Beyond The Bedazzled Hat: A Conversation With Max Zavidow
Toilet Read writer Andrew Greene sits down with popular TikTok star, Max Zavidow, for a conversation about comedy, branding, and autonomy.
It wasn’t until 15 minutes into our conversation that I looked down at Max Zavidow’s shirt. It was a white t-shirt with blue writing, designed by Max himself, that simply said “I’VE GOT THE RUNS”. I started chuckling but quickly realized that the laughter did not particularly jive well with the story that he was telling me.
Max was recounting a story about how a magic mushroom trip that he did on a ranch in California opened his eyes to the fact that he had the autonomy to do whatever he wanted to do with his life. Instead of continuing to work until 3:00am in the investment banking industry, this mushroom experience, along with some other formative ones, showed him that alternative career pathways existed for him if he decided to use his newly rediscovered autonomy to pursue them.
Upon returning to New York following his mushroom trip, Max told me that his roommate said:
“I think that you’re wasting your razzle-dazzle on investment banking” to which Max gasped and excitedly replied, “He sees it too!”
From that moment on, Max has used his autonomy to leave the investment banking field and focus much of his efforts, instead, into the world of comedy.
Max Zavidow is a popular internet personality. His username on TikTok, where he has over 310,000 followers and over 16 million likes, is FormerTeenHeartthrob. When I asked him if he was actually a player in his younger years, as his username suggested, he jokingly assured me that he was still a heartthrob, but is no longer a teen, hence the word “former”.
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Max was kind enough to meet me at a chess table in the heart of StuyTown, a residential neighborhood in Manhattan, so that I could ask him some questions only a few days after I had recognized him outside of a Lebanese restaurant in the East Village. I was there to interview Max both as a “journalist” for Toilet Read, but also as someone who wants to follow a similar path that he followed, succeeding as a stand-up comedian and going mega viral on TikTok.
Stand-Up Comedy And TikTok
When I asked for some advice on how to improve as a stand-up comedian, Max emphasized that stage time is absolutely crucial when it comes to honing your comedic skills.
“At first,” Max said, “you’re gonna feel not funny. But hopefully that makes you dig a little bit deeper.”
Recently, though, Max has shifted gears away from stand-up comedy, choosing instead to dedicate more of his time towards creating content on TikTok. “I still love it [stand-up comedy], but I’m getting things from TikTok that would take years and years and years to get through stand-up, in terms of discovery.”
Max’s content on TikTok varies from video to video. Some are rhythmic and comedic reinventions of popular trends like Irish chants or sea shanties, some are candid interviews that Max arranges with his ex-lovers, some are bits of his old stand-up routines repurposed specifically for his TikTok audience. All of the videos are funny. Most of them are raunchy. And none of them lack some sort of comedic twist.
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The Hat
Another interesting thing about Max is the distinct hat that he wears in most of his videos. It’s a bedazzled denim hat with the words “NEW YORK” written in literal rhinestones across the front panel. The hat is a distinct part of his brand that I still have mixed feelings about, stylistically speaking. Max, who is always trying to plan ahead, in terms of content creation, says that he wears the hat 90% of the time that he’s out of the apartment just in case inspiration strikes.
Max does not act alone, though, nor does he wear the hat alone. He is a part of a team of content creators called ‘The New Money Uglies’, a group that includes Max, Jack Reichert, Ryan Arrison, and Kane Daniel.
The four of them, together, got the hats from a touristy shop in Little Italy. They were preparing to pitch a pilot that they had created to a prominent production company. Naturally, therefore, the foursome each decided to wear a suit and tie to the important meeting… along with the bedazzled hats. The bit was successful and Max, Jack, Ryan, and Kane had the production company representatives laughing from the get-go.
The Future
Like any good interviewer (which I, most definitely am), I finished our conversation by asking Max to tell me about some of his goals for the future.
In terms of TikTok, Max says that he and his group are just getting started.
“When I’m with them [The New Money Uglies] I never fear a shortage of ideas, which was my biggest fear when I started.”
With the help of his friends, half-baked ideas are brought to life and new concepts are born from the creative process.
Further down the line, Max says that he wants to remain “in front of the camera” and host a show on TikTok and, perhaps even, create a show that can be housed on a streaming platform.
When we stood up to part ways, I finally understood the “I’VE GOT THE RUNS” t-shirt. Turns out, Max wasn’t talking about diarrhea, after all. The shirt, instead, was meant to commemorate the first ever marathon that he ran. He’s a pretty clever guy, if I do say so myself, and I look forward to seeing his account continue to grow until the final NEW YORK rhinestone falls off of his bedazzled denim cap.
For more content, check out Max Zavidow, AKA FormerTeenHeartthrob, on social media.
really tied it all together 🤝
splendid conclusion