- Jason Nash is one of the members of the Vlog Squad — a mega-famous group on YouTube who gain millions of views.
- The Squad appear most famously in David Dobrik's iconic 4-minute 20-second videos, although every other member has their own channels with millions of subscribers too.
- Nash told Insider he has the "best job in the world" because "it's our real lives with comedy mixed in, and that's my favorite stuff."
- But it also comes with challenges, like balancing YouTube with spending time with his kids, burning out from thinking of ideas, and knowing what to share with his audience about his private life.
- "I do worry about it catching up, but it doesn't seem to because we have so many members of our group," Nash told Insider. "We all have each other's back. We're really blessed in that regard in that we all help each other."
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Jason Nash used to answer the phones when he was an assistant at "Saturday Night Live," but now he's part of a mega-famous group on YouTube where he might have to drop everything and fly to Vegas on an hour's notice, or enlist a friend to suffer through a gross prank for money.
Nash, who has about 2.5 million subscribers on YouTube, told Insider about the time he was going to film his friend Joe eat his toenail for $500, but they lost it down the drain when they were attempting to clean it.
"We had to call a plumber, and then the plumber came at midnight and searched through drain, and then eventually we found the toenail," he said. "I love stuff like that."
Anything could happen at any time with the Vlog Squad
Nash is part of the Vlog Squad, who appear most famously in David Dobrik's iconic 4-minute 20-second videos, although every other member has their own channels with millions of subscribers too. Other members include Josh Peck, Erin Gilfoy, Carly Incontro, and Zane Hijazi.
"The videos that we make, especially the ones I do with David, they're pretty high intensity, so there's always these crazy requests going on," Nash said. "Like, we need a tank of hydrochloric acid and a thousand ping pong balls, and we need it in an hour."
One time they flew to Vegas to bet $10,000 on red in roulette because Nash's nanny needed a fence for her new house — and they won.
"It's stuff like that, that makes it the best job in the world," he said. "People really connect with that kind of stuff. To me, it's the ideal bridge of comedy because it is real life too. It's our real lives with comedy mixed in, and that's my favorite stuff."
Nash is also a stand-up comedian who has worked with Norm McDonald, Adam Sandler, and Will Ferrell, and he has just finished a tour around the US. But his videos are much slower paced than Dobrik's action-packed ones. He often talks to his subscribers about his day, what he's going to film, and anything else that's going on in his life.
"I find it really therapeutic," he said. "What's really therapeutic is when you say something and then someone will comment or come to your show and tell you that they had the same experience."
Balancing YouTube with personal life can be challenging
Nash has two children himself, Charley and Wyatt, so many other parents watch his videos. He said he appreciates it when they come up to him to say they understand what he's going through.
"My main problem in life is just balancing my work and my kids," Nash said. "When I'm working I want to see my kids, and when I'm with my kids, you feel like you're missing out on something. But to see that that's every parent's problem — that's really therapeutic for me."
At first, Nash had trouble figuring out what to talk about and what to keep private, but overall he tries to share everything with his audience. For example, he was in a relationship with fellow YouTuber Trisha Paytas until their very public break-up earlier this year.
"Any relationship is a balance and on camera, it's hard," he said.
But it's not the drama most of his subscribers are after. They like to see him talking about his kids and showing them the process of buying his new house.
"People want the simplest things, and they just really connect with the simplest stuff," he said. "They ask, 'did Charley get the part in Frozen?' — That's my daughter — so they love all that stuff, and I love it too. And it just makes them feel connected to you, the more you share."
'It's great being a YouTuber, but then you burn out too'
Nash has a few characters that fans always request at his shows, which takes his YouTube life into the real world. But despite having many beloved skits and jokes, Nash knows one of the challenges of YouTube is that it never stops.
"It's great being a YouTuber, but then you burn out too," he said. "You kind of run out of ideas ... Literally today, I have to make a video for my channel, and I don't have one idea in my head. Not one."
He said one of his favorite shows is "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" which has the luxury of being pre-recorded and having a whole team of comedy writers.
"We never have that," he said. "That would be amazing because it's super hard. But yeah, I'll have to come up with something. We'll find something. We always do."
Another dilemma is knowing when to take time off. The Vlog Squad has reached such a massive level of success — racking up millions of views per week — it's hard to walk away from the camera for even a few days.
"Yeah, I struggle with that probably more than anybody," Nash said. "We all feel like we're so lucky to have an audience and have people want to watch us. And it doesn't feel like the time to take time off."
He said he goes from the video to his kids, then back to the videos "and that's it."
"I do worry about it catching up, but it doesn't seem to because we have so many members of our group," he said. "We all have each other's back. We're really blessed in that regard in that we all help each other."
He said his favorite videos to film involve the "real-life stuff," which he learned from watching Howard Stern since he was a teenager. But "real life" doesn't exactly always mean "easy going." In one recent video, Nash hunted down Jeff Wittek and Nick "Jonah" Antonyan with a Nerf gun when they went out to get pumpkins and ambushed them.
"It came out really funny, 'cause Jonah had all these pumpkins in this motorcycle sidecar," Nash said. "So stuff like that, it's always so much fun."
Insider asked Nash how new people are invited into the squad, which he took as me asking whether I could join. I said it sounded a bit too intense.
"Yeah, it's probably too intense for me too," he said.
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