Get ready for the queen of the unicorns, Las Vegas. Jenna Marbles is about to break the seal on a new season of debauchery at Ghostbar Dayclub, and she might just do it in a kangaroo onesie and a sequined fanny pack.
Taking time out of her busy day drawing on revealing eyebrows, tweeting jabs at the cable company and entertaining her millions of YouTube subscribers, Ms. Marbles welcomed me into the “weird-ass f*cking place” that is her brain.
Have you been to GBDC before? I’ve been to the Palms before, but I’ve never been to Ghostbar Dayclub, so I’m pretty pumped up about it, not gonna lie.
The fact that you say you’re a unicorn on your website—you should know there are many rubber unicorn heads that are gonna be in that crowd. GBDC is this delightful, messed-up Wonderland, and the crazier you dress and the more fun you have the more awesome it is, because the go-go girls are walking around with prizes and bubble guns and drinks and handcuffs, and they reward you for it. Oh my god. This sounds exactly like my dream.
As host of the opening party, are you planning to put on a little show? Are you going to sit there and be fanned by people? What’s happening? For the most part, if anybody wants a hug then I just f*cking hug people. Because I don’t want to sit there and just be like, “Hey guys, I’m here.” That’s totally not my thing. I’m more like, “Yeah! Get up here and get a hug and get selfies! Let’s hug it out!” So if anything it’s probably just gonna be like a free-for-all of hugs and slow dancing.
Are you wearing a hug-appropriate outfit, something that will encourage snuggling? I don’t know what I’m wearing yet, but I’ve got a couple of onesies: I’ve got a flying squirrel onesie; I’ve got a kangaroo onesie. I’m concerned that it might be a little hot for it, but now that I know I can wear something awesome, that changes the game.
I wore an actual fanny pack from back in the day to GBDC. It was gold lamé, just so you know. The bar is high. I have a sequined fanny pack.
That will fit right in. And I have seen your kangaroo onesie, in your segment in bed with Joan Rivers. What was it like to have this moment with this icon? This woman who was not afraid to say anything, who offended every person on this planet at some point or another and didn’t censor herself, kinda the way that you don’t. Honestly, it was probably one of the most surreal things that I’ve ever done. As a young girl, my mom and I used to watch some of her stuff together. ... Having a teenage daughter and a mom, you know, there’s so much tension there all the time, so being able to laugh and see someone that gives no f*cks together really helped us bond. So it was so amazing to be in the same room with someone that meant something to my life. Then after she passed it was so sad for me. She meant a lot to my childhood growing up. Just to be around her was so unbelievable, just insane. She was everything you could ever want her to be.
I watched her on Fashion Police, and she would say things where I would just cringe and think, if anyone else was saying this they would be on the news, on CNN the next day, and they would be apologizing. But she could say anything. Obviously you’ve gotten in trouble for saying certain things, talking about sluts and having people react to you, but is there something you also do that helps you get away with it? I think sometimes it has to do with the fact that YouTube’s kind of new media. We don’t have any people that are gonna call us out on bullsh*t or say, “Hey, that’s really f*cked up that you said that.” It’s starting to happen more now, so I feel like you can’t get away with just completely having no filter whatsoever. But I still am like, you know what, if I think something and I’m gonna stand by it until forever, I’m still gonna say it. And whatever anybody else has to say about it, I’ll take it into consideration, but then also, f*ck you. (laughs) We don’t have any sort of CNN. Nobody really cares about the Internet right now. They’re like, yeah, they all just say whatever they want all the time and no one cares. They’re underground.
One of the things I love about online commenters is the way they can aggressively miss the point of whatever it is they’re commenting on. On your What Disney Movies Taught Me Part 2 post, there were people who got into a really sincere conversation about Disney princesses and who actually has freckles. It’s ridiculous. It’s a little bit of a minefield when you get in there. You're like, should I respond to some of this? Nah, I think I’m just gonna let this one play out. It doesn’t even matter if I throw my two cents in ’cause they’re like, “No, I zoomed in on this picture and you can totally see her freckles.” I’m like, guys, forget it. Just forget it. I want visible freckles!
You seem really close to your viewers in the videos that you post that are more serious, like your 200th. But how much are you communicating with your fans at this point? I get in there as much as humanly possible. Between YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Vine—there’s just so many platforms for me to get in there and try and be a part of it as much as I can. But at some point during the day I’m like, you know, I think I’m just gonna shut off and maybe watch some TV and just be a human being. Because you could go in endlessly. But I try to devote as much time as I can because that’s what makes it so fun. There was this one person that loved to comment on all of my Instagram pictures, like: “She has pretty small tits for a fat chick.” They also did it on like every person’s Instagram ever, regardless of whether it was a picture of a human being or not. So I was like, oh man, I really gotta get in there and just say anything because I respect that hustle! (laughs) It’s like a picture of a tree: “She has pretty small tits for a fat chick.” I respect you. You’re on it.
One of your videos I watched recently was How Girls Take a Shower, and I was wondering if you wrote the script before you got in the shower or if you just acted like a weirdo in there and then came up with the one-liners later. Any ones where I have a voiceover, I’ll shoot a bunch of stuff, I’ll have a loose idea or some shots that I really want to get. But then a lot of it is just in the voiceover, whatever I think might match that, that might be particularly relevant at the time. So there’s some of it that’s planned and then there’s a lot of it that I just throw in there because I think it looks funny or it sounds funny.
In your What a Girl’s Eyebrows Mean, you said that your lips are the Las Vegas of your face, which I appreciate. That’s right; they’re sexual.
In another video about shoes, you also said that the platform flip-flop is associated with Las Vegas, which it totally is, but that’s one of those things where I’m like, “Gah! Noooooo!” You live in LA, I don’t know how often you come here, but how do you view Las Vegas? I think I’ve been there five times now, and my experience with Vegas is that it’s not quite as glamorous as I thought. I’m from the East Coast, so you think of it as like The Hangover, you wear a suit and go out. And then when you get there, it’s like a lot of tourists and you're like, okay, I guess this makes sense. … Some of the suburbs of Las Vegas are so amazing, and they feel totally not like the Strip, and there’s amazing dog parks and restaurants, and then when you want to go in town and you want to go and rage and party, you can. It’s sort of like an incredible place that I didn’t realize was quite so amazing, ’cause I always thought Vegas was just the Strip. But all of Las Vegas is actually a really cool place, and there’s some really good people there. So I’ve had very positive experiences in Las Vegas.
We have some of the best go-go dancing, which you've done. I’m retired; I’ve been retired since I was 23. But it was the best part-time job ever. You get a workout, you get to dance and hang out and then just go home, and it’s just a really fantastic time. You do have to get a little creative. I would say my style of go-go dancing was definitely a little bit more “entertainment,” because I would get away with a lot of stuff that wasn’t, "Hey I’m a hot girl, look at me." We used to have a big long runway at this one place I worked at and I would do the worm; I would f*cking do whatever I wanted. In my opinion—and this is why I feel like I kept getting hired for gigs—as long as the people were having a great time and feeling like they were being entertained live, I was like, I’m just gonna light it up right now.
How do you do the worm in a go-go outfit? That seems dangerous. We would just wear bras and underwear and fishnets and the furry boots, so you just do it live. You just do it. Face your fears.
Speaking of outfits, your leggings post was one of my favorites because I also have an addiction problem. I made a New Year’s resolution that I was going to wear actual pants, and I lasted about two weeks. I’m the same way. I can’t go back. Why would I wear these pants? They feel so weird and not comfortable! I want my leggings. In a lot of my old videos, you can totally just see my whole ass in them. I’m like, it is what it is, because I’m being economical. What’s the problem here? What’s the worst-case scenario, you can see my ass? My ass is cool, so, whatever.
I discovered you through a friend who’s much cooler than I am, and it was during a time in my life when I was really, really sad. The first video she showed me was the face, then Drunk Makeup Tutorial, because she wanted me to laugh. And then we watched Draw My Life. I was Sad Erin, and I was so in it with you. It really mattered to me and helped me to feel like I wasn’t a sad sack all by myself. That’s exactly why I make YouTube videos, ’cause that’s exactly how I felt, and then I put that out into the world and I got the energy back that was like, you’re not alone. So I get as much from it as anybody that watches it does.
You seem really happy now, and your new guy is adorable. I am happy. And he’s an angel sent from heaven, that one. He let me put makeup on him to make him look like Kim Kardashian. He dresses up like a girl every other week.
Does he look like Kim with makeup on? He looks better than Kim. He looks better than all of us. It’s not fair.
You’re a pro with makeup, but do you do the intense eyeliner every day? Because I don't understand how that goes with leggings. No way. I literally look like the bad guy from The Da Vinci Code every day in my leggings, but then I’m shocked because I’ve made enough videos of me looking like that people will still recognize me, and I’m like, “How did you even know it was me? I totally look like I got beat with an ugly stick today!” They’re like, “Oh Jenna, I know what you look like.” I’m like, “Aww, you know the real me, bae. You know the real me.”
You seem naturally unselfconscious, but did you ever hesitate to show yourself in certain states? The first video that I made, I made with no makeup on, like straight-up nothing on my face for How to Trick People Into Thinking You’re Good Looking. So I was like, well, it’s all downhill from there. I mean, it’s already all out there, so I got nothing to be ashamed of at this point. (laughs)
Given your master's in psychology, you know a few things about human behavior. Do you think there’s anything different about fame that springs from the Internet versus fame that springs from Hollywood? It’s 100 percent different. People on the Internet—YouTube and Vine and all of that—we’re not on a pedestal. We’re doing something that anyone can do, so our relationship with our viewers is very much like, we’re on the same level. Which is why I feel like when you meet people in person it’s not like: “Oh my god, I worship you.” It’s like we’re friends. We’re already friends—we already know each other. So it’s totally different, and the meeting in person is just as rewarding for us as it is for them. ... Because you can sit behind a computer all day; that’s the easy part. It’s going out and meeting them, and then having that hug and having that real moment, that makes everything worth it and amazing.
One of the messages at the end of your 200th video was: “I’ll always be here.” I know you probably didn’t mean that literally, but are you going to be available and online for the foreseeable future? I actually do kind of mean that quite literally, because I’m trying really hard to stay on the Internet. I have a hard time following other people’s rules, so I’m trying not to transition into traditional media for as long as I can, to keep a roof over my head just doing the Internet thing because it’s what makes me happy and I get to be my own boss and I get to do whatever I want, which is f*cking incredible. Until anything drastic happens, I think that’s just how I’m going to live my life.
When you and Joan were chatting, you talked about Pamela Harriman dying at the Ritz Hotel pool and being wrapped in what Joan saw as the ultimate—peach towels. I loved her line about always going to bed looking good in case she was found dead, and I’m wondering what you’d like to be found dead in. You mean, aside from peach towels? Because once she said that and painted that image in my head, I mean, what’s the next best thing, turquoise towels? Like a nice aqua-teal? Yeah, that’s it. Wherever Joan Rivers is in her peach towels, I’ll just be there in my turquoise towels, maybe stained from the laundry and stuff ’cause I wash all my colors and whites together. But yeah, just some beautiful, fluffy towels.
I hope you have fun in Vegas, and I hope you get on the bar at GBDC and do the worm. I think everybody would poop their pants. F*ck yeah.
Ghostbar Dayclub Launch Party Hosted by Jenna Marbles. October 18, 1 p.m., $10; local ladies free. Palms, 702-942-6832
