An East County man says his on-camera failure to properly cut down a tree while making an instructional video will be featured on “America’s Funniest Home Videos” on Sunday evening.
The 50-year-old goes by the name Randy Bear on his YouTube channel called “Off-Grid and Whiskey.” He posts scores of of how-to and playful videos about living in the woods. He cuts down Douglas fir from his 12-acre tree farm near Schafer State Park and crafts his own wood planks with a portable mill to build his home, all of which he is documenting through his channel.
Bear tries to entertain while he educates, although not usually like this.
He told The Daily World that it happened while filming in early January: He was using a steel cable and winch to secure a 30-foot tall fir tree as he cut it from a cliffside piece of his property. He made his initial cut and wanted to say something to the camera, possibly to explain to his viewers how to use a hand-operated winch to make a tree fall in a specific direction, instead he demonstrated how not to do that.
He shuts off his chain saw and crosses over the cable. As he begins to say something the tree in the background begins to fall in his direction. He said he heard the tree cracking and felt the urge to get out of the way.
The camera captured the near-miss and he posted it to his YouTube channel as usual. Bear said that a friend of his watched the video over and over again and insisted that it would win if he were to submit it to the ABC program. He did just that, and received confirmation this week that the short will air in the new episode this weekend.
The show airs at 7 p.m. PDT on ABC or viewerscan stream it the next day on Hulu.