Sean Evans On How He Researches Guests

I want to say I hold your interview skills to be among the greatest I'm definitely not unload that you are definitely known for your incredible interviews thank you so my question to you is what is your research process like yeah so it's it is what it looks like it's just elbow grease you know that's the thing about hot ones that is it is just by design a labor intensive show and I think that it's just as important to do it myself you know and not that I do it all by myself like at this point I've got like my little brother doing dossiers and then Chris Schoenberger who's my creative partner and all this what we'll do is we'll divide and conquer so I'll send him all the profiles and local paper stories and magazine articles and whatever that I'm gonna read and with the podcast that I'm gonna listen to if it's an artist will listen to their music if it's an actress will watch her movie you just drop everything when you have a book the guests like how much do you commit to just researching and consume every minute that I have so sometimes you know you don't have that much of a lead time like maybe you're able to confirm somebody and shoot it in a matter of like 48 hours you know what if that's what I have then whatever then I'm not going to drop why don't you drop everything and possible and you just boom consume everything well you have to and I think to as the show's grown you know now there are like more and more expectations like it's funny because like at the beginning when like stuff was getting 15,000 views you're like whatever but then like there's part of you that almost wishes not that I want to say that like not that I want the show to fall off but like now I already know that like millions of people are gonna see it so I can't embarrass myself right onerous stage that big so it actually like ratchet ratchets that up and then to is you know the viewer experience is always different because we have such a wide array of personalities you know because it ultimately is just the wings the hot sauce a black background in a bald guy so to keep that going out of longevity level people's expectations only get higher they see something and then they need to see something different or see something better otherwise it's gonna stay and eventually it's gonna fall off so I always feel like as the show's gotten more popular like that process has actually gotten more intense to a point that they're all affection sometimes you have to like manage your time because as someone who's now dabbling in interviews doing what we do here I I'm trying to think of myself more as like an interviewer and less like a comedian he's trying to be funny when I'm sorry here across from somebody so part of the challenge that I have is like time management so you find a three hour podcast you can't listen to the whole podcast you don't have enough time right are you know or do you but like where do you find your nuggets generally deuce so what I'll do there is like what's good about the podcast is you can play that at 2x so like you know what I mean like really like I'm I walk to work like I actually can crank out that podcast or like whatever like at the bar at home or whatever before I go to bed like I actually can crank out that podcast or that book on tape or what-have-you but just like cranky you're gonna consume it all in its entirety well here until like you know you can find these Nuggets like I think what I look at too is like at this point watching so many interviews like in research I'll look at body language as much as I talk about like what's being discussed because like sometimes you can see and maybe like an interview that isn't great that like that person doing the interview is just leaving a lot of change on the table like maybe they'll like ask something but because they're just thinking about the next question and because this is just some sort of formula like they're not really looking at the guest so like you can kind of see where like maybe they're maybe they like perk up a little bit and then they're like on of the next questions the person's kind like like you know like you can kind of write you like maybe they kind of wanted that topic to be explored a little bit deeper like I'll just put that topic in that person together see if I can find like what has been said about it what's being said about that thing try to put together some sort of like hot one style question around it and that's sort of like you know just an as much as like finding these random truffles in the ground like at the same time you're kind of like looking at what other interviewers leave on the table new interesting and I think to that like I need to know that because there's so much that can happen on the spot and so much that you need to improv in that time and I have to like really know that person and think about that person and make person a box I'm almost like interviewing that box because I've done just as much research and Christian Berry's done just as much research that we have sort of just this like armchair psychology mm-hmm interesting do you have an interview philosophy like some kind of guiding principle that that you find helps you I mean I think it's just you know you look at what's interesting to you at some level I think that's like 30% you think about your audience to a certain degree and then you know that I think that like what people like about hot ones is a naturally humanizing experience you know so it's not like taking the celebrity which by definition is you know these people living this unattainable lifestyle you know and then let taking it down to just a normal level because like you know if we want to talk about like you're not famous or you know like just whatever it's like normal people and I like I like I like when people are just you know I think that people that live in that spotlight they like when people are just being normal to them you don't like being treated necessarily like yeah if they're over here you know it's like in the process of like the wings and then contextualizing a question that's part of the philosophy I'll circle back on that you can just take it down to a more human experience that's what people like watching it and feel connected to it I was gonna touch on something there and just as well I go I got into that weed chocolate no it's so amazing to go in these stores and stuff I'm like I don't I don't like weed but I'm always shocked with like the product would win here I'm just I'm amazing not everybody I know everybody I'm related to blazes heart every time I'm wacky new [ __ ] every time we go to a friend and hang out I end up consuming it by mistake all right do a pantry and then yeah like we were at our friends house and we just grabbed juice drink from the fridge juice like nothing safe yeah no I like I'll have like a pomegranate juice and it will just look like pomegranate cuz I know there's a chance and I still missed it and every time I think it's happen actually twice in the past year and every time it happens we're like we got a split right go home now it's gonna be that bad that we need to go home I need to leave this party like they just dabbled it'll take the edge off a little bit but yeah like if I'm gonna commit then yeah for sure I need to I can't [ __ ] I can't [ __ ] I can't [ __ ] with a weed it just makes me paranoid I wish I enjoyed it as much as I see people enjoying it I wish that all the time for myself I see like there's like so relaxed apparently but when I take it it's the opposite of relaxation I think for me it started off I was like a very relaxing thing and then like just over the years it's like yeah when you have an abortion not going around if you tell me I'm curious about your process okay if you were gonna research Sean Evans like I did why would you start I don't think so but how would you start what would that process look like where would you start well just start with like just like a big like a Google search and just trying to find out like the if the the pillars of what makes them them like whether it's like the music whether it's the hobbies whether it's like whatever find all those things first and just write all that down just put that all onto a spot but then what I find too is like into like social is a good place to go you know like just start at the bottom of somebody's Instagram and go all the way to the top because they're like sharing these milestones in their life so you can kind of get a quick download and then same with the Twitter stuff but then I think like another thing that you should look at especially with an athlete or a big star is their local paper because those are the people are gonna be covering them before anybody else you know I mean so they'll end up doing those sort of like ground work interviews so I think like if you look at it in a chronological sense that's helped me a lot it's the link trees start at day one and then end at where they are today that's cool try to like put in all those things like as you see them pop up and then chess game master your mind some sort of interview around what you came up with you so like a consistent narrative do you try to do like a full narrative when you interview somebody like a story yeah I mean I think there's that but then you know you don't want to be locked into a convention so much you know what I mean like there's that too so then and then then you start thinking that way but then you also don't want to overthink [ __ ] either yeah yeah you know because like it is tougher though there's always like a balancing act because that's like sometimes you know you get so into it you start like working it out I look like Matt Damon and Good Will Hunting putting together a question and then you're like well if I ask this person that they're gonna be like right moving breasts here I don't even know how to answer it [Music] [Applause] [Music]

Channel: H3 Podcast Highlights

Views: 1,834,843

Keywords: h3 podcast, podcast, h3h3, h3h3productions, ethan klein, ethan and hila, sean, evans, sean evans, hot ones

Id: FTRLCSWfq7I

Length: 9min 36sec (576 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 26 2018