Vine Star Nicholas Megalis Dishes on Gummy Money, General Tso's Chicken Necklace, and What Selena Gomez Told Him About Pudding

by Alessandra Bulow
on 03/03/14 at 03:00 PM

"I was broke as a joke, struggling, living in a one bedroom apartment in Brooklyn, without many props or a lot of money to go and acquire props but I had a fridge full of random rotting food--and if you know you're going to throw something out anyway, you might as well take that stale American cheese and make a men's tie out of it," says musician and internet phenomenon Nicholas Megalis.

A self-described Musician/Artist/Idiot, Megalis has over 3.7 million Vine, 142,000 Instagram, and 95,000 Twitter followers ready to devour his food-related 6-second viral videos (often performed shirtless). His Gummy Money Vine (see below) is so popular that it was even made into a full-length song on iTunes and a music video will be released soon. 

"Vine for me started very naturally: I was babysitting the 9-year-old son of a family friend and we would make macaroni sculptures with pasta and a hot glue gun or robots using leftover cardboard takeout boxes--just a super amazing babysitting experience," says Megalis. "Then Vine came into my life. I didn't even tell anybody that I was using it--I just had this artistic had-to-do-it urge. So when did I start making Vines? I started making Vines in January and February of 2013. This is how much I talk. I asked myself a question and then answered it. And the reason I started using food was because that's what I had available. So that was my instinct, to just use food. I think food is very funny, I think chefs are hilarious, and I just think that food culture is funny. I love to eat so I'm not dogging it but I'm not a fancy eater. If someone wants to take me out and get me incredible sushi, hell yeah, I'm there, but I also grew up on blue-box macaroni and cheese and literally baloney and ketchup sandwiches and to take that down a notch, my mom--I swear to God--would make us mayonnaise sandwiches."

Here, the Megalis goes behind the music and explains his obsession with food in six of his most viral Vine videos.

More after the jump!

HOW TO ROCK A GENERAL TSO'S NECKLACE "I eat--what's the word, oh--disgusting amounts of Chinese food and I live in a Brooklyn neighborhood where Chinese food restaurants have bulletproof glass that's so thick that they can't hear you when you order. I just always point to the General Tso's Chicken because that's what's at eye level. I get it every time and it's really good but, if you leave it out and don't scarf it down, it turns into something that can only be described as gelatinous, rubbery, leftover meat-esque particles--it's not even really meat--whatever General Tso's Chicken is, we'll never really know. I had it leftover for like 25 minutes after the meal and I got thread. I thought it would make a cute little necklace. That's all it was. And then out of the idea comes the song. It's never the other way around. It's like here's the idea, now I'm going to make a song about it. I just get inspired by something that's directly in front of me."

WHAT SELENA GOMEZ TOLD ME ABOUT PUDDING "At Epicurious, I know you've probably never heard the words Snack Pack but let me tell you right now, that ready-made pudding is just as good as anyone could whip up. I used an expired Snack Pack for that Vine. When I started out on Vine and only had about 300 followers, I got a lot of flack: 'Look at all the food he's wasting that American pig!' And I said, 'listen to me, please--because I didn't want people to think that I was a wasteful person--you don't understand--that pudding expired months ago--I'm just bad at cleaning things.' It was just sitting there and I was going to throw it away. Whatever. I can't believe we're discussing me putting pudding on my mouth. This is why I love the year and the age that I live in. This is incredible."

HOW TO GET MAD GUMMY MONEY "Are gummies a food? Wouldn't you say that if you were looking at a scale that gummy would be closer to the toy side than to the edible food side? I grew up with a Midwest garbage diet: the best dessert was "Worms and Dirt," made with pudding crushed Oreos, and gummy worms. Gummy worms are hilarious to me and they are a big part of my childhood. I just like playing with them. Yeah, I'm 24-year-old man and I'm obsessed with gummy worms. The story for Gummy Money is that I bought a bag of gummy worms with my last $3 and they were sitting on a table next to my wallet, which was empty. I was like 'Oh God I have no money now, how am I going to buy a Metrocard?' Then I thought, what if gummy worms were a currency? I put them in a wallet and the rest is history now. The most important video ever made. I think money is hilarious--we spend out whole lives thinking about making money and it sort of rules us. We are slaves to it. If you don't laugh, you cry. If only our money were gummy worms, the world would be a better place truthfully."

HOW TO BE A SOLID GOLD PIZZA BALLER "The best pizza in America is in my hometown at Sunrise Pizza in Warren, Ohio. It's perfect--it has an amazing sauce that's slightly spicy and tangy. Maybe the reason I think so is because my Yaya would order it. So when I eat that pizza I'm crying into it. That is the saddest image possible. That may sound like it could be a good Vine--me crying into a pizza--but I've made a Vine with pizza so I can't do that again. I already spray painted a piece of pizza gold. By the way, if you every spray-paint pizza, you'll find that you have to use a partially frozen pizza. Shout out to Digiorno. That's invaluable information. Make sure that's bolded please if you don’t mind. I admit that was a waste of food but it was art and it was worth it."

CHOCOLATE COVERED PRETZEL GLASSES AKA WATCH OUT MARC JACOBS "My favorite Vine after Gummy Money is the chocolate covered pretzels glasses. Did you see that? Yes, it's one of my own Vines and I'm referencing myself. It's one of my favorite works. I love the way the glasses turned out. I like food as fashion--I think it's funny. Now as soon as you publish this, Marc Jacobs is going to do salami boots next season. You know it. That's the problem with putting the ink on paper. As soon as you put the pen on paper somebody out there will copy it."

GET YOUR OWN $350 MONEY SANDWICH MILEY CYRUS "I'm not being accusatory but I found some similarities between Miley Cyrus's "We Can't Stop" music video and a Vine that I made. In her video, there's a guy eating a money sandwich and I made a Vine with a money sandwich two or three months earlier. A lot of my fans were like 'Oh my God dude, your $350 sandwich is in her video.' I don't know if it's true and if she ever saw it but man oh man it makes me wonder. Or it could just be classic Greek paranoia--I'm not sure."

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