How much do team Emcees make and how can I get better as an Emcee?

–Ryan

Ryan,

The pay range for Emcees/On-Field Hosts (like mascots and dance teams) is huge. There are some full-time guys who’s primary job is their emcee duties. Others make $25 a game.

Market size, range of duties, name value, sport and league would all be factors.

As far as increasing skills, I would focus on these things:

1. Ability to hit timing marks (getting all the facts and details into 90 seconds is critical, or being able to make a quick hit in 15 seconds can keep the overall show flowing).
2. Variety. Keep your commentary and routine fresh.
3. Create a tradition. Have something you are know for (leading a certain fan call, etc)
4. Get the most out of whoever you are working with. Making the contestant the star actually makes the show better, keeps it fresh, and makes you more successful in turn.

Hope that helps.

-Cudo

To whom it may concern:

I am a representative of a student co-operative non profit association, the Berkeley Students Co-operative.  After learning about your product, our association realized the massive potential locked in your massive hamster balls.  Not only could we use such a product for promotional purposes, to promote sustainability and co-operative low-income living options for students, we could also use it for health purpose, to quarantine members of our organization that have a contagious disease.

As you can already imagine, the possibilities for good are endless.  However, as a non profit, your price of 2,495 dollars would cause our organization serious financial hardship.  Thus, I am writing to you today to ask for a discount. I feel that the investment your company could make in our organization would be an excellent one–in our community, and our future.

Please contact me as soon as possible.

In great admiration of your services,

Rebecca
University of CA at  Berkeley

I thought I would share a letter from my inbox as part of this week’s blog-fest.  I said I would blog everyday….I didn’t say it would be helpful.

–Cudo

From: Valerie M.
Subject: Hamster Balls

I was checking in to a local business that rents inflatables out to see if they would considering purchasing a set of the human hamster balls. They said that they were afraid their insurance wouldn’t cover them because of the lack of air for those inside. Is that really a concern? How much time can a person be in the ball?

Thank you for your input!

Sincerely,
Valerie M
Albion, IL

Thanks for your question Val.

I am far from a scientist, but I have two answers for this.

First for a standard sports time out use (less than 5 minutes) this is not a problem. Units are 7 feet high and have plenty of air for people. Most our uses are for 5 minutes or less, so this is never a problem.

Second, I sharpened up a pencil and took a crack at this. I welcome anyone with more insight (or math skills to correct me if this is incorrect).

I get this question enough that I did some quick research (source web link).

Looks like from this research that a running adult human would breathe about 50 liters of air per minute.

Theses balls are inflated with fresh air via blower, so the volume of air insides when inflated is about:

Volume of a sphere is: 4/3*Pi*R^3
1 foot = 0.3048 meters
7 foot sphere = 2.13m, radius = 1.065m
4/3*3.14* (radius)^3
1.33 * 3.14 * (1.065^3) = 5.04 cubic meters of volume inside

Cubic Meters:
A metric unit of volume. One cubic meter equals 1000 liters.

So there is approximately 5044 liters of air in the sphere, meaning you’d have about 100 minutes inside the sphere before the air is used up (if you were just breathing it and exhaling outside the sphere). Clearly it’s not safe to have someone inside for 100 minutes, but this shows that 5 minutes is pretty safe, since you would be using about 250 liters of air out of 5000+ liters (about 5% of the air inside).

Each sphere has two zippers. One zips on the outside that is used to load people inside and inflate. It is the primary zipper you would use (usually the only one). There is a second zipper inside that can be unzipped from the inside. It is a safety zipper for people inside in case they panic or in case the first zipper breaks.

As noted, we primarily sell to sports teams who use them in court contest, which rarely last more than 2-3 minutes. For this use, the air supply isn’t a major concern. You can get more information on our Human Hamster Balls on the Gameops.com Store.
Thanks for your question.

-Cudo

Hello,
I am a college mascot in California. I was told by a friend of yours to visit your website and ask you about an air conditioning vest type thing that is worn under the suit - it has some kind of battery pack that is worn around the waist. Can you tell me where I can purchase one of these nifty devices and approximately how much they are?

Thank you for your help,

Matthew B.

Matthew,

The devise you are looking for isn’t an air conditioning unit as much as it is a unit that pumps cold water through tube in a vest or a vest that holds ice packs.  (you can see one of these products on this web site).

However, I personally do not recommend using these devices for most mascot performances.  They can provide some relief from heat and perhaps extend your time in costume however they have two drawbacks.

1. Weight and comfort.  What you gain in “cool” you lose in added weight and limited mobility.  With the intense heat inside a costume you can quickly turn ice packs into just a weighty vest.
2. Body Temperature.   These vests can cool you, but don’t let that cool relief fool you.  Mascot costumes are hot, dangerously hot.  The best way to combat that is to let your body do its thing (like sweat), hydrate constantly, and take breaks as needed.  Vests can send your body the signal that your body isn’t that hot, when in fact your core temperature can be climbing.  This limits how your body compensates for the heat, which in turn can be dangerous.

The reality is that performing in costume is hot.  Your best remedy is breaking often, drinking lots of fluids and work with your costumer to make your costume as cool as possible.

Also when you break, pay attention to your head, feet and hands letting them all cool by removing costume parts that cover those areas.

The cases were I might consider this is when you are in costume, limiting your movement and may be in costume for long stretches….for example if you are riding in a car for a parade.  You probably won’t be generating as much heat since you are just sitting, the weight wont have a lot of effect since you are not moving around, and the added cool will help you work through the parade if you can’t get a chance to remove your costume for a break.

I hope that helps.

–Cudo

One of the most common questions we get here is in regards to imprinting premium items. In almost every case of printing your logo on anything from Rally Towels to Bam Bams, we use vector artwork. Which leads many to ask us….What is vector artwork?

Vector graphics (also called geometric modeling or object-oriented graphics) is the use of geometrical primitives such as points, lines, curves, and polygons, which are all based upon mathematical equations to represent images in computer graphics. It is used in contrast to the term raster graphics, which is the representation of images as a collection of pixels.

Vector art is key for printing. Since the art is made from a series of mathematical curves it will print very crisp even when resized. For instance one can take the same vector logo and print it on a business card, and then enlarge it to billboard size and keep the same crisp quality. A low-resolution raster graphic would blur incredibly if it were enlarged from business card size to billboard size. (source: wikipedia)

What makes vector art so important is the ability to enlarge it without distorting it. So when you print your logo on a rally towel it’s crisp and clean and something you can be proud to distribute. In addition, in many cases we can not even print without vector art.
Three helpful points:

1. Our best advice is to ask people in your office who handling printing (print advertising, etc) since vector art would be standard for their use as well. Common vector file types are .eps, .ai, .pdf.
2. Note that you can not simply save non-vector art (like a .gif file) as a vector art file (like a .eps). The art must have originally be created with a vector art program.  Trying to save a non-vector (aka raster file) as a vector format is a waste of time.
3. If you are a college or professional team it is highly unlikely that this vector art doesn’t exist. At that level it is very uncommon not to have artwork and logos that have been created in a vector based program, but sometimes the challenge is finding those files. It is a bit more common for high schools not to have these files.

Gameops.com has a very detailed art page as well, that can be a helpful primer. (Art Page)

Mark Out Productions and Gameops.com have some in-house art capabilities. We have the major programs to open and edit images and graphics (Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, Freehand, Fireworks). We also have an good library of sports team logo art (vectorized logos), so we may even have several versions of your logo at hand. We also have some ability to recreate your art from non-vector formats, especially if you have large, clear jpg or gif files. There may be additional charges for this more labor-intensive art service.

If you have questions you can always check with a TEAMmate Sales Representative when working on your order.

–Cudo

I get questions about promotions and products from time to time, and often they are repetitive. I thought it might be a good idea to post some of these questions, since many become FAQs and often readers may have something to add.

Our maiden voyage with this new Ask Gameops.com feature starts with this question from Auburn.

Do you know where I can purchase a bungee cord that would be connected to two contestants and they pull against each other to complete a task?

I have seen this at minor league baseball and it pretty funny. Any help would be great.

Thanks,

Jon S

Dear Jon,

I would send you to ReefScuba for the bungee cord, it’s a good source.

However, I should note that we do not offer that promotion because it is very dangerous. I don’t know many teams that haven’t had problems with having fans injured. Lots of broken wrists from being pulled back unexpectedly, and landing harshly on the ground. It’s a buzzkill for any promotion to have an injury and, of course, you have to deal with any injury, which can be time-consuming and expensive.

This contest is often used with rental inflatable games, since that inflated game provides the padding to allow for a safer game. I strongly discourage this contest and we do not sell this due to the high risk.

From what I have seen and heard about, despite it being funny, you should really think about the risk involved. We even stopped offering a static rope version of this for that same reason.

-Cudo

PS: If you have experience with the promotion or have any comments, please add them below.