E154: Why Great MCs Make It Look Easy (And What Actually Happens Backstage)

real people, real stories, and real challenges that break the status quo. I'm your host, Zhivila, and welcome to Perception of Our Lives. Hi, everyone. Welcome back to Perception Paradox. My name is Juvila and I'm your host. And today we're up for a bit of a different episode. I know that recently you've been hearing many founder stories and also from some great people. Natalina herself from Koko Foundation. Today, I just wanted to make this quick episode while I am preparing for my event season this fall. It's going to be quite intense. With my heart broken, I had to say some no's to fully focus on the events I have already in my pipeline. And very often when I meet someone new or someone in my environment and circle, ask me questions. They're like, so what do you do for work? And I'm like, well, I do plenty of things, but one of them is public speaking and I am a professional MC. And everyone like, what? MC? Is that a job? I was like, yeah, it's a job. And then also other people who are pursuing similar careers or who are into events or they see me behind the mic, they were like, Oh, you make it that looks so easy, like it comes naturally. And honestly, it really, it's the highest compliment. And with this episode, I wanted to bring on stage, this online stage, what happens behind most of the MC schedules and preparations and how does it really look like, for example, right now. You can see me again somewhere in the world between the events recording a podcast episode. And at this moment, I'm preparing for my first September event on site, which is happening actually tomorrow in Amsterdam. It's called HumanX AI, and I'm very excited to host their main stage. It's going to be thrilling, I would say. Their production team is super high notch and the agenda and the topics conversations are incredible. And that also requires a bit different preparation because the event itself is going to have the teleprompter. So what does that mean for me as an MC? I have to come and be prepared if something goes wrong because I don't have plan B in my hands, notes or anything. I will be seeing some notes going as like in the TV show. and the teleprompt it requires a bit of a different even engagement and storytelling it's still lots of interaction and improvisation but at the same time for example you find the script being more fixed in a way even though it's not just reading the script right it's a lot about performance so i thought just to bring a bit of less visible things you do as an emcee when preparing so well the paradox is that when an emcee does a good job let's say introduces someone when you see someone walk on stage introduce a speaker ask a good question maybe make the audience laugh I love that one and move on it all looks so easy and so effortless but People understandably assume, well, how hard can it be? As I've been doing that for many years and I kind of had my childhood era as well on stage. Well, it can become quite difficult because you always have to be three steps ahead proactively. making sure that what's happening behind the scene, what's about to happen on stage, and also what the audience is feeling, it's kind of interconnected.