Speaker 1Shut up, and sit down. Welcome to Being On Stage, the only podcast that gives you motivation, inspiration, and confidence to be better on stage. No matter how you entertain, sing, dance, band, comedian, public speaking, MC, drag, burlesque, performance art, or street performer, this is the show for you. Hey, rock stars. It is your host, Reggie Dawson, and again, this is the Being On Stage podcast. Thanks for tuning in. Your listening is much appreciated. What this podcast is, is we talk about everything having to do with entertaining on stage. From the moment you step on stage, it is all about the audience. And whatever you do on stage, whether you're, maybe you're a singer, maybe you're a dancer, maybe you're in a band, maybe you play an instrument, maybe you're a magician or a comedian or a drag queen or a burlesque performer, maybe you're a street performer, no matter what it is you do on stage, this is what we're about. And one of the things that everybody, no matter how you perform on stage and what your gifts and your art and your talent is that you put out there, whatever you do on stage, the one thing that you're going to need is stage presence. So first, I want to define stage presence as it is defined in our good friend Google. So I just went into Google and typed in what is stage presence. It pops up a dictionary definition, the ability to command the attention of a theater audience by the impressiveness of one's manner or appearance. One word I want to, one word I want to point out, and I actually didn't know this was a word, but impressiveness. That means that you have got to impress the theater audience to gain their attention by the impressiveness of one's manner or appearance. That means your manner or appearance must be impressive. To gain that attention, and that is stage presence. So stage presence is more than just being on stage, no pun intended. Stage presence is more than just standing on stage. It's more than singing on stage. It's more than just stepping out there and delivering your art. You have to give a performance. It has to be entertaining because I can't stress this enough. I think I said it in every episode. Without having an audience to perform for, there would be no reason to get on stage. Yes, you're there. You have to entertain them. But I'm not talking about, I'm not talking necessarily to the people that are being paid, you know, thousands of dollars to perform at a venue where people are in fact paying money to see them. I'm talking about a venue where most of the performers are at. 99% of the performers, you know, one in a million performers make it. The other 999,999 of us are struggling. Those are the people that I'm talking to. I want to help you improve it so you get closer to your shot. Okay. There's lessons to learn all over the place. And one of the lessons we're going to talk about today is how to get more stage presence. Stage presence, pure and simple, you've got to have confidence in your performance in order to have great stage presence. So how do you gauge your stage presence? Anybody? Write me. Tell me. How would you gauge stage presence? Because I'm going to tell you how I would gauge it. Watch your audience. You have to take kind of like a visual poll survey of your audience of how they're reacting and how they're receiving your performance. In order to know if you're making that impact. Are you making that connection? Are you engaged? Do you have that presence on stage that commands their attention because the impressiveness of your manner or appearance? Watch them. Are they watching you? Are you making eye contact? Like, is there an exchange of eye contact? Watch them watch you. Are they engaged? Are they bopping their head to the music? Are they laughing at your jokes? On the flip side, are they on their phone? Are they talking to their friends? Instead of watching you? As you can imagine, now the first things I described, watching you, engaged, bopping their head to the music, in some entertainment forums, they're giving you money, street performing, drag, burlesque, but they're engaged somehow. On the flip side, and these are things that you want to examine and maybe you want to think about how you can get more stage presence, which I'll tell you, if they're not engaged with you and they're on their phone and they're talking to their friends, it may not necessarily mean that you don't have stage presence. But it does. It does. It does need to be something that you are clued into and aware of that's happening. I'm going to share with you how to fix it. Now, first I'm going to share, sometimes this can happen when the styles just don't line up. I mean, if you are booked at a venue that the normal crowd that would be there is just not necessarily your normal style of crowd. I'll give you an example, okay? So, I was booked at a club in West Palm Beach, Florida. I was booked there twice. The first time I went there, it was a good mix of crowd. The DJ was playing, you know. Top 40. I did a pop song and I did kind of like a mainstream punk. You know how those rock songs make it big? Like 21 Pilots, that kind of stuff. They're alternative bands, but they have one or two songs that make it in the mainstream. I did one of those songs. I don't really remember what it was. The second time I go back, it was an entirely different crowd. And I don't know if I made the mistake and misjudged the first crowd or if they changed their style of night. But it was a little more hip-hop, a little more rap. Or reggae, more that style. And I did rock. And it did not go over well at all. But the reason for that wasn't necessarily that I didn't deliver a performance. It's just those styles just did not go together. So, I wasn't received very well. I was clued in, but at the time, it was just too late to make a change. Aside from when that happens, stage presence and getting that attention from the audience is just a lack of confidence. And you can be. You can be confident in what you do, but you have to also be confident in how you deliver it. And that's the performance. The talent and the art, that's your singing, that's your dancing, that's what you do. How you deliver it is the performance. And that's the piece that needs stage presence. One of the things I see most people do is they have these, like, these inner voices or these inner inhibitions that keep them from really, like, exploding on stage. Like, I know that sounds really odd to say. I'm talking about. I'm talking about a climax of your performance. In every performance, there's a build. And then there's a climax. And that climax, that's when the explosion happens. That's when the audience goes nuts in the middle of the show. Because you're doing something that just generates so much energy that they feel it. And they're really connected to you through your stage presence that you've built. But when you build it up, you have to release that energy as well. Otherwise, they get bored. They tune out. They turn to their phones. They turn to their friends. They start doing their own thing. Let go of those inner. Inner inhibitions that keep you from exploding. That keep you from giving more. You never want to leave your show, leave the stage feeling like you could have given more. And let's be honest. We've all had that night where we leave the stage and we feel like, I should have given more. That was. That was an okay show. I did okay. I did well. But don't you like it better when you leave the stage feeling like you were amazing? So never leave the stage feeling like you should have given more. Three things you can do. To fix that. And I should say three rules that will help you fix that. I've been told. I've been delivered this advice by two different people and one of them is my own. One, professional dancer shared this with me one night. We were just dancing on, you know, at the club, having a good time. I was just talking to him like, man, your moves are sweet and everything like that. He shared with me, he goes, you know, man, I used to have a fear of looking stupid when I dance. Because I told him, I said, I look like an idiot when I dance. He says, you know what? I feel like I look. I look like an idiot. I said, what, man? So he told me, he said, you know what? The more foolish you feel, the better you look. Just stay confident in what you're doing. And he's talking about dance and everything. But that's true on stage as well. The more confident you are in whatever you do, the more people are going to pay attention to you. Once you grab their attention, here's the next piece of advice. And this was actually given to me by a drag queen who, may she rest in peace, dear friend of mine, dear friend of the community, local community. She said, if people laugh, let them laugh. You are the one on stage, not them. The people are always going to be there laughing. And it's going to be the same people in the same bar with the same drink while you keep on rising. And I know that's a long one. But when she said that, that hit me like a ton of bricks. It changed the way I perform. It helped me evolve as an entertainer. So let me share that with you. If people laugh, let them laugh. They're always going to be there laughing. And that's exactly where they're going to stay there. You're going to keep rising. You're going to keep getting better. You're going to keep getting more fans, more people cheering for you. And they're always going to be picking on you in the corner. Because that's all they're ever going to be. They're never going to be more than that. So just let them sit over there in the corner with their beer and laugh and poke fun. Because they don't have the courage to get on stage. And then the last one is mine. Let their ridicule be your fuel. Perform at the level that there's nothing for them to say. And they're the ones that look foolish for laughing. Their ridicule is your fuel, your fire that burns inside you and makes you amazing. Shut them up. Make it so they can't say anything without looking foolish. Shut them up with your talent and shut them up with your success. These things that are inside you with the things that they're saying and the other negative voices that are inside you, these are false truths. These are all in your head. You have to let it go. You have to shake that off and let go of all your inner inhibitions. there's going to be a moment in your performance where you feel it building you're going to feel this build-up it's like a ramp think about like a motocross biker going up his ramp before he jumps there's a build-up in your show you're going up the ramp and when you hit the top of that ramp and you release and that's when he's doing his flips that's when people are going nuts for him that's when your audience should be going nuts for you because you've just released this massive amount of energy that they can't help but to react don't plateau after you've built that up you have to let that energy release in order to gain your audience trust they have to see you release everything on stage you have to leave your legacy on that stage with what you deliver at the climax of the show at the end of your show you should feel that loss of energy yes you're going to be more energized your adrenaline is going to be pumping you're going to be insane excited you're going to have so much positive energy inside you but physically you should feel a little winded you should be sweating you should be out of breath that's what makes a good performance and if you're not there chances are you haven't done your job right you may gain some fans people may say hey you did a great job but truthfully if you're not there if you're not winded if you're not feeling it you could have given more and you don't want your audience you don't want to leave your audience feeling like you could have given more i talked about how you feeling like you could have given more you don't want to leave your audience feeling like you could have given more you don't want to leave your audience feeling like you could have given more you don't want to leave your audience feeling like you could have given more you don't want to leave your audience feeling like you could have given more don't let the performance plateau don't fall short of amazing that's how you have stage presence capitalize on that build-up shut down those inner voices and just do it without a care how you look you cannot perform based on the opinions of others that is not why you're an artist you're an artist because you have something special that you need to put on that stage and not give a damn what anybody thinks about it That's when you get good stage presence. That's when you capitalize on your dream. That's when you are amazing. If you want more information on how you can be more confident on stage, go to beingonstage.com. Put in your email address. My e-book drops on March 1st. I will send you a copy. It is 100% free. Get the book. I want to thank you again for listening. Head on over to iTunes. Drop a five-star review. If you like what you hear, please let me know. Send me an email, reggie at beingonstage.com. I'm happy to respond. And also you can like us on social media at beingonstage, both Instagram and Twitter. And Facebook, it is facebook.com slash beingonstage. Again, I appreciate you listening. And keep up the confidence. The world is a crazy place, folks. Don't let it get you down. Keep on shining.
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