A moment with Ophelia Dagger

Ophelia Dagger, if you haven't heard of her, is a YouTuber. If articulate and funny had a child, it would be Ophelia.

I asked her for a little interview, and she kindly obliged. I won't say any more because the only way to do her justice is to go over and watch her here. 

Why did you start YouTube?

I started YouTube after a bad breakup. That's the short story, the long story is I was living with a boyfriend and we had moved to a different city so he could go to Uni. He was younger than me, and I didn't know anyone else there. A year later we break up, I stay in the city, drink too much, live with some fuck ups, live with a dealer and a cook, generally destroy my life for a year.

Eventually I got sick of the routine of clubs and drinking at the same places and I just felt like I was rotting, wasting my education/potential. So I decided I didn't want it any more, and moved back with my parents at what could be considered a 'life fail' age. But it was needed. In my home town my friends are my old high school friends and I don't have anything in common with them these days so I wanted to meet new people: YouTube. I'd been watching since 2007 and loved the community. A few months later and I'd met a bunch of utterly fantastic people. 

How would you sum up your channel?

Embarrassing. 

As a subscriber, my outside perspective is that the main theme, if you will, of your channel is humour. You even manage to make your book review videos really funny - have you ever considered stand up comedy?

Thanks! Yes. Well, I would love to do comedy in any capacity, but I'll be damned if I'm standing in front of a bunch of drunk men and trying to make them laugh. People immediately hate comics, they want them to fail before they've even heard them. It's a really weird, awkward scene and I'm just not brave enough. Also I have a stupid high-pitched child voice so if I had an argument with a heckler I'd sound like a tit no matter how clever my retort was. And it wouldn't be clever so that would just exacerbate the situation. 


If you only had to review one author's books for the rest of your YouTube life - who would you pick and why?

Jonathan Safran Foer. I think everyone knows of my deep devoted love for him by now. He's got a new book coming out in 2014, and I'm pre-emptively scared for the release date getting pushed back already. I WANT IT NOW.   


You're intimidatingly clever - I remember in a previous video you mentioned that you'd finished writing your book. Are you planning to write anything else in the near future? 

Ha, cheers! But it's easy to seem clever in a video. I'll say something, if I don't like the way it sounds I'll say it again, or if I like what I've said but had too many pauses I'll rerecord so it seems like I said it straight away. It's the perfect illusion because you can just delete the evidence of your incompetence from your hard drive when you've finished. 

You talk about embarrassing stories on your channel and you really don't appear to take yourself too seriously, like a lot of people on YouTube seem to do. Is that something you're able to do off-camera, too?

Oh, I never take myself seriously. I used to be very critical, too. Just in general. So it would be ignorant not to apply that same criticism to myself. Now, I'm far more diplomatic (than I'd like), so the self criticism has turned into light hearted deprecation. All that really matters is the health of those we love and understanding we're all equal. Outside of that let's all just have a laugh. 


How did the name Ophelia Dagger come about?

Ophelia: I liked the name and always wanted to change my name as a kid. The Shakespearean/lit reference tickled my fancy too. Dagger is a nickname from Uni which came about after the Chelsea Dagger came out. Chelsea is my actual name, obviously. Voila. I've used it on the internet for years, but I've since realised it sounds a bit like an emo Myspace name. Like, BeckyStyxx or RainDeath, or something. Those aren't actual examples. Actually they probably are. Either way, I cringe when I think about it.


Your use of language is impressive - but what's your favourite word?

I don't have one. I love all the words. Circumlocution is pretty neat to say. 

Lastly, can I have an Ophelia-Dagger-exclusive funny anecdote?

I can't think of anything that has happened recently, but I am always amused when I get nice complimentary comments or tweets, whatever, and as I'm reading them I'm in bed with gravy down my dressing gown watching Jersey Shore. or Moonshiners, thinking 'Oh, if only you knew'.