JolloTheClown

Khim, Head of Research and Biz Dev at Apptessence, interviews the streamer JolloTheClown

Hello Apptessence Substack readers! Hope y’all are having a wonderful day as we unwrap and reveal some snippets of the discussions we’ve had with streamers running charity streams/events. Hopefully we can make this a weekly thing that will feature some up and coming streamers as well as streamers who do charity streaming on the regular. If these kinds of posts pique your interest kindly follow us to see more content like this.

So to start us off let's take a look at our first feature streamer who goes by JolloTheClown.

So who is JolloTheClown? In the next part of this post we’ll be seeing an interview/discussion I was fortunate enough to have with our man in question.

JolloTheClown

Khim: Well to start off, can you give me a quick snapshot of yourself? Like if you had to explain yourself to people who you've met for the first time.

JolloTheClown: I'm Austin, or JolloTheClown, and I've been streaming my low-IQ brand of immaturity and gaming on and off for 5 years now. HONK.

Khim: Since we are on the topic of charity streaming, is there a backstory that lead to you streaming for charitable purposes?

JolloTheClown: I had a group of friends that introduced me to the idea of streaming after I met them on socially-oriented online games such as VRChat and Comedy Night (rest its soul). After encouragement from performances (usually dumb musically-oriented memes or immature jokes about the human anatomy), I started streaming for fun. I reached affiliate status quickly in just under a week and a half, and streaming then turned into a small, albeit indeed monetized, endeavour much quicker than I had anticipated it would. At the time, I didn't see how my small community could do anything substantial through charity efforts though, especially compared to my streaming friends who had influence much more substantial than me. After a year of growing and evolving faster than I could have imagined, I was turned into a specific charity event by fellow streamer and good friend EuroEclipse in 2017. St. Jude Play Live is a large collective event where streamers come together to raise money for St. Jude Children's research hospital, and us gamers have helped raise millions for them every year, with prize opportunities as a fun bonus for certain fundraising goals. Euro has always been especially passionate about charity streaming, and it's infectious. I decided on raising money throughout the month of May in 2017 as a way to give back. Soon a 24-hour stream marathon was added to the last day of that month alongside my good friend and co-host Dan. Soon after that, it became a tradition of sorts and has been the only consistent thing about my stream's insanely unreliable scheduling every year. After 5 years, I'm really glad it is.

Khim: So how has your interaction with the NGO's or in this case St. Jude generally been like?

JolloTheClown: St. Jude have sent really cool preseason care packages with various stream enhancing items and fact sheets about their mission and our impact before my streams started, they've been there for any questions or concerns through their Discord channel, Twitter, and FAQs on their website, and they've sent prizes based on our community's raising figures as well. As I talked about, I have a friend who is very close to the ins and outs of the initiative who I look to for guidance if I need it, but I never feel like it's my only option because Play Live has a fantastic support system. The hype and the support of fellow Play Live fundraisers or supporters of the initiative is probably the highlight of this support system. I've felt it from a fellow Play Live streamer raiding my stream after theirs ended, as well as through the constant support of what would be otherwise strangers on social media. We're all connected by the initiative and all have our own personalities and approaches to it which I think is super cool. 

Khim: How has the support from Play Live generally been like?

JolloTheClown: It's been awesome! The majority of interaction has been with friends or fellow streamers in the initiative, but it has always felt like a truly organic community. The prizes the program offers have always been a fun kick in the pants for me personally without taking too much away from the main point of the initiative, which is the kids and the mission. The tangible nature of the T-shirts, Hoodies, Mousepads, Water Bottles, Gaming Headsets, and Gaming Chairs has made them great to have as tangible mementos- many of which I use every day. The program also started sending the pre-season care packages I mentioned, full of random items like MLG glasses, Chicken Hats, various other memeable items, and customizable spinners and goal boards for a stream's reward systems. The program stresses every opportunity they can in correspondence through letters, emails, and website updates that the "how" is completely up to us, and I love that. The last thing a creator ever wants is strict restrictions or micro-managing. St. Jude has expectations from their ambassadors, such as to keep things age-appropriate, but nothing unreasonably restricts the one thing creators can offer, creativity. The program found a fun formula that fosters natural hype for each season, and it's an honour to be a part of it. They also give plenty of info on the "why", with real world figures and comparisons that really put the impact of this program and every donation into perspective.

Khim: That's a really great take on the initiative, now you said something about the creativity St. Jude allows, so what does that look like on your streams or if possible do you have an example of some crazy and exciting creative idea you've seen or done yourself?

JolloTheClown: Personally my streams are always pretty impromptu, but I do plan out rewards for milestones and donation amounts. They're a little different each year. Through the years I've been eating habanero peppers, getting smacked with shaving cream filled pie tins, been eating dog treats, drinking shots of clam juice, waxing my legs, and eating jelly beans with various spicy pepper flavours at random just to name a few. I've seen streamers braver than me also do much more extreme redemptions such as shaving or colour their hair as well. The most common reward I've seen streamers utilise, to the point of it being added to the St. Jude care packages, has been the Bean-Boozled jelly bean sets. These are a set of jelly beans who's colours coordinate to a regular flavour or a disgusting one, and it's a roulette game of chance as to whether you get a pomegranate flavour or old band aid flavour. I think streamer creativity and TOS friendly schadenfreude are a big driver of getting people to donate.

Khim: I really love this dynamic St. Jude has created, I bet it must be a blast to be a part of their collective. All of these responses have been awesome but we got just a couple more to go through. I hope you don't mind. Let's switch the script a bit and talk a bit more about you

JolloTheClown: Sure thing!

Khim: How would you describe your community?

JolloTheClown: I describe my community as a diverse, loving, genuine, and friendly group.... Of memeing shitlords. We don't take ourselves too seriously 99% of the time, and I think that makes the charity work in May even more special, because as a community we clean things up and commit to the cause because we as a community believe in it.

Khim: Sounds like a whole bunch of fun, maybe I should join you guys some day.

JolloTheClown: If you can handle it hahahaha

Khim: Challenge accepted!

JolloTheClown: Clown noses will be provided for all applicants.

Khim: Well to continue off of that would you say your community is open to charitable events? and how open are they?

JolloTheClown: The st jude events have always gotten the most response from the community, but we've held fundraisers in the past for organisations like the Trevor Project and Movember when the stream was only a year or two old and they went... OK. I'm definitely a much more experienced streamer who could make charity streams work for different organisations nowadays better than before. As a community, each year of charity events brings together regulars, viewers I haven't seen in a long time, fellow streamers, and mutual friends into the chat, and charitable donations sometimes come from the most unexpected places. Everyone gives what they can, or shares the stream and feeds the algorithm if they aren't able to give monetarily. All of it is important and all of it makes a difference and makes me "so proud of this community". The benefit of St. Jude though is the set timeline and the work the initiative does for you. It gets the ball rolling. Even when I was less experienced, I was able to have fun and make an impact. But that doesn't mean streamers shouldn't take the initiative to stream for a cause that's more personal to them and perhaps less well known. St. Jude is just the most notable cause to really openly embrace gamers and streamers, but the gamers and streamers can also obviously embrace a cause on their own and I definitely encourage them to. An organisation like Movember, as an example, has adopted a light hearted and memeable marketing strategy which lends itself to gaming and streaming very well.

Khim: This is great! You touched on the topic of hosting past events and how you've learnt to make them better. Can you give us some tips and tricks of the trade you've learned along the way for hosting charity events? Say for a fellow streamer that is looking to run charity streams themselves.

JolloTheClown: I don't know much, but it's the same thing I say for every streamer in general, be yourself. Play or do stuff you enjoy, almost everything has a niche or a cult audience. Also don't be afraid to try new games, release hype is a real thing and the more eyes on a charity even the better. If you don't like this new game, don't force yourself to play it during the next streams, just be willing to try it once if it looks interesting to you. Also be creative with donation rewards and remember the power of schadenfreude (within streaming service TOS and NGO guidelines). I personally run a diverse stream, but that isn't the only way, tons of people have success being really good at streaming a small handful of games or a specific genre. It's all about trial and error and consistency. And if you're doing a charity event on your own, or not with a NGO, do the research and know the cause so you can educate and inspire your audience to donate. I don't think causes with name recognition should be the only ones that get support, there's plenty of smaller niche organisations that still do amazing work and deserve love, just do your research before representing yourself for them.

Khim: Lastly are there any closing statements you would want to be included in the piece? or any other details about you and or your community and things that are currently ongoing?

JolloTheClown: Ironically I'm on a hiatus for a bit after going hard for the charity stuff, but I do want to encourage everyone to live life with love and meme with edge. Do good in the world while being a shithead, don't just be a shithead. As far as my community and stream, don't be a stranger there's always room for more clowns in clowntown. Thank you for the opportunity to speak about the beautiful area where memers and charity collide! 

https://www.twitch.tv/jollotheclown

*Disclaimer

JolloTheClown is a St. Jude Ambassador with a material connection to St. Jude.