Immediately following his final stage rehearsal for the evening’s 2015 DICE Awards at the Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas last week, as colored spotlights swept the seating and sound system checks echoed in the background, comedian Pete Holmes met with GamesBeat to talk about his approach to the evening’s awards as well as his views on game-awards shows in general.
Holmes picks the comedian host torch back up for the DICE Awards following last year’s departure — gaming personalities Felicia Day and Freddie Wong hosted, breaking a streak that had comedians such as Jay Mohr and Chris Hardwick onstage for a number of years. But his approach to hosting the prestigious gaming industry event (put on by the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences) is a bit different from that of his predecessors. He wants to blend some admiration into his comedy.
The stand-up comic and podcast host recognizes that he has the duty of hosting an award show that honors the life’s work of game creators, and he says that he wants to approach it as such.
“I would like to do it friendly,” Holmes says. “I have a couple of jokes making fun of Vegas or whatever, but for the most part, I like everything I do to be pretty inclusive. As cheesy as it sounds, celebratory. Positive and nice.”
In contrast to the edgy, punchy approach of some of the previous DICE Awards hosts, Holmes wanted to keep it respectful and entertaining. He opened with a great bit on how the characters of Final Fight might have a stomach ache after eating food they’ve found on the ground and in trash cans, and he wove funny bits throughout the night.
But his act has an underlying level of reverence, too.
“I think the name of the game is to try to own how important this is to all the people who have worked so hard on these games, and also, just trying to entertain them,” he says. “In the stand-up world, we call this a corporate gig — they can be a bit unlike what we’re used to. Nobody’s expecting comedy necessarily. They just want to win or see who is going to win. But I want to try to give them a good show and a good time. And also just a bit of respect.”
Holmes says that he is a good fit for this particular hosting gig.
“It’s a pretty easy job. It’s something I’m naturally interested in,” he notes. “And also doing comedy, I have a lot of stand-up that happened to be about video games anyway. It’s a very natural fit for me, at least. I hope everybody likes it.
While he admits to being a bit behind on the newest releases, he does spend a fair bit of time playing games. His current obsession is Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor, which earned eight DICE Awards and one nomination this year.