Landen’s time in the spotlight
Amherst teen becoming online influencer through Landenator Show
Landen Gogan is a huge fan of social media. He dreams of the day when he’ll have thousands of followers.
While his following is only small to date, the Amherst teen has come a long way in a short time. He has a weekly show on Facebook and YouTube that features himself, family members and special guests sampling items from Amherst area restaurants and a downtown candy shop.
“I’ve been watching videos for a long time and I was always asking if I could have my own show,” said Landen, a Grade 8 student at E.B. Chandler Junior High School.
“It’s something I wanted to do for fun. I am amazed at how many people watch.”
Like many teens, Landen watches a lot of videos on the web, whether through Facebook, YouTube or other streaming sites like Twitch. An avid gamer, especially Roblox and Fortnite, Landen understands how getting a following can be so attractive.
“I was watching a lot and thought, ‘wouldn’t it be cool if I did that?’ I talked to dad and he kept saying maybe later,” the 13-year-old said. “I think I was nine when we started video here.”
After convincing his father, David, to let him begin posting on Facebook, he was amazed at how quickly his numbers grew and how many shares he was getting.
“We were a little nervous about it at first. You never know what’s going to happen when you put something out there, but we did a little at a time and just at certain times to family members or friends,” Landen’s father said.
From doing small snippets and sending them to family members, Landen last year began circulating them among a wider audience.
The Landenator Show features Landen with his father and his father’s girlfriend, Pam Chappell.
“He’s done an amazing job,” she said. “I have a nursing friend who told me her son thinks Landen’s famous. Sometimes Landen will be walking through the mall and someone will stop us and say, ‘we saw your show’ or ‘we loved it.’”
She thinks it’s popular because, during COVID, people spent more time on their screens.
“One of the things Landen has been trying to do is encourage people to try other things,” she said. “All of the items are local, so it shows there’s lots of selection here.”
Her sister, Sarah, is also featured with her quick wit and sense of humour often stealing the show.
“She’s got some pretty good zingers. You never know what she’s going to come up with. It’s hard to keep a straight face,” Landen said.
After a quick intro about what’s being sampled, he’ll set up three plates.
After trying each piece, the trio gives of rating from one to 10 and the reason for the rating. At the end, a winner is picked.
While many of the items are candy and other sweet treats from the Balcony
Candy Shop, he and his father visited restaurants to sample and showcase their products.
Landen said there’s no real inspiration behind his shows. He gets ideas and then attempts to have fun with them.
“I imagine the reaction is ‘what are they doing now?’ That’s what we want. We want people to smile and laugh and have fun watching what we’re doing.”
He often asks his audience for ideas. A burger episode was a good one, as was when they sampled cupcakes. Landen said one of the funniest was the one featuring spicy gummy bears.
“The faces we were making,” he said. “They were pretty hot.”
And then there was the game show episode in which they played the board game versions of some popular shows.
He’s not sure what he wants to do after school, considering he has a few years left before graduation, but he is hoping it will involve computers.
“I like to have fun and I hope people have fun watching,” he said.
Landen has a huge fan in Dwayne Ripley, who operates the Balcony Candy Shop.
“He’s a great kid,” Ripley said.
Ripley tries to bring in unique candy products to his downtown story as well as some classic items. He said he often sees the teen in the store picking up items for his show. Since then, he has customers coming into the store wanting to buy some of the things Landen has shown.
“He’s quite the showman,” Ripley said.
Landen said he really appreciates Ripley and the two will sometimes talk about what he’s going to feature.
“Dwayne has been very good to me,” the teen said. “He’s been very supportive.”