Hey Paolo Meets: Tiktok-famous Jaxon Samwell and Tommy Eyers

For most people, the Tiktok world is seen as nothing but pure novelty. But for South Australian content creators, Jaxon Samwell (17) and Tommy Eyers (23), Tiktok goes beyond novelty — it’s a new medium of creative, engaging, and out-of-the-box entertainment.

Hey Paolo: What inspired you to start your Tiktok pages?

Jaxon: Six months ago, I was still a very quiet person and I didn’t really interact with people unless I know them. But after doing two-three Tiktok interviews with random strangers, I thought it was heaps fun especially filming their real reactions and showcasing them on Tiktok.

Tommy: I just want to make people laugh. I didn’t really know anything about Tiktok back then, and I was trying to make videos (uploaded on Facebook & Youtube) to make as many people laugh as possible. Now, you put them on Tiktok and you can suddenly make a million people laugh.

Hey Paolo: What kind of content do you produce?

Jaxon: To make people laugh. I get surprise messages and they’ll say something like: “I was having a bad day and your content made me laugh.” Stuff like that keeps me going. What I do has also inspired other people to pick up their camera and film their own stuff.

Tommy: I used to do what Jaxon was doing like asking people questions and getting their reactions. But three months ago, I started dressing up in a school boy outfit and now all of my videos are of this character. I basically go around in a 10-year-old school kid’s outfit and I ask people to film me dancing and doing random stuff.

Hey Paolo: How do you explain Tiktok to the older generation?

Jaxon: If I had to explain Tiktok to my grandparents (which I actually had to do), I’ll say that it’s just like any other social media platform. Strangers can go viral. You can be nobody and become Tiktok-famous instantly.

Tommy: For anyone over the age of forty, they’ll be like, ugh, Tiktok’s going to steal your data. Tiktok is actually a good platform for those who wish to go viral.

Hey Paolo: What keeps you creating?

Tommy: Knowing that people are “wetting their pants” watching my content while laughing is good to know.

Jaxon: I get mostly positive comments on my videos and I love reading them and replying to them. And then there’s all meeting random people who recognise us. It’s such a weird thing because everything happened so quickly.