Kristjan Jõekalda says viewers see him as an old friend

Television host Kristjan Jõekalda says many viewers see him as a friend or a familiar piece of furniture tied to family memories, ERR reports. He spoke about entertainment and his work on the programme Psühho.

Jõekalda, who has worked in television throughout his adult life, said entertainment was both a job and a difficult one, because people have different tastes. Trying to please everyone in order to reach a mainstream audience was the wrong approach, he said. “It has to come naturally.”

He sees entertainment as something that helps people set aside everyday worries. “Anton Hansen Tammsaare’s five volumes of Truth and Justice are entertainment too, but how many people have enjoyed that entertainment so much?” he said. “It doesn’t all have to be giggles and laughter. The main thing is that it takes your mind off everyday worries.”

Making light-hearted television can take a toll, Jõekalda said. His wife has not asked him for decades how work went or what happened there, he joked, because people do not want to talk about what they had to experience to produce something cheerful.

He said television professionals have to leave their worries at the door and not bring a gloomy face to the screen. Those on screen are “wonderful magicians” who can make people feel good, even if the performer may be “crying inside,” he said.

Jõekalda believes people with fewer worries need less entertainment, but that viewers also need to know how to shift their attention. “Work and stress come along all the time. It’s a skill to click yourself onto another wavelength, like with a TV remote, so you stop thinking about anything and just watch,” he said.

He said strangers have not approached him on the street demanding jokes, but people often treat him like an old friend. “In many families, I’m like old furniture: it creaks, but they can’t bring themselves to throw it out because there are so many memories attached to it,” he said.

Communication expert and social psychologist Aune Past said entertainment helps people organise their emotions. “Entertainment is not a break from life; it is life,” she said.