TEXARKANA MAGAZINE
While Cornelius Creations is on the “edutainment” side of YouTube, Texarkana natives, Mark and Matt Peyton have honed the art of entertaining their audience in the midst of the storm. Drawing inspiration from fellow vloggers, Casey Neistat and Logan Paul, Mark and Matt Peyton created their YouTube channel in 2017, hoping one day it would become an income generating entity. For those who are less familiar with the concept, a vlogger is a person who regularly posts short videos to a video blog or video log. Mark and Matt began making videos about daily happenings in their lives, but without a specific direction or focus, their channel eventually fizzled out and took a three-year hiatus. In 2020, Mark and Matt found themselves back in Texarkana at their parent’s house after being sent home from college and work during the COVID-19 quarantine. “We decided to dust off our cameras and start making videos again,” Matt explained. “One month in, we were invited on a storm chase with Mark’s friend Chad. He had heard we were creating again and thought a storm chase would make for good content.” Chad was on to something, because that video, to date, has over 18 million views. “We ended up inside a 400 yard wide tornado in Bowie, Texas, and we were hooked!” A passion ignited inside the Peyton brothers like a whirlwind (pun intended) and they began to cultivate personas that would entertain their now enormous and ever- growing audience. Known as “The Trio,” Mark, Matt, and Storm Chaser Chad have a number of different catch phrases and nicknames that their audience has come to expect in each episode. “We are known for having a good time and keeping the energy high for the ‘Nado Gang’ (our viewers) while feeding off the adrenaline rush of a storm and also a little bit of ‘Nado Juice’ (Red Bull),” said Matt. What started out as a daily vlog has developed into something much more impactful than the brothers could have ever imagined. “Because of the success of our videos, we have had the opportunity to assist in disaster relief along the way. To be able to give back to the communities that have been painfully impacted by storms is something we could not foresee when
Brothers, Matt and Mark Peyton
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BUSINESS & POLITICS
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