By the time the Glee cast broke out into “Don’t Stop Believing” during the show’s first episode last May, Robert Black (’10) decided that he wanted to be more than a once-a week fan of the show: he began planning how he could promote the show with fans all over the world.
“[After that episode] I remember sitting there thinking, ‘This is going to be huge,’ ” Black said. “I had never before seen a show that so perfectly walked the line between hilarious and heartwarming.”
While searching the Internet for a possible route to establish a fan community, Black stumbled upon GleeFan.com. Black “went out on a limb” and contacted the owner of the website, a man named Travis Yee, to see if he could help contribute anything to the site.
Out of the six fans who contacted Yee to contribute time to the site, Black was the only person who had the computer knowledge necessary to work with the blogging software. Within a week, Yee had news for Black: he was going to let Black manage the entire site.
“I’ve been running GleeFan.com on my own ever since,” Black said.
This past summer, Fox sent the members of the Glee Club in Glee on a 10-city mall tour across the U.S. Yee obtained press passes for Black and another editor of an affiliated Glee fan site for a cast visit at Fair Oaks Mall in Fairfax VA.
Meeting most celebrities would involve only the expected quick hello and autograph, but Fox gave Black thirty minutes to interview Cory Monteith (Finn), Lea Michele (Rachel), Mark Salling (Puck), Amber Riley (Mercedes), and Chris Colfer (Kurt).
“Luckily for us, this was over the summer, before Glee had officially premiered, so it was mainly just us and then a few people from the local Fox station,” said Black. “We got to talk to record our interviews with the cast for half an hour before they started signing [autographs].”
Throughout the day, Black videotaped portions of the event, and he later posted several interviews and a cast performance on GleeFan.com.
Since the summer, the popularity of the show has exploded, and in turn, so has Black’s GleeFan.com.
“Usually, I get anywhere from 8,000 to 12,000 unique hits a day,” said Black.
With updates about three to four times a week, Black adds previews of upcoming shows, news about the cast members, and video interviews released by sites like AOL. In addition, Black has even compiled questions submitted by followers of GleeFan.com, and he has arranged Q&A’s with Jenna Ushkowitz (Tina), Amber Riley, and Chris Colfer.
Black hopes to conduct interview with more of the cast members, but he also has plans at the moment to further the connection between the site and the fan members.
“I have been sent a lot of fan art by some very talented artists, so I think a fan art contest would be pretty successful, Black said. “I have a few signed posters as well a few signed “I’m a Gleek” t-shirts stashed in my room that I can use as giveaway prizes.”
Black currently has 470 followers on his twitter account (@GleekRob), and Fox Broadcasting, ABC News, the Rachel Ray Show, TV Guide, Entertainment Weekly, and Parade Magazine have all contacted Black about GleeFan.com.
“I want to go into public relations, preferably doing publicity for something entertainment based like a television/film company or magazine,” said Black. “I’ve been practicing my networking skills, and making a lot of connections. I’ve been using this whole adventure as a learning experience.”
Top photo: Robert Black '10 (left) poses with Chris Colfer.
Bottom photo: Robert Black (front right) meets the cast of Glee at a mall promo tour.
