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Kickstopper: Life Online

Baltimore waiter Rob Burke wants to stream his entire life for a year online—and for you to fund it. 

 

Chase Hoffberger

Streaming

Posted on Apr 13, 2012   Updated on Jun 2, 2021, 6:33 pm CDT

Etsy has Regretsy. Pinterest has WTF, Pinterest? Now the Daily Dot is proud to present Kickstopper, a new series highlighting the most bombastic and absurd projects seeking support through the popular crowdfunding platform, Kickstarter.

Rob Burke has a new home, a new fiancé, and a new job. What the guy needs is a new hobby.

A New Jersey native who moved to Baltimore after his fiancé Julie got accepted into Johns Hopkins University, Burke wants to run a live feed of his life onto the Internet—all of it.

For 365 days, the 22-year-old waiter would like to project every aspect of his life—everything from working out to making breakfast to those weird moments when he’s hunched over in a chair trying to clip his toenails—onto RobBurke.com, a site he plans to launch on May 6.

Where did he get the idea, you ask? For movie fans, the answer should be obvious.

“I just watched The Truman Show the other day,” said Burke, who readily admits to having some trouble getting things kicking in Charm City. “It dawned on me midway through that it would be pretty badass if that was real life.”

Badass, maybe, but asinine, for certain. Burke recently launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund the endeavor. The ungodly total he hopes to raise by May 6: $300,000.

“A lot of that will go towards cameras and shooters and maintaining the live feed. But I doubt that anybody will allow me to come to work with a camera crew huddled around me every day, so some of that money will go towards providing me with supplemental income.”

He’s going to need that type of income to keep that new fiancé of his happy. As Burke readily admitted, Julie’s one of many who thinks the idea is “stupid, but whatever.”

“[She] will not be documenting her entire life,” he wrote on the Kickstarter’s description, “however she will be involved with the project, seeing as this is documenting my life, and she is my fiancé.”

Now more than ever, the vows ring true: To have and to hold from this day forward, for better or for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health. Emphasis on the sickness.

Kickstopper: Life Online

  • Location: Baltimore, Md.
  • Summary: A waiter in Baltimore wants to run a live feed of his life for an entire calendar year.
  • Goal: $300,000
  • Amount raised of press time: $0
  • Days left: 23
  • Best buy: For $5,000, backers will receive Burke’s cell phone and an invitation to call him whenever they please, thus becoming a character in the year-long show.

Photo via Kickstarter

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*First Published: Apr 13, 2012, 2:42 pm CDT