Two Westlock brothers are about to see their hard work pay off with their new web series, How to Learn Anything, set to launch Oct. 11 on their YouTube channel 52 Skillz.
Funded by a $50,000 Telus Storyhive award and produced by Stephen and Lindsay Robinson, the six-episode series covers the pair’s adventures as Stephen solves a Rubik’s Cube while skydiving, flips a full-sized Jeep Cherokee whilst doing the splits and constructs a robot capable of baking a cake.
“I wanted to learn basic robotics and I wanted to learn how to bake a cake,” said Stephen Robinson. “The lady who taught us the cake recipe, Cassie Potts, is from Westlock. She taught us how to make farmer’s cake. Then I went and met up with an engineer who taught me the basics of robotics. Then I spent hundreds of hours pulling my hair out trying to get this thing to work.”
Many of the efforts are strange mixes of activities, such as eating the world’s hottest pepper while playing piano. Robinson said he wanted to ensure the videos were actually about skill learning and not just performing stunts.
Originally, 52 Skillz started as a passion project. Robinson began the channel after finishing up a job and decided he wanted to do something for himself.
“I was a bit burned out from school and working all the time, so I decided to set that aside and focus on the things I wanted to do,” he said. “I used YouTube as a way to hold myself accountable to learning a whole bunch of new skills.”
Since then, he has learned how to properly swing a long sword, fly fish, perform a backflip and hotwire a car, among many other tricks.
The two brothers do just about all the work, although when needed they bring in other help. Robinson said he spent two months on pre-production and four months on the actual filming.
As for where he gets ideas like combine Rubik’s Cubes and skydiving, he attributes it mainly to his brainstorming efforts.
“Every once in awhile I’ll do this exercise where I’ll write down a whole bunch of different skills I want to do videos on,” he said. “Then I’ll go through it and figure out what’s realistic and do-able, then figure out how to make it more interesting.”
He noted that as a first-time skydiver, focusing on a Rubik’s Cube was a helpful distraction for him, especially when it took him six attempts to complete the puzzle in time.
“The skydiving instructors I connected with told me that I’m probably one of the only people who has skydived and has no idea what it’s like,” he said. “The scariest part for me was waiting for the jump, but for the jump itself I was just focused on the cube.”
With adventures ranging from hitchhiking while knitting a Canadian flag to tap dancing on top of a mountain, Robinson said he was taking a wait-and-see approach to his next move.
“We’ll see how it does online,” he said. “Our hope is to continue the series by showing it off to broadcasters or getting sponsorships on board. Our hope is that this is not the end of How to Learn Anything. We had a blast making it.”
Next on his bucket list is learning how to shave with a straight razor, slapping a bass guitar and driving in a demo derby, as well as more practical skills like changing the oil in his car.
“I’m kind of getting tired of paying people to do that for me,” he said.
For Robinson, part of the joy is encouraging others to pursue lifelong learning.
“It makes life a lot more exciting when you’re experiencing new things.”
