Have you seen this Pembroke native on TikTok? More than half a million other people have.
Akira Kyles
Like most kids, Sam Bailey's 12-year-old son got wrapped up in the world of TikTok. Together, they started a TikTok in hopes of making it a father and son page.
Bailey, 39, a Pembroke native who co-owns Eye Candy Photography in Lumberton with his wife, started making videos to help his son accrue more followers, but ended up taking over as @Theofficialsambailey. In less than six months, he gained more than half a million followers.
"It was completely new to me, but I jumped on, seemed pretty interesting," he said. "Him and I would do videos together and within a week or so I was starting to blow up. Every single month I was gaining almost 100,000 followers."
Bailey's videos mainly consist of him lip-syncing jokes from famous comedians, a tactic that has gained him more than seven million likes on the platform.
The popularity of his videos took Bailey by surprise.
"It was really a whirlwind," he said. "It's kind of caught me off-guard. I wasn't expecting it to be what it is."
Related:Fayetteville native Vic Blends, celebrity barber and entrepreneur, returns to South View
Bailey said he makes videos daily, sometimes twice a day, and contrary to what most people think, it doesn't take him long.
"I'm one of those people that I can hear something one time and be able to say it back to you almost word for word," he said. "I've always been that way. So, I listen to it and usually I'll get it on my first try, sometimes second try and I'm done. I probably invest anywhere between five to eight minutes to TikTok a day."
Comedy tour
As his followers grew, Bailey was invited on a comedy tour in New Orleans and Mississippi.
Bailey was invited to another tour, the "Unfiltered tour," recently with other TikTokers. The tour will start next month in Indianapolis and will make a stop in Greensboro on Oct. 23. According to Bailey, the tour will include stand-up comedy, improv and the influencers roasting each other.
Through his increased popularity, people now recognize him when he's out, which is something he said he's still getting used to.
"It's weird. The thing that I just have the most trouble wrapping my head around about it is it's TikTok," he said. "It's not like doing a movie or performing music as a musician or something like that. But people are so consumed in the TikTok realm right now that TikTok is a huge, huge entity in this world in this time."
Bailey said he's usually stopped to have his picture taken by those who recognize him.
When people ask him about how he does his lip-syncing, he says he replies that he just does what he likes.
"What worked for me is finding something I was good at," he said. "I love comedy, and I'm a huge Kevin Hart fan. Out of everybody, I mean Kevin Hart is my all-time favorite comedian. I really studied how Kevin acts, whether it be in a film or on stage. I tried to take his personality and mix them with my own to be able to develop the expressions that I display."
Bailey lip-syncs over comedians other than Hart including Jeff Dunham, Ron White, Larry the Cable Guy and Eddie Murphy.
Tickets for the Unfiltered tour are on sale for $25 to $125 at www.unfilteredtour.com/index.asp.
Staff writer Akira Kyles can be reached at akyles@gannett.com.
Support local journalism with a subscription to The Fayetteville Observer. Click the "subscribe'' link at the top of this article.