Video auteur Jeremiah McDonald of Paris has produced well over 100 videos on YouTube, mainly musical and comedic videos with classic inspiration from Buster Keaton and Peter Cook, among others.

The success of his “YouTube Is My Life” in 2008 led to a job at Comedie de Caen, a theater in France where he produced short videos for them and was a silent actor.

But it was his July video, in which he appears to have a conversation with his 12-year-old self, that has garnered him the most attention. With some editing of 20-year-old footage, McDonald and his 12-year-old self appear to discuss the Internet, his boyhood pets and the British TV series “Doctor Who.”

It has been viewed more than 8 million times and inspired dozens of reaction videos and parodies, including one with an adult Darth Vader talking to young Anakin Skywalker.

Today, he speaks about his growing fame and his return to drawing, which came about through the conversation video. More than 3,000 people have requested drawings on his blog, Tell Me to Draw Something.

Name: Jeremiah McDonald

Age: 32

Hometown: Paris

How has the conversation video changed your career? Because of my YouTube partnership, I’ve been able to make money from ad revenue, so the ability to live off YouTube videos has been the most immediate change. I have the luxury of working on my own projects and considering my next move. Everything else has been a series of phone calls with potential managers and people who may or may not be able to help me find work.

Now that you have 3,000 requests for drawings, what are you going to do? How many do you plan on completing? Just reading the emails has been an emotionally draining task. A lot of people really connected with my video, so they felt comfortable sending requests that were deeply personal and sometimes depressing. I’d like the blog to be fun, so I want to siphon out the quirky or more interesting requests.

What are some of your favorite requests you’ve received? “A unicorn that solves mysteries but sometimes wonders where his life is going” is still my favorite, because it’s a funny idea that leaves just enough to interpretation.

How has the video impacted your filmmaking? It doesn’t look like you’ve posted anything since the conversation video. It’s too early to tell. I have a lot of ideas for short films I want to make, and hopefully it’ll be easier to launch a Kickstarter campaign and get some of the bigger ones made. It’ll be interesting to see how my new audience responds to what’s ahead, since none of my stuff tends to be the same.

What’s the story behind the “Star Wars” parody of the conversation parody? I see you had a cameo in it. A number of different parodies were made, but this was the only time I was contacted in advance and asked to participate. I thought the idea was perfect, and I appreciated that they actually took the time to do a good job rather than rush something out to capitalize on the success of the video, which is how most YouTube parodies go.

A New York-based art magazine just featured some of the stuff you made when you were a teenager. How did that come about? The editor who reached out to me was a Portland native, and she was really taken by the back story of my “cast of characters” and wanted to know more about them.

There have been a lot of comments on the video from women about your mentioning being single. Did that turn out to be a good idea? I’ll just say yes and leave it at that.

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