I've heard pretty much only goo things about Fastmail, maybe it's time to finally give it a try. Only problem is I'd have to also migrate my family to it since we share a domain name for email.
Gmail has started taking literally 15 seconds to perform simple actions like archiving or deleting emails for me, and I'm just like what am I even pay—oh crap wait
The easy trick is to play intro music and run a countdown timer while people trickle in. It gives people a chance to adjust their headphones/speaker volume, and also gives them a concrete time they know things will start.
I think it's a lot different approaching YouTube from the point of view of someone who makes videos on YouTube. In that case the comments are one of the only ways we have to interact with the people watching our videos.