He’s taking an unusual approach.
Actor and comedian Brian Jordan Alvarez, 37, who created and stars in the FX / Hulu show “English Teacher,” is going viral with videos on TikTok and Instagram — and his unorthodox approach has seemingly worked to make his show more popular.
In one of his viral videos, captioned, “Binge English Teacher on Hulu,” audio from a “Gilmore Girls” episode can be heard. In the original episode, Kirk (Sean Gunn), tells his girlfriend’s father, “I love your daughter.” When the father asks what he has to offer, Kirk says, “Nothing. Only this,” and then does a strange dance.
In Alvarez’s clips, he plays the audio clip of that dialogue — with his own shirtless interpretation.
In one video, he’s shown dancing in an airport. In another video, he’s whips his shirt off by the dairy section in what appears to be a grocery store or bodega.
“This is working for me I fear,” one commenter wrote on Alvarez’s airport dance video.
His videos have made an impact, racking up over 10 million views.
Alvarez told The New York Times earlier this month that he didn’t originally make the dance videos to promote his show.
“People started commenting, ‘Fine, I’m going to start steaming your show. You convinced me,’” he said.
He added, “I started leaning into that, writing ‘Stream English Teacher on Hulu’ in the posts.”
The TikTok algorithm “loves dancing and pushes those videos. Then it becomes addictive. ‘Wait a minute: If I just do this dance every day, I’m going to get millions of views?’” Alvarez explained.
Alvarez, who has also appeared in the “Will & Grace” revival, said that his dancing isn’t purposefully outrageous.
“My whole life I’ve had an expressive form of dancing. I’m doing it quite earnestly. I don’t think it’s supposed to be as funny as people are finding it.”
“English Teacher,” (now streaming on Hulu) is an eight-episode sitcom following Evan Marquez, a gay English teacher at a high school in Austin, Texas.
The show addresses many topics that are hot-button issues, such as the kids no longer being “woke,” the “r-word” coming back, there’s a scene where Evan is tasked with explaining what a nonbinary person is to a group of kids – before it comes out that they already know what it is, and they just wanted to film a teacher making a fool of themselves explaining it.
“Desperation is a powerful thing,” Alvarez told the outlet, referring to his attempts to promote the show.
“I knew with the way TV works, there’s an acute moment around when it’s released. I was posting clips, reviews. Out of all of that, this was the thing that worked — just dancing.”
Alvarez began his career with comedy sketches posted on YouTube, so he sees this as a full-circle moment.
“I came up putting things on the internet as a way of getting my art out there. That has culminated in me having this mainstream TV show. To then end up going back to the internet to get people to go and watch the mainstream TV show? It’s funny how it’s all the same thing.”
The show wrapped up its eight-episode first season last month, and has not yet been renewed for a Season 2.
He told Gold Derby that he has no plans to stop making the dance videos.
“My arms are not tired yet. I go to the gym. I keep them ready for more.”
“I am definitely in the moment where I’m asking myself, ‘How long am I going to keep doing this?’ For now, it’s still getting traction,” Alvarez added. “I’m still getting hundreds of thousands of views when I do it. I’ve actually never ridden a trend like this, so your guess is as good as mine of when I’ll be done with it.”
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