Share Ur Scare at the Start of a New Era

As a content creator, Brennen Taylor spends a lot of his time coming up with ideas for videos and filming them. Whenever he’s not filming, however, he likes to enjoy one of the simpler pleasures: eating. “Growing up, I remember going to restaurants and ordering two cheeseburgers, or going to Burger King and ordering six packs of four-piece chicken nuggets and going crazy,” he says. “Honestly, I am one of those people that just loves to eat. Like, I can’t stop eating.”

When the novel coronavirus first started to make waves in the United States, Taylor used his love for food as inspiration to start a new video series on his YouTube channel of him finding viral TikTok cooking hacks and testing them to see if they are “real” or “fake” – from STARBURST-coated popcorn to homemade Chick-fil-A pizza. Starting the series during the pandemic, he says, was a step in the right direction, allowing him to continue to provide content for his fans while also giving him the opportunity to pursue his personal passions. “I was fortunate enough to be able to kind of get by all of these months, because I had already built a fan base that enjoys watching me cook food,” he shares. “I feel like COVID has impacted things in a way, but at the same time, I try to look for the best in everything. We have a lot of free time now. And since we’re at home, we should use that time wisely.”

Putting his time to good use in the COVID era, in September, together with his brother, Jake Taylor, he launched a weekly podcast, SUS: Share Ur Scare. Each episode dives deep into what he describes as all things “thrilling, chilling, and paranormal.” They have had guests, such as Kevin Yagher, who designed and executed the original Chucky doll from the Child’s Play franchise, and Jason Hawes, who is best known for TV shows like Ghost Nation and Ghost Hunters. One of his scariest experiences was featured on an earlier episode of the podcast, where he and Corey Scherer, who is a dancer and social-media star, discussed a near-fatal incident that occurred while on a trip to Hawaii in 2016. “During our trip, we got into a really bad jet-ski accident, and he ended up breaking nine of his ribs, having his spleen twisted, and getting his lung punctured, and basically almost got paralyzed from the crash,” he says of Scherer’s near-death experience. “I think that was the scariest story that we had to talk about, because it was the first time we ever talked about it. I feel like that one was pretty scary in its own way – because I lived through it.”

Although this past year has proved to be anything but ordinary in the middle of the worst global pandemic in a century, Taylor says that he has used this time to reflect on himself and has become a better person because of it. “I think what I’ve learned from this is that this is all about spending time with yourself, getting to know yourself, and loving yourself,” he affirms. “And I think it’s good for everyone to have this time, because after this is all over, people are going to say, ‘I wish I had more time for this,’ or ‘I wish I had more time for that.’ That’s all we have right now, so we’ve got to enjoy it while we can.”

Writer: Hannah Fitzpatrick

Photographer & Videographer: Haldane Morris

Stylist: Jake Taylor

Editor: Eiko Watanabe

Special thanks to EPK Media (@myepk & @epkmedia - epkmedia.com)