By Stephanie WangContributing Writer
Everyone knows “That Guy.”
Steve Persch launched himself into the campus spotlight when he posted his rap music video “That Guy” about four stereotypical college guys on YouTube.com last month.
The five-minute video by the Communication senior takes a critical look at the different personalities college-aged males project. Persch plays four That Guys: “That Guy with a Business Card,” the overachiever; “That Guy Who Always Wears Sandals,” the extreme liberal; “That Guy Who Just Moved In,” the maladjusted freshman; and “That Guy Who Never Shuts Up,” the obnoxious braggart.
All loosely based on people Persch has known at Northwestern, the characters explain their personalities through rap.
Despite being four distinct types of people, all of the That Guys are united because they “cry at night.”
“Part of what I was trying to get across in the video was that the outward fronts that so many people in college put up – whatever their front is – are just one facet, and there is more behind it,” Persch said.
Communication senior Travis Greisler sings the chorus, popping up behind That Guy to deliver his message.
“My character ended up being this appeared conscience of all these guys,” Greisler said. “I’m the voice of reason who is like, ‘It’s all right dude, we all cry.’
“They’re stereotypical guys who are lost ,and we point a finger and we laugh a little bit. It’s funny because it’s true. Either you are one of those That Guys or you’re best friends with one of (them) or you sit next to one of (them).”
Persch wrote the lyrics while brainstorming for a final project for a class last winter.
Matt Sax, Communication ’06, provided the beat, and Communication senior Ian Bennett and Weinberg senior YiRan Liu shot the video. Liu also edited the project.
The group recorded the vocals at WNUR-FM (89.3), where Persch has worked at NU Radio Drama since his freshman year.
The project hit a minor setback when the first recording and its backup were accidentally erased, but the final – and improved – cut of “That Guy” was still completed in time for New Student Week 2006.
Just after the video was put up on YouTube.com, Persch created a Web site and a Facebook.com group for “That Guy,” to increase the video’s circulation. The YouTube.com video had already been viewed more than 1,400 times, and the Facebook group had more than 380 members as of Monday.
One of the Facebook group members, Medill freshman Aaron Morse, knew Persch before he achieved his “That Guy” fame. Morse met Persch at WNUR on a campus visit.
Morse said he can relate to at least one of the video’s characters.
“I remind myself of That Guy Who Just Moved In because my dad calls me all the time,” Morse said.
Since posting the video, both Persch and Greisler have experienced a lot of That Guy recognition, what Greisler calls “minor campus celebrity stardom.”
“I’ve been friended by a lot of people I don’t even know on Facebook,” Persch said. “I was friended by this guy who included this message: I believe all it said was, ‘Dude, you’re famous.’
“Last week I was walking past the Rock in a costume I had to wear for acting class, so I guess I kind of looked like That Guy With a Business Card, and this girl on a bike who I don’t know rode past and said, ‘Hey, That Guy.'”
Persch said he is considering writing a sequel.
“I really only see one more That Guy song at the most,” he said. “I don’t know if it’ll be another That Guy song, or a That Girl song, or there’s a possibility of a full-length musical about college.”
Reach Stephanie Wang at [email protected].
