kidney donation, or any kind of organ donation, like I'm an organ donor. And we had to wait a long time for a kidney as well.”
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Looking back, it’s hard for Coleman to believe how far everything has come.
He walked French around the very first place where they pressed record on a Danny Go! video: Roosevelt Wilson Park in Davidson.
“We've become a very musical kids' show, and I just think it's funny," Coleman shared. "Like, right off the bat, we couldn't do anything but music. We were in a band together growing up, and we just like gravitate right back to music.”
These childhood friends continue to turn original music every two weeks.
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“It's just kind of fun to look back on it because it was just complete experimentation, not any pressure at all,” Coleman said. “But it's fun to think about. It's become our jobs.”
Coleman said he hopes one day the Danny Go! team can go on tour, maybe starting with a school tour, even. Until then, they will keep just making videos.
In the meantime, Danny Go! fans can request a visit from Danny Go Cameo.
For more information on Be The Match and organ donation, visit the Be The Match website.
Contact Sarah French at Sarah@wcnc.com and follow her on Facebook and Twitter and Instagram.
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