Interviewing and Hosting in Esports with Jess Brohard

“You are there to enhance the broadcast, not be the star”

On our first Broadcast.gg Office Hours Interview, Jess Brohard joins us to talk about her 5 year career, the ‘gotchas’ of hosting, and how to get the best interviews possible. Check out the timestamps below for topics.

— BIO —
Jess is an esports host, content creator, and PC gamer. She has spent the last five years traveling all over the world to host tournaments across a wide range of video games, from Tetris to Dota 2, and everything in between! When she’s not traveling for work, she also broadcasts gameplay on Twitch and uploads videos to her YouTube channel!

Follow her on Twitter to keep up-to-date on her Twitch streams and hosting work! www.twitter.com/jessbrohard

–MUSIC–
Music is “Squid Sisters Remix” by GlitchxCity: @glitchxcity

–WHAT IS BROADCAST.GG–
Broadcast.gg is a community of esports broadcasters improving by discussing and sharing best practices for all aspects. Join us on discord with the link at the top of www.broadcast.gg

–TIMESTAMPS–
00:45 – Early work
01:58 – How Jess got into gaming and esports
04:20 – Why did you keep playing games?
06:25 – History of work
12:08 – What is your goal when approaching interviews?
14:18 – Producers are a host’s best friend
17:14 – What are the questions you ask, and how you adapt depending on the interviewee?
22:02 – How Jess became more confident in hosting
25:32 – Importance of being able to adapt to the crowd and manage crowd energy
30:46 – Interviews should be a conversation, not a list of questions
33:34 – Don’t force it
35:18 – “You are there to enhance the broadcast, not to be the star”
37:08 – How casters differ from Hosts
39:16 – Being positive and uplifting towards the interviewee
41:36 – What would you tell Jess 5 years ago?
44:59 – Social media, final words