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,
Speaker 2burlesque, performance art, or street performer, this
Speaker 1is the show for you.
Speaker 2Hey, rock stars. Reggie Dawson here, your host of the Being On Stage podcast. Thanks so much for coming back, tuning in, and checking out another episode of the show. Much appreciated to each and every person tuning in. In case I haven't said it enough, thank you. So listen, do you remember when you were kids and you had your best friend? And you and your best friend, you did so much together. You hung out all the time. You could communicate without asking. You were actually talking, like the eye contact, you know? And you see the same thing with parents. Like for me, my kid's a teenager. She's 13. So as you can imagine, we have to do a lot of our communicating non-verbally because, you know, she's smart enough now. She knows what's up, and we're trying to, you know, stay on the same page in the moment. So, you know, you communicate with your spouse or the parent of your child or sometimes even with your kids just through that eye contact. Like you give them a look, and they know. They know if they're in trouble. They know if you're proud. They know if you're disappointed. They know. And same thing with, you know, with the spouse. You know, like me and my wife, when we exchange those looks, it's kind of like, you know, I told you so. That's the big one is it's more her to me, like I told you so. Or the famous, I don't even have to say a word. Like just that look of, I don't have to say anything. You already know you're an ass. I get that one all the time. I don't have to say anything. You already know you're an ass look. But here the point is, is all those things, all those moments are communicated just through eye contact. Like, and you can communicate with perfect strangers. You see it, you know, you go up to the bar. You're looking at this, you know, this person across from the bar. You walk over to her. And that communication by eyes is a lot of times, you know, how men and women proceed to make a move on each other. You know, based. On that eye, eye contact that that exchange of looks. So how does this translate to being on stage? First and foremost, we communicate everything on stage through our eyes, our entire face. Actually, your facial expressions on stage are everything, no matter what you do. It does not matter what you perform on stage or what your talent is. I mean, it matters, like, you know, but I'm saying in this instance, it doesn't matter what you perform. The. Point is your eyes communicate everything, everything the audience needs to know is communicated through your eyes. Let me back up first again. My name is Reggie Dawson. I'm a performance artist, a talent coach, an emcee, and an all around stage performance coach. I help performers improve their presentation and their confidence on stage. I love everything about being on stage. The thrill of being in front of the audience, the applause, the feeling of just sharing my gifts and my talents with the world. And I enjoy making other people feel the same way. So eye contact. So let's let's be real. Your audience, when they come there, you know, they're going there for an experience. People don't go to events and performances to to just watch something like I know it may seem that way, like they're just going there to watch a musician or they're just going there to watch a concert or they're just going there to watch a dance recital. They're just going there to watch the circus performers. No, they're going there for an experience. They want to have a unique experience when they go to these places. It doesn't, you know, festivals, events, you know, restaurants where there's live music going on. People go to these places for the experience of being there as the entertainer, as the performer. It is your job to give them that experience. OK, so let's let's like point number one. Your job is to give them the experience. OK. Second, they crave attention and eye contact is the number one way to give somebody attention. OK, when you're when you're in the audience, like think think back to when you went to a concert or a show and you were in the audience, you know, you wanted them to. Oh, my God. He looked at me like you wanted them to look at you, to acknowledge you, to every time an artist says thank you very much. The crowd goes wild because they're connected. You know, they have that experience. They're getting that attention. That they're craving so I'm back to my first point, you know, and this is the question is how do you give them the attention? your eyes Everything is through your eyes you make eye contact you smile at somebody you you know You give them just a glance and a wink. It doesn't matter what you do Maybe it's you know, maybe you're communicating sadness or grief or loneliness. You can still make that eye contact as if to say Do you feel what I'm feeling? That's what you're saying to them. Do you feel? You feel what I'm feeling that's what you need to communicate with your eyes whether you are communicating joy sadness pain wonderment heartache excitement energy partying like it doesn't matter what you're trying to communicate you do it through eye contact and you confirm that you're communicating it properly through eye contact your audience by the way your audience they take their cues from your eyes. from you. They don't know how to react. They don't know how to perceive you. They don't. If they're seeing you for the first time, they have no idea what they're in for. They're waiting for you to tell them, to show them what they need to feel, what they're a part of, okay? You have to take that command out on that stage. Take command of the stage. First of all, you own that stage. When you're out there, it is your stage, okay? It is not the stage at Joe's Pub. It's your stage. You own it while you're out there. So you take that command, and part of taking that command is communicating to your audience what they should feel. How energized should they be? When do they applaud? All of this is communicated through looks and glances and eye contact, eye contact, eye contact. Something as simple as giving someone eye contact, even if it's not one specific person, like even if you're giving the group eye contact, that gives them that experience that they're after, you know? That recognition as if to say, I see you. Except that's not them saying it to you. No, that's not the audience saying it to the artist. That's the artist saying it to the audience. You need to tell the audience, I see you. This is how you should feel. Do you feel the way I'm feeling? Do you see what I'm showing you? These are the questions and the glances and what you need to communicate with your eyes. Everyone is capable of doing it. You do it to your spouse. You do it to your kids. You've done it to your parents. You've done it to probably to a cop, some of us. You've communicated with your eyes your entire life. You've done it to your family. You've done it to your friends. You've done it to your wife. All you have to do is communicate the right things. You have to communicate the emotion. You have to communicate the overall feeling and experience that they're having. You tell them what to think. You tell them how to feel. And you tell them when and how they need to react. Plain and simple. It's all 100% entirely up to you. You just have to use your eyes. You have to use your eyes to communicate it to your audience, no matter how good you are, no matter how much of a professional you are, no matter how much you've gotten paid. Listen, if your name is Beyonce and you were listening to this podcast, eye contact. That audience deserves your attention. They're there for you. And they don't have to be, by the way. This is a common. Misconception. Your audience, they don't have to come to your show. They don't have to sit there and watch you. You're a decision that they made to, to do something extra in their lives. Okay. This is not a necessity to be at the show or at your performance to watch you. This is not something they need to do in their life. This is something that they are electing to do of their own free will to come see you. Don't you think that deserves your attention? Don't you think that deserves your eye contact, your communication? And most importantly, it deserves your thanks and your gratitude. And that's what you communicate at the end of the show. Your thanks, your gratitude, because everything that you have done on that stage, they have supported you through it. They have sat there and cheered when you told them to cheer with your eyes, eye contact. Remember eye contact. They have applauded when you told them to applaud. They cried when you told them to cry. They laughed when you told them. They laughed when you told them to laugh. Thank them at the end. They gave you their time. And yes, in exchange, they got entertained. And I'm sure most of the time they've paid you. some amount of money to see what you do. And if they haven't yet, that's okay, because you're going to get there. But you have to communicate with your audience. This is a part of it. This is a huge part of performing on stage, that communication with your audience, that ability to just look at someone and tell them, my heart's aching. Don't you feel that? To look at someone and say, we are going to party tonight. Put a smile on your face. Jump up and down. Let's get it. Yeah. It doesn't matter what you're trying to communicate. It's always done through your eyes. Now, yeah, I'm saying it out loud, but these are the things that you communicate with your eyes. And those are just two examples. I mean, there's so many different things that you can say with just a look or a glance or a smile or a smirk or a grin. Do you? Do you know that there's like thousands of facial expressions that you're capable of making? Thousands, literally thousands. That is thousands of things that you can communicate to your audience just by looking at them. Thanks again for tuning in. Hey, listen, if you want more of the Being On Stage podcast, I have a group on Facebook. It's free, free to join. Just got to answer a couple of questions to get in there. Helps me get to know you a little bit better. You can get there easily by going to beingonstage.com slash group. You can also go to Facebook and search the Being On Stage group. So listen, thank you again so much for tuning in. I appreciate every single one of you that are listening to this podcast. Every single time I see a download, every time I see a new country, every time I see, you know, a new person that's subscribed to this podcast, it means the world to me, guys, like living the dream. I hope you are too. You're rocking it out. Thank you so much. Oh, before I go, can I ask you a favor? If you don't mind, if you haven't done so yet, can you go into iTunes and click subscribe, leave a rating and a comment on the podcast that would really help other people find the show a little bit faster. So if you could do that for me and for the people looking for shows like this, we would all appreciate it. This is the Being On Stage podcast and you, you there, you animal, you keep on shining.
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