Those plugged into the YouTube space have known the Try Guys since 2014 as the BuzzFeed video producers who tried everything from the tiniest speedos of European swimwear to fully immersing themselves in the bloated goggles of virtual reality before they split off in 2018 to start their own eight-million-subscriber YouTube channel.
But since the fall of 2022, almost everyone knows who the Try Guys are. The four-man group crashed into mainstream discourse when it leaked that member Ned Fulmer was having an affair with an employee. After dozens of articles, the removal of Fulmer, and a now-viral couch video spoofed on SNL, the group had to reform its identity.
10 months later, the three remaining members, Zach Kornfeld, Keith Habersberger, and Eugene Lee Yang, decided to throw caution to the wind and make the content they want, hoping their audience comes along for the ride. On Thursday, they put it all on the stage with a two-hour, summarized, live-event rendition of Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet.” Fans could vote on ways to change the scenes—like force-feeding Habersberger’s Juliet bananas or having Kornfeld’s Romeo fight with purple floppy dildos.
“We lovingly refer to ourselves as being in our, ‘Fuck it, let’s do what we want’ era,” Kornfeld told Passionfruit before the event. “Basically, we try and make it, and the audience tries to break it. So it’s a highly interactive, fun event that is also an exercise in trying to not break character.” …
