Before You Hire Your Next Host —
29 Stories Every Event Buyer Needs
Hold the Room
About the Series
This is a 29-video crash course for anyone who hires hosts, emcees, or moderators.
One short video a week. Most run about ninety seconds.
Every story comes from decades on live television, sitcom warm-up stages, cruise ships, and corporate ballrooms — with Betty White, Oprah, Garth Brooks, Roseanne, John Ritter, Gladys Knight, Robert Goulet, Charlie Sheen, and tens of thousands of strangers in the front row.
The celebrity names are not why these videos exist.
They exist because every event has a moment that wasn't in the plan.
Someone goes long. The room goes quiet. The schedule breaks. The energy drops. And the person holding the microphone either has the instinct to handle it — or doesn't.
These videos are about that instinct. Where it comes from. What it looks like when it works. And what it can cost when it is missing.
What You Take Away
A clearer picture of what to look for — and what to walk away from — the next time you make this hire.
Every story lands in the same place: your event, your stage, your audience, and the difference between a night that merely happened and a night that worked.
Who They're For
Anyone curious about what really happens on a live set when the cameras are not rolling. Producers casting hosts and moderators. Meeting planners. Corporate event buyers.
Your reputation walks onstage with whoever you put up there.
Ninety seconds a week. The other twenty-three hours and fifty-eight minutes are yours — but these might save the room.
2. "STEVE" FROM ACCOUNTING IS NOT A HOST
The hidden cost of asking someone internal to host your event.
3. EVEN OPRAH WANTS THIS
The hosting lesson I learned from the world's best interviewer.
4. WAITING FOR ROSEANNE 90 MINUTES AND COUNTING
When everything went sideways backstage, and the audience never knew.
5. THESE 10 SECONDS LAUNCHED MY CAREER
The cruise ship 10 seconds that opened the door to NBC.
6. GARTH BROOKS SAVED MY NIGHT
When the plan failed live on tape, the solution was already in the room.
7. GREAT WINE. GREAT HOSTING. HERE'S THE CONNECTION
The pre-event work most hosts skip — and the difference it makes onstage.
8. THE AC DIED NOW WHAT?
What a professional host does the minute the room turns against the plan.
9. THE ANSWER WAS NO. UNTIL I ASKED
How the best moments at any event are the ones nobody put on the agenda.
10. 1,000 LAYOFFS, 15 MINUTES BEFORE I WALKED ON
What happens when the script goes out the window fifteen minutes before showtime.
11. THE NIGHT WE LOST JOHN RITTER. NOW WHAT?
The hardest audience of my career wasn't difficult. It was grieving.
12. SHOWROOMS. BALLROOMS. SAME AUDIENCE
Drove to Carvana to check out the competition.
13. IT TAKES ME 3 SECONDS TO DO THIS
The three seconds onstage that save the next forty-five minutes.
14. BETTY WHITE "FORGOT" HER LINES
Betty White did this on purpose.
15. I GAVE CHARLIE SHEEN WHAT HE NEEDED
Charlie just wanted a cup of coffee and another chair.
16. HE'S FUNNY BUT… WHAT ABOUT THE BUFFET?
Decades on live stages will teach you this. Funny won't.
17. NERVOUS SPEAKER? I SAY THIS
What I say to the nervous speaker right before they walk on.
18. YOUR NOTE CARDS HELP BUT THEY DON'T HOST
Dad's final words changed Robert's career.
19. MEETING PLANNERS LOVE THIS…
The work most hosts skip because the audience never sees it.
20. ROOM FULL OF CONVICTS. I HAD THE MIC
The day I walked onstage to warm up an audience from a state prison.
21. I PREPARED 20. I USED 3
You don't have to use all the questions you wrote.
22. THE CEO KEEPS TALKING, NOW WHAT?
What to say to keep the room and your check.
23. TACOS, COMICS, CHAOS. I WAS THE HOST
A Mexican restaurant in Garden Grove taught me how to host.
24. JOHN RITTER TRIPPED… ON PURPOSE
John Ritter tripped on the same step four times. On purpose.
25. BOOKED TWICE, HERE'S WHY…
What gets a host called back — and what doesn't.
26. NOBODY NOTICES THIS EVERYBODY FEELS IT
The small details nobody sees that everybody feels.
27. GOOD HOSTS DON'T DO THIS…
What good hosts know that bad ones don't.
28. SOMEONE DIED IN MY AUDIENCE
What would you do?
29. THE 10 SKILLS OF HOSTING TALKING IS ONE…
Funny is one of 10 skills. Here are the other nine.
30. YOUR FULL DAY AGENDA DOESN'T SCARE ME
Three days in a tent with Tony Danza and an elephant.