Hey man, I'm Oatmeal Joey Arnold, and I started making videos when I was ten and now I'm 33 like you and I tried a few times to become famous, in Hollywood, but like you said, pretending to be others can be counterproductive or much worse in the long-run.
Totally. Living without authenticity is cancerous. I've thought about moving to LA several times, but I'm more of a NYC man myself.
I'm from Oregon, was in NYC once and it seems cooler than LAX. Was teaching English in Vietnam for 5 years. Now, I'm near Seattle in a small city which is great for the fresh air. It can be better to live in a big city for networking. Some say NYC is the best metropolis in the world. Some would say that on How I Met Your Mother (HIMYM) for example. Great show, maybe better than Friends in some ways.