Hello and welcome to Let's Chat. Let's Chat is a live podcast where I talk with creators about live streaming and the ways that streamers and their communities shape culture yesterday, today, and in the future. So, I'm Dan Clancy, the CEO of Twitch, and I'm happy to speak today with Creek. He has millions of followers. He's one of the most recognizable creators in the Roblox community in the ecosystem with high energy live streams, community-driven gameplay and commentary on platform news and culture. Welcome. Let's see some of that energy. Creek.
I'm doing very well, Creek. And I think we'll have to have an energy off today. How about that? We'll see which one of us can bring more energy to the stream.
You know, as I've gotten older, it's actually gotten lower. I've had to start drinking coffee to keep that up. Yeah, I'm normally not a coffee drinker, but I, you know, before a big stream, I might have a cup of coffee.
I myself am not a coffee drinker either, interestingly. Although I do drink caffeine in Coke, unfortunately. But that caffeine sometimes comes in. All right. Well, we're going to start pre-rolls Creek. Okay.
So go back in time. And now I know you're getting a bit older, okay? So, it might be hard for you to remember way back when. But talk to me about when you started as a content creator.
Yeah. So, I had just graduated high school and I was looking for a job and every place I applied to, they said I didn't have enough experience, which is like how am I supposed to get experience without experience? 22. I know. Exactly. Right. So, up until that point, I was just making Minecraft videos on YouTube and I had a video kind of pop off and someone at YouTube, I got a partner manager and they're like, 'You should try streaming. We just launched streaming.' And I was like, 'Okay.' And at first it was actually funny because I thought I was going to hate it because the idea of it being live and like what if I mess up, you know, it's scary. And then I started streaming. Loved it. People started loving it. Audience loved it and it just kind of like immediately blew up and then I got the first paycheck and I was like, 'Mom, I got more than $5 this month. Like I might be able to do this.' And yeah, it just kind of grew from there.
And so, were your parents like did you think about college or was college always something like no, I don't want that?
So yeah, I was originally going to college for computer science. I actually went to an online high school before it was cool to do that. Just so that I could take programming classes that weren't available in my local area. And I was whenever I started streaming I was I think like one year away from getting not the bachelors. What's the other one called? The first one you get?
Not the bachelors. It's the two-year degree.
Yeah. An associates degree.
I heard bachelors and I was thinking of the bachelor, you know, that I was like, what does that have to do with...
Yeah. And it was kind of like do I keep balancing both or do I put all my energy into one and give it the best shot? And it was like this is a once in a lifetime opportunity. I can always come back to this. I'm gonna take the opportunity and risk and family was pretty supportive. So it worked out. Yeah. It's interesting because I come from an older family so a lot of my family didn't really understand the concept of you can play video games and make money. They're just like he's just staying inside all day wasting his time. My mom got it though because she lived with me so she kind of got it a little bit. But yeah, once I got my first paycheck, that was when the rest of the family was like, 'Oh, okay.' It was cool then. It was cool.
It worked out. Yeah. It's interesting because I come from an older family so a lot of my family didn't really understand the concept of you can play video games and make money. They're just like he's just staying inside all day wasting his time. My mom got it though because she lived with me so she kind of got it a little bit. But yeah, once I got my first paycheck, that was when the rest of the family was like, 'Oh, okay.' It was cool then. It was cool.
Finally, finally, we don't have to worry about him, you know? He's going to be able to do something with himself.
Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. And now, like, you know, my cousins go to school. They're like, 'Hey, you know, Creek, that's my cousin. It's my cousin.' They're bragging about me.
They're bragging about you. All right. So, let's get to the persona. Okay. The character. Okay. And before you talk to me about the character, I have a little surprise for you here. Okay. This is all that I had in my closet. Okay. But I felt like for the show, I should have a little something.
Okay. So, I decided I'm going to wear this for the podcast. It is some type of furry monster. But so tell me about the character and when did the character...
The hat. Yeah. So I would wake up really early. So when I started streaming it was December. I would wake up really early. It'd be really cold and I would always take a shower in the morning just to kind of wake up and so I would be freezing and so I would just grab it was a Deadmau5 hat like the music artist Deadmau5. It was a random hat my mom got me from like a Kohl's back in like 2013 or something and she's like, 'Oh, this looks cool. I bet he'll like it.' So, I had it in my closet. And so, every morning when I started streaming, I just put it on to keep my head warm. And then I started noticing that people would draw me with the hat and also the red flannel, which I'm not wearing the red flannel right now, but my grandpa would always give me like his red flannel hand-me-downs. And so I'd always wear like red flannels and people started drawing me with that. That was the fan art. And I was like, 'Oh, okay. So this is my thing. This is it.'
And then 10 years later, my Deadmau5 hat started ripping because wearing it every single day for 10 years is a lot of work on a hat. And so I had to come up with my own thing. Number one, so Deadmau5 wouldn't hopefully not sue me. But then also number two, because he didn't sell those hats anymore. So I...
Well, and has your hair always been sticking out or the long hair sticking out. Did that only come over time?
So I've always had longer hair. I've always liked having longer hair. Mostly because whenever I was a kid, a lot of the guys had like the short hair with the bangs like sticking up, you know, in school. And I always wanted to be like the outlaw, I guess. I'm like, I'm going to have longer hair. And because like when the wind blows, it like flows, you feel cool, right? Like the Maybelline commercial or something. And so I always had like longer hair and it just kind of stuck. It's actually funny. I'll tell you a funny story. I dyed my hair blue for a sub goal like a long time ago and I actually got backlash like don't you touch the hair. Leave the hair. Hair is an iconic part. So, I was like, I can't touch it now. You know.
You have that great red color. So, you may not realize this from my hair now, but I'm a redhead or was a redhead. And I always remember this story that once I told someone I was like 40-something. I said, 'Oh, I'm a tall redhead.' And they met me and they said, 'You're not a redhead.' And it's because by then all my hair had turned blonde and kind of faded out. So, enjoy the redness, you know, while you have it.
You know what's funny? I don't know if you know this, but this is actually a wig that's attached to the hat. Well, it's not attached to the hat. I just put it on.
The reason why I have brown hair. My hair is brown. It's underneath this. The reason why is I shaved my head bald for a sub goal. And what happened is the click-through rate on my thumbnails went down because I guess kids don't like clicking on videos of bald people. So, I'm like, I'm going to get a wig off of Amazon that's like $5 that just looks similar to my hair. And I did. And it became a running joke that Creek wears a wig. So now I...
But you got a wig that was red, not brown.
Yeah, it's a little bit reddish on camera. It's like blondish. I like the blondish kind of orangey red look. It looks good on camera, so I keep it.
It looks good. I like it. All right. So let's get to Roblox then.
Okay. Talk to me about when Roblox clicked for you and were you already playing Roblox personally before you started streaming it?
No. So it was like 2016. I was doing like Minecraft PvP and Minecraft mods and Minecraft kind of dipped a little bit in terms of interest and viewer interest. This was before the Dream era and all that. And so I was kind of like, okay, well, what now? And Roblox was kind of on the rise. And my chat was always like, 'Play Roblox.' And I was with the stigma and everyone had this back then. This is a dumb Minecraft ripoff kids game. I'm never going to play this. And one day I decided to play it because someone said there was a game on there called Phantom Forces, which is similar to Call of Duty. And I'm like, I'll check it out. I played it. I was like, okay, this is actually kind of fun. And over time it just kind of shifted completely into Roblox. I started playing in 2016 so this will be 10 years.
And have you ever thought about because it's one of those things that you know we make these decisions we have no idea where they're going because suppose you didn't make that switch and then what happened with Minecraft just like how different your world would be if you had never made that switch back then. There was a part of me that was so I guess burned out of Roblox back when Fortnite came out that there was a part of me that was like you know what I'm going to become a Fortnite streamer and like I never did. I almost did. I made the switch almost but like I did it and it's like man if I would have done that my life would also be completely different but yeah I stuck with Roblox. It seemed like the nice thing about Roblox though that I'm sure has kept you there is it's not one game and so you have this endless supply of games that you can play.
Exactly. So like there's always something new, something that's coming out that's interesting and exciting that kind of changes it up. It's not the same thing. Well, so how much do you think of yourself now as a trend setter with Roblox or as a follower in terms of what game you decide to play?
I think it's kind of a mix of both because like as streamers, I feel like we do have the ability to kind of set trends, but also at the end of the day, it's a matter of like what does your audience want to watch? Because if I could do anything I wanted, I'd be streaming like Halo and World of Warcraft all day. But like most Roblox players like what is that? I've never even heard of that. But obviously you can't do that because that's not where the audience is these days. So you're kind of beholden to your audience a little bit but it is a matter of you get to pick and choose a little bit. Roblox does have a little bit of variety in terms of what you can do.
Right. Right. And what are you playing now?
We're not talking about that. Yeah. Still a brain. Right. You know stuff like that. It's not my proudest era, I guess, but it's what the kids enjoy these days, you know.
Well, explain. Do this because I think for some people watching this, because part of the objective of this is to expose all that's going on to folks that may not live it. Talk about Roblox. Explain Roblox to the person who hasn't played Roblox and what why is it so big?
So like you got to think of it like a platform. It's like Steam except most of the games are made by either kids or older teenagers or really young adults. And it's got a very large kid teenage audience. So, all the games are like free to play kind of. So, you can kind of get the idea of where that platform sits. And then over the years, the platform kind of moves along with the general trend. So, like back when GTA 5 came out and the few years after, there were a bunch of kind of like ripoff GTA clones because kids, they're not going to play GTA. So, what are they going to do? They're going to play the best version they can on Roblox. It's free to play. And then like there were other trends that pet games were really big and then like asymmetrical horror games were really big. And now the big thing right now is like brain rot and tongue to her and all of those characters and stuff, right?
Yeah.
And so it seems like obviously what you're trying to do is figure out what your audience is going to enjoy. And so as opposed to trying and you sort of respond to whatever is popular on Roblox now as opposed to shaping it part of what you're doing because you probably do explore new games very often? How often are you just wandering around Roblox playing games that you haven't played or don't already know are pretty good?
Quite a bit. I like to think I have my finger on the pulse of the Roblox community. Like somebody breeds and I know about it kind of thing. So, part of my job is also what comes next. And this is probably true for any streamer no matter what game you play. But if you're known for one game and then that game stops being popular or ends or whatever, then you kind of go down with that ship and so you have to be able to pivot to new stuff. And so like part of Roblox is like, okay, what's going to be the next big game? What's the next big trend? Because in 2020, I played this game called Piggy and I made videos on it and streamed it every single day.
I know. Piggy. Wasn't that one of the moments where you sort of broke out?
Yeah, I got like I think it was like 5 million subs in like a few months from Piggy because the pandemic happened and Piggy happened and it just lined up perfectly. Stars aligned and then like a year later the game ended. It was like this is the last update. This is the last chapter and I was like oh crap what do I do now? And yeah, I was able to pivot. So, I was lucky with that, but that's something that's always in the back of your mind.
Now, one of the things I know about Roblox for those who don't use it is part of it is just hanging out with your friends. Because a lot of people that are playing Roblox are playing Roblox with their friends. So, who do you mostly play Roblox with?
I have like a... So, it's interesting because there's so many different Roblox games, there's so many different demographics. So, just because you're a Roblox streamer or creator doesn't necessarily mean that our audiences will mesh together. Like if you play Dress to Impress, you probably have a larger female audience. If you play Rivals, you probably have a male-dominated audience. So, right now I kind of stick to people that I know personally, shout out State, Kay, all those guys. But I don't know. I don't have a group of friends.
And were any of those folks were you already friends with or did you meet them all in your streaming life?
I met them through streaming. It's actually one sad thing about being a streamer and content creator is like a lot of the times you're up working really late. So like people with normal jobs, all those normies. Like a lot of my friends pre-streaming, I don't get to talk to them as much because they're online at like midnight after work, before work in the morning, and it's like, well, I'm up editing. So, it's tough. That's one of the tough things about the job.
Yeah. Do you still stay in touch with your because you... Is it public where you live?
It is. Yeah. I grew up in Florida by Jacksonville. I didn't really have that many friends growing up. It was probably like a little close-knit group of like four to five. And I try and stay in touch as much as...
Most of your friends now most of your real world friends now come from your professional life.
Yeah, I would say so. Yeah.
Well, I know from Brandon it seems like one of the things they're always trying to do is get you out of the house.
Yeah, dude. I look man, my goal people always ask me like what's your goal from streaming? I want to make enough money to where I can retire and just play video games for the rest of my life. Like get some remote house somewhere. A lot of people are like I want this super fancy car or super fancy house. Like I don't care about any of that. I just want to be able to retire and just play video games and I'm good.
But then you don't need to retire if all you're doing is playing video games.
That's true. That's true.
Actually talk about this. I always think one of the reasons that streaming took off is of course playing video games is social. Because you're playing with other people and then it's like oh and someone's going to watch me. So like it seems to me like if you're playing a video game why wouldn't you stream? How much do you play video games where you're not streaming?
Quite a bit. I actually this is something I struggle with for a while. It's kind of like how much of my life is Creek and how much of my life is just the normal dude, you know? And so what I've done over the years is like I have a set line. I don't play Roblox in my off time. That is a YouTube thing. That is a streaming thing. And when it comes to personal time, that's me, that's lights out, big monitor, Red Dead Redemption 2, Elden Ring, Baldur's Gate, you know, you're a traditional gamer.
Name a game I've probably like I literally just play video games. It's for my job, out of my job.
But it doesn't fit your online character, so you just do that on your own.
Yeah. I've thought about like having a more mature channel where I stream games like Red Dead Redemption or Elden Ring or whatever it may be. But part of it also like I don't want to constantly be in streamer mode. Sometimes I want to just stare blankly at the screen and play video games, you know?
Yes. Like when you're streaming there's some degree of commitment to your community and then when you hit stop stream, is it like an exhale?
I think it was at first, but it's become so like just muscle memory to me. You put a camera on me and I can just switch into YouTube mode. I guess the thing to say too is like I wouldn't really say that Creek is like a character. It's more just like an exaggerated version of myself I guess. So it's not necessarily hard to get into that or it's not stressful or anything like that but there is an element especially after a long stream it's like I can go and relax now. But the other thing about being a content creator is just like well you're back live again tomorrow. You don't get days off. So, start planning.
Well, the way I decided it's almost like it's a caricature of yourself. Exactly. It's who you are, but everything turned up a little bit.
You know, and so have you created an animated VT version of yourself?
I have not. No, I've thought about it because it's funny. It'd be funny if I was like a VTuber one day, but I think so much of how people recognize me and I guess like my brand, if you'd say that, is me. And so, it's like if you take that away, you kind of lose that element, I guess.
Yeah. I will say one thing to think about is well actually before I'll say this I'll ask because first of all I guess it was recently your birthday.
And I guess we should have sent you a cane because you're 30 years old now. Do I have that right?
