Have you seen this video yet?

Well as of this very moment, it has been watched 2,565,263 times. What about this one?

It has been watched 2,874,420 times. These videos, and many more like them were created by Corey Vidal, a 21 year old amateur dancer and official YouTube partner who hails from Hamilton, ON. The first video features Corey lip-syncing the four different acapella parts of a song entitled, "Star Wars." The song was originally created as a tribute to John Williams by Utah-based comedy group, Moosebutter, and given to Corey in order to produce what you see here. The second video was created to satisfy one of the numerous requests he gets from his estimated 15-20,000 visits a day. So what's so special about Corey?

Well, since posting his first video in 2006, Corey has risen to become one of the most-watched people on the most-watched website on the planet. He has garnered a number of YouTube "honors" including:

- #3 Most Subscribed (All Time) - Gurus - Canada
- #19 Most Subscribed (All Time) - Partners - Canada
- #57 Most Viewed (This Month)

What began as a hobby creating simple dance instruction videos has since turned into a profitable, dare I say, 'business' for Mr. Vidal. He is a member of the coveted YouTube Partnership Program whereby Google Inc. (owner of YouTube) shares ad revenue with users who create uber-popular original content for the site. And with these two videos Vidal has managed to hit YouTube gold not only once, but twice (if not many more times with the 86 other videos he's currently posted).

While YouTube partners have to sign a 12-page non-disclosure agreement swearing that they won't reveal how much they actually earn, Vidal says that it's enough to "do YouTube 'for a living'... and spend the money however I see fit." (http://dance.aexian.com/). The first video in this post was featured on YouTube Canada (Nov. 3, 2008) and YouTube Worldwide (Nov. 6, 2008) and has since spawned all kinds of media attention and spoofs. It was even featured on starwars.com!

And lastly, before this Star Wars mayhem was even a glimmer in his eye, Vidal was also the host of the 888 YouTube Gathering which took place here in Toronto on August 8, 2008. The gathering was produced by Vidal with the help of YouTube and brought together some of the site's biggest 'cewebrities.'

Want to see more? Here are some of Corey's links:

YouTube
Website

I wonder how much money I've made for Vidal in the process of researching this posting? "Kiss a wookie, kick a droid! Fly the falcon through an asteroid!"

Have some videos with a Toronto twist you want me to write about on this site? Just send your suggestions to jake [at] blogto [dotcom] or add a comment below.