The Time I Challenged Ryan Reynolds

I was going through my list of blog post ideas this morning. I didn't feel like writing any of them today. So I'm pulling this post out of left field. Actually, I'm pulling this from left field, out of the dark forest that's outside of left field, down the road, across the river, over the bridge, through the valley, and just past grandmas house.

Sorry for the poor image quality of the graphic above. It was an incredibly zoomed in picture that I took on my phone.

The alternate title for this post is, "there is no market for try not to blink content." I'll get into that in a bit though.

All of my content used to be completely centered around staring contests, trying not to blink, and stuff like that. One day I was doom scrolling through Reels and I ended up finding a video of KSI having a staring contest with Ryan Reynolds. KSI did awful. I knew I could do better. I still think that I would probably be able to beat Ryan.

At the time I'd been trying to think of a series of videos I could use for regular content. I've never really been good at making short form content. I don't know why. It's just never I've been particularly good at doing. When I saw that video I decided to try to come up with a way to challenge Ryan Reynolds to a staring contest, and the way I came up with doing that just kind of perfectly fit in with my need to have something to use for regular short form content.

I decided to start a series where I went one minute without blinking every day until Ryan Reynolds agreed to have a staring content with me. When I first came up with the idea it was entirely just a silly idea. I never actually thought that I would be able to have a staring contest with Ryan Reynolds.

Around the middle of the video series, probably around day 100, is when I started planning my first trip to Wrexham. At the time Wrexham was still in the Vanarama league and I was going over for their last 2 home games. It's kind of crazy. At the time they were going back and forth with Notts County, and it was looking pretty likely that one of those two games was going to end up being the game that decided whether or not they won the league.

I was starting to realize that I was going to be in Wrexham for the 200th day of the series. The series was completely off the wall btw. Every video I did was just me talking about random shit while I went a minute without blinking. I'm pretty sure the entire series is still on TikTok if you ever get the random urge to go find it.

Then it happened...I started to think that maybe it could actually happen. I know it's stupid that I ever let myself think that it was a possibility. I found out that Ryan Reynolds was going to be there for the last home game as well. It was going to be my chance. There was a minimally greater than 0 chance that I was actually going to be able to see Ryan and have a staring contest with him.

I kept doing the series. Every day I would record a video where I went one minute without blinking. I traveled to Wrexham. I had my 15 seconds of fame. If you haven't read it yet I talked about that in my "I Like Attention" blog post (https://spiritjoe9.wixsite.com/joebrewing/post/i-like-attention).

I even ended up having the opportunity to talk about what I was trying to do with the staring contest on BBC Breakfast....which was absolute insanity to me. Why was I on BBC Breakfast in the first place? I'm just a random guy from Alabama that NOBODY cares about. Oh, also...BBC said that I was an "Alabama Farmer." I guess that could be a post for a different day. I still think that's funny.

I'm rambling again though. My neurodivergent, naive, optimistic brain somehow convinced itself that with all of the attention that I was getting that I was BOUND to catch the eye of Mr. Ryan Reynolds. It was just destined to happen. Something was finally going to happen that was going to give legitimacy to what I had been trying to do with my try not to blink content for years.

Day of the last game rolls around. I was within like 30 feet of Ryan where I was sitting. The picture at the top of the post was taken from where I was sitting at the game. There was legitimately zero chance that I was going to be able to talk to him at the game, but I was hoping that I might be able to talk to him after the game...and possibly be able to record having a staring contest with him.

Both after the game and the day after the game I spent pretty much all of my time at The Turf. The Turf is the fabled pub that sits literally right next to the Racecourse grounds by the way. There was a time...and I'm not exaggerating here...there was a time when I was drinking a beer and chatting with someone who was directly texting back and forth with Ryan Reynolds. If there EVER was going to be a chance for me to make it happen. That was probably going to be it.

I didn't push it though. Like I said in my previous post, I didn't want to make it about me. So...I didn't push it...and it didn't happen. I came so close, but still so far away.

********** WARNING **********

I am open about my emotions, and bottling up my feelings for a large part of my childhood years caused me to be an emotional wreck now. If you have any semblance of toxic masculinity then please leave the post now. I don't need people telling me I'm wrong or somehow bad for feeling things.

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I went back to my hotel room drunk. I went back to my hotel room emotionally fulfilled. The trip had been everything I ever hoped it would be. Experiencing the town, the culture, the people, and the electricity of being at the Racecourse when the team won the league. It was a nearly religious experience. Nothing I'm about to say can take a single thing away from any of that.

I also...felt emotionally drained. I'm neurodivergent. The entire week was a lot. Having people want selfies with me, as cool as it was, was a lot. Doing a goofy video series that I never thought would amount to anything...becoming something that I thought might amount to something...just to have it not amount to anything...was a fucking lot.

That night I sat in my hotel room and cried. I cried because it was the most amazing week I'd ever had and now I was going to be going home. Not that I didn't want to go home. Don't think that I didn't want to go home and see my family. I couldn't wait to hug my wife and kiddos. I couldn't bring them with me because: holy crap those plane tickets are expensive, no way in hell my son would have wanted to spend that much time on an airplane, AND there wouldn't have really been much for my kiddos to do in Wrexham.

I also cried because for once in my life I thought there was going to be something that was going to give validity to what I was trying to do. None of my other try not to blink videos were ever taken seriously...really by anyone. Having Ryan Reynolds in one with me...that would have changed things. People would have started taking me seriously. It would have been so much easier to get people to collab with me.

I've spent most of my life trying to be successful in one creative avenue or another. I know it's not a good idea to expect a celebrity to give you a boost to have the credibility that you need. It's better to grow organically, but hot damn would it have been nice. Plus...there wasn't really...and never really has there ever been anyone actively looking to watch staring contest or try not to blink content.

When I came home I decided to end the series. If I could be within 30 feet of him, if I could be hanging out with someone that was actively texting him...if all the stars could align the way that they did on that trip...and STILL not have it happen. Chances were that it was never going to happen.

It also wasn't very long after that trip that I decided to give up on doing try not to blink content. It's just not the kind of content that I'm ever going to be able to use to grow as a creator. Now I'm just focusing on being a gaming streamer. My goal is to basically be the Ted Lasso of gaming streamers. I want to be a wholesome streamer that puts more good and positivity into the world than I do otherwise.

That's the post. I recorded a one minute video without blinking every day for like 210 days under the hopes that I would be able to have a staring contest with Ryan Reynolds. It never happened. I did get the trip of a lifetime out of it, and it's an experience that I 100% will never forget. I hope to go back to Wrexham whenever I can find another job and save some money. It probably won't be for a WHILE...but I look forward to going back.

If I can ever grow as a content creator, organically, doing it the way that I'm doing it now...I may try to reintroduce the staring contest content. I just think that's something that will only work if I already have a large following. It's not something that I'll be able to use to build a following.