Real Talk Co.

Today I’d like to discuss if you need an education to be an emcee.

• Most have college degrees
• -61% have bachelor’s
• Emcees are presenters
• Be familiar with your audience
• Venues may vary
• Good qualities that make an MC

Do you need an education to be an emcee

Anybody can be an emcee, but most have college degrees. Emcees are presenters at heart. There’s a lot of qualities that make a good emcee, but they’re mainly ones that you’re naturally gifted at. However, it will be important to be familiar with your audience. That, and the venues you’ll be performing at will vary.

Most have college degrees

One emcee that’s recognized as a top tier prospect is Donald Glover.

Donald Glover graduated from New York university, and is among a long list of rappers that went to college.

Songwriters of this caliber are often studied by their peers on how they make hit songs.

I actually touch on a related topic.

You can find it by clicking here.

Did you know that 61% of emcees have college degrees?

Another famous emcee that’s mentioned among the greats is Flava Flav.

Most of the degrees that emcees acquire when going to school came from HBCUs, liberal arts and major research universities.

J. Cole is another rapper that went to college at St. John’s University, and graduated with a communications degree.

He’s an artist that’ll gladly mention the fact he went to college in his raps.

There’s other artists that you probably might’ve never known went to college before.

Ludacris, MC Solarr and Stat Quo. The list goes on.

Emcees are presenters

Emcees make sense out of the situation (so to speak).

Emcees are presenters of information.

There’s actually emcees that can be hired virtually.

They can run events that range from a presentation to thousands of attendees for a sales event.

Companies want to hire an emcee that gets the audience excited to hear more about the product or service they have to offer.

There’s been numerous success stories with people finding their dream career in being an MC.

Madeline David wrote an article that dives even greater into the subject of hiring the right emcee for a corporate event.

Know Your Audience

It’s important that emcees understand their audience because the tone is constantly changing.

It takes a lot of research on their end to make sure that their audience has a good show by the end of it.

As a virtual emcee, it’s becoming even more important for businesses to add the right one to their team to connect their audience online.

A lot of that success comes from being familiar with your platform, both for the company and the emcee.

Without a doubt, you are the leader of the entire event when you are granted the authority of mastering the mic.

A big asset that you can bestow upon yourself as an emcee is to make sure that you’re loaded with energy.

The Venues Change

The venues that emcees perform at change (depending on their audience) as mentioned before.

You might find one that performs at a wedding or a comedy club. Either way, it has range.

As mentioned a lot before, emcees are a valuable asset at corporate events, but they perform at other spots as well.

Commonly you’ll see emcees working at hotel party rooms emceeing games and parties.

They would be the equivalent of the host that you would see on your favorite game show.

The physical location that they perform at can range from a small setting of only 20 people to even a huge charity event.

And these events can serve possibly dozens of thousands of people.

The Qualities

I mentioned before that emcees are good researchers (as they should know their audience).

But there’s also more to it.

There’s more than just speaking well at an event that makes a good emcee.

Matter of fact, one of the best qualities you can possess is the ability to expect the unexpected.

It should go without saying, but a good emcee is also comfortable in large settings.

On top of that, they also have a good sense of humor because again, expect the unexpected.

You might have someone that decides to be a heckler or try to “throw you off your square” so to speak.

Final Thoughts

Hopefully these points sum up what it takes to be an emcee.

If you have a teen (or are one ) that yearns for using their voice in an inspiring way, check out the book Athletes and Emcees.