MC'ing for FRC
 

OMG i just finished the dallas regionals and i absolutly loved MC Marcus and he got me thinking about being a MC for FRC and i was wondering are their any qualifications

Re: MC'ing for FRC
 

To be an emcee, you're the face of the competition. That means you need to be high energy but also professional. Start out emceeing smaller competitions, like FLL and FTC, and off-season FRC events. Get to know your regional planning committee and express interest. If they like how you present yourself, they'll probably be willing to give you a shot.

Re: MC'ing for FRC
 

Marcus is by far one of the best MCs i've seen in FRC. I wonder what it would take to get him to championship.

Re: MC'ing for FRC
 

Many events tend to be looking for a MC trainee or backup.. I would recommend talking to your volunteer coordinator to see what their needs are.

Many MC's who take over a primary role tend to get their start by going to a first year regional; training under a veteran MC who is from somewhere else in the country that they brought in since there are no veteran people in this role (this is why you see Blair at many newer regionals) and then taking over the following year (this is what I did 8 seasons ago in Wisconsin).

It takes a few events as a trainee/back-up to get the flow down as there are many behind the scenes actions that are going on that you will need to know to give the event a great experience.

For Championships, I would have Marcus talk to Blair. To be honest, I know that MC positions do not open up as often as Game Announcer spots (more GA's are needed and the primary MC's have been doing championships for over a decade), but you never know.

Hope this helps,

- Tyler

Re: MC'ing for FRC
 

Marcus is an amazing MC, I remember asking all of Thursday if we'd have him for Friday and Saturday. He should definitely announce for champs.

Re: MC'ing for FRC
 

Cool im still in the 9th grade so I have no idea if im elliglable to MC for FLL or FTC at least but once i graduate and leave highschool i totaly will MC for FIRST. IN the mean time i'll MC for offseason or try to.

Re: MC'ing for FRC
 

and yes SOMEONE PLEASE GET MC MARCUS OUT TO NATIONALS. I MIGHT NOT BE GOING BUT IT WOULD BE AWESOME TO SEE HIM THEIR

Re: MC'ing for FRC
 

Karthik Kanagasabapathy is quite the MC. I've only been involved with FRC for 3 years, but Waterloo is always a regional I look forward to moreso than any other. His professionalism (showing absolutely no bias at all towards his team, 1114), his vast knowledge of FIRST teams (his introductions are spot-on throughout the history of virtually every team he talks about) and his energy is unrivalled by any MC I've seen.

He's a brilliant public speaker, shown not only at Waterloo but in the TEDx speech he made not too long ago.

Of course, Waterloo is made even more amazing by the unanimous strength of the teams and the Woodie Flowers Winner of 2005—Mr. Paul Copioli—who is a fantastic game announcer. He certainly isn't a "swing and a miss", if you catch my drift. He never "chickens out", if you get my meaning.

Re: MC'ing for FRC
 

Does anybody know who is MC'ing for the Buckeye Regional? Is there anyway to find out who is MC'ing for Regionals?

Re: MC'ing for FRC
 

I had the chance to interview Blair up at the Northern Lights/ Lake Superior event earlier this season. I believe he said something about FIRST almost exclusively assigning him to new regionals, with the exception of Pittsburgh.

I'll have to dig up that interview; we recorded it and I never go the chance to do anything with it. Blair is a seriously cool guy, and it was a pleasure to talk with him.

I don't know if there's any interest, but if anyone would like the interview, I can send it to them via email, or put it up on a filesharing site (I'm not sure how I would send an audio file through CD, and it's a good half hour or so of audio, if I remember correctly).

Re: MC'ing for FRC
 

I'm definitely interested in hearing this and I think a lot of people would be as well. Can you throw it up on something like SoundCloud?

Re: MC'ing for FRC
 

A lot of people don't realize that Blair's full time job is working on production values of FIRST in general. A large part of that is training MCs and Announcers.

Fun fact: Blair is also a trained actor and if you live near Portsmouth you can see him in shows. I will never look at The Odyssey the same way again.

My best advice to you (as a CMP Volunteer Coordinator for way too long, and an MC / Announcer at various offseasons) is the following:
1.) Practice, practice, practice. Mute the webcast and imagine what you would say.
2.) Talk to your local event planners. Regionals have volunteer coordinators, offseasons have event managers. They can get you in to try a few rounds or jump in as backup.
3.) Study vocal training. Seriously. Although it is endearing when voices are gone by the end of the event, the best thing you can do for your career as an MC/Announcer is to learn breath control and how to enunciate. Youtube has a lot of great examples.
4.) Be flexible. The biggest hurdle to assigning MCs and Announcers is that they specialize in one or the other. The easier you are to work with in general, the more likely you are to be successful.

Feel free to PM me if you have questions.

Re: MC'ing for FRC
 

I'll post the audio after this weekend (my team is competing at the North Star Regional, so I'm a bit busy.

Re: MC'ing for FRC
 

I believe there's a guy named Matt doing it this year. I could be wrong, though.

Re: MC'ing for FRC
 

I spoke with Marcus last year at the end of the Double Dallas Regional and said he really needs to emcee Champs, he'd be sooooo perfect.....

.....so he actually MC's professionally (also performs, acts....). He said he would love to but the only way he would be able to do championships is if FIRST paid him to be there or else if he goes and volunteers it violates his contract with his agent.