‘Full Send:’ The NELK boys take on Tallahassee

If fame, money and pleasure are the currency of social media, then the NELK boys are drowning in wealth. Peering into their lives on their TikTok, Snapchat and Instagram accounts, you will see modern day rock stars living the sweet life: loud parties, expensive liquor, foreign cars and supermodels — the exciting stuff that young, thrill-seeking college students, the NELK boys’ target demographic, dream about. 

In fact, I would go so far to say that what the Jonas Brothers are to teenage girls, the NELK boys are to fraternity brothers, especially if they go to one of the nation’s top party schools — Florida State University. Taking this into account, a plan to have the NELK boys come to Tallahassee is basically a no-brainer.

In November of 2020, they came. Their arrival at Potbelly’s was welcomed with hospitable, drunken crowds of their most die-hard Tallahassee fans. Jump forward around ten months and they have returned. But before we get into it, here is a little background on the NELK boys for those who are not too familiar with the magic words, “Full Send.”

At the heart of the NELK boys is their eponymous YouTube channel, “NELK.” Serving as an acronym for founding members Nick, Elliot, Lucas and Kyle, the channel is populated by video logs of their daily lives and videos of the boys pulling hysterically crude pranks on unsuspecting strangers.

The prank videos, their most popular form of content, primarily revolve around life’s most captivating subject matters: sex, money and drugs. Some examples of pranks include “Trying To Use Monopoly Money At A Vegas Casino,” “We Got Our Virgin Fan To Pump in Miami” and the classic, “Coke Prank on Cops,” where the boys tell L.A. cops they have “coke” and are subsequently arrested, only to reveal it is the soda, as opposed to the illegal drug.

Enter Sept. 19, the second arrival of the NELK boys in Tallahassee. As marked by their simple itinerary on Instagram, the boys are taking Tallahassee with a two-pronged attack occurring in the afternoon and then at night — the Sunday Funday pool party on Recess’ high balcony and then a late evening frolic at Warehouse.

Due to prior commitments, I was unfortunately unable to attend the pool party. However, I was able to take quite a bite out of the NELK boys’ late-night presence at Warehouse.

Going to Warehouse, I was quite aware of how this NELK visit served much more of a commercial purpose compared to last year’s visit. Instagram promotions were less about how NELK was coming to Tallahassee, and more about how NELK’s new “Happy Dad '' hard seltzer was coming to Tallahassee; A sponsored trip from some corporate advertising agency, how kind of them.

Upon entry into the nightclub, one of NELK’s lesser members, Nick Nayers, could be seen encamped by a horde of fans. Like a preacher standing on his soapbox but instead of delivering prayers, Nick indiscriminately chucked cans of the aforementioned hard seltzer into a sea of thirsty hands.

Overall, I say we welcome the NELK boys into Tallahassee at any time, no matter the motive. Interviewing some of the clubbers, they told me many gratifications regarding the NELK boys such as “they are lit,” “I like their money” and “they are nice to their fans.” The boys dapped people up, took selfies and offered free drinks. That night you could truly feel the full send.