Want to know keep up-to-date on what's happening in Victoria? Subscribe to our daily newsletter:. The TikTok star goes mostly unnoticed in his hometown, despite earning a living making hugely viral videos. In the alley beside his Brentwood Bay apartment building, David Beck kneels in front of a gold water balloon, gripping an ax in both hands. In slow motion footage, he swings the ax down towards the balloon, scrunching his face with the effort.
When the ax finally hits it, the balloon pops, revealing another, fully-intact balloon underneath it. The short video is at once disorienting and amusing. And, for year-old Beck, it was life-changing.
He tried out different trends and skits, which ranged from making jokes about photography to cleaning his room on camera , garnering thousands of views each time. And then, on a whim, he posted a handful of videos popping water balloons, knowing that some people like that kind of content.
The sixth of theseβthe one with the axβwas an instant hit. Beck recalls that it gained over a million views the day it was posted. About a week after that video came out, Beck lost his work as both a bartender and a waiter due to the pandemic.
He used his newfound free time to make more balloon content for TikTok, posting at least one video per day to try and grow a following. This strategy worked better than he could have imagined: he now has 7.
