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.
Speaker 2Hey Rockstars, this is your host Reggie Dawson, and again, this is the Being On Stage podcast. Thanks for tuning in. Many times, you will find yourself working with other entertainers. Sometimes not always working directly with them. You may be at the same event, you may be at the same venue, sometimes you find yourself in the audience. But regardless, you cannot go through your career as an entertainer without working with or coming in contact with other entertainers. And there's a certain professional. There's a certain level of courtesy and respect that needs to be displayed. And that's what we're going to get into today. I'm going to talk about all about respect and courtesy among entertainers. Some things that are necessary, some things that are maybe not so necessary. And then some things that's just common rules of the road. Like some good old golden rule type of stuff. Before we get into that, if you haven't done so already, please head over to iTunes, drop a rating and a review. I would appreciate it. Other people would appreciate it. It helps people be able to find the show. Second, you will want to be subscribed to the Rockstar Lounge because we are going to hit it hard in the month of May. Head over to beingonstage.com. You put in your name and your email address. We're redoing the site over the next couple of months. I'm going to give it a couple of months. And actually, when I say we, I mean I am redoing the site over the next couple of months. So you will see it start to change. But for now, you want to be subscribed. Big things are coming. But getting into the professional courtesy. So like I said, you know. Many times you're going to be entertaining with other entertainers. You perform together. We kind of run in packs. It's kind of what we do. Sometimes you'll be working with other entertainers. You may be collaborating for the same performance. You may enter a competition and be competing against other entertainers. Sometimes you're going to find some really solid, amazing people. Like I'll tell you, I actually had the honor of going to a national pageant. Not as a contestant, but as kind of like a speciality. Not as a contestant, but as kind of like a special guest of the pageant. And not like Miss America. I'm talking, it was, you know, a little more eclectic than that. But I got to go to a national pageant, national competition. And, you know, I got to address all the contestants. And I got to stand on stage and present some awards. It was an amazing, fantastic experience. So the people that you meet, like these guys were competing for like cash and prizes and like a title. And they were so, so incredibly personable to each other and just respectful and courteous. And just nice. They were just nice and helpful to each other. It was like a community. It was really great to see it and to be a part of it. Even, I was only there for one day, but it was really great. But yeah, so sometimes you're going to meet these amazing people. Sometimes you're going to have some run-ins with people that maybe aren't that amazing. Sometimes people can be nightmarish to work with, really. I've worked with a couple entertainers over the years that just the things that they say and the things that they comment on. Out of their mouth is just like, I can't believe you get jobs. I can't believe they give you a microphone. You definitely don't want to be one of those people. I'm going to talk about a little bit about how to avoid that. But first and foremost, like let's talk about the big problem among every entertainer. It's such a little word for such a big problem. And I'm talking about your ego. Your ego serves the purpose to keep your self-esteem up and your self-confidence up. However, your ego becomes. A problem when you're overly inflating your abilities, your talents, your impacts. And just I can't describe what it's like to be egotistical. I've been that entertainer. You know, I've been that person that walks into the club and I'm just like, I'm not going to go say hi to you. I'm Reggie. You need to come say hi to me. I had that mentality and to have that mentality. First of all, it's just completely bass-ackwards for lack of a better phrase. Like to have that mentality of I'm going to walk into this club. And even though I know that I'm going to walk into this club, I'm going to walk into this club. And even though I know 20 people here, I'm going to wait for them to come say hello to me. I grew out of that phase. And when I was in my prime and my heyday, I was young. I didn't do a whole lot of like crazy things, but I had an ego and a cocky problem. And I grew to the point where I owned it. And it actually, I actually made it work for me a little bit. But when I was really struggling with it, it did hold me back. You know, people didn't want to work with me. And it's all because I thought that I had to prove something to other people. I had to act a certain way because I was popular and I was quote unquote famous. My ex-girlfriend actually called me a pseudo celebrity. And that's kind of what it was like. You know, everywhere I went, people would, you know, call me out, but only locally. Like if I went out of town, like if I went to Orlando, I could be like, hey, what's up everybody? And they'd think I escaped from like the crazy farm. So it was only local. Like it was only within like a 20 mile radius. I let it go to my head. I let it go to my head so bad to the point where. People were turned off. They would like me from afar, but as they got to know me, they were just turned off and just completely wanted nothing to do with me. You avoid that by being genuine, being like a genuine person. You know, we all have struggles. We all have fears. We all have issues. We all have problems. It's okay to own that. Like it's okay to be authentic among other entertainers. Like we all have the same struggles that we're going up against. You know, we all get nervous before we step on stage. We all feel like we need to. Prove something like we need to prove that we're good enough to be out there. We all feel like someone else is better than us. We all go through that. So if we could actually be honest and just be genuine with each other, it would make it a whole lot easier and not just with each other, like, you know, the people that you work with, whether you're in a band, maybe you dance, whether whoever you end up working with, whoever helps produce the shows, even if it's the bar staff being like a genuine human being and just being authentically yourself and real with. People goes a long way. So check your ego at the door. Like, yes, you want to be confident. Yes. You want to know that you can do what you're there to do, but you don't have to be at the extent of making other people feel bad or making other people feel like they need to idolize you. You don't want to feel more important than you are. So check your ego at the door, because here's the thing. All of us entertainers, we're here to do one thing. We're here to entertain the audience. Last episode, I talked about the. Three. Three things you want to happen on stage. Number one, you want the audience to cheer, which means you're here to entertain. You're here to give a show. You're here to do it for the audience to you wanted to get noticed. You want to have an impact. Everybody wants to do that. Every single entertainer wants that to happen. And three, number three was the most important. You got to have fun. We're all here to have fun and entertain the crowd. That number two one is where we get into competition with each other. Like, if you get noticed, I can't get noticed. If you have an impact, I can't have an impact. And it's absolute bull. We can all be individual entertainers. Be nice to each other. Be courteous to each other. And both of us get the recognition and the response that we equally deserve. Again, you don't need to prove yourself to anyone. On the flip side, you also can't be that person putting other people down, especially other entertainers. You can't be that entertainer that people look up to. But when they get close to you, you stomp them in the ground. Make them feel like the dirt underneath your shoe just because they can't compare to the talent that you have. That's why they're there. That's why they want to be there. They want to learn from you. Be courteous. You don't have to put other entertainers that are considered your equals down as well. There's nothing to prove here, guys. Even if you're in a competition, all your preparation, all your rehearsal, all your planning, all your vision, it's all done. The only thing that hinders you. The only thing that changes on your performance once you're there is your ability to go out there and execute. And no amount of tearing other people down, and no amount of idolizing other people, no amount of puffing your chest is going to make your execution any better. If you really want to be professionally courteous, it's better just to focus on your own thing and just be nice to everybody else. You don't need to focus on what everyone else is doing. You need to focus on the preparation that you've put in to your art, to your show. So that you can go out there and execute it like the rock star that I know you are. Now, let's talk about when you're there witnessing other people perform. Maybe you're in the crowd. Maybe you're backstage. What do you do when someone else is on stage? Because I can tell you what you shouldn't do and what you can't do. First and foremost, golden rule. Like, come on. How would you want people to act when you're on stage? Would you want them to be booing you? Would you want them to be making snide comments to your audience? Would you want them sitting there texting on their phone or scrolling? Or scrolling through their social media while you're trying to entertain a crowd? No. So you shouldn't do that either. Again, it's the golden rule. It's the golden rule of humanity. Treat others the way that you would like to be treated. That's all it comes down to when it comes to professional courtesy and respect. Like, that's really what we're talking about here. We're talking about respect. So don't boo other entertainers. Don't make slick comments to their audience like, you call that a split? Or, you know, don't say things like, oh my god, this guy again. Like what the hell? Don't say stuff like that. Give the audience a chance to form their own opinions of that entertainer on stage. Keep your opinions to yourself. If you have constructive feedback to provide, provide it after the show in a respectful manner in private. You don't need to provide your comments and your, you know, the audience isn't there to hear your commentary. They're there to see the person perform and experience their entertainment and their art. Just observe. If it's a tipping type of industry, tip. Even if you don't like it, tip. Be respectful. Show them the love that you would want while you're on stage. I'm going to get into a little bit about drama, but it's coming up in a couple episodes. I'm actually going to do a whole episode on the drama and politics of entertaining and how you can, you know, spin it for better and how it can tear you apart. It's going to put me in a real dark place. And even now, I apologize for anything I may say. In the next two minutes or so, because drama puts me in a dark place. Drama is like the bickering and the rumors and just the cattiness among entertainers. It's the most ridiculous thing I've ever experienced. I mean, to the point of like, I was entertaining in a club and I was like a senior performer, like I've been doing it for a while. I was mentoring three or four young up and coming entertainers that performed at like the open mic nights that you hear me talk about open mic nights a lot. Talent showcases. But I was mentoring some entertainers that frequented the talent showcase that this club had going on to the point of like, we met up every single week, sometimes twice a week to work on their shows and work on different techniques and like different styles and like really try to move them forward as artists. And I was a little strict and I still am. Like, I expect you to want to put in the work. If we're going to work together, if I'm going to coach you, I expect you to put in some of the work. If you're not going to do that, then. You don't want it. And that's kind of what I asked for. I was a little more of an ass back in the day. It's that whole young, dumb ego thing I was talking about. But these entertainers, instead of having a conversation with me like adults, they talked about me to the show director of the bar that we worked at. I mean, some real bad stuff, like how I don't let them do what they want to do. And I make them do things in their underwear, like real bad stuff, guys, like like college hazing type stuff. And I ended up getting fired as a house entertainer of that bar. It's all drawn like drama stems from that fear of having a conversation with another human being. Yeah, it's going to be uncomfortable. But if you want to hash stuff out and you want to move forward with people and have that respectful, courteous, professional relationship that I've been talking about, you got to have the conversation. That's all I'm really going to get into drama like the rumors and the carrying tales and stretching the truth. It's drama and it's petty. Have the courtesy to go to the person and talk through. Your issues. I'm going to get into a little bit more professional courtesy in the next episode because I think I'm going a little long winded. So next episode, we're going to talk a little bit about imitation and flattery and kind of a similarities between performers. So you definitely want to tune into the next episode when we get into that. I'm going to tell a story about when I got accused of stealing another person's dance moves. So you want to tune in for that again, go to iTunes, hit subscribe that way you get every episode as it comes out. So you can listen to it on your morning run or right before rehearsal or whatever it is you do when you listen to the podcast. Again, I can't thank you enough for tuning in. I really appreciate it. You can find us on Instagram and Twitter at being on stage. And of course, you can search us on Facebook and keep on shining.
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