COURTESY OF ROBERT ROBERGE
by Erin Eaton
Humber comedy student Ryan Dillon is experiencing his own shades of success after his blog, chronicling chapter-by-chapter reactions to the erotic novel Fifty Shades of Grey, went viral.
After three weeks of posting, his blog received over 15,000 views. The count now hovers just below 20,000.
Dillon shares cynical summaries, cheeky commentary and agony-infused reactions he experienced while enduring the popular literotica. Though he openly detests the best-selling book, Dillon said he has no regrets about taking on the challenge.
“There had been so much publicity about how terrible it was, but most people I know were too afraid to read it,” he said in an interview with Humber News. “I felt like taking one for the team and exploring the hatred for this pop-culture phenomenon.”
Dillon said he suspects that his misery is what fuels his readers’ enjoyment of the blog.
“People enjoy my suffering. Really. The more pain I feel, the happier my readers are. So I suck it up and say ‘Well, I’ll do it for them.’”
Dillon said he is frequently asked whether he plans to review sequels Fifty Shades Darker and Fifty Shades Freed. But despite his success with the first, he has no intention of completing the trilogy.
“I don’t think I could read the other books. Physically, I don’t know if my body could take it,” he said. “I’m planning to branch out. I have a few things in mind. I’m looking into exploring other hated pop-culture phenomenons — books, movies and maybe albums.”
Not only is Dillon completing Humber’s comedy program and managing his blog, he is also attending the Second City Conservatory, with hopes of becoming a full-time comedian.
“A lot of people said I’d have too much on my plate doing Humber and Second City, but to be honest, comedy is what I really want to do,” he said.
“So when people are out going to parties and stuff, for me my fun is going to see a show, or being in a show,” Dillon said. “This is what I want to do, and this is exactly what I want on my plate.”
You can read all about Ryan’s suffering here.
[SlideDeck2 id=6814]