Excuse My Grandma
Please Excuse My Grandma’s Breakdown of Social Media Stereotypes (Ft. Walker Ward)
Thu, 21 Nov 2024
In this episode of Excuse My Grandma, Kim and Grandma Gail are joined by the hilarious and talented Walker Ward, better known as @walksauce42 on social media. Famous for his spot-on impressions and comedic takes on New York stereotypes—from finance bros to wedding planners and girls doing 'get ready with me' videos—Walker shares the story behind his viral success. They dive into his creative process, the inspiration behind his characters, and the meaning of his iconic handle, "Walk Sauce." Walker opens up about his family’s reaction to his career, his relationship with his girlfriend, and the unique pressure of staying relevant on social media. Plus, Kim and Grandma Gail challenge him to Grandma Gail’s Old-Fashioned Dating Quiz—does he believe in moving in together before engagement or keeping a relationship off social media until a milestone? The episode wraps up with an “Ask Grandma Anything” segment and check out social media for a fun outfit check. Follow @excusemygrandma
Chapter 1: Who is Walker Ward and what is his background?
Welcome back to another episode of Excuse My Grandma. It's Kim and my co-host, Grandma Gail. Today, we are joined by a very special guest, Walker Ward. I'm excited because Grandma really was looking forward to this one and that always means that it's going to be a good one. If you don't know WalkSauce42 on social media, I don't know what algorithm you have because he's all over our feed.
He's hilarious. He has all of those spot on impressions from girls who do the Get Ready With Me videos to characters like Chad who are going to the US Open. He's known for kind of poking fun at those everyday stereotypes, especially New York characters. So Walker, welcome to the show.
Thank you so much for having me, ladies. I'm so excited to be here. Let's go. I'm honored to have been a hand selected by Grandma Gail. I feel like I'm not worthy, but I'll do my best.
Yes, we had some family connections, which made it easy to get in touch. And then my mom was also very excited.
Oh, let's go. What's your mom's first name?
Barbara.
Hey, Barb. Good to see you.
That's what we call her, Barb or Barbie. Um, so to get started, tell us your social media journey. When did you start posting? What was your job before? Cause we all had a job before.
Yeah, we did. No, that's a great, that's a great question. And seriously, thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited to be here. So long story short, um, my, my, my God given birth name is not walks house 42. It's Walker ward. Surprise. Shout out mom and dad. Hi guys. Um, and I was born in New York city. I grew up in Princeton, New Jersey. So I'm from the Garden State, God's country.
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Chapter 2: What inspired Walker to create content on social media?
And now we have chat GPT for that.
Exactly. Now we're kind of obsolete.
Yeah.
But long story short, I was working at a winery in upstate New York when I got a phone call from a family for whom I used to babysit. And so my mom runs a nursery school in Princeton where I went, Nassau Nursery School, class of 99. Go geese. And I – this family – so she was like the babysitting plug for my siblings and I our whole high school career.
So I babysat – I was kind of like the Manny in Princeton. That was like my job in high school. It was fun. I love kids and – anyway. That was great. And so this one family who I babysat for all the time, we obviously became very close.
And so fast forward, however many years later, I get this phone call from the dad and he's like, hey, Walker, we're hiring a junior sales guy at this like Wall Street sell side company. Would you be interested in applying for the job? And I was like, yeah, I'd love to move to New York. I mean, I was held back in math in high school.
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Chapter 3: How did COVID influence Walker's content creation journey?
If you ever told me I would have had the opportunity to have like, you know, a classic, you business job, at least dip my toes into the financial world. I was like, yeah, and I want to go to New York and that'll be great. So I took the job and worked there for five years, five and a half years. And then the last summer I was let go from the job.
And then that was really the impetus for kicking off the content. I will say COVID, when COVID hit, like so many people March 2020, I'm, you know, all the offices, everything shut down. I'm back in my like childhood bedroom in New Jersey. And I started this little nature show called Nature Walks with Walker that I filmed on my Instagram.
And basically I rented a, like a raft on Amazon, like a blow up raft and like a captain's suit. And I was just posting these little vignettes videos. This was like pre-reels, like reels weren't even a thing. It was just Instagram videos. But anyway, I, That was really where the content actually started. I had a full-time job, but as we know, everybody was remote.
But you were enjoying it.
And I was loving it. And I sailed this little raft down this river in New Jersey that runs through our backyard. And I pretended to be stranded in— So fun. The wilderness and like knock off little like ode to Castaway instead of Wilson the volleyball. I had Tito the vodka bottle. So good. With like little hair of grass. And I carved a face in it.
So anyway, that was the first kind of taste of content. And the thing I loved the most about it probably was that I still do is – kind of going into my little hole and cooking up fun ideas and then making a little, you know, 60 to 90 second video story, whatever.
And then putting it out, not to be dramatic, but like into the world and letting people see it, you know, and, and seeing the comments and watching other people enjoy something that I have really loved making is a very good feeling. So that was love the process of the process, but that's how it started. And then my parents were like, You know, kids pack up the car.
We don't know what's going on with this virus. We're driving across the country to Idaho. We grew up going to Idaho. And I said, Mom, Dad, like, how are you going to pull the rug out from underneath me? I have this huge nature show. You have a huge following. And this is definitely pre-following. This is like...
I had like my normal, like whatever, 3000 Instagram followers who I just kind of cornered all over Manhattan. I was like, follow me. Um, but no, they were just my friends. And then, so because we were driving across the country, I was like, I have to take advantage of this road trip. So I came out with hot dog boy.
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Chapter 4: What is Grandma Gail's Old-Fashioned Dating Quiz?
It wasn't like a whole thing, but I moved back into like my childhood bedroom. To the basement. Exactly. Exactly. And so I'm, my parents, my, My parents were very supportive. My whole family was very supportive. I think something that people will tell you, like sometimes I'll be with friends and people will ask like, you know, was Walker always like this? Like kind of what's the deal?
And like, I'm not being any different than like what I, than who I am naturally. It's not like I'm one person on camera and someone different. Obviously I'll play characters.
Right, yeah.
I'll be Chad, like deleting Chicken Tenny Towers and like crushing Whispering A. Yeah. Or I'll be like Palm Beach Dad dropping the kids at PB Day and like complaining about a flat tire on my, you know, super fancy car. But it's still me. I've always been this way. I've always done this kind of thing. So my parents, I think I had that, Sort of in my corner. That was like mom and dad.
I'm like, they, they believed in me because they knew that maybe I could do it, but they definitely were.
They liked it. They enjoyed it. So they wanted to see if you basically could make a living doing this.
Exactly. And that's the thing. They were just cautious. They're like, Walker, look, do it. We believe in you. We support you. But like, you know, you gotta make some money. You gotta pay your rent. You gotta, you don't have healthcare anymore. You gotta, good old Cobra, you know, all that stuff. So, they believed in me.
They were supportive, but they were like, you know, they were checking in on me. They were like, Walker, how's it going? Like,
Has that changed over time since you first started?
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Chapter 5: What does Walker's family think about his career?
Like there was one guy on Nantucket. So when I left my job July, 2023, I My girlfriend actually was the one, because I had coworkers who were like, oh, Walker, like, because I was let go very like out of the blue, out of nowhere. It wasn't expected. Right. And so my coworkers were like, Walker, we'll help get you other interviews at competitors and that kind of thing.
I was like, I don't know you guys. Like, I'm not... This wasn't like feeding the soul or whatever, but it allowed me to live in New York and earn a nice living and whatever, which is great. So my girlfriend was like, Walker, why don't you just like start making content? Like you've always loved acting.
You've always talked about how you want to be in movies and TV and like that kind of thing, which is something I've wanted to do since I was a little kid. But I never actually... really worked towards it. It was just kind of a fun idea. So I was like, all right, that's a good idea. I'm going to make some content.
So the first character that I came out with was the Wall Street intern, the kind of basically Chad, but Chad comes from more of a, you know, the upper brow, higher brow, you know, Couth. He knows his way around fine dining and, like, the finer things in life. The Wall Street intern is the kid who's, like, it's his first time having any disposable income. He's in New York.
He's living with some friends. He's, like, never been to the—I mean, he's a bull in a china shop. Right. And a little kid in a candy store at the same time. He's out in the Hamptons just like, oh, my God. Yeah. So— because I just come from that world, the world of wall street and like the Hampton, it was summertime. I was like, okay, we're going to do wall street intern.
And that got a little bit of traction and it sort of snowballed. I was like, okay, people think this is kind of funny. So I'm just going to keep coming out with new characters.
Um, wait, so is your girlfriend like in the room when you're filming?
Yeah. It sort of depends on what I'm doing.
Yeah. She is, do you live together? I should have.
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Chapter 6: How does Walker balance his relationship with content creation?
I don't think grandma knows them. No, I didn't see that. But they are influencers. It's a couple and they do the outfit checks and it's.
Yeah.
Very specific.
They do outfit checks and they're very much... I think they're very just true to who they are, but they're fun to watch. I'll put it that way. And so the humor for me in doing their...
satire on them it's like I'm playing both characters so anyway people are like Walker we don't need to see you dressed as a woman please put like your beautiful girlfriend right in the shot and she's like absolutely you got a better chance at seeing Elvis than in any of my footage but um so she's she is totally supportive
She's – the only time she's usually in the room is like sometimes I'll do some Get Ready With Me videos. Like she has like a true obviously like vanity and like real place to – you know, a little lab to cook it when I'm doing my stuff. And so sometimes I'll do videos there and she'll be like – I'll put like post-its or like random things as my – ASMR nails.
Long nails.
And things like that. And so she'll be there to help me because, like, if I have the fake nails on, I can't, like, touch my phone. And, like, I've got, like, peanut butter.
It's an absolute mess. She's my PA.
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Chapter 7: What are the challenges of staying relevant on social media?
So I called the landlord.
You can't leave me here with these hot dogs.
You can't leave me hanging with these glizzies like out here in Iowa. Like, come on. So like, this is... Montauk has been like the anchor tenant of my summers. Like, I am looking forward to... It's my Super Bowl.
Right, right.
So... I'm talking with my hands. I have to be better about talking with my hands. But I called the landlord of the house that we had rented the previous summer. And I was like, hey, we want the house. So I signed the lease with no one in it. And I was on the hook for like... It was only for two weeks. But still, it was like $20,000. Which I did not front. I didn't have $20,000.
I still don't have $20,000. But it was more... I'm going to put myself on the hook. So like, there's no option. Yeah. I have to make it happen. So I then made an Instagram story and like, hey guys, I have this house in the Hamptons. Like who's interested? Two weeks in August. And I just sort of sifted through. Were you public or private? I was public.
I was public, but I didn't have like a big following. Yeah. I had probably 4,500 or 5,000 followers, which is like sizable.
But if someone responded who didn't know you, would you have said yeah?
Well, that's kind of where we're going. Sorry, I'm jumping in.
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Chapter 8: How did Walker meet his girlfriend?
People actually need the Hamptons or someplace like it because it is a place. Wow, I can't wait to use that sound bite. Yeah.
People really need the Hamptons. That's going to be so good. But I agree. And it's, and I mean, I had never even, I'd never been to the Hamptons. I had never even heard of Montauk until I moved to the city in 2018. Right. And I went out there and, you know, I was the Wall Street.
Well, now everybody knows the Hamptons. They're all on 27. I know, I know.
It's the idea of like everyone being in vacation mode. Totally. Like work is secondary over the weekend.
But the ocean and the sky, Kimmy, are so beautiful.
But I don't think that's what's... Okay. It all adds to the vibe.
It adds to the vibe. The atmosphere.
The atmosphere.
My friends, one of my friends calls vibes, vobes.
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