When people think of “arts education,” they immediately think of the school band. But there is a whole ‘nother realm of arts education, and since no one else is grabbing the potential massive market share, I will.
Today’s lesson, boys and girls, is about presentation skills, most notably, stage fright.
If you have stage fright, this can be a problem, and not just if you play the euphonium. Stage fright afflicts people in all walks of life. I have seen entire corporations that suffered from stage fright. It’s a sad thing to see, and a real pain the tookus to have to listen to people endlessly make up excuses for why they just . . . aren’t . . . ready . . . (insert endless hemming and hawing here ) to just publish that website already.
Stage fright is not an inborn trait. It is, however, a fairly predictable result of the standard educational experience. For 12-16 years of schooling, no matter what you did or said, there was someone getting paid to find something wrong with it. You were also endlessly surrounded by your closest competitors, who would laugh at you for the slightest deviation or error. So of course, as an adult, when you get up in front of a crowd to talk, or you are about to send the files to the printer for your company brochure, or approve the final version of a promo video, that fearful memory of the other kids giggling or a teacher finding a mistake and marking your soul with a big red “X” of course makes you hesitate, or break out in a repressed-traumatic-memory-come-to-the-surface sweat that would make a therapist proud.
Well, Justin’s blog to the rescue.
I was fortunate enough to learn “audience-ology” with people like Arthur Fielder, and while this is really a whole 1-2 hour long seminar topic, here is just one of many nifty little tricks to overcome stage fright.
No one trick will overcome decades of shaming trauma, but to start, when you are in a performance situation (e.g.,a CEO giving a report, a lawyer presenting a case, a PTA president giving the annual report, anybody in management or sales, or WHATEVAH) . . . Instead of doing what you were trained to do, which is try to lessen the potential or even inevitable shaming experience by making yourself perfect, instead, focus on the reality of your audience.
The wondrous thing about “arts education” is that when done properly it’s not about entertainment, it’s all about discovering the truth about yourself and the human condition, and the truth, so says the bible, shall set you free. In this case, your basic audience, unless it is again a group of your competitors, is always rooting for you.
A perfect example: Let’s consider YOU– my audience right here right now: I sincerely doubt that any of you clicked on this blog, or came to one of my talks, hoping that I would bore you to death. Of course you didn’t. You’re not here to critique my work, you’re here because, like me, you’re probably desperate to be entertained. And that desperation leads, not only to incredibly low standards where my performance is concerned, but actually rooting like mad for me.
Sure, you’ll point out my mistakes– but that’s because you want to protect me from the teacher’s red X. I appreciate the thought, but … don’t worry about me. I love being stupid. (Accepting one’s imperfections– lesson two maybe!)
Whenever I give a talk to a group that doesn't know me, I can always see a certain look on the faces of the crowd. When I stand up to talk, 90% of the faces in the crowd are poorly masking the thought, “Please god, don’t let this guy be so boring that I want to shoot myself.” When I actually make them laugh a little, the look of astonishment is always a sight to see. They were expecting me to be dull, as so many speakers are . . . and so they are thrilled to not be yet again bored to death.
So again, always remember, your audience is rooting for you. I know in high school all your anxiety-laden classmates took any opportunity to dump on you, but this has no bearing on real adult life. In real life, people are all so glad it’s you, and not them, up on the stage, because they all have stage fright too. This makes you everyone’s hero. And if you screw up, well, if you had read my “Principles of Applied Stupidity” like I told you, you would know that every mistake you make lets your audience feel superior, and people like to feel superior, so go ahead and make mistakes. That’s a good thing. If you were perfect you would make everyone in the audience feel inadequate.
I have a whole bunch of tricks to overcoming stage fright. That’s just one. I’ll try and toss out some more in future blog entries- JL
