From hosting eating contests with grizzly bears to running for Mayor of London, launching religions to cooking ready meals in active volcanoes, Max Fosh lives a stranger life than most. Over seven years of creating some of the most unique videos on YouTube, he has amassed over one billion views, and a subscriber count greater than the population of Croatia.
And now the YouTube star is once again delving into the world of stand up comedy, with his new global tour, Loophole. Ahead of his visit to Exeter, Max spoke to me about the journey so far, and what we can expect from the new show.
Max makes no secret of his privileged upbringing. Born to parents in the finance world, he grew up in London and attended Harrow, the private school that has turned out no fewer than seven Prime Ministers, including Winston Churchill. But much like comedians Jack Whitehall and David Mitchell, rather than seeing it as a hindrance, Max has weaponised his poshness to striking comedic advantage.
After leaving sixth form in 2013, he studied English Literature at Newcastle University, and it was here that his YouTube journey began. At the start of his final year, Max uploaded his first video, the inaugural instalment in a series of man-on-the-street interviewing pieces known as ‘StreetSmart’. The videos saw a bemused Max interviewing students on nights out in the city centre, with hilarious (and frequently slurring) results.
Asked why he first decided to pick up a camera he said, “I had done a lot of student and hospital radio, and thought that I should get some video under my belt. I saw the format of interviewing students was popular online…so I thought, why don’t I do my own version? In freshers week of my last year I did five videos in five days – filming in the evening, editing in the day, posting and then repeating. After those five days I thought hey, let’s just keep going with this.”
Max would later take the series on tour to universities around the country. He remarks how he finds it “bonkers” that some students (including myself) have used the series to help inform their university choice. Asked if StreetSmart would ever make a return Max replied, “Maybe, but not with unis. I can’t be the 29 year old bloke wandering around unis interviewing students.”
“I can’t be the 29 year old bloke wandering around unis interviewing students.”
After a couple of years, Max branched out from the interviewing format into the kind of videos which are now his speciality – a creative ethos that can be best distilled as ‘making ridiculous ideas into reality’. He is perhaps best known for the infamous ‘Welcome to Luton’ prank of 2022, where he displayed the prank message in huge letters on land adjacent to the Gatwick runway, making incoming passengers think they were landing at the wrong airport. The stunt elevated him to another level of fame, as it saw him make headlines and bulletins across the country.
Yet Max says the video he’s most proud of came in July 2023, when he flew to Reykjavik and trekked six hours up an erupting volcano, all so that he could warm up a frozen supermarket chicken korma in a lava flow. You may (reasonably) ask, why? To which he would presumably reply, why not? And even though there are many, many valid answers to that question, he does it anyway. Which is precisely what makes his videos so great.
Max believes the key to the success of his videos is the juxtaposition – “it’s all about contrast. You take something that everybody knows and you flip it and do it in the most unique place.” And given his triumphs in the YouTube scene, I asked what advice he had for aspiring creators.
“Just make things. Don’t keep sitting there waiting for the perfect idea. Constantly make things. YouTube is about constantly trying to figure out what you’re good at, improving 1% every time you upload. Create things you like to make, about things that interest you because it takes a long, long time before any of the money rolls in.”
“Create things you like to make, about things that interest you, because it takes a long, long time before any of the money rolls in.”
Max has always loved performing, and in 2019, he embarked on a new challenge – writing, performing and later taking on tour his own stand up comedy show, Zocial Butterfly. Having enjoyed himself and learned a lot the first time around, he’s now back for round two. And this time, he’s going global, hitting venues everywhere from Antwerp to Auckland.
Describing the new show, he said, “A lot of the videos I make are about trying to find loopholes in everyday life. I managed to compete in the Mr Universe bodybuilding competition without doing any training, so I’m pretty good at it. About a year ago, I came across one that I believe no one’s ever thought of before, and thought, why don’t I explore this on stage. You’re going to be getting a loophole for the ages by coming to the show.”
His comedy heroes include Bill Bailey, Jack Dee and Bo Burnham, although he likens his style to Joe Lycett, because of the “storytelling elements and the shithousery.”
But despite his early successes in live comedy, he made it clear that he’s not fully crossed the Rubicon – “I’m not trying to now break into the stand up world, I just want to perform in front of people. I’m not leaving the Youtube space for stand up at all. They complement each other. The only reason people buy tickets is because they watch the videos.”
On October 1st, Loophole is coming to campus. Max has fond memories of his first show in Exeter, at the Corn Exchange, and is excited to be returning, this time to the Northcott Theatre.
He joked, “I haven’t been to Exeter in a long time, but it’s always nice to come back and see all the gilets.” As a former Harrovian, he’ll fit right in.
Tickets are still available for ‘Max Fosh: Loophole’ – 19:30, Tuesday October 1st at the Northcott Theatre. Tickets are £26 and can be found here.
