About eight months ago, Liam Kyle Sullivan took what he called “a big risk” and put a video of himself on YouTube.com.
“I thought this could either be really amazing or really embarrassing,” Sullivan said in a phone interview.
The video is called “Shoes” and has been viewed more than 16 million times. Sullivan has since added several videos, including “Text Message Breakup” and “Muffins,” in which he portrays different characters. However, “Shoes” and Kelly, the persona he plays in multiple videos, have become his trademark. Their popularity has spread across the country.
Freshman Elizabeth Eckel said she first heard about the video last year from her choir teacher in her hometown of Indianapolis. She said people at her high school, especially those in the performing arts department, were talking about the video and reciting Kelly’s lines.
“They’d be like, ‘Oh my God, shoes,’ and I was like, ‘What are you guys talking about?’” Eckel said. “So they showed me and when I came to Bloomington I showed my friends.”