I binged 100 TikToks in an hour at a movie theater — and had some surprisingly deep feelings about it

One hour, 100 TikToks, one big screen.

That's how I spent my lunch interrupt on Wednesday.

Max Zavidow, a New York-based satisfied creator alongside 1.4 myriad TikTok followers, booked the historic Cherry Lane Theatre to display additional than 300 of his TikToks. Perched in the forefront row alongside a camera livestreaming his reactions, Zavidow watched (almost) all sole video he's made in the former five years flash before his eyes.

He cringed, laughed, and reflected on his career.

"It is difficult to observe your old work," he told me. The screening was, in part, a parody of Shia LaBeouf's "#ALLMYMOVIES," in which the performer livestreamed himself for 72 hours observing his films in 2015.

Zavidow, who started posting TikToks at the end of 2021, wanted the screening to "paint a complete picture" of what it method to have a occupation as a satisfied creator and "evolve on the internet."

"I wanted group to awareness the agony of me having to appearance back," he said.

The entire ordeal took four hours. I stayed for one. Meanwhile, TikTokers and creator-economy peers popped in and out of the dreary theater. The event was liberated and invitation-only, done in alliance alongside the theater, which is owned by A24, and produced by Love Letter.

"I had six days to drag it together," Zavidow said.

My viewing cognition may not have been as groundbreaking as sitting through Nathan Fielder's "You Can See Everything." Still, I walked out of the theater alongside additional thoughts concerning TikTok, entertainment, and the creator's occupation arc.

Here are three lingering takeaways.

1. TikTok and Instagram on the TV may not be a bad idea following all

I'll be honest, I've been skeptical concerning social media coming to TV. That's partially since I don't use a TV to observe TV. I normally observe HBO and Netflix on my iPhone.

Watching Zavidow's TikToks on the screen, however, was great. Who would have idea observing TikToks during sitting at a 90-degree viewpoint would be pleasant?

"Getting it on a big display was a way to say, 'I obtain this really seriously, and you guys are saying that the big display is serious. Great. Let's put our TikToks on the big screen,'" Zavidow told me.

There was an added cinematic consequence to observing videos one would normally observe solitary alongside headphones, on a big display in the business of dozens of another people.

2. Doing the identical item again and again — sometimes — pays off

Zavidow's 316 TikToks were divided up into chapters, starting alongside "See What Sticks." Then, there was the era of "Walk and Talk," "Still Talking, Less Walking," a concise instant of shanties and comedic rhymes, and eventually, "Really Short Films," anywhere Zavidow zeroed in on additional narrative fiction.

At certain points, we watched beautiful much the identical video slightly tweaked. A new angle, a distinct setup for the joke.

"It was so difficult to observe all my old videos and be like, 'Oh my God, dude, another one?'" he told me.

Making it as a creator requires evaluation out equation following formula.

"At a certain item I established item that worked," Zavidow said. "So I did that for a while."

3. I affection display period — it's the ads and distractions that provision me dread

When I walked out of the theater to a sunny border in the West Village, I felt … at ease.

Sitting through an hr of uninterrupted abbreviated clips designed to create me chuckle felt nearly as satisfying as a nasal rinse.

There were no ads. No buttons to press. No comments to read. No need to move my thumbs.

My intellect was motionless — empty. Peak brain rot. Maybe that's OK.