Welcome to Streamers on the Rise, where we find streamers who are growing their channels, content, and audiences in extraordinary ways. Each week we’ll talk with a creator about what goes into livestreaming–both on and off camera.
Somewhere out there is a guy who, in 2014, got very high and ended up in an Xbox party with Friskk.
He doesn’t know it, but he changed her life.
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“I had no idea where this guy came from. [He] just comes over in his microphone and he’s like, ‘Hey, are you a streamer?’ I’m like, ‘What?’ He’s like, ‘Are you a streamer? Like Twitch or Justin.tv or whatever?'” she laughs. She had absolutely no idea what he was talking about, and it didn’t help that he was “baked to oblivion.” She brushed it off at first, but later that week, she got curious and googled find out what this “Twitch” was. That Christmas, she bought herself a capture card.
Now, Twitch is her thing–and sometimes she still can’t believe it. She grew up in a community where kids “weren’t really necessarily encouraged to seek anything higher than getting some nine-to-five at a local grocery store or something,” and she’d never really had a way to express herself creatively. Twitch became both a career and a path to creative expression, and also a way to remember her grandmother, who introduced her to video games.
Being on Twitch has brought Friskk opportunities like voicing a main character in Hollow Knight, getting a TV spot voiceover gig, and doing some upcoming (still confidential) work with the game that’s her “jelly and jam,” Dead by Daylight.
We’ll let her tell you the rest of her story below.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Tubefilter: First and most importantly, what is your dog’s name? I see a dog.
Friskk: [laughs] That is Indiana Bones. I call him Indy.
Tubefilter: Indiana Bones.
Friskk: Come here, Indy. Say hi. What are you doing?
Tubefilter: Is he a husky?
Friskk: He is a husky/malamute. There he goes. He’s napping. He’s like, “I’m leaving. Goodbye.”
Tubefilter: Goodbye, Indiana Bones. Okay, now that the real star has been interviewed, I would love to start with some background about you. Pretend somebody’s reading this and they’ve never watched your stuff, they don’t know who you are. Tell me about where you’re from and your journey up to getting on Twitch.
Friskk: Yes. I’m originally from New Jersey and I come from a poor family. I was raised by my grandmother, and after school, I didn’t actually pursue any higher education just because it wasn’t something that was normal for my family because we weren’t in the best neighborhood, kids there weren’t really necessarily encouraged to seek anything higher than getting some nine-to-five at a local grocery store or something.
One of the things that I decided to–well, not decided to, but one of the things that I really dove into was video games. Video games were my escape, they were a great place to just get lost, especially every day after school. I initially started on my, I guess in a sense, on my professional journey, I started playing Socom Battles, which is very, very, very old. It’s what GameBattles used to be before GameBattles was GameBattles. Then GameBattles turned into Major League Gaming that we see today. I was competitively playing this game called Socom II U.S. Navy SEALs. It was a shooter. I did competitive for that. I was a ref on the site for Socom: Combined Assault. Eventually, I moved over– and this was all on PlayStation. Eventually, I moved over to Xbox and then I started doing some competitive for Gears of War and Call of Duty, just various titles.
I just gave up on trying to be in the competitive scene after a while just because it was very hard. Competitive has always been known to not always be the most accepting of women, and especially women in a professional sense in the esports setting. I can’t tell you how many times I heard that I couldn’t be on a team because I’d be a distraction to the guys.
Tubefilter: [sarcastically] I love that.
Friskk: Yes, it was a mess. I gave up on that, and I just started playing video games casually. One day, I was playing Xbox with some of my friends and a friend’s friend friend is what I’m going to say because I had no idea where this guy came from. He’s at a party one day and I join and he just comes over in his microphone and he’s like, “Hey, are you a streamer?” I’m like, what? I was like, streamer? What are you talking about, man? At the time, I didn’t really consume any livestream content. He’s like, “Are you a streamer? Like Twitch or Justin.tv or whatever?”
Tubefilter: Justin.tv! Ancient.
Friskk: I was like, “I don’t know what that is.” He’s like, “Okay, because you sound like you could be a streamer. You should check it out.” I know this guy was–just, he had to have been so high, honestly. He sounded like he was baked to oblivion. Honestly, I took it with a grain of salt. I was like, okay, man. Whatever. Thanks. I just brushed it off. Then I think later on that week, I remembered it and I was like, You know what? I’m going to go see what that is.
I looked it up and I was like, this seems cool. I started navigating the site or the service and I was like, I love video games and this looks like a really cool outlet. I think I might try this. Christmas Eve of 2014, I decided to buy a capture card and I started streaming and I realized how much I enjoyed it.
At the time, I didn’t have a ton of friends. I had moved because of work. I didn’t come from the best of backgrounds where I had the opportunities or just experiences to be able to express myself or be able to understand what I enjoyed. Streaming gave me that outlet. It gave me an opportunity to figure out who I was. It helped me realize that I was funny. It also helped me realize that I had a really cool voice. I started generating this audience who just thought I was the coolest. They were just like, “What? You could do that with your voice?” I did a Pikachu impression. I was like, “Wait, not everybody can do that?” They were like, “No.” I was like, “Oh. All right.” [laughs]
Tubefilter: It’s a talent. It’s a skill.
Friskk: Yes. As I continued to stream and just really break out of the shell that I feel like I had been in most of my life, I realized that I liked making a difference, I liked making people laugh, I liked being entertaining. It was something that gave me purpose because I didn’t have purpose before. I didn’t have a career or a path. It just projected me in this direction that I didn’t expect. Now I am where I am. The service and that random high dude just changed the entire projection of my life.
Tubefilter: That man will never know the effect he’s had. His legacy. He just has no idea.
Friskk: He has no idea.
Tubefilter: He’s like the little old guy NPC in a game who’s like, “This is going to be your destiny, traveler.”
Friskk: Yes, exactly!
Tubefilter: So you’ve been on Twitch for eight years now. It’s obviously changed. I mean, it’s changed a lot. One thing I really try to address in every one of these interviews specifically is it’s very difficult to grow on Twitch. People who do it successfully, there’s either a lot of skill or a lot of luck, or a mix of both involved. Especially in the early days of Twitch, how did you grow your audience? Was there anything that you did intentionally? Was there one particular stream that took off? How did you begin to build this?
Friskk: Yes. In the early days, there weren’t as many streamers as there are now. I think it’s incredibly saturated now, and it’s very, very hard to organically grow, in my opinion, just streaming. That’s why I think a lot of people tend to use other services to create that audience.
Back in the day, when I had first started, I was streaming the same consistent content that I had done. At first, I started streaming Minecraft with my friends, and then I moved over to Call of Duty: Black Ops, I think it was II. I was playing a lot of shooters and I had generated that audience. It took a little bit, but it eventually got there. Then I switched over to variety and I think part of the growth was staying consistent in a category and really honing in on a niche at first. Then eventually, I decided that it was really boring. I was burning out. I was like, “I need to play games I enjoy.” I ended up switching to variety. I did lose some of my audience.
I think a lot of it also came from collaboration. I was making sure I was putting myself in positions to meet other creators to be able to collaborate with them. I went to a lot of conventions. Right off the bat, I was going to PAX West, I was going to PAX East, I was going to PAX South. I was going to E3. I was going to all these conventions. At the time, Twitch had a presence at PAX. They had a booth. All these streamers would congregate around it. I would go there and I’d meet other streamers. I would talk to people, try to make friendships, and at the same time, find people that I could genuinely just have fun playing games with.
I think that also contributed to some of the growth. It’s not a growth in the sense of like, I’m playing with people with more viewers than me. It wasn’t like that at all because you could play with the biggest person in the world, but if you don’t have chemistry and you’re not really getting along, people don’t want that content. If you’re finding people you genuinely make really fun content with, if you’re finding people who you just genuinely have fun and do fun stuff with, their audiences will genuinely enjoy you and also start consuming your content as well. I think that’s where I had a lot of overlap.
Tubefilter: I think collaboration is something that’s underrated on Twitch. When I talk to YouTubers, they’re like, “Oh, yes, I’m doing a collab with so and so.” It’s expected, almost, on YouTube. Baked into the atmosphere. I feel like some streamers, especially new streamers, don’t realize that you can do that on Twitch, too. People want to do that on Twitch, too.
Friskk: I think in the same way that in high school you have your cliques, you’ve got your jocks or the theater kids or something like that, Twitch also has cliques. There’s a lot of cliques in the space. Some people who are already in those cliques, you can’t really collaborate with them just because they’re not interested. Some people are jaded because they’ve been done wrong. There’s also people who are just not interested in collaborating with others because of maybe trust issues or just because they believe in their content on its own, which is also totally fine.
I think the collaboration in that space as well, a lot of people are afraid of outreach. Not everyone is going to be confident or comfortable just reaching out to someone and going, “Hey, I like what you’re doing. I like your content. I was wondering if you’d be interested in playing with me.” That’s a really hard thing. It puts you in a vulnerable position. A lot of people aren’t willing to be vulnerable like that. A lot of them tend to maybe stay in their little bubbles.
Tubefilter: Understandably. That’s very intimidating. I do want to ask, I know you mentioned you’re more of a variety streamer now. I’m a huge Dead by Daylight player, and I know you’re passionate about DBD, so I wanted to ask: Who’s your main?
Friskk: Oh, man. Dead by Daylight is my jam. It’s my jelly, my jam. I’ve been playing DBD since it first came out. My mains, I am an Élodie main. I think you could probably search it on X, Twitter, or whatever you want to call it now. If you type in my name, Élodie, when she came out, I actually got super emotional because representation in video games is sometimes very hard to find when you are someone from an underrepresented group. When they dropped Élodie, I was actually flabbergasted because when my hair is in its natural state, I have this big, curly, frizzy hair. You don’t see a lot of characters with big, curly, frizzy hair, let alone characters of sometimes other backgrounds like Spanish or Black. When she got released, people were tagging me. They were just like, “Friskk, did they put you in the game?” I was like, “No, but this is so cool. What the heck?” I am an Élodie main through and through. Before Élodie came out, I was a Meg main.
Tubefilter: Meg. Derogatory.
Friskk: I’m a disrespectful survivor. I always love playing around with the killers. I definitely play with my food. My Meg was iconic. She had the Twitch shirt, she had a bright pink skirt. She had the slicked-back red hair with the aviators. You knew she was coming in and she meant business.
Tubefilter: You knew she was trouble.
Friskk: She was trouble.
Tubefilter: DBD has been effortlessly good at including people of all sorts of backgrounds, and now they’re getting into queer characters with David, and that’s been very nice to see.
Friskk: I definitely love how they’ve expanded. I think part of that does have to also do with their player base and then the people who are passionate about those like DEI in general that are working there, who are championing for those pieces. I love what they’ve been doing. You’ve got all sorts of characters. You’ve got the LGBT spectrum. You’ve got it all. The audience reflects that.
Tubefilter: Absolutely. You mentioned earlier that you didn’t really have a career path before Twitch. Was there a point where you realized that this is your career now? Do you remember a distinct point, or was it gradual?
Friskk: I think it was gradual. I think it was definitely gradual because even now, I can’t believe the things that I get to do. It’s really cool. I think we are all our own worst critics. It’s really hard to recognize the really cool things that we do and amount that to, hey, this is my career. I’m doing it. Yesterday, I got tagged in a tweet where one of my friends tagged me and was like, “Hey, Friskk, you’re all over my Facebook.”
Then he puts a gif and you see this ad I did for Streamlabs. It’s just all over his feed. I’m just like, I still can’t believe that I’m in ads like that. Streaming really brought a lot of different things to my career as a whole because it’s like I’m not just a streamer. I’m not just a streamer because streaming brought me so much opportunity. Because of streaming, I’m also a voice actress.
I think one of the craziest things about being a streamer is anyone can be watching your stuff and whoever is watching, you never know what type of opportunity that they might come out and present you. One of my audience members reached out to me and it was one of my first voice gigs and was like, “Hey. Friskk, I really like your voice. Do you think I could message you about an opportunity?” I was like, yes, sure. Turns out he’s a program manager essentially for Hollow Knight, and I got to voice a character in Hollow Knight.
Tubefilter: Oh, that’s amazing, wow.
Friskk: If you look at the credits at the end of the game, my name is the fourth or fifth name you see.
Tubefilter: How did I not know this?
Friskk: I have to do better about putting my accolades somewhere. I’m actually working on a website to actually showcase my stuff. Somebody literally just came into my chat and was like, “Hey, can I talk to you?” and then I literally voiced a character in one of the most popular indie games of all time.
Tubefilter: Have you continued from there? Have you been in other stuff?
Friskk: I do some things. I’ve done YouTube animation characters for a couple of different things. Samination, I’ve done Élodie for Samination because he does the Dead by Daylight stuff. I remember I was playing with some friends one day and this girl, I had no idea who she was. She’s like, “Hey, do you have a voice reel?” I’m like, yes, sure, here you go. She’s like, “Yes, you have a really cool voice. Do you have a business email?”
I was like, yes, here you go. She’s like, “Yes, my dad said he really likes your voice, and I think he’s going to reach out to you for something.” I was like, okay. Turns out he works for one of the CW’s sister stations, so I started doing voice-over for TV spots.
Tubefilter: All of that from streaming.
Friskk: From streaming.
Tubefilter: Is voice acting something you want to lean into more?
Friskk: Honestly, yes. I would love to do more of it. It’s just being a streamer and just in general being a creator, there’s just so much that you have to do to maintain and really put yourself out there because like I said, you’re not just a streamer or creator, you’re a social media manager. You’re doing production. Oh, my gosh, there’s just so much. There’s so many different things.
You’re picking up so many different skills. Some people go to school to learn how to use Photoshop Premier, all of these editing softwares, things like that. Then you have to learn how to use these programs to elevate and escalate your brand. In the midst of trying to make sure you keep maintaining everything, and sometimes you really just can’t. It’s just hard. You also don’t find time to find things like that. Which is why I have management of course. It’s just a never-ending climb.
Tubefilter: Work-life balance is something that I talk to creators about a lot, because it’s very difficult.
Friskk: It definitely is for sure. This year I’ve definitely been on a journey to really– not just this past year, but I’d say probably the past year and just a little bit more, I’ve been really concentrating on trying to figure out how I balance that and how I bring more joy into my life because I think sometimes when you are a streamer, and you’re a creator, sometimes you just get lost in it.
I feel I’m seeing this more and more on my timeline too where I see other creators who are just like, “Hey guys, I’m burnt out mentally. I’m not doing well. I need to take time away for me and to make sure I’m okay.” It’s hard finding that balance especially after you hit a point, you’ve already gone over the point, and then you realize you didn’t even go over the point and then there you are making a tweet saying that you have to take a break because you’ve literally cracked.
I definitely had some life things happen where I was trying to maintain it, and in it, I lost the joy. I lost a lot of joy for it and I was doing a lot of soul-searching as well. What is the meaning of me being here? What gives me joy? What brings me joy? I want to rediscover that. I’ve been spending, honestly, a little bit less time streaming and more time cultivating the relationships in my life. I’ve been spending more time with my fur child back there.
Tubefilter: As it should be.
Friskk: I’ve been working on my relationship. I have a boyfriend, which I didn’t have before because content creation just sucked up everything. It sucked all of my time. I had none of that. I just genuinely do things that just make me happy. I’m building a LEGO set right now. I’m building a Nintendo TV right now.
Tubefilter: Oh, my god. I saw that online. It’s so cool.
Friskk: It’s so cool. I think to branch off of that, if you’re not doing things that bring you joy and just ignite your soul, really, you’re not bringing anything to your content. People can tell that you’re tired, people can tell that you’re burnt out, and it’s not inspiring. A bunch of people…I’ve been streaming a bit more lately, and they’re just like, “We can tell you’re so much happier.”
Even coworkers for my day job, they’re like, “I could see the color back in your face. You’re glowing. You look healthier, happier.” I’ve been actually going to the gym, eating healthy, and that’s translated into people genuinely enjoying my content more. I can’t stress how much you really need to take care of yourself.
Tubefilter: That’s good. I’m really glad that you’ve been able to find what’s been better for you.
Friskk: Definitely.
Tubefilter: It’s something I hear from so many creators. People hit a wall or get shoehorned into making a type of content and get burned out on it, and then don’t know where to turn or what to do, so they’re miserable.
Friskk: Yes, definitely. It’s the same thing with representation. When I was talking about when DBD initially came out with Élodie. That really hit home for me. When you see people like you or people who have the same struggles as you working to do better, it’s inspiring, and it helps motivate you, and people love that. People really do love that. Like you see it in media, you’re starting to see more representation, for instance Into the Spider-Verse, Miles Morales, Puerto Rican and Black character. You’re starting to see more representation everywhere. I think the same thing goes for creators. I remember I was on my health journey, and I was posting more about it, and people were just like, “This is honestly inspiring me. This is super helpful.”
I even had some of my audience members, they messaged me, and they’re just like, “Hey, I saw you were working on your health, and it motivated me to work on my health too. I’ve already lost 10 pounds, and thank you for posting your journey with us and sharing that stuff.”
Tubefilter: Yes, absolutely. Do you have any cool things that you’re up to? Any cool projects, plans, or goals?
Friskk: All right. Let’s see.
Tubefilter: No spoilers.
Friskk: Yes, I’m over here trying to think of anything that might not be under NDA. I will say keep an eye on Dead by Daylight stuff.
Tubefilter: Really?
Friskk: Keep an eye on Dead by Daylight stuff, because I got some really cool stuff coming up.
Tubefilter: Interesting. Wait, can you tell me off the record, or is it like truly NDA-NDA?
Friskk: [laughs] This call is being recorded.
Tubefilter: I get it, I get it. That’s very cool though. Official DBD stuff!
Friskk: Yes, official DBD stuff coming up so I’m excited for some of that stuff in the pipeline, and then let’s see. Yes, there’s a couple things happening, but nothing I can really talk about.
Tubefilter: See, this is the trouble with you successful people, you can never tell me anything. [laughs] Well, okay. Any goals then? Any things that you want to accomplish over the next year? Things that you’re excited about personally?
Friskk: Yes, I think I think for me, in terms of goals continuing to concentrate on my mental health and seeing those benefits in the content that I create, I think for a long time I’ve been thinking about creating some more long form content for other places and I think I might actually get started on that later this year. I think I might actually finally be able to do it because I think mentally, I’m in a place where I can genuinely enjoy and put out what I’ve been wanting to put out for so long.
Live!
Checking out the new Nicholas Cage DLC! Giveaways tonight while I’m live, come through pic.twitter.com/qwCeVQ9Uxa
— ➡️ PAX West (@Friskkmkay) July 29, 2023
Tubefilter: Are you thinking about long-form content? Long-form gaming content?
Friskk: Yes, gaming content. Gaming’s where my heart is, gaming’s where it all started for me, and I think I’ll always be doing something gaming. I think it’s not just it’s not just the fact that gaming changed my life and the trajectory of it, but gaming was something that I did with my grandmother who’s actually no longer here, so I first started gaming with her when I was just a kid and we would play on the Nintendo and it was this old game called Bubble Bobble. It’s these two little dinosaurs and they blow bubbles and you capture the enemies in bubbles and you jump on them and they pop. There’s like 100 levels. If you remember the Nintendo, you couldn’t save. We would sit there for hours playing this Bubble Bobble game, trying to beat Level 100. We never did, but that’s where my love of video games came from. It was spending that quality time with my grandmother, and it’s something I hold dear.
Tubefilter: The fact that your grandma introduced you is possibly the coolest thing ever.
Friskk: Well, my grandmother was the coolest thing ever. She’s the reason I play video games today and yes I miss her and playing games reminds me of her.
Tubefilter: That’s amazing. Yes. I’m very sorry that you lost her, but it’s very clear that her legacy of cool continues.
Friskk: Yes, it does. She lives on through me and that is the best gift that I can give.
Tubefilter: Every time you flashlight a killer, it’s her.
Friskk: Yes. This is for you, Grandma. Taking those retinas.
Tubefilter: [laughs] God, you must be such a menace in game. I’m a killer main, so we’re natural enemies.
Friskk: Oh, yes. No, I’m sure that there’s a couple killers who have a list and a sticky note on their monitor, and my name is on it.
Friskk is repped by Viral Nation.
