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From MTV to HONEST GUIDE - Janek Breaks Down His Career
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May 10, 2025
Before catching crooks, Janek the Honest Guide has actually been pretty busy making entirely different videos. Grab the popcorn and enjoy this very special tour... Oh, and Honza (who writes this description and feels weird by speaking about himself in the third person) will share a little bit about his career as well. Have fun! Yup, pretty crazy stuff, guys, but if you want to keep yourself entertained for even a longer time, have fun exploring our personal channels right here: Janek: https://www.youtube.com/user/janekrubes Honza: https://www.youtube.com/c/ceskabomba If you feel like checking out us on Instagram, here are some links! Janek: https://instagram.com/janekrubes/ Honza: https://instagram.com/honzamikulka/ And in case you want to support us... WE MADE A BOOK! About our love for the city of Prague, the best beer places, cheap restaurants… get it here: https://honest.blog/shop/honest-guide-en/ This is our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/HonestPragueGuide/ Thank you for your support! Honza Mikulka & Janek Rubeš Prague based journalists
View Video Transcript
0:00
Well, hello there and welcome to yet another Honest Guide video made at my house
0:04
Today we're not going to be showing you PROC or talk about PROC, but we're going to talk about how the two of us met
0:10
and how was it through video that brought us together and how we started making videos
0:15
and what kind of videos we were making before we were making the Honest Guide
0:21
And some of them are quite interesting that you may not know
0:25
or I'm pretty sure you don't know them because they were gone from the internet. So now we would like to bring them back and show them to you
0:32
So if I may start, believe it or not, my first video that I ever made that was like a proper film was about Prague
0:41
It was called Prague. It was my elementary school project. And here are some bits of it
0:54
It was very boring and artistic and it was just bullshit. The way I got to making videos was through my parents who both worked in film industry and in elementary school my teacher was actually a sister of a very famous cameraman F.A. Brabecz
1:11
So she, after school, she would give us cameras to make films and she even made a little film festival that I attended with this film
1:21
I then went to high school that was also focused on film and photography
1:27
And most of the projects would be boring to show you. But this was one of the things that we did to prove to my professor that we can film a proper video within half an hour
1:39
So this was created during our lunch break. And it's a famous Czech song
1:51
TikToking before it was cool. Regarding this video, I sent it to the band
2:01
I said, look, we made a music video for your song. And I can't find the email, but I remember they replied back
2:08
I believe their manager and just insulted me and said, this is absolutely horrible
2:12
I will never show it to the band. You're disgusting and you ruined the song
2:16
So I apologize for that. That's for real, bro. I sent it to them
2:21
I was like, look, we made this joke, like, we're lip syncing to your song, because back then it was, like, cool to lip sync to things
2:26
And she was just, like, so mad. She was like, you ruined the song. We didn't touch the song, we just made a video
2:32
I also just went back from the camera. For real? Yeah, dude
2:37
Then I went back to Prague, and another school film was called The Prague Walker
2:42
I was really into stop motion animation. and for those of you who've been watching YouTube since it started
2:50
you may remember Tani vs. Paul video, the stealth motion. I loved that video and I thought, I can do the same thing
2:57
Well, what I did was not as good as what they did, but it was a short try
3:12
So as I'm making these videos at my school, my very good family friend Joey comes up and he goes
3:18
hey, do you want to make videos for money? I'm like, what do you mean? He's like, well, I have this client
3:22
It's a Nokia phone company, and you can make videos about their phone
3:27
and we'll pay you for that. Well, that sounds like a deal. So we have, or Joey has created something called Noise Brothers
3:35
which was me and my friend Indra, and we were promoting products and videos
3:40
which back in 2006 was unbelievable, unheard of and unthinkable. And that's how Noise Brothers were created
3:48
And then one day, me and my buddy, Noise Brother, Noise Brothers, we made a video where we made fun of Czech politician
3:56
but more than making fun of him, we made fun of journalists that were chasing him because of something he said
4:40
Nokia name and only used Noiz Brothers. Drop the the, just Facebook
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And since Nokia wasn't interested, who was, was Media. And this was the very first time we actually got media attention in one of the newspapers, Lidová Noviny, from year 2007
4:56
And the article was called, The New Fear of Czech Politicians is Called Noizbródrs, written by Ondřej Aust
5:03
And this is so old that the picture in the article was black and white. Look at that
5:08
Mr. Cunek, do you know Noyes Brothers? That was the only question we asked him
5:12
We were just going after politicians and we would go, do you know Noyes Brothers
5:16
That was our punchline. And we were like, yeah, sure. I'm like, really
5:21
No way, that's so cool, thanks, bye. We just want to have fun, says 19-year-old Janek Rubes
5:27
and a half-year-old younger Jindra Marid. They use the word viral more often than the word sex
5:34
Their videos were already seen by more than 100,000 people. What year
5:40
2007, dude. 2007. And we went to a company called Stream.cz, which was sort of a YouTube site
5:48
And back then, this guy, Dona Netushil, told me, hey, do you want to make videos with us
5:53
You know, you can do whatever you want. And I said, well, I have this crazy idea. I want to make fun of celebrities by pretending to be an MTV reporter
6:00
Because, of course, Czech celebrities will be like, wow, he's from MTV
6:04
We're going to tell him everything. So we dressed up as MTV reporters with my buddy and we crashed one of these VIP parties
6:11
and that was one of our big hit videos here in the country. Where are the big celebs? Like I don't know the people
6:17
This lady... In the green dress? Yeah. She was, I don't know which year, but she was the second miss of our Republic, you know, so she's quite famous
6:28
Why don you tell us how is it to be a pop star in Czech Republic It very difficult because people here in Czech Republic are difficult Another crazy idea we had because we were young students that had nothing to do
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was with my neighbor here and we said, hey, how about we hitchhike somewhere
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We just spin a bottle wherever it points. We're going to hitchhike that direction for five days without any money
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So that's how the first Noiz Brothers road trip came to life
7:29
because it's called the new stars are named noise brothers and there's these two pictures of us at
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and me just holding the sign west the czech internet has new heroes it's the boys from the
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group noise brothers i know it's hard for you to imagine but this was shot on a camera with a tape
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and I carried my notebook that was super heavy and huge. You had to play on the camera, hit record in the computer
8:02
and then I was editing the videos as we went along the way
8:06
So I would usually sit at a gas station, unplug like a wending machine for something
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and I would just edit the videos there. So it was fun and we really had no money
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We did get some money from the people. You can watch these videos on Noise Brothers' channel on YouTube
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has more than like 300 subscribers. Speaking of tapes, kids. They're here
8:35
They're everywhere. I have hundreds of these. I'm sure Honza does as well
8:40
The only limitation back in the days was that this tape was like $4, Honza
8:45
And it was like, you really had to think about it. Like, do I buy it
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Do I make the new video? or I just rewrite an old tape. But once you rewrite it like eight times
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the quality goes bad, right? Four times. Four times max? But this was like high tech
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This was mini DV. Back before we would use eight... HI8. HI8 or digital eight is what I used
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And before that, it was just eight millimeter og tape. Well, well, well
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Now, speaking of tapes... and this is how we met dude. You have a camera for this
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Well, you take the tape. So you can, uh, there's no other way how to find it
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The video doesn't exist online. And so the tape I just handed to Honza is how we met while making videos
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We knew each other from the online world because his nickname was Cescabomba, Czech Bomb
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and I was Noe's brother. I even still till this day I have Honza's phone number saved in my phone as..
9:57
I'm gonna cover up your phone numbers... Do you see it? Honza Čb stream
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Because the CB stands for Czech Bomb. So Honza Czech Bomb stream. So I would know who's calling me
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And I'm sure he has me stored as the one from Noize Brothers
10:20
And so there we are in Prague, both of us making videos
10:26
I was making a video anti-Santa, which the idea was we don't want Santa Claus in our city or in the country
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We want baby Jesus. So we had some guy dressed up as Santa Claus
10:40
We put him in the trash can and we were riding through the city. And as I'm riding down, making a video about it, I run into Honza
10:47
But Honza will explain to you what he was doing later in the video. After Noiz Brothers, I tried something doing myself, which wasn't really successful
10:54
It was called Noiz Brothers News. I sort of hated it, but some episodes were fun to make
11:00
like the one when Obama and Medvedev, the US and the Russian president
11:04
came to Czech Republic and we made a fake news story. I don't want to say what the plot was, because I don't think that would be okay to say
11:12
but that's how we made, I believe, maybe one of our first videos with Homza
11:16
both of us on the screen. show that was extremely popular, like extremely popular among Czechs and in the Czech Republic
12:13
I believe, obviously, it was because of our great camera job and I'm sure Roman would agree. Hi Roman
12:19
And another video where we were only behind the camera, not in front of it
12:22
was one of the very first videos to hit million views in this country and it was called Ostrava
12:29
It was made by our friend Rudas Ostravy, who was, to explain it, like a weird Aljankovic
12:36
he would make take famous tunes and redo them into the Czech version so this
12:42
one instead of about New York it was about Ostrava once I was running out of ideas my boss said you have to make some videos you
13:00
have to do something you took a whip and I said oh yeah I'll do something so
13:05
So how about how to? What do you mean how to And I like how to something So there was another show we did with Honza na to and it was like how to I don know how to clean a CD that would be very successful now I think I believe the most viewed episode
13:22
was how to get a shopping cart if you don't have a coin because in Europe or
13:27
I don't know if it's in Europe but I know it's not in US you need a coin to get your shopping cart so you can you return it so we have a trick for that
14:04
has affected me the most. He knows it very well. He also doesn't have any emotions
14:08
So if he's watching it right now, he's just like, next. And speaking of Adam
14:12
there are two episodes on our vlog channel where we travel around Europe
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We're driving around. And the most liked comment under one of the videos is
14:21
are you sure you're not just stalking that guy, Yannick? Because it looks like he just doesn't like you
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The link will be in the description so you can watch that. So next stop, Atlantic Ocean
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Hold on. Oh, you were expecting me to be somewhere like magical when I did this cut, right
14:43
Oh, well... If there is something I dislike, it's wealth and fortune and people showing off with money
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That's why the next show I was doing is Life in Luxury
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And I was going to Ferrari shops and the most expensive restaurants, hotels
15:01
and I was saying, wow, this is so cool and amazing. Look at me, I'm sitting in a Ferrari
15:07
So I was doing that for like two years. Why was I doing that
15:13
There's different stories. It was my job. I didn't have to, but I mean, it was fun
15:20
because you got to eat all this food for free. It was like the opposite of honest guide
15:25
now that I think about it, no? I mean, some of the places were cool, but it just felt weird to like smoke a cigar that was super expensive or drink a water from
15:35
glacier that was you know tasted like my tap water here. And now who changed my life the most
16:18
wow, this is really crazy. And a couple days after, the city of Prague actually decided to sue this
16:25
TV station for publishing that episode because they said, the city of Prague said, they made it
16:29
all up. Nothing like that is happening in Prague. I went, hmm, really interesting. And my boss back
16:35
then said, hey, how about you go and try it, Yannick? You speak English so you can sit in a cab
16:39
and, you know, just let him drive you. You can go into an exchange office, see what happens
16:44
So we did it with my friend Marcus. And we ended up even in worse situations than the original TV crew that was filming in Prague
16:52
So we made a show called Scam City with a question mark
16:56
And we only followed the things that Conor Woodman and his TV crew did in Prague
17:01
to prove a point that it is actually happening in Prague. Wait, so how much is the price
17:07
$820. Yeah, and I gave you $1,000 and $100 and the coins
17:11
And can you give me a receipt for that? How much is a taxi from Old Town Square to here
17:18
Two, three hundred? I paid eight hundred. So wait, so can I do something about it
17:27
And after that, I went to a show called Progress is Crooks. We continued to do that show with Marcus
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And basically what we did is we took each topic, taxi drivers, exchange offices, and made it into a series
17:41
We never really finished the exchange offices story. We eventually caught up with Honza
17:46
But the taxi driver story is quite complete. You can watch it on our channel. It really goes from A to Z where we explain how it works
17:53
who are the people, where they operate, and so on. It took us a long time to make that
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Eventually came up to be like five or six episodes. But it's fun to watch
18:03
And he charged our three Mexican tourists $32 for a two-mile trip
18:07
His buddy in the white car charged us $20 for a three-mile trip
18:11
And then once again, Honza steps in. So Honza sees me crying in my office and I'm like, oh, the city is so bad
18:19
Everybody's cheating. Everybody wants to kill me. The taxi drivers, the city hall
18:24
And Honza goes like, he pats me on the shoulder. He's like, it's okay, man. No, the city is really nice
18:29
It's positive. It's full of beautiful things. Let's do a show and show those things
18:35
I'm like, there's nothing nice about the city. He's like, come on. it wasn't that like it wasn't like that but um yeah hanza came up with the idea for honest guide
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and he said let's uh show nice things in the city and let's start off by showing how to go from the
18:54
airport to the city center and i'm still crying on the floor nobody cares about that people know
19:00
how to get to the city center and it turned out some of them didn't well hello there my name is
19:06
Janik and I will be your Prague guide. We are at the Prague airport, Vaclav Havel airport and in
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today's episode we're going to show you how to get from the airport into the city center of Prague
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That's how we get to Honest Guide, that's how we got here, starting here. So here we are during
19:21
quarantine time making yet another Honest Guide episode and now here's Honza's story. Hello
19:27
everybody this is Honza, I'm usually behind the camera but for the moment we switched and I would
19:34
also get to my beginnings with film. So for me it started when I first saw E.T
19:40
and something in me really sparked and I decided I want to make something like that because for me it was it was just something so amazing I decided I want to make something like that because for me it was just something so amazing I decided that I will start saving money and I will buy a camera
19:58
So I got a little job. I was washing cars. I was picking apples
20:04
And then one day I was able to get my very first camera
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This is Sony Handycam. And I've had so much fun with it
20:12
and me and my friends just basically started making videos, but kind of different, of course, than today
20:20
because that was 2006, I think, and what we did, so we were trying to make films
20:27
and the film was called The translation would be like the stories of a very regular schoolboy
20:42
But as the elementary school ended, me and my friends went to different high schools and it wasn't so easy to make films anymore
21:07
So and the internet was kind of you know rising. So we decided that we will make short clips on the internet
21:16
sort of a sketch comedy clips and that's how we found out that there's a web page, StreamCZ, as Yannick already mentioned and
21:26
They contacted us. We started uploading videos there. I saw Yannick's video
21:30
I was really amazed and the first time when I uploaded my video there and he sent me a comment
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and hey, that's kind of funny. And then one day we actually met in street
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as Yannick said, during making his video and during me, I was making a video
21:48
where to kill someone in Prague. I know it sounds really bad, but trust me
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it was a sketch video, it was fun. We were 16 or 15, it was a joke
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It was just a joke. Boom, mic drop, the earth shook a bit, I feel it
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The thing is, back then you had to choose, there were like two groups of people
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One was emo, the second was like the rap guys, the hip-hop guys
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and they hated each other like so bad. So one day I just figured
23:04
hey, let's combine those two things and let's make the emo guy rapping, you know
23:12
It was a joke or like we thought it's really funny. Some people found it funny too
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Some people were like, they wanted to kill us. Like I've got so many threats
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and something like, you're not a real emo. We hate you for that
23:26
And you know, the hip-hop guys were like, you're not real hip-hop, we hate you too
23:31
That was a really weird time back then. But I have to say, even though I was starring in those videos or I was in it
23:41
I never wanted to be in front of the camera. The only reason why I was was because none of my friends or none of the people around me
23:50
wanted to be in front of the camera. But I always felt much more comfortable behind the camera
23:56
I always felt like I have much more responsibility to make the video if I'm behind the camera that I can somehow
24:04
I don't want to say direct it but kind of manage what's happening and so basically that's after after a while
24:11
it's just like I got behind the camera and I decided that it's a place where I feel just more comfortable
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so yes I am in front of the camera for a couple of times here in Honest Guide but otherwise I try not to be
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When I am traveling, I usually take my small camera with me and I do make videos from my trips, but it's mostly for me, because I want to remember it
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The video diary, the visual diary of the trip is much more efficient for me than if I just take pictures
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It's very nice, beautiful. So yeah, that's basically the story of me and now we go back to Janek
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That's it. So if you are still staying at home and you're bored because you've already made Trdelník
25:15
you can obviously watch more videos from Honza. His channel is Honza Mikulka on YouTube or you can just search for his name or you can
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search for Czeská Bomba if you can find some Czech bombs. Same goes for Noiz Brothers
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or my channel, Janek Rubeš. So check them out. And I guess we'll see you next week
25:35
Hopefully this all goes slowly away. And this weird game of communist times
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when there's no food in the stores, the borders are closed, and the schools are closed will be over
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I mean, just yesterday I tweeted out, like, hey, I cannot buy yeast
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Where is it? And this person replied to me, welcome to the virtual reality of communism
26:00
That's how we live. Make it at home. Stay safe. I hope you're healthy wherever you are around the world
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This is Janek and Honza from Prague, Czech Republic. And a Czech word at the end will be Česká bomba
26:14
Czech bomb. Česká bomba. That's Honza's old channel. And mine was Noiz Brothers
26:21
Hluční bratři. Noise Brothers – Hluční bratři
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