It’s hard to scroll social media and not come across a clip of Joe Santagato and his podcastThe Basement Yard.
The creator, a co-host of the podcast alongside Frank Alvarez, is the founder of the online-forward media company Santagato Studios. The podcast is an internet favorite, constantly being clipped and shared online, which has translated into a solid touring business. Now, he’s branching out into something new, if not a bit familiar — the world of Hot Ones.
Santagato’s business partner Greg Dybec was approached by First We Feast about a meeting, which they were quick to accept. It all happened a bit fast. “They wanted to start a new show where I would be hosting,” he tells The Hollywood Reporter.
They kind of plucked me and were like,
“They kind of plucked me and were like, ‘We want to build it around you and we want you guys to be creatively involved as well,’” Santagato says. Enter Hot Ones: Game Night, the Hot Ones spin-off he’s currently hosting and executive producing that finds him interviewing a celebrity guest through a hot sauce-fueled board game.
The show’s a perfect fit for the podcaster and creator for many reasons. He’s more than familiar with the world of games, and he’s the co-host of a popular podcast. But Santagato admits he’s still a bit green in one area of the show. “I really don’t have a ton of experience interviewing people,” he says.
“I do love talking to people and I definitely gab for a living,” adds Santagato. “But I think I’m kind of approaching it maybe in a different way than someone like Sean Evans would.”
What’s your approach with Hot Ones: Game Night?
My approach, and what we’ve come to understand,
My approach, and what we’ve come to understand, is that this needs to be different [than what Sean Evans does], obviously. They chose me because they wanted [it] to feel more conversational. There’s not a lot of pressure to know everything about this person. We want to see these celebrities in a different sort of light. We’re playing a game, we have the questions. Of course, there is some research that we do. It’s not like we’re going there completely blind. I will and should know things about these people before I’m interviewing them. But for the most part, we’re just two people hanging out is the vibe we’re going for. That’s more fun for them too. They do a lot of interviews with people that maybe a lot of the questions are tweaked slightly and all sound the same and elicit the same sort of response. But if we’re playing a game and we’re trying to make the questions really fun, we can see a little bit more of their personality. My job is to identify those moments and then pull on the string a little further and see how much we can get out of them. It’s supposed to feel like you’re just hanging out with someone or maybe someone you just met and we’ll see how the vibe is. But everyone so far has been great.
What’s it like with the guests?
You just kind of have to go into it and hope that they’re down to play ball. It’s great because once the initial, I guess, awkwardness of what exactly are we doing sort of dissipates, then it’s a lot of fun. Then people [buy] in and it’s a lot of fun. Also, [now that the show is out] and people can watch it before they come on the show, they’ll have more of an expectation of what it’s going to be.
How is this show different than other interview shows?
[We’re] a game and then we’re getting to these questions and maybe having offshoot conversations, but it’s much more loose. It definitely won’t feel, and it doesn’t read as an interview really.
You have a lot of agency over
You have a lot of agency over the things you’re making at your own company. Do you feel like you’re learning something new working with First We Feast?
Definitely. First We Feast, the way that they operate is very professional. They’re super easy to work with, super on top of everything. Nothing is ever late, but nothing feels too pressured to get it done at this exact time or whatever. Their editing and their photos, everything is just great. They operate very well, and it’s not a high pressure environment at all. Everyone seems to be having a good time. Everyone seems to be friends. I truly do enjoy going in there, and I take that back to my studio and the employees that I have and really try to emulate that in that exact same way. It’s nice to know that the thing that I’m trying to accomplish can work on a large scale like what they are doing.
You have a background in editing and you know what needs to be happening even though you’re in front of the camera. How are you feeling about everything now?
I’m at the point in my career where
I’m at the point in my career where all these new opportunities are coming in sort of quickly, and this is the biggest one. It’s hard to imagine myself being in the chair and interviewing celebrities, and that’s who I am now. Rather than letting the imposter syndrome prevent me from doing a good job, I’m kind of just doing it scared, for lack of a better word, and showing up. They want me to be me. I’m going to go there and just try to do that and hang out with these people and just see what the hell happens. You do it and then afterwards you can look at that situation and go, “OK, they love it. The edit came out great. I’m watching it. I think it looks good.” I’m definitely more critical than other people will be about it, but I think that is good. Everyone’s going to be like that for themselves.
What’s your experience with social media like these days? I feel like I can’t go on social media without seeing videos of you and Frank. Is that your algorithm these days?
The luxury that I have from doing this for as long as I have is if I am scrolling on social media, and I can see it’s a clip of me, I just keep going. I don’t need to watch that. It would be weird to indulge in that, but I get it. It helps. I am appreciative of the people who take the time out to cut clips and promote our show in some sort of way. Those people get paid for that, which I’m happy to pay them. I’m not the type of person that will be angry with people who take parts of the show and clip it and make these Instagram accounts or these Instagram or TikTok accounts or even YouTube channels. As long as they’re not posting the entire episode, I don’t care. If you’re making some extra money by clipping the show and your clips are going viral or whatever, I mean, there’s our faces. You’re helping in some sort of way. I do think that was one of the factors as to why the show had a massive growth in the last four years was because of those things. I’m not the type of person to be like, “Hey, just strike that, take that down.” Unless it’s a full episode, then I’m like, “All right, I can’t have this.” But clips, go crazy.
