By Taylor Freeman

If you are asking “what the heck is a markiplier,” let me give you a brief history lesson before getting to his tour.

Markiplier, as he is known on YouTube and social media, or Mark Fischbach, started his YouTube career in the year 2012 recording a horror game Amnesia. I won’t go into detail about the game since it’s not important for this article, but it’s pretty good and I would definitely recommend it. Back to Mark.

I personally found Mark’s channel in early 2013 through one of his recurring animators. Since then I’ve been following his growth and journey through youtube, watching him expand from horror games to other genres of games, to challenges, to charity livestreams. I’d like to note that this man and his community have raised over $1,000,000 total to various hospitals and alliances. He’s donated to the Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance multiple times, The Cincinnati Children’s Hospital and multiple research institutes for Alzheimer’s and cancer research. And with every stream, every video, he has one-upped it each time with staying connected with his followers or subscribers.

In the past few years, while uploading and recording for his gamer interests, he’s also been creating his own shorts more frequently, shooting them with friends, and creating content that can be appreciated by more than just gamers. He has been more involved with doing improv shows with his friends Ethan (CrankGameplays), Tyler (Apocalypto_12), Bob (muyskerm) and Wade (LordMinion777).

Apparently YouTube wasn’t enough to quench the thirst to create. His first ever tour, “You’re Welcome,” was full of improv games, sketches and a mix of choices made by the audience to allow us, the viewers in real time, to decide what they should do on stage. One of their stops on the tour, for us northeastern folks, was at the Wang Theater in Boston, right off of Chinatown. The theater was absolutely stunning. There were chandeliers everywhere, marble pillars, and every inch of the ceiling was decoratively painted.

We were given paddles, one side red and the other green, with mark’s signature M and a mustache on either side. This was how the audience chose what the actors where going to do, who won the dance off or which act the audience enjoyed better. Each show is unique because of these paddles. At the beginning of the show, the crew brings out three suitcases, and the audience votes on which suitcase they should open. Each of the suitcases held a theme for the show, and we just happened to pick the horror theme for Halloween. They invited members of the audience to join them on stage to play games and participate in the show.

Watching this man grow from just some guy in his house playing horror games to an idol to people around the world, changing lives with the money he raises and the stories he tells — it’s inspiring, to say the least. He is the little guy. He is the kind of man that reaches out to the people who idolize him. He makes bets and goals with them, to be connected to the community he has created. I don’t know what he has in store after this tour, but the only way he can really go is up. If you haven’t seen any of his work, whether it’d be his “Let’s Plays” or his skits, I suggest checking him out; give it a shot. You might just find something you didn’t know you were looking for.