In an interview with Jacob Kramer for Complex News, Twitch streamer JasonTheWeen opened up about his career and reflected on the toxicity within the streaming community.
At around the four-minute mark, Jason said he never expected to become a successful streamer with over two million Twitch followers and offered advice to aspiring content creators.
“It’s a lot, mentally,” he said. “Obviously, I have a very blessed job… What I do is every kid’s dream, right? But it comes with a lot of, like, baggage, and it’s not normal for a human being to have thousands and thousands of opinions on you every single day.”
He said that often, little things can be draining, whether it be viewers commenting on his appearance or telling him to do certain things more often.
“All the hate… it could take a toll on you,” he said, to which Kramer highlighted the struggle some streamers face when it comes to viewers with parasocial relationships.
“Yeah, for sure… That’s a whole different thing,” Jason replied. “Parasocial interactions… I think with streamers, since you’re live all the time—your community and your fans, they watch you every single day. They know so much about you, ‘cause streamers are so public… I tell my chat literally everything about my family, like, issues in my life. You know, maybe I overshare, but I like to share to my chat. Sometimes it ends up biting my ass.”
JasonTheWeen was previously a member of FaZe Clan but announced he would be leaving in December last year amid an exodus of other talent, including Lacy, Silky, and Kaysan, among others.
When asked about leaving FaZe Clan, he said he felt “a mixture of relief, confusion, [and] sorrow” regarding the move. “Basically, FaZe before we joined.. It was pretty much in shambles, I would say… it became what it was, and we took over the streaming IRL scene and blew up FaZe,” he said around the 7:30 point. “Some things just didn’t work out. The corporate side of things and us, as a group, didn’t agree on specific things, which I will not go into… It just didn’t work out, for sure. … I’m not joining any content organizations anytime soon.”
Later in the interview, he was asked what he would do if he could break Twitch’s terms of service for five minutes without any consequences, he joked that he would get someone to shoot him while he wears a bulletproof vest. “Just kidding, I’m not that stupid,” he laughed. “That’s a horrible idea.” Johnny Knoxville famously did the bulletproof vest test in a video for Big Brother, one of the precursors for Jackass.
He also gave his Mount Rushmore of streamers and named xQc, Ninja, Adin Ross, and IShowSpeed. He even went so far as to compare IShowSpeed to Michael Jackson in terms of popularity.
As for any future plans, Jason revealed that he wants to do another NMS Boxing event, a series that he hosts, and participate as a fighter this time around. “No one wants to do it,” he said. “I would fight N3on, I would fight Ray… I don’t know, man… Someone around my weight class.”
Watch the full interview with JasonTheWeen up top.
