Getting famous is all about who you know...

Have you seen Jud Laipply’s ‘Evolution of Dance’ a web-based video on YouTube.com? Well, if not, you’re missing a treat, unlike the 34,743,985 people who’d seen it as of this writing.

Jud, a motivational speaker and actor, basically does a 6-minute video that takes us through the entire history of bad dance trends since the sixties, including the Pony, the chicken dance, the YMCA craze and an excellent Michael Jackson knock off. It’s hilarious stuff … really!

And it brilliantly demonstrates just why video sites like youtube and Google video are the new eye/brain candy on the Net. It’s just so fun to sit there and be entertained for six minutes – right at your computer – while you work.

So much easier, somehow, than carving out time to watch ‘your show’ on the T.V., or wade through a thousand car commercials, or flip vacantly through the 540 options trying to even find something to watch.

In this way, a friend (usually) sends you a video, you tune in and become mesmorized. A great little break! Please note, however, that much of what’s up on youtube, the video hosting site where many of these little videos are found, is junk. Seven second videos of guys bumping into doors, slick videos of surfers getting drunk, that kind of thing.

But … Jud has proven just how slickly this can work if you have something that’s truly great. His video is the #1 most watched video on youtube, where 30 million videos are downloaded every day. It’s been bookmarked as a favorite more than 90,000 times. And the media has noticed – CNN, Good Morning America, all the biggies are courting this guy.

So far he’s being touted by a big time speaker bureau and has a regular web-based ‘TV’ show in the works. Finding ways to monetize isn’t hard when you have this much popularity.

I’m interested in waiting and watching this guy, and learning at his knee.