In her new video series, the comedian Rachel Coster explores some of the foulest, most unsightly corners of New York City. No, not the grimy sidewalks of Times Square or the platforms of especially smelly subway stations.
Ms. Coster trains her critical eye on the squalid apartments of male 20-somethings.
Dusty shelves, sweat-stained pillowcases and teetering heaps of laundry are all staples of the home décor featured in her series, “Boy Room,” which profiles some of the most unkempt bedrooms owned by the male species.
“This series is like watching Hoarders,” one Instagram user commented on a video, “but a little more happy and sad at the same time.” Another raised a more profound question: “R men ok?????”
In a series of minute-and-a-half-long videos, Ms. Coster is led on an apartment tour by an all-too-willing participant, and she investigates the method to each room’s madness. At the end, she offers the Boy Room inhabitant simple tips that could help him declutter and generally get his domestic life on track.
“I’ve been going on dates since I was, like, 18,” Ms. Coster said. “By going to people’s houses, not knowing them that well and their room is such an immediate way to get kind of a really clear picture of what I’m working with.”
Ms. Coster, 28, who lives in Brooklyn and has a background in improv, said she first pitched the idea for the series in December to Adam Faze, who owns the production company Gymnasium. Mr. Faze was interested in the concept, so they tested it out by showing up without warning at the apartments of male friends to take a look.
Ms. Coster and Mr. Faze seem to have struck gold in the piles of dirty laundry. Within less than a month of the first video’s posting — there are half a dozen so far — the series has gained over 71,000 followers on TikTok and more than 22,000 on Instagram.
“I don’t want anyone to feel bad or like we’re putting them on the spot,” Ms. Coster said. “I am not trying to ‘gotcha’ anyone. I think it’s only good fun.”
“Boy Room” candidates can be nominated for consideration via email. (Photo attachments are allowed — the more chaotic, the better.) According to Ms. Coster, many would-be tour guides have reached out to her directly in her Instagram DMs.
“I’m definitely biased in that I like when it’s nasty,” Ms. Coster said. “It’s just so much more interesting. Like, I think it’s so nice that even the messiest room can show that someone has a lot of passions.”
Christopher Isaacson, 27, has been living in his Boerum Hill apartment in Brooklyn for over a year now. He reached out to Ms. Coster after he saw the first installment of “Boy Room” and thought his apartment would be the perfect participant.
“I think that, like, boys’ rooms as a concept is interesting,” said Mr. Isaacson, who is a full-time comedian. “It’s just very fun to see myself and these other, you know, contestants, for lack of a better word, in their natural habitat.”
Mr. Isaacson’s apartment tour included a large amount of clothes spread across the floor; a dresser filled with gray wigs (for his sketch comedy, he says); and a desk that was given to him by his grandmother.
“I think of the clutter as, like, if you’re crossing a creek,” said Mr. Isaacson, who has since cleaned his apartment in response to some of the comments. “There are sort of steppingstones that you use to avoid the water. And I think in a good messy boy’s room, there are steppingstones of floor.”
Mindful of the potential for hypocrisy, Ms. Coster shared that she could be a bit sloppy in her own personal space.
“Everybody knows somebody who’s got a Boy Room, and it doesn’t mean you love them any less, or maybe that’s also you,” she said. “We’re all kind of united in that way.”
