Creators on the Rise: Misha Brown takes on the world’s biggest flops

Welcome to Creators on the Rise, where we find and profile breakout creators who are in the midst of extraordinary growth. You can check out previous installments here.

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Misha Brown almost got eaten by a walrus in Antarctica.

But it’s fine. Totally fine. He survived. (Barely.)

And because he survived, he’s now around to tell us all about the world’s biggest flops.

Let’s back up a second, though. The reason he was in Antarctica in the first place is because, pre-pandemic, he spent a lot of time working as a performer on cruise ships. The schedule was brutal–contracts often last several months, and as Brown puts it, that means staffers both “live and work at work” with extremely tight schedules and multiple daily performances. Despite that, he enjoyed it. He’d always been into musical theater, and spent the 13 years before COVID onstage.

Then, of course, in 2020, the cruise industry took a massive hit. Brown found himself with nothing to do–and so he got on TikTok.

For him, it was an intriguing new facet of social media. He had Instagram and Facebook, but that was only for family. TikTok felt different.

“I watched as all of those tools that I learned being onstage, telling stories, translated in a real fun and new way that I found, really, just as exciting as hearing the applause up onstage,” he says. He had a couple “lightning strike” videos that went viral, and before long, had started building an audience of tens of thousands, and then hundreds of thousands of followers.

His growing platform got him the attention of a book publisher (he’s got his own coloring book and is now working on a comedic self-help book), and then of Wondery and Atwell Media, who were looking for a podcast host.

“They asked me if I would like to do a mic test, that they were testing out different comedians and social media comedians, and so I did a little mock episode, which happened to be our first episode on Quibi,” Brown says. (Ah, Quibi.) “Then I didn’t hear from them forever, and I was like, oh, I guess I didn’t get that, because that’s the life I’m used to in theaters, is hearing the word ‘No.’ Then I got the email saying, ‘We loved Misha’s mic test, and we would love to offer him the host position.’ It’s been like a whirlwind ever since.”

The Big Flop officially launched on Wondery in 2023, and Brown has hosted nearly 40 episodes so far, chronicling everything from Fyre Festival to MoviePass to Elon Musk, The Liver King, McDonald‘s Arch Deluxe, The Star Wars Holiday Special, and much more. One of his latest episodes dives into WeWork, with guests Ian Hecox and Courtney Miller of Smosh.

With his TikTok audience growing to over 2 million followers and The Big Flop seeing month-over-month growth in listenership and downloads (plus a highlight from Wondery in the platform’s recent “Wondery Means Business” campaign), Brown plans to keep as content his full-time career.

And hey–no more danger of walruses.

Check out our chat with him below.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Tubefilter: Nice to meet you! I’d like to start with, imagine somebody is reading this and they don’t know anything about you. Give me a little bit of introduction about you and what your life was like before you got on TikTok.

Misha Brown: I have always been what I describe as an “entertainment powerhouse.” Entertainment and performing and making people laugh has been something that’s been at the core of my being since I came out of my mom. She had me and she was supposed to go to a Whitney Houston concert, and I was like, “No ma’am, a diva is being born today!” [laughs] 

Yes, I grew up, I mostly was a singer, I did a lot of theater. I went to school for musical theater. I moved to New York City for musical theater. I was there for 13 years up until the pandemic. That’s what I did. I performed, I did national tours, did a cruise ship, Cirque du Soleil. Then when the pandemic happened, my industry was shut down, so like most millennials, I jumped on TikTok just to pass the time. I watched as all of those tools that I learned being onstage, telling stories, translated in a real fun and new way that I found, really, just as exciting as hearing the applause up onstage.

Tubefilter: Very cool. I know cruise ships are fun, but also very grueling to be on for contracts.

Misha Brown: Yes. It’s so weird. It’s like almost like being in prison, but like a fancy prison.

Tubefilter: You don’t get many days off, right?

Misha Brown: As a singer, we have a pretty good life. We do get days off, it’s just that you’re there for six months, and you have the same small little cast and the same people, and you’re told when you can eat, when you can go to the bathroom, and when you can breathe. You’re always “on.” You live and work at work.

Tubefilter: It does sound like quite the interesting job.

Misha Brown: Oh, yes. I went to all seven continents, over a hundred countries, and that’s worth every day being away from friends and family.

Tubefilter: You did an Antarctic cruise then? What was that like?

Misha Brown: I’ve spent a lot of time in Antarctica. So good. It’s like a whole different world in Antarctica. You see penguins and whales and all of the ice, but one time I almost got eaten by a walrus.

Tubefilter: Okay, that seems not great.

Misha Brown: No, it wasn’t, but I listened to the training, it came into my head. I made myself real big, and I roared at him, and he stopped in his tracks. Kayaking and hiking on glaciers and so exciting.

Tubefilter: Then the pandemic happens and, obviously, cruises have a bad time.

Misha Brown: Yes.

Tubefilter: How did you end up choosing TikTok?

Misha Brown: I chose TikTok because it was the video format that I wasn’t doing on Instagram or Facebook. I only had those social media for my friends and family. It wasn’t something I had ever done to use as a professional tool. I jumped on TikTok and was just making fun videos. It was a creative outlet more than anything. I had a video go viral. It was just that lightning-striking moment. That happened to me a couple of times over the months during the pandemic when I couldn’t work as a performer.

As I watched the numbers go up, and my follower count, I was realizing that I was loving being known as Michael rather than Misha Brown the singer. Then I went back and I actually did another cruise. During that six months is when I really decided, hey, I think I want to do this full time, and it’s when I really started to look at it more from a business standpoint and started to finesse my point of view and storytelling.

Tubefilter: Was there a first video you remember that took off for you?

Misha Brown: Yes. Actually, it was very dramatic. It was family drama. It was about my sister and a Louis Vuitton wallet, and that’s actually how the name “dontcrossagayman” came. My sister decided to have her grubby little paws on my Louis Vuitton, and I saw a Facebook post about it. I was like, “You stole my Louis Vuitton,” and she didn’t give it back. I told a story, it was so silly, but I just, in passing, said, “Don’t cross a gay man and his designer things.” That’s how the name dontcrossagayman was born.

Tubefilter: She was in the danger zone for sure. So you started doing TikTok more as a career. Then how did the podcast come into things?

Misha Brown: I hit over a million followers on TikTok, then I really started transitioning and trying to build my platforms across all social media platforms to really diversify. I got an email from Atwell Media, who came up with the concept of the show. They asked me if I would like to do a mic test, that they were testing out different comedians and social media comedians, and so I did a little mock episode, which happened to be our first episode on Quibi.

Tubefilter: Oh, no, Quibi.

Misha Brown: I was so nervous. I took all of the things, like I said, from being onstage, from telling all of these stories on social media, and I just tried to make it fun and engaging. I really did my homework and tried to know as much as I could about Quibi. I did the little 20-minute mock episode. Then I didn’t hear from them forever, and I was like, oh, I guess I didn’t get that, because that’s the life I’m used to in theaters, is hearing the word “No.” Then I got the email saying, “We loved Misha’s mic test, and we would love to offer him the host position.” It’s been like a whirlwind ever since. We were recording an episode the next week with Guy Branum and Matt Bellassai. It was so exciting.

Tubefilter: That’s incredible. Very cool. I saw you just did your most recent episode on WeWork, and I know way too much about WeWork. What draws you to disasters like Fyre Fest and WeWork?

Misha Brown: I think, especially with The Big Flop, and the way that we do it, we do it with comedy. I’ve always approached everything I do with a sense of sass and a sense of wink, wink, nudge, nudge because I think it opens up the door for us to have conversations and have fun at the same time. I think the way that we do these flops and them not working is, there’s a nostalgia factor which keeps it interesting for all of us, but then we also get to learn a little bit of what not to do.

Then, come on, it’s always fun to punch up at people who are still rich after these flops happen, so they’re doing just fine. It’s just a lot of fun. I’ve always thought that people taking these big risks and, I guess, no reward in these cases, there’s this sense of like evil comedy to it that really drew me in.

Tubefilter: What does the average week look like for you in terms of producing content, producing your podcast, and anything else that you’re up to?

Misha Brown: I post daily on my social media, so that is always going. One thing that’s great about my social media content is it’s anecdotes from my life most of the time, so that’s not something I have to plan. It’s just something that happens to me and then I recount the story, but it is script writing and making sure that these instances in my life fit in 90 seconds. 

On top of that, I’ve really built my thing on trying to uplift people and empower people to know their worth and stand up for themselves. There is a lot of script-writing and filming, posting every day. 

Then with the podcast, The Big Flop, we have a weekly production meeting where we talk about upcoming episodes. They give me a script, I read through the script, I give back my notes. I go and I research what we’re talking about to make sure that I can be conversationally ready with comedians who are so fast and so sharp and on their toes. Then we record one or two episodes per week depending on where we are in the schedule. That’s about two hours of my time. Then on top of that, so exciting, I just got, two book managers, so I’m currently and feverishly typing away and writing a comedy self-help book to pitch to publishers very soon.

Tubefilter: I know you’ve also done a coloring book, which I see behind you.

Misha Brown: Yes. How did that come about? Again, there was a really great company that reached out to me. She reached out, and she’s just like, “Hey, I independently help people write books and things like that. Is that something that would be of interest to you?” This was so long ago, I didn’t have nearly the following I do now, and I said, “Oh, I don’t know about writing a book. Wouldn’t a coloring book be fun?” She’s like, “Oh my god, I just did a coloring book with someone not too long ago, and it was really popular,” so we did that. It was such a, again, a fun artistic outlet. We used a lot of my social media videos as inspiration for the pages, and yes, it was just a fun little project on the side.

Tubefilter: Now you have two book managers, so you’re working on this current book.

Misha Brown: Yes. They represent huge celebrities, huge self-help gurus. It’s incredible, and it’s very overwhelming and not something I ever thought that I would do. One thing I’ve latched onto, I talk about this in my social media a lot as well, I gave up alcohol over five years ago. I’ve been sober for over five years. There was this aha moment when I realized that I was so good to other people, I was so good at being other people’s best friend, but I wasn’t being my own best friend, I wasn’t the most friendly with myself.

When I realized that I should treat myself the same way that I treat everybody else, it really changed my life. I’ve spent so much time, almost an agonizing amount, working on realizing that I can do anything I put my mind to. As overwhelming as it is to know that I’m in the same space as Mel Robbins and Kevin Hart, I’m really just doubling down and believing in myself and doing it, so it’s very exciting.

Tubefilter: I was curious about your sourcing for guests, because you have some pretty big guests on your show. How do you source? Do you come up with people? Does Wondery help you out? How does it work?

Misha Brown: Yes, Wondery handles all of the booking for the guests. Every so often I’ll send a list over of comedians that we follow each other on social media, and we’ve chatted and talked, but what’s really great is all of the relationships that have forged because of the podcast. I made it a point, Wondery’s made it a point, Atwell Media has made it a point, that we really wanted to uplift voices, so we made sure that we have a very diverse group of comedians who come on the show.

Every single one has been incredible and so smart. It adds so much flavor to each episode. What’s so great is I live in Austin, Texas, which is a huge comedy touring hub, and so I’ve gotten to go and see shows from so many of these comedians as they’ve come through after I’ve recorded an episode with them. Just this last weekend, I went and saw Ahmed Al-kadri and saw his show. Wondery is so great with that, and I’ve never felt like a token, being one of their little, you know, a gay podcast host for them. We just get down to business and I’m just me, and I think that’s really great. I really applaud them for the diversity that they put on my show.

Tubefilter: What’s really interesting to me is that a lot of TikTokers do seem to lean into podcasts, because you go from very extreme short-form to one of the longest forms there is. What was the draw for you specifically to working in podcasts in terms of growing your audience?

Misha Brown: I think it’s just another way for us to get to know each other. I really tried to bring my social media and my podcast world together. I’m always reaching out and saying, what would you like to hear, and what did you think about this episode, and go check this out. I heavily integrate the two with each other because this sense of community is something that I’ve really tried to build as my brand with my besties as I call them.

What I think is great is social media is so good, it’s such a great tool for virality and getting our name out there and having a place where we can all commune together, but like I said, it’s those 90-second clips. I think that a podcast world and this long-form content and then something that I think is really fun to do, like The Big Flop, I think that’s a really great way for us to have a little bit more time together where we can really explore our personalities and get to know each other.

Like I said, the connections that I’ve made with all of the team that I work with, as well as the guests and as well as just hearing all of the feedback from my followers on social media. I never thought that I would be in podcasting, just like I never thought that I would write a book. Yes, I just think it’s a, another way for us to connect with each other and that’s why I think it’s so exciting.

Tubefilter: What has been your favorite part of this whole being online thing? You’ve been performing and onstage for the majority of your life. What has been different about social media for you?

Misha Brown: I think the thing with social media that has been the most rewarding, same with the podcast, is, and I’ve mentioned it a little earlier, is that I can just be Misha Brown. With theater, I had a great career. I was doing just fine, but I did have to fit in boxes. Boxes that were prescribed to me by casting or by the show, and often, that went against who I am.

I was the funny guy who had a good voice, but I still was playing like a straight guy, and I would have to put an effect on my voice, or they would look at me, and they would want me to be a really great dancer because I looked like a little twirling gay boy, but that’s not who I was. I always felt like I was being boxed in and almost shrinking and becoming a smaller version of myself. Even though once I was onstage I was this massive ball of energy and persona, but on social media…

Something I haven’t really talked about a lot is the reason I became a storyteller on social media was I really damaged my voice over the pandemic doing an audition, and I couldn’t sing for like eight months. All I could do was talk. I was telling stories, and my favorite part about this is that people have latched on to just me being myself, and I can just unapologetically be who I am. That has been the most rewarding.

As well as with theater, I wouldn’t book parts because I do have like an effeminate voice. Now, being on a podcaster, it’s so funny because I’ll be out in the world, and I’ll be ordering something at a register and someone will be like, [gasps] “You’re Misha Brown! I recognize that voice!” It’s become a power I’ve been able to take that back. Something that was an insecurity is now something that is a net positive for me.

Tubefilter: Where do you see things heading in the future for you? You’ve got a book in the works, you’re doing a lot of projects. Is there anything else that you want to expand into or any other projects that you want to work on?

Misha Brown: Yes. Broadway is going to forever and always be in my dreams. I still do theater on the side, I audition here and there. That’s always going to be in my dreams. I do want to record an album. Maybe like a Christmas album seems fun. I’m really hoping that, with this book, this self-help lane that I’ve been turning toward in the last year and a half of my social media career. I think that is such a lovely place, because I’m actually seeing impact.

I get so many messages of people saying, “I really needed to hear this today,” or, “This really helped me,” or, “I feel seen. I don’t feel alone. I don’t feel like I’m losing my mind anymore.” I think social media can be such a despairing pit of nastiness sometimes, and to be able to see it used in a positive way where it can really help people just feel a little bit more connected, which is what it was created for in the first place, I think that’s a really great way to go. If I can be the next Adam Grant or Mel Robbins, just a little gay sassy version of, that would be dreams.

Tubefilter: Is there anything else that you want to share?

Misha Brown: Yes. Specifically with the podcast The Big Flop, we’ve really been pushing for a younger audience. What’s really great about The Big Flop, Wondery just did their Wondery Means Business campaign. I think what’s so great about the podcast in general is talking about something like business but making it fun is a really great tool to get audiences engaged. Especially younger audiences. You can listen to the podcast anywhere you stream podcasts, but also early and free on Wondery.