Micah Sandman is part of the YouTube channel CboysTV that has garnered millions of views. I was able to get a closer look at Micah Sandman’s life and show you the perspective of those close to him, made easier by the fact he’s my cousin.
For as long as I can remember, I’ve only had older cousins whether that be on my mom’s side or dad’s side, and Micah was always the coolest (sorry to my other cousins). He was the first one to introduce me to Snapchat, with him using the barfing rainbows filter on me, and he would chase me and my sister around. Now that I’m older it’s definitely weird to have a cousin who’s a part of a YouTube channel that has over 2 million subscribers, but thanks to handy dandy journalism, I can share my perspective.
For those that don’t know about CboysTV, it’s a YouTube channel that consists of Micah Sandman, CJ Lotzer, Ryan Iwerks, Grant ‘Ken’ Matthees, Ben Roth, and Evan Sheff. The “C” stands for “Cormorant” as in Cormorant Lake (their headquarters are here) and the group’s motto is “Life Wide Open.” They do stunts, take apart vehicles and reassemble them, and film vlogs. They also sell merchandise, which I have gotten as Christmas gifts.
Anyway, the Spartan Scroll sent out a survey asking for some interview questions and I took the more appropriate questions and got the answers. He has not gotten his Bronco’s hood fixed, prefers dirt bikes over snowmobiles, and the most fun vehicle they built and drove is the Yamaha R6 with a snow bike kit on it. Sandman also said if he wasn’t doing this (which he said he would be a fool not to), he would be a DJ or music creator.
One of the harder questions I got was: How has your relationship with the boys changed with the growth of your business, and other events like Justin stepping back and Jake leaving? For this, I got a very interesting answer. Sandman said, “It has definitely gotten to be a large part business oriented and less ‘just hanging out being friends.’ However, at the end of the day, friendship is still the #1 priority. Jake and Justin leaving were huge events in our journey and forever changed us in many ways. These are oftentimes the moments that define us and bring us back to reality sometimes.”
Sandman has been a part of the Cboys since 2015. They didn’t start the channel until late 2016, but the group of friends we know as the Cboys came to be a while before the YouTube channel. They had already been dubbed the “Cormorant Boys” by peers and friends that frequent the lakes area in the summer, so Sandman said that, “CJ realized that we had the potential to share our camaraderie with the world through YouTube videos. So he bought a camera and started filming everything. And although, even I was skeptical at first. It was clear we had something. We never looked back.”
I asked how being a Cboy has affected his relationships with friends and family, as I’ve seen it myself with only seeing him a few times a year whether that be Christmas, Thanksgiving, or the occasional wedding. Obviously, he’s an adult and is living his own life but my family talks to each other regularly and during the summer, we see each other often. Sandman told me, “The biggest factor is the lack of time I spend with family and friends. Being essentially self-employed, it is hard to step away from it. Especially when at times it’s extremely fun and oftentimes very rewarding. You feel a sense of self-guilt when you aren’t grinding as hard as you were last week or as hard as another member of the business.”
“Very optimistically, I think we will be doing this for 10 more years. Our videos are based mostly around our friendship and having fun together. And fortunately, it is something that comes quite easily for us. We work well together and will be benefiting from each other’s hard work for years to come,” Sandman said, about how long he thinks they can continue.
Sandman also said he’s a Taylor Swift fan and that his favorite song is “Cardigan” in defiance of his fans, Tanner Fugle and James Miller. When the Spartan Scroll sent out the survey, I got to see how many students (the ones that took the survey that is) at North are fans of CBoysTV. There were 131 responses and in those responses, 32.8% had heard of CboysTV and 19.2% are subscribed to the channel. It’s clear that CboysTV has fans at Fargo North and I hope that this interview will show them a new side of him and the channel.