I'm Hot Ones host Sean Evans back for my second ama alongside Hot Ones creator Chris Schonberger. Ask me anything!

Who's the worst bald & bearded pop-culture-food-recreation YouTuber you've had to collaborate with?

Srsly tho, how you doing bro? How has the transition from YouTube celebrity to household name treated you? Any plans to expand your reach to TV or OTT?

Hi Andrew - I know I owe you an email lol! Life is good. As far as plans to expand I feel like I'm just cranking door knobs right now and seeing where they lead me. I'd love to host a Hot Ones-style game show on TV one day or do a Netflix doc called "Fire Breathing Idiots" profiling those dudes who go viral by bong ripping Carolina Reapers and winning ghost pepper eating competitions or whatever. A boy can dream I suppose.

We did a deep dive into your instagram, Sean. Please explain this gram:

https://www.instagram.com/p/6225pgF487/?igshid=18drrvm80pdts

LOL - it's a better picture than story. I shot some YouTube video where I did FBI training in upstate New York. I'd just pulled a 150 pound dummy from a smoking car when I posed for that pic. If someone can find the video link it below but it might be lost in the internet ether.

Are you going to get Keanu Reeves on the show?

We're trying I'd say it looks not good lol.

Longtime listener, first-time caller.

Does hot ones have any plans to sell a seasoning or food other than hot sauce?

Speaking for myself I just want to make THC-infused condiments honestly.

Did you actually get Terry Crew's number after filming hot ones? Did you keep in touch?!

Yes, he did...and he hasn't stopped talking about it since! — CHRIS

Hey Sean, huge fan of the show. Who's your white whale that you've been wanting to get on the show?

PS Get Conan on hot ones

I really want 50 Cent. He was made in a lab for Hot Ones and has been ignoring us for three years, which only makes me want him on the show more.

Sean can answer his. Mine is Kobe Bryant. Jay Z is a personal hero, so that would be big too. I'm going on the record that Danny Dyer would be hilarious (any Brits on here??), but no one else on the team will agree. — CHRIS

What’s your opinion on this? https://youtu.be/cTpzSjZvLPA

Super funny and really well done Hot Ones spoof! We passed it around the office when it hit YouTube last week. Happy to see it has so many views - goddamn! Shout out to Scott he has all the spastic hand gestures down.

Hey Sean. I heard Coolio had...a rough time backstage after his episode. Got any other behind the scenes stories for us?

One of my favorite memories was eating root beer ice cream with Curren$y after his shoot. He was lit up pretty bad and just wanted to binge watch Chili Klaus YouTube videos. One time a co worker said he heard alarming noises coming from the bathroom and walked in to see Riff Raff dry heaving into a sink while wearing a full peach tuxedo. There are a million stories like that.

Did Bobby Lee really shit his pants?

We did not cotton swab his underpants or anything to confirm, but the sound his butt made was alarming to say the least.

Who was a guest you weren’t really looking forward to interviewing but turned out to be a great interview?

That's a good question and it's tough to answer because if we truly didn't want someone on the show we wouldn't put them in the seat. But maybe Shawn Mendes? We'd never really touched that genre and I didn't know a ton about him so I was a little "meh" on paper. But goddamn.. he's the sweetest guy and the episode is one of my all time favorites. I'm now certified #MendesArmy.

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What's an episode you thought would be trash when you saw the thumbnail but ended up being one of your favorites?

Hey Chris, hey Sean, how's it going? When approaching celebrities and their agents, who gave the quickest and easiest 'yes'? I imagine this kind of stuff takes convincing.

Comedians who Sean has met in real life tend to be the easiest "yes." It's always cool for us when we come across a celebrity who knows the show and actively wants to be on it. I won't pretend we weren't gassed up when Scarlett Johansson said, "We're big fans in the Johansson-Jost household." — CHRIS

Have you given any thought to working together with the sauce companies to make a "Hot Ones Sample Challenge" kit? Little bottles of all 10 of the sauces for fans to use themselves? I'd buy it.

We've been exploring that possibility for years and as it turns out it's an insanely difficult legal needle to thread. We're basically swapping sauces every four months and in the time it would take to do the requisite licensing and distribution deals with all these small batch hot sauce makers, we'd be on to the next season by the time the deals closed. It's a headache but like everything with Hot Ones we'll keep trying.

Have you heard from Coolio yet? I'm getting worried

Still no word... — CHRIS

Massive fan of the show. Thanks to everyone who puts it together.

2 questions if possible.

1. Do you think you can top last season next season? This season was incredible.
2. Have either of you become friend with any of your guests from the show? Always seems to be great chemistry.

Thanks for the nice words about S8 - hope we carry that momentum into S9 and beyond. We've had a lot of past guests stay in touch, which is cool. Tom Segura and Bert Kreischer have been super supportive proud to call them friends. Terry Crews gave me a pep talk over the weekend that made me want to run through a brick wall. Shoutout Joji and Rich Brian. Also me, Casey and Ethan all have the same agent so we trade notes all the time. Hot Ones is a clubhouse.

Hi Sean and Chris! Love the show.

My question: The episode with Dj Khaled is one of the more notorious episodes, imo. Have you guys reached out to have him back? Or is it a thing where like you’d rather not have him back?

”You played yourself.”

I think the DJ Khaled episode is a classic and it would be interesting to see how he performs against the Wings of Death a second time around. He's near the top of my list for a reunion episode just because it would be must-watch internet. One time I saw him walking the halls at Complex Media and happened to be holding a bottle of The Last Dab. I handed him the bottle and said "Here, this is for you." He did not look thrilled.

Yo Sean - you ever accidentally get hot sauce on your ding dong?

It happens.

Thanks for taking the time to do this!

My question- if you could pair a beer, wine, or spirit with each wing, what would they be?

My pick - da bomb and a shot of fireball. Really makes it interesting.

Chris here. Damn, this is a great question. Let’s give it a shot…

1. The Classic — start off easy with an O’Doul’s (shout out to Scarlett Johansson…it wasn’t actually an O’Douls’s, FYI)
2. Angry Goat - Hippy Dippy Green — gotta do something out of Vermont (one of my favorite beer states), like Hill Farmstead Edward
3. Paddy O's Potion — this has such unique ingredients, like grapefruit and carrot, I might have to bust out something funky like an orange wine. I don't know any names but I had a good one at NIGHT+MARKET, a good Thai place in L.A.
4. High River Sauces Cheeba Gold — this has to be paired with some sort of super DANK IPA…I’ve been into the stuff from Trillium in Boston recently
5. Los Calientes — the Corona bottle in the sand was literally the inspiration for the vibe, so let's go with that
6. Adoboloco Kolohe Kid — even though it's not my speed, let's drink a Bud Light in honor of Post Malone, Hot Ones legend
7. Torchbearer - Garlic Reaper — let's bust out a crisp Sauvignon Blanc to cut through the garlic and heat. My wife and I like Cloudy Bay.
8. Da Bomb — I think maybe it's one of those situations where you just sterilize with a shot of pure grain alcohol or something? There is no way to create a pleasant pairing here. Fireball also a great call.
9. Hellfire Fear This — let's get a spicy mezcal cocktail from Leyenda in NYC. Sometimes you have pair spicy with spicy.
10. The Last Dab - Reduxx — an "adult" milkshake with a bunch of bourbon in it. Gotta tame the heat and get Klinsmanned at the same time. — CHRIS

are there any episodes that never got to see the light of day? who were they and why?

We shot these live episodes for NBA All Star Weekend in 2017 w Raekwon and Ghostface and Master P but some ding dong we hired messed up the audio so bad that the videos were unsalvageable. I also did a mini Hot Ones w Steelers WR Juju Smith Schuster at a private YouTube event. He dumped a whole gallon of milk over his head after The Last Dab. You had to be there. Otherwise every interview we've ever done has been published.

Did Tyra Banks ever actually set you up with her friend?

No, but Sean got super hyped the other day when she said they had good chemistry in a twitter reply to some random dude. — CHRIS

Hey, Sean. You’ve said in the past that you’re interested in having MMA/UFC fighters on Hot Ones. It hasn’t happened yet. Hot Ones is exponentially bigger than when you initially said that.

Are there any particular fighters you would want on the show? Daniel Cormier, Michelle Waterson, Amanda Nunes, Max Holloway, even Conor McGregor could be awesome episodes.

Shoutout to /r/MMA

I'm a big UFC fan and buy the PPV pretty much every Saturday night I don't have plans. Conor would be a goat Hot Ones guest. I'm pretty sure we've pitched Dana White in the past and Joe Rogan is obviously one of our white whales. In addition to those names you mentioned, the Diaz brothers would make a great Truth or Dab. Derrick Lewis gives great interviews too.

Have you ever thought of opening a "hot ones" style restaurant as a sort of tourist trap?

Love the show, keep it up!

We've talked about. It's been really cool to do the sauces and get such a good response. The lesson was that fans actually wanted it, and we were able to find the right partners (Noah from Heatonist, Smokin' Ed Currie) who cared as much about quality in hot sauce as we care about quality in interview shows. We talk about the new media/commerce landscape ad nauseam, and we're both really interested in the idea of building a long-term brand and not shoving anything down people's throats to make a quick buck. If we opened a "Hot Ones" restaurant, all I know is it would also have the best nachos of any chain ever, in addition the requisite wings. Oh, and a Dogfish Head collab on tap. — CHRIS

Hey Sean,

I've noticed you guys have talked about the benefits of your pop-up production style in relation to scheduling and cost. In the other direction, what are the main hurdles or problems that arise from the sort of fly by night way Hot Ones comes together?

Thanks for taking the time out of your day to talk to the plebs!

It's kind of insane how last minute we are with some stuff. Sometimes we're literally deciding 30 minutes before sitting down with an A-list celebrity to run with some insane Wing 10 stunt and just hope they respond well. There's also zero wiggle room in our schedule but shit hits the fan, like, all the time.

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Here's a funny story. We were supposed to do a shoot w Halsey for our S6 finale and she canceled an hour before because she was "got sick" (saw pictures of her at Up&Down with that G Eazy dude the night before but that's neither here nor there). Anyway, here we are less than a week before the finale was supposed to air and we had no one. We made a desperate plea to Jeff Goldblum who by some miracle agreed to do it.. we hopped on a plane that night, shot the episode and turned the edit around in a few days. Put it up on YouTube like we planned it all along. Shit like that happens multiple times every season.

Most be question I can think of is when is Chili Klaus coming back? I miss seeing you and that maniac on screen, y'all have amazing chemistry

Chili Klaus will come back when I can convince him and Sean to eat Pepper X in a helicopter! — CHRIS

I love you Sean! What are you favorite wing spots in NYC?

The wings at Blind Tiger in the West Village are great, big fan of Dan & John's. We get the wings for the show from a spot called My Belly's Playlist on 35th Street. That move singlehandedly turned the wing complaints from earlier seasons around.

Sean, you beautiful bald bastard, what’s your preferred hair length and your bald boi grooming tips?

In my experience you can't go wrong just buying some clippers and giving yourself a No. 1.

Hey Sean and Chris!

I want to ask a question but I'm not nearly as talented of a researcher as you or your team. Could you talk a little bit about how you do your research into each guest? That way I can come back with a question about an embarrassing story or video from your past

Thanks guys, keep up the great work!

Chris here...this is by far my favorite part of the process, let me nerd out for a second. Basically it goes like this:

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- Sean's brother, Gavin, reads just about everything he can about the guest and distills it all into a Word doc that can be like 30+ pages long. This provides a foundation for us to get oriented with the person and understand what's already out there about them so we can find unique angles. But honestly, I'd read the dossiers just for fun—Gavin is hilarious, and he sprinkles them with little asides about his life growing up with Sean, and his Midwestern armchair psychology takes on different celebrities. It's all gold.

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- Meanwhile, Sean will spend like two days watching every interview with the guest, and listening to tons of podcasts. I'll usually take some podcasts too, but he really immerses himself. It's a cool process and sometimes I'm not even sure if it generates any specific questions, so much as it arms Sean to know so much about these people that he can pull details off the top of his head that truly impress them (like when he proved to Chelsea Handler that she does, in fact, like hiking...lol). He's even learned to read body language really well and figure out where people get comfortable/uncomfortable in other interviews. I'm proud when people say he is one of the best interviewers in the game, because he truly does the work.

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- No matter how long we know about a guest being booked, we pretty much always write the run of show the morning of the interview. Things are just too busy and I guess we are both procrastinators. Also, the adrenaline helps get the job done. We usually have topics we've tossed back and forth in the days prior—we have to ask Gordon Ramsay about the chefs he trained under, or ask Jimmy Butler about bandanas, or whatever the case may be—and then we'll break them up and start hammering them into questions and followups. There's a lot of back and forth—poking holes in each other's setups, predicting how celebrities will react, killing cliches, coming up with ridiculous wing 10 ideas, and getting super nerdy about the syntax and rhythm of the questions. It's high pressure but a lot of fun. I think we both have strengths that come together perfectly to make the run of show what it is. I like to connect seemingly disparate parts of pop culture, or take intellectual ideas and Trojan horse them into questions that don't come off as too heady, and Sean is really amazing and getting to the heart of what people really want out of a guest and drawing it out.

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Like this reddit answer, the whole thing is ridiculously labor intensive, and we wouldn't have it any other way. — CHRIS

Sean! Love the show, been watching it since the first season.

My only question is: Is Scarlett Johansson as likeable and charismatic as she seems? She just seems like a super cool woman you could have beers with and just have a fun time

She was awesome to work with and a big Hot Ones fan to boot. I think it's one of the best episodes we've ever done.

Sean, have you done an interview on Hot ones while being high? And do you have a funny story backstage with a guest that you havent told the fans?

Long time fan, Love the show! Leo Charles

Bro I can't self checkout at CVS when I'm high... interviewing a high profile celebrity on camera is my nightmare.

Hey Sean, love the show.

One thing I have always wandered. Do the vegan wings come across as being spicier than the meat wings? Does the lack of fat make it worse?

Splitting hairs but all things being equal I think the vegan wings come across as being slightly less spicy. Vegan wings are a little more spongy and absorbent + you're not navigating bones so they're a little easier on the lips.

What was your favorite episode so far? And your least favorite?

Trick Daddy, Eric Andre, Scarlett, Charlize, Russell Brand and Gordon are some of my favorites. It's hard for me to watch old episodes the show has come a long way.

What's your biggest takeaway from doing so many Hot Ones interviews?

That the richer you are, the more likely you are to be vegan. — CHRIS

Sean and Chris, What’s your most recent vice?

I recently got Chris on to edibles.

First off, Thanks a lot for the AMA and the show. I started watching after Gunplay ran the wings of death and the show has just gotten better and better each year.

For Chris, what’s it gonna take for you to do an on-camera run of the wings of death? I know you’ve previously said that the time we get to interviewing you might mean the end of the show, but I think a lot of fans would love to learn more about you.

For Sean, the hoodies have become almost an iconic part of your look, and your host uniform as it were. Any conversation with clothing companies to get some brand exposure on the show by outfitting you in the newest hotness?

Thanks again guys I love the show.

I stand by the statement that my appearance on Hot Ones should be a sad day for fans, as it will signal the end of the series. In the same way Sean looks up to great interviewers like Howard Stern and David Letterman, I'm really inspired by some of the behind-the-scenes architects of shows I like—people like Lorne Michaels and Armando Iannucci (Alan Partridge, The Thick of It). Sometimes when we are gassing ourselves up we joke that I am the Evan Goldberg to Sean's Seth Rogen, or the Larry David to his Jerry Seinfeld (so maybe I'll go on camera when I'm old and rich!). I'm hoping this is just the beginning of a career with Sean so maybe one day we can make those comparisons with a straight face. For now, we have a chicken wing talk show and I don't want to tank it by being the lanky weirdo who comes through when people are expecting Will Smith and Tyler the Creator! — CHRIS

How disappointed were you when Shaq bailed out on eating the last wing?

I know there was some controversy around this, but I honestly didn't mind. It was a really fun shoot, and an extremely Shaq thing to do. The show is the best when it is unpredictable, and it can't always be unpredictable in exactly the ways you want it to be. It's fun when people shake things up and poke at things that maybe we need to prepare for more, like loopholes in the format or adjudication of the Wall of Shame. All that said, I am doing this on Sean's laptop because mine has been subpoenaed in light of #ShaqGate.

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For what it's worth, Sean didn't seem to think it was a big deal either. — CHRIS

Hi Sean, I don't believe you've ever had a political candidate on, but would you consider having "the Internet's candidate" Andrew Yang on? Between some of his funnier Tweets, some of the crazier #YangGang memes, and his 100+ policies @ https://yang2020.com, you'd have a lot to work w/ on various deep dives.

I know this is for Sean, but just to say that I am into the ideas of bringing Hot Ones into the political sphere, but it needs to be done right and be balanced. Hot Ones Debates in the 2020 election?! What do people think? — CHRIS

Hey, Sean.

Have any guests followed up with you on the aftermath of your show?

Thanks

NORE walked around Times Square high, drunk, and scorched out, then sent live updates from his hotel bathroom. — CHRIS

1. What were unexpected difficulties you encountered in the early days of production you wish you had accounted for?
2. Is Bert fatter in person?

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Huge fan, glad to see you on here!

Chris and I had never made a show before Hot Ones so we had to learn everything on the fly. Also, please stop fat shaming Bert just because he's fat and gross.

Hey Sean & Chris. Huge fan of the show, have watched every episode, and blame you for my new addiction to ridiculously hot sauces.

My question is for Sean: What's your pre-interview body prep for eating The Hottest Wings? Carbs have been mentioned in the past, but I wonder what your pre-game warmup includes.

I just eat light... a little yogurt and some fruit a few hours before the shoot.

If you had to take a shot to the nuts from Ric Flair or a elbow to the back from Mike Tyson - which one would it be?

I'd rather take an elbow to the back from Mike Tyson all day.

Sean, who is Chris' dream guest?

Chris, who is Sean's dream guest?

I want Fofty Cent!

I want Kobe so bad. — CHRIS

Sean, your style is consistently on point, but we rarely get to see what you have under the table. What are some of your favorite shoes that you own? What are your holy grails?

Also thanks for the best show on Youtube. Can't wait for season 9!

For the past year all I've been wearing are Common Projects, Yeezy Powerphases and Vans.

Hey Sean and Chris! UK fan, love what you guys at First We Feast do.

As the show has grown exponentially we've seen the sauces, props, and pretty much anything you can think of change. My question is, what do you two look back on and think, what the F*** were we thinking?

Frank.

Thanks for the love from the UK! We consider ourselves a quarter British at Hot Ones and it means a lot to be have fans there.

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Honestly, the show has not changed that much—I sort of think the key to making it work was putting all of our energy into creating a better interview, rather than focusing on building a better set, a better marketing plan, or whatever.

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That said, I can barely look at that disgusting pale yellow table cloth we used to use, and Sean's fashion sense has improved significantly since Tony Yayo. #TrustTheProcess — Chris

Sean -- back in the day when you attended Crystal Lake Central high school, did you or any of your teenage friends ever make it to the underground tunnel system?

If you had managed to access the tunnels secretly without any adminstration knowing, what enterprise would set up down there below the school?

There's an underground tunnel system? I had no idea. One time me and my buddies Wyatt and Miles climbed on to the roof. To answer your question I guess I'd set up some sort of password only black shadow economy in the seedy underbelly of the school.

Does Coach Aldridge still work there? What about Mr. Smalley? Those were my guys.

Do you guys ever think about taking the show on the road? You could tour different cities trying out the hottest wings and maybe have guests meet you there?

We're thinking about it, but the logistics are tough and we want it to be done right—for example, we think it'd be cool if everyone could eat the wings along with Sean and the guest, and it feels better suited to intimate theaters than loud bars or big auditoriums. Also, I think there's a different criteria for a good live guest versus a good in-studio guest. Comedians would be best, since they're used to filling the room and keeping a crowd engaged. — CHRIS

If you had a second chance at DJ Khaled, what would you ask him? Also, would you just give him 10 wings with the lightest sauce just to get him to not be as big of a baby?

I just wonder if his Hot Ones experience has followed him. Like, do people yell at him in the streets about not eating the wings? That would be both sad and hilarious. His career has reached such heights since then, but there's something funny about not being able to shake the wings of death.

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For the record, we would LOVE to have Khaled back on a reunion ep. — CHRIS

whats your favorite sandwich dawg?

One time during the debacle that was the Live Hot Ones run at All-Star Weekend in New Orleans, Sean and I had incredible sandwich at Turkey and the Wolf. — CHRIS

Great show guys!

One for Chris, you put on a well-polished production, but what’s the biggest logistical difficulty the show faces that viewers never get to see?

Thanks for this question! There are so many...booking is really hard, because we're trying to shoot so many episodes a year—plus Truth or Dabs, hot sauce reveals, recaps, et al—while maintaining a super high talent bar and keeping up with who's relevant/who the fans want to see. Hmm, what else...finding chairs that people like Shaq and Blake Griffin can fit into. Running down beers when a guest is dying and suddenly requests one. (The list of stuff that we have on deck just in case seems to keep growing.) Finding the best wings when we pop up the show in a new city. Often we come up with the Wing 10 shenanigans last minute...we were almost late to the Scarlett Johansson shoot because we had to go to a magic shop to get props for Sean's handkerchief trick.

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As I write this, I'm reminded how ridiculous our show is. Shout out to Dom, Sarah, Krystyn, Stephen, Camera Guy Bill, Colin, Marie, and everyone else who makes the trains run semi- on time. — CHRIS

Do you guys actually nerf the last wing just a little?

Definitely not, send an inspector! In our experience, at a certain point people are just blown out and the immediate effects are diminished. Like, if wing 10 was Da Bomb again, you definitely wouldn't see as a big of a reaction as you see on wing 8. Watch an episode of Truth or Dab to get a sense of how TLD hits. As Seth Rogen said, "It's f*&king hot, and not famous person hot!" — CHRIS

Hey Sean and Chris,

What do you consider the high points of the series? Any low points you'd be willing to discuss?

Love this question, though it may induce an existential crisis.

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For me (Chris), a high point and low point all in one was when we went to London in January 2017 to shoot Russell Brand, Ricky Gervais, and Charlie Sloth. That trip just came at a crazy time in Hot Ones history, when we still felt severely under-resourced, yet the show was taking off enough that it was getting poked at from all angles, and we were under pressure to do goofy brand deals and TV spinoffs that we were convinced would be the death of the concept. All my family on my mom's side is from London, so it was sort of emotional to be able to invite my cousins to tapings featuring comedians we all idolized. And, as Hot Ones fans know, the Russell Brand episode was a classic representation of what the show could be at its best. He had a reputation for being a difficult interview if he doesn't respect the interviewer, so it meant a lot that he loved Sean, loved the concept, and sang a song off the dome to Brett Baker!

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We were exhausted with jet leg and three Hot Ones shoots in less than 5 days, but we grabbed the crew we were working with whenever we had a break and just shot random stuff we thought would be funny, like Sean meeting the Chicken Connoisseur and eating burgers with Big Lew. These videos basically birthed Sean in the Wild, an awesome series (RIP) that was really influential in building the channel and helping First We Feast figure out how to make food videos in our own style.

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I still feel like that trip really galvanized us, and gave us the chip on our shoulder that we kind of needed to work so hard on this ridiculous show. We are forever trying to get back to London. We MIGHT be going to shoot a Season 9 guest...speculate on that, m'spicelords. — CHRIS