He made his Greek mom a TikTok star
It all started on TikTok in late 2020 when stand-up comedian Gus Constantellis donned a light-colored pageboy wig and spoke with a strong accent to demonstrate how his Greek mom makes tzatziki. Soon he began filming his mom, Julia, writes xrust. In a 2021 video, Julia tiredly leaned against the kitchen stove, smoking a cigarette down to the filter. He asks her in Greek what dishes she made for Christmas and then translates her response. That video garnered hundreds of comments from Gus’s 240,000 followers, many of whom identified themselves as children or grandchildren of immigrants who found similarities in Julia’s behavior: rough around the edges but caring, cynical yet supportive of their kids. Gus, now 32, drew inspiration from his own experiences as a first-generation American and created a Greek character for many of his videos. They quickly gained popularity on TikTok, especially during the pandemic. The videos often focused on Julia’s exceptional culinary skills as she skillfully prepared classic Greek dishes like koulourakia (butter cookies) and spanakorizo (rice with spinach), but it was her natural comedic timing and straightforward delivery, combined with Gus’s translations and infectious laughter off-camera, that captivated the audience. The online success led him to consider working on a cookbook with his mom. She agreed. After all, the idea of preserving family recipes was not only practical. Gus began exploring some of his mother’s recipes soon after moving to Los Angeles in 2014 to work as a television writer. This is where the quirks began. In some recipes, the ingredients were measured using a certain red cup. He had to call his mother to clarify the volume. Returning to New York in 2018 to pursue a full-time stand-up career, Gus had more opportunities to personally learn Julia’s culinary secrets, honing his own skills—which was clearly important to her, as she often claimed in her son’s videos that he and his brothers needed to learn her recipes before she passed away. Of course, the mother passed away, but the cookbook with her recipes was still published.
https://xrust.ru/news/310807-on-sdelal-svoju-grecheskuju-mamu-zvezdoj-tiktok.html
