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"Comedian Billy Eichner has found the perfect medium, somewhere between traditional and digital media.  As host of Funny or Die's Billy on the Street, Eichner reports man-on-the-street style on-the-air, ambushing unsuspecting New Yorkers and giving his two cents about pop culture.\nThe comedian told Mashable he'd also ambush people on social media if he could. Instead, Eichner remains hyper-engaged with his growing fanbase.\nBilly on the Street debuts its second season Friday night. The show features Eichner running around the city, throwing his microphone in people's faces and forcing them to choose between Meryl Streep and Glenn Close. \nThe show is chaotic and random, yet unquestionably entertaining. Each episode is highly concentrated with pop culture and current events, throwing in game show segments with contestants and celebrities in between.\n\"The focus of the show is always on the real people on the street, but just for fun, we throw in a special celebrity guest every now and then,\" says Eichner.\nThis season, expect a few celebrity appearances, like Will Ferrell, Rashida Jones, Maya Rudolph and Rachel Dratch, who will participate in some sort of physical challenge. \nWhile the show takes place in real life on the streets, Eichner embraces social media, and uses it on and off the air to stay connected with his fans. During the show, Eichner pulls a couple tweets in each episode, answering questions about the show, himself, pop culture, or any off-the-wall topic. The comedian also engages with his nearly 50,000 followers on Twitter when each episode airs.\n\"There's definitely a lot of communication between me and the fans, but it doesn't factor to any of the games that we play on the show. But it is certainly a big part of the Billy on the Street experience,\" says Eichner.\nEven when the show is not airing, Eichner tries to engage with as many fans as possible on Twitter and his Facebook Page, which recently caused grief when he switched from personal to public. Facebook drops all subscribers when you switch over, so Eichner warned everyone to friend him and accepted hundreds of requests from fans.\n\"Facebook is weird,\" says Eichner. \"They have all of these seemingly random rules that I'm sure make sense to them, but don't make sense to me or any people. \"\nEichner's dedication and hyper-engagement with fans comes from sincere gratitude. The comedian says that he wouldn't have a career if it wasn't for Facebook and YouTube.\n\nSEE ALSO: The Future of Funny: How Old and New Media Collaborate on Comedy\n\nThe man-on-the-street videos started in 2008, when Eichner uploaded a handful to YouTube. The videos, which were part of his live performances, did not take off immediately, though Eichner says that he did develop a small following from them.\nTwo years later, Eichner made more topical videos about the Oscars and upcoming summer movies \u2014 specifically defending the Sex and the City sequel. Pop culture blogs began to pick up on Eichner, which led him to Funny or Die. Eventually, the comedy powerhouse gave Eichner a television show.\nOne of the biggest jumpstart moments in Eichner's career was during the 2011 Super Bowl, when he attended as a correspondant for Team CoCo. Eichner interviewed diehard football fans and football players strictly about Madonna's half-time performance, blatantly ignoring any questions about the game itself. He was even permitted access to the field the moment the game was over.\n\"The Super Bowl is such a huge event, that anything associated with it is going to get a lot of traction if people like it. \"I think it had a pretty big impact on everything that's happened in the past year,\" says Eichner.\nThe Madonna sketch was in the middle of Billy on the Street's first season on air. Eichner has done about three sketches on Conan this year, but he says that each time has brought new fans to him and his own show.\nMany comedians have found great success on social platforms, but Eichner still attributes his exposure to traditional media.\n\"There are people who have huge YouTube followings \u2014 whose every post gets hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of hits. But I don't think that's having the same impact as someone who has a regular presence on television, or both. We might get to a place someday soon where computer and TV is all one in the same \u2014 we're obviously close to that, and it is for some people \u2014 but it's still not true for the majority of the mainstream public.\"\nSeason one of Billy on the Street is now available for download on iTunes. Episodes from the second season will be available as the season rolls out.\nImage credit: Angela Cranford/MSG Photos"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2012/12/07/new-old-media-billy-eichner/>