the Informer

Just take a few hundred thousand strangers from all over the world set up with web cams on Chatroulette.com. Now mix in an improv-piano man with a quick witted tongue, and there you have the most recent YouTube craze.

“Chatroulette Funny Piano Improv #1” has received over two million views on YouTube, and with good reason. Anyone who has dared to enter the crazy world of Chatroulette will surely appreciate the absurdness of this video.

The video features a hooded funny man named Merton. Merton’s real-time songwriting skills and humor regarding the weirdos he encounters on Chatroulette is pure talent.

His first musical interaction on Chatroulette went a little something like this, “Semi-Italian lookin’ just like his parents had planned, probably hangin’ in New York City from the looks of his walls, I just hope that he does not choose to show me his balls…” Completely relevant while dealing with anyone on the sordid Web site.

His fly by the seat of his pants demeanor while flipping through hundreds of strangers on the site has launched him into the YouTube record books and has lead to the release of a second Piano Improv Video.

Once Merton launched his first video, a swirling realm of controversy exploded around him. Viewers and fans alike started the very untrue rumor that Merton was actually Ben Folds.

Although Folds denied the claim, rumors continued to swirl and lead the singer to believe Merton was actually trying to impersonate him through the videos.

However this was also untrue and caused Folds to record a series of Live Chatroulette sessions at his concerts, naming the videos “Chatroulette Piano Ode to Merton” just to solidify the fact that Merton and Folds are indeed not one in the same.

In an exclusive interview with Mashable.com Merton, whose real identity is still concealed, confessed, “I’m not really comfortable performing onstage in front of a lot of people, and it’s also much harder to have an intimate experience with a lot of people,” which goes to explain why the obviously talented man is choosing to share his talents with the world through the means of Chatroulette and YouTube.

So while grazing the much talked about Web site, don’t be surprised to find yourself either being serenaded by a hooded man tickling the ivories in an intimate setting, or even perhaps overlooking a packed arena on the big screen at a Ben Folds concert.
Although the odds of that seem impossible, for the few actually caught by the musicians their faces will be the source of some great YouTube laughs for some time to come. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.