{In a World Wide Web full of bizarre celebrities, from the histrionic Chris “Leave Britney alone!” Crocker to the glassy-eyed Tay “Chocolate Rain” Zonday, one YouTube sensation stands out. His name is Mike Tompkins, and he’s… rather normal.
The London, Ont., vocalist and producer garners millions of hits for videos in which he cheerily recreates the multi-layered sounds of contemporary pop songs—using only his voice and mouth, and occasionally, a tambourine. In October, über-producer Timbaland (Nelly Furtado, Justin Timberlake) invited him to Miami, saying, “You’re doing something normal, but in a really cool way.”
Tompkins, 23, is clean-cut and well-mannered—over lunch at Duggan’s Brewery in Toronto, he even says grace before tucking into his burger. He’s the kind of guy his many teen-girl fans would like to take home to their parents, if he weren’t already married.
He and wife Kayla have been together since an onstage kiss in high school drama class. Now she’s his manager, publicist and stylist, rooting for superstardom despite the fact that his fans “don’t want to know I exist,” she says. “You want Mike to be that girl’s fantasy—but at the same time, I do exist."......
And while the artists’ original videos tend to be raunchy—Katy Perry’s Teenage Dream is one long heavy-petting session—Tompkins provides a G-rated alternative. Using split screens and special effects, he shows multiple versions of himself imitating everything from basses to synthesizers. Occasionally, he alters lyrics: in Perry’s song, for instance, “Let’s go all the way tonight” becomes “Let’s fall into each other’s arms.”
When he and Kayla have children one day, he doesn’t want them to hear their father singing about “hooking up with random girls. I’m trying to be different in a way that’s not manipulating the minds of our youth.”.......}
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