. . . . . tonight on "nightline," the fame game. how is it that he became famous? ♪ you are the sun >> or she did. ♪ because i got a crush on obama ♪ >> or they did. how youtube is redefining your 15 minutes of fame. ganging up, how do you stop teenage fights from ending in deadly shootouts. behind the scenes with the people who try to keep the peace on america's most violent streets. and palin power. guess who is going to iowa. after another spectacular week, sarah palin heads to the hawkeye

state. is this a start for the run for the president? good evening. i'm terry moran. you know there was a time when finding fame in the entertainment industry meant a trip to hollywood for casting calls or being discovered by a talent scout. but that has all changed. now fame is more democratized. put yourself on youtube and let the world be the judge. that's a process that created online superstars who turned into popular mainstream artists and as david wright reports tonight, hollywood has taken notice. >> hey, it's fred. >> reporter: he's the beevis or butthead of the youtube generation. >> oh, my god. it's cold.

i'm swimming. i love swimming. >> reporter: a 17-year-old playing a 6-year-old with manic energy and an extremely obnoxious voice. >> give me a bigger pool. >> reporter: the character fred figuralhorn has made the actor a sensation. >> someone told me about youtube. what's that and it interested me so i started posting videos on there just for fine and i guess they sort of took off. >> reporter: the first to break 1 million subscribers. now he has double that number on fans. his most watched video, fred goes swimming. >> this pool is big enough for me because i don't ask for lots. >> reporter: has had more than 45 million views. three times the number that tune in each week to watch the most popular sitcom on network tv. ♪ >> reporter: of course, unlike charlie sheen lucas crookshank doesn't make $2 million an

episode. >> honestly my life at home hasn't changed. i still live in the same town and go to the same high school. other than the fact i go to l.a. for meetings or auditions i pretty of much live a normal life. >> reporter: his 15 minutesfame has caught hollywood's attention. >> must get ugly at your house when there's only one cookie left. >> not really. >> you have a humor and like a timing that is amazing. >> i don't know. i haven't took any lessons. i live in nebraska. there's no movie studios. there's just a bunch of cornfields. >> reporter: tomorrow night get ready for "fred the movie" on lick load yon, the character is slightly toned down. >> to be honest me and judy have hit a minor -- >> the voice slightly less annoying. >> i don't care what judy thinks. >> reporter: but the behavior unmistakably fred.

>> really, really lame. >> obviously when i first started making the videos i wasn't expecting them to eventually be turned into a movie. i mean i never even dreamed of that, so i mean when people approach me about making fred into -- turning him into more traditional media. i got excited. especially for the movie such a good opportunity to like expand the fred character. >> reporter: as an internet crossover he's in good company. of course, there's justin bieber who spun youtube fame into billboard platinum. ♪ don't you know the ways i loved you ♪ >> reporter: and a gig on the mtv music awards and on tv this fall, the cbs lineup includes a sitcom based on a twitter feed. hollywood seems to have decided if you can't beat them, join them. >> it's a ball rolling down the hill and the further away we get from the beginning of the internet, the more likely we are to see more original content, more people finding different ways to make money off of it. >> reporter: that's what people

like jason nadler comes in who works for united talent agency. uta's client roster includes johnny depp, jennifer lopez, harrison ford and lucas crookshank. in fact, he works for a special team within the agency that's totally focused on finding the next digital stars. he says even for internet stars, hollywood stardom is elusive the ratio of wait attorneys stars, is it the same of internet wanna-bes and actual -- >> you know it's probably even worse frankly. if you look at the vast sea of youtube, only a few rise to the top. but you can have a shot anywhere. you don't have to move to l.a. >> reporter: among their more promising prospect, the double rainbow guy. >> wow, that's a full rainbow all the way. double rainbow. oh, my god. >> reporter: whose badly shot but enthusiastic video got 15 million views which in turn

spawned a tribute song. ♪ whoa that's a full rainbow >> reporter: another 10 million views and countless spoofs. >> whoa, that's a full rainbow all the way. >> whoa. >> reporter: and with uta's help the double rainbow guy got cast in an ad for microsoft. >> how do you fit a double rainbow in a single shot? you don't. you do it in three. >> reporter: there are those who don't quite make it to hollywood. >> terrifying for a woman who woke up to a strange man in bed with her. >> reporter: antwaun dodson, case in point. >> obviously we have a rapist in lincoln park. >> reporter: who was featured this summer in an local news report. >> y'all need to hide yo kids, hide your wife. that sound bite became a spoof song ♪ he's snatching your people up

trying to rape them hide your kids hide your wife ♪ >> reporter: in fact his 15 minutes of fame allowed him to move him out of the projects. >> they've made a nice of chunk of change. he shares this that. and he's also sold quite a few t-shirts capitalizing on your 15 minutes has become easier now. there are ways to access, you know, your audience in ways that can make you money if you're smart about it. >> reporter: just ask lucas. his latest online video urges his legionaireses of fans to film themself watching him on nickelodeon. >> don't videotape the movie. you can videotape the party and people and show how much you're having fun because of the fred movie. >> reporter: youtube crosses over into tv. who knows maybe a star is born. i'm david wright for "nightline" in hollywood. >> via video stars. thanks to david for that. when we come back we'll take

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we turn now to crime, violent crime. it's down in this country amazing given the recession but in some places in some cities, a vicious cycle of killing and retaliation has taken so many young lives that in chicago they call it an epidemic and that prompted one epidemiologist from the university of northern illinois school of public health to ask, what if?

what if we treated urban violence as if it were a medical epidemic like the flu? the results are genuinely encouraging. chris bury reports. >> reporter: on chicago's west side, two young women are bickering. >> but you're still here. >> be cool. >> reporter: over a man. one threatens to call in reinforcements to settle the score. >> i am going to call my girls over here. >> but just be cool. >> reporter: this man knows such petty squabbles can quickly turn violent in neighborhoods infested with gangs and guns. >> all i'm asking to give me the opportunity to resolve the situation. >> reporter: napoleon is a violence interrupter paid $30,000 a year to defuse such fights. >> a young lady got shot. >> 19-year-old male shot. >> kids and everything. >> this is a hard job trying to stop killings. >> reporter: he's part of a group called ceasefire trying a novel approach to stop the blood

shed in cities like chicago. >> they're waging war and we're losing children every single day. >> reporter: dr. steve salzman, a trauma surgeon treats gunshots and stab wounds where 150 young people have been killed this year. >> how are you doing, ma'am? the interrupters do some of their most vital work here. >> i got shot in my legs. went through this leg and went through this leg. >> reporter: were youout side at the i'm. >> i was inside the house. >> reporter: they know he may be in the mood for revenge so interrupter charles mack paid a visit. >> i told my girl, i said, man, i hope he is serious about what he said. i'm going to call him when i get out of there because you were telling me about jobs and things and that sort so going to school because i don't have a g.e.d. or diplo diploma. i need somebody that will help

me. everybody need help. >> be encouraged you. i know where you're at. you got my number and we're going to work together. >> hopefully this will be a new chapter in my life. >> it will be. >> reporter: why does intervening in a hospital prevent further violence? >> this is the moment where people are most vulnerable. this is the true moment of truth where you can make that change. >> i want to change my life. i'm tired. i'm 24 years -- i feel like i'm 56 years old. >> reporter: the idea behind ceasefire is keep minor arguments from becoming deadly ones. isolated the epidemic before it spreads. treating violence like a public health crisis instead of merely a crime problem. >> the reality is violence is epidemic. i mean epidemic to a point that most americans do not realize how out of control this problem is. >> when you bring a gang of people to somebody else's block and they feeling like you come to thump. >> reporter: in the engel wood neighborhood tensions are running high after another fight

between two girls, gangs and their weapons. 13-year-old lucy got maced. >> she talk about everybody. >> it's kids. every day, man. we need to be serious, man and put all that garbage side. we got to communicate and get to know each other better and put all that sad stuff -- >> reporter: so ceasefire gets their families together. >> hold up. hold up. let everybody talk. >> reporter: to keep their silly spat from boiling over into bloodshed. >> she just wants some type of commitment to where she know they're not going to go on the word and do nothing else to her or doing something similar. she got her daughter. her daughter april going to retaliate. >> reporter: in cases like this expectations of revenge fuel the violence. listen to lucy's father. >> if this happen to the family it's going to get big time.

it going to be real shooting, real gang banging and we got enough people locked up. >> reporter: the ceasefire workers are assigned to work chicago's meanest streets. most are ex-cons and gang bangers, some like nikenya hardy have taken bullets themself. >> actually came out right here. >> it went where. >> it went in my back. a wake-up call initiated by a ceasefire worker who begged him not to kill the man that shot him. >> he got in my head and he made me realize that me trying to retaliate ain't going to be nothing but selfish. i went on to live my life by joining ceasefire and it's working out for the best for me and my kids. >> reporter: that its interrupters are rough around the edges may give ceasefire more credibility on the street. fred seaton stepped in to stop this man from shooting a teen who stole tvs have his car.

>> i was irritated. when i called him i wanted to hurt him. you know what i'm talking about. in the middle of me hurting him fred came and actually like came in the middle and was like, calm down, man. >> what would have happened if you weren't there. >> somebody got shot. ain't no question. >> i probably would have shot him. >> reporter: really? >> yeah, i would have. >> reporter: shootings and killings are down as much as 70% where the interrupters are active but they cover only slivers of the city and in the toughest neighborhoods, violence is so ingrained -- >> how many people been shot at? >> reporter: and guns so pervasive. >> how many people have access to a gun? >> what did i tell you? >> reporter: it's clear that even ceasefire faces an uphill fight. >> don't even like coming outside and my grandmother don't want me coming outside. >> she came out acting tough.

>> reporter: later in the ceasefire office, the interrupters are pleading with those two girls and their families not to fan the flames of revenge. >> i don't even know y'all. please leave it alone, y'all. please. >> reporter: finally this grudging promise. >> yeah, if they through with it, i'm through with it. >> we're going to start with you. >> no, you're through with it. >> because she said -- >> serious. >> yeah, i'm through with it. >> reporter: in the end lucy's uncle throws the arm around her rival and gives a hug. the contagion stopped in its tracks at least for now. i'm chris bury for "nightline" in chicago. >> small steps toward solving a big problem in chicago. thanks to chris bury for that report. when we come back we'll take you into the kitchen with a chef who wastes absolutely nothing. [ man ] this is bailey's favorite time of day. mine too.

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we turn now to food and a star chef who considers himself a simple guy with a wrestler's mentality who has carved out a top spot in the chicago culinary world for himself. paul kahan shares a few of his life philosophies in tonight's plate list. >> i'm a pretty simple guy and from the very start i told my wife that if there was ever a time where she couldn't tolerate my career and my lifestyle that

she should tell me and i would change. i mean i put a lot into it at this point but i could walk away tomorrow. >> it's a two-day process. on the first day we marinate the meat. pork shoulder, pork belly and duck legs. we'll marinate it with fresh herb, thyme, sage and bay leaf and mix it all together real well in a hot pan with a splash of olive oil and cook it over medium high heat to pull all the fat out. add one onion that's been cloved. two cloves of garlic, a cup of white wine and same amount of water, let it cook for an hour. my dad was an old school businessman. he had money and spent it and was so generous. if you had a boyfriend or

girlfriend and they came over for christmas, they would get a big bonus check. that's the kind of guy he was. super generous and a lot like me liked to have fun. the first thing i'll do is pull out the duck legs and then i'm going to skim the fat. ready for your checkup so we'll shred the meat right off the bone here and then we'll cook it for another half hour with two tablespoons of cone knack. what we end up with is a nice course rillette and serve it with mass rated fruit and there you have it. i remember being in a really crucial wrestling match and the scouts were up in the stands and i was wrestling this animal. he looked over at me at the front table and growled like

that and i was like, this guy is going to kill me. ultimately he won but he didn't pin me. he didn't crush me and it was sort of this at all costs just keep moving forward. failure, success, just keep pushing and that's the way it's been for me in every kitchen. i think if i were a little bit smarter i probably wouldn't be in this business for as long as i've been but that sort of tenacity is good because you sort of get the crap kicked out of you every day. first thing we'll do is make the vinaigrette. we'll render off some garlic in butter then to that we'll add squash blossom, so the next step is start our base. we always start with shallots, thyme, into our bowl and add sherry vinegar and teaspoon of granny mustard and then to

finish i'll whisk in pure hazelnut oil and to that we add our garlic and squash blossom. to complete this i pregrilled some kirby cucumbers and add that. next sun gold tomato and some shaved ricotta salata. grilled squashes, young greens and hazelnut squash blossom vinaigrette. jokingly i often say that my goal is to vanish into obscurity. you know, i want to embrace some of the finer things in life for me at this point so the scales are tipping a little bit and i'm 48 years old. maybe by the time i'm 55 i'd like to maybe work 40 hours a week and maybe by the time i'm 60 i'd like to work 20 hours a

week and check in with all the chef, go to the market with them, talk about food. i probably would be happy with that till i keel over and die. look at that. there's another duck leg in there. this is awesome, isn't it? >> another duck leg. looked good there. we want to remind you that there is still time to vote for the people's plate list. just go to the "nightline" pages at abcnews.com. view the videos submitted by our finalists. click on your favorite and the winner will be announced september 27th. that's the people's plate list. get involved. when we come back, well, is sarah palin running for president? that's the subject of tonight's "closing argument" but first here's jimmy kimmel. >> diane sawyer, ray la mont