Making Your Audience Erupt

Shut 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 Rockstars, Reggie Dawson here, your host of the show. Welcome back to the Being On Stage podcast. Thanks for tuning in. Listen, this episode is one of the ones that I'm going to do some on stage coaching here. Most of the time this podcast is for performers. It's really rooted in motivation and confidence building and inspiration. But once in a while I like to throw in some bonafide coaching. Coaching that's really going to help you explode your performance on stage and bring it up to the next level. Both for you and for your audience. We've been doing a lot of focus this year on the audience. I've got to tell you, 2020 is the year of the audience, man. But listen, at the end of this episode I'm going to give you a couple of ways to get in contact with me, how we can work together, all that good stuff. So please, please, please tune in. In the meantime, if you haven't done so already, click that subscribe button. Leave a rating and a comment. I'd greatly appreciate it. And all the way to the end so you can get all that good details of how we can work together. So listen, this concentration is, I'm going to give you three, and technically four, but three big ways to make your audience erupt into applause. Scream, shouts, cheers, all that good stuff. Now when executed properly, any of these three ways will work. But, disclaimer, it is all about timing. You can't just use these methods whenever you want. You have to time it right. I'll go through when each of them should be used. But you're going to have to really work on what feels right in the performance. And most of these anyone can do. I will say it's probably going to be difficult for the comedian to do number two. But most anyone can do all of these. All right, all right. You know what? Left talk. Let's just get into it. So number one, how to make your audience. Audience cheer, erupt, applause, whatever. I call it the fake look away. The fake look away, if you will. So how that is, is generally this move or this, we'll call it a move. Why not? This move would happen just before it kicks into a little more energetic point in your performance. So literally just before. And I'm going to use singing as a good example. It's really good for dancing as well. I know that comedians do use this. I know magicians use this. So the fake look away is right before. And it's usually going to be like almost a freeze point in the music or the performance. So it's where – so it's exactly what it is. You fake a look away and then you snap back to the audience and just kind of pause for a moment. And in that moment, literally right after that pause moment, in that moment, your audience sees you, feels you, and that's like intense connection. I mean stare right into them, right into the audience. Stare at them. This is only going to last like literally a second, maybe not even that. A beat, maybe two beats. So you fake your look away. You snap your head back. You intently stare. And then in the blink of an eye, the energy happens. And then I call it the pump. And what the pump is, is where it's the beat drop. It's where the music picks up. It's where you're going into something more energetic. So you fake look away. You snap back. You pause for a moment. And then you pump. You energize. You go. So that's number one. Now you notice the timing in there is going to take some rehearsal. It's going to take some time. So the number two, and this is again a little difficult for some performers, but it works really, really well for dancers. It works really well for singers. Singers, musicians, drag queens, and kings. Any type of performer like that where you have the freedom to move around a little bit on stage. It's the back away, then charge. I literally, I think I just named these right before I recorded this episode. So these are not real terms, but these are readers of what we're going to call Reggie terms. So the back away and then charge again, exactly what it sounds like as, as the performance is going on. And this is only, this is only a brief moment. Okay. This is again, um, right before some energy happens. A lot of these you're going to find that is right before some energy happens because it's part of the build. One thing that's really important when you're on stage is you want to build your moments for your audience. They should feel it coming. And this is one of those that they're going to feel coming. And when it finally gets there, they are going to explode. All right. So about, I would probably say, and I don't want to say 10 seconds, but I would say probably, uh, two measures, two bars, eight counts, 16 counts, if you will, um, start backing away from your audience. Now you can do this one of two ways. I highly, I really don't like turning your back on your audience. However, if you want a really dramatic effect and you have some breathing room, turn your back on your audience, walk away from them, turn around, freeze, finish your 16 count. And on the drop of that next one, you're going to walk in. The beat almost March straight up front and center. Now, if you don't want to turn your back to your crowd, that's fine too. Just start working your way backwards a little by little away from the audience. It doesn't have to be like crazy back. You don't have to be like 50 feet away. You can be five feet away from the front of your audience. It's, it's that bill. It's what happens here. And this is, this is how it happens. Okay. They feel you getting distant. They feel you getting distant, but at the same time, they can hear in the performance, whether it's singing. Speaking dancing, there's usually some type of music or, or something along those lines of what we do. They can feel something coming. They know something's coming, but you're, you're backing away. You're getting distant. So they're not really sure what to expect. Are you ending your show? Are you, are you just, are you shy? What's going on? How are you going to handle like this? They're subconsciously their brain starts to question what's going on and it gets their attention because immediately. When someone starts backing away from you, you wonder why, so when, so as you back up and then you finish your 16 counts at that drop of a one, when the energy hits again, when the energy hits, you're just going to charge March right into the beat up to front stage and center and you're going to stand there and you're just going to rock the hell out of that moment, whatever you're doing on stage, you're going to own it in that moment. And this is in total, probably 24 counts. Not even. Like it's going to be back, back, back, back, back, back, back, back, 16. It's probably like back for eight, hold for eight, charge for four or eight, depending on how far away you get, freeze for eight. Like it's, it's not a large amount of time, guys. Like this is real quick, but you got to time it to, to when you charge at the same time that energy is pumping up. It's that timing that I keep talking about. So number three, and this is, this is difficult. This is really difficult. Because in order to do this one, you have to have intensity and intensity is not something that you just have. You have to develop that intensity and you have to have that character down like the character that you are on stage. And you are no matter, even if you go by your birth name, you are a character when you were on that stage. So you, you really have to have developed your stage character to be able to do this, but it is simply freeze. on stage and I don't mean like frozen solid not moving nothing I mean your entire body with the exception of whatever you like your mouth obviously if you're singing or speaking it would be your mouth your entire body freezes comedians are really good actually Kevin Hart comedian is really really good at this one a lot of comedians use this when they look at their audience and they just stare with like a certain facial expression. If you're going to use this technique in other areas of performing, you have to have that character, that strength in character, that confidence built up in order to make this work. So how this works is this is usually as the energy is dying down or even towards the end of the end of the show. Okay, it's really easy on the downbeat or the one count or the five count, you freeze and you only freeze for four to eight counts just to finish that phrase out and then you go again. And the reason this makes the audience erupt is because you're not moving. So it's almost like you're waiting for them to catch up with you. And listen, I've seen it happen where people freeze for an extended length of time until the audience reacts. So if you have the ability to freeze for an extended length of time, if you have the ability to do so, meaning there's not, you know, recorded music playing in the background, if you have the ability to prolong it a little bit until the audience reacts, go for it. caution you. If you are not confident in this freeze, if you are not a hundred percent committed to doing it, your audience is going to think the show is over. So you really have to have that confidence up. You really have to have that intensity that says, I'm not finished, but you need to react. That's what you need in order to make this work. So that's my top three. Oh, and surprise, surprise, I got a couple bonuses for you. I love giving out bonuses. I love saying one thing at the beginning and then showing you that there's so much more. Bonus number one, finish strong. Finish really strong at the end of your show. Don't let the energy die out just because it's ending. Finish strong. As a matter of fact, you should finish stronger than you started. So that's the rule of thumb. Let's talk slow. Slow songs, slow dances, slow music. Slow, slower performances. Whitney Houston was a master or mistress of slow performances. And this one, this is one that I credit her for 100 percent. The open arms. And that is that is simply while you're performing, you simply open your arms, palms up, not like not stiff, but really loose and just flow and open your arms completely to your sides, almost like you have wings. Keep your palms facing somewhat up, but also forward as if you're inviting the audience to hug you with their applause. Now, you're not waiting for a hug like, you know, like, come here, big guy. You just it's it's you are strong, but fluid in your arms. And if you have to hold a microphone, then you do one arm, but you are strong, but fluid. And you put your arm out there to the side. And this is usually as you're hitting a long note, as you're ending your performance, as you're as you're finishing a really strong, phrase. This is why I credit Whitney Houston for this. Think about and think about I will always love you that that boom and like her. That's the open arm move that I'm talking about. That intensity that she has is what you need to pull this off. But the open arms is amazing for slow, slower performances. And I know it's overdone. Every performer on the face of the planet that does a slow song has done this move. Do you want to know why it works? That's why they do it. Lastly, I want to leave you with group. So groups like bands, dance groups, singing groups, anything like that. If you're on stage with a group, what really gets the audience going is to socialize with each other on stage. I don't mean go over on stage left and have a beer and talk about, you know, what you're doing on the way. I don't mean that kind of socialize. I mean, get into the performance together. I saw a performance a couple months ago in which the lead singer, the band, very powerful band. They were disconnected. The lead singer was doing his thing. The band was doing their thing and they weren't. There was no interaction on stage. If you're in a group, your audience loves nothing more than to see your group interact with each other. Look at look at all the popular bands of the 70s and 80s and even the 90s. Every single one of them interact with each other on stage just as much, if not more, than the group. And that's what I'm talking about. I'm talking about the group. I'm talking more than they interact with the audience. You have you have these people on stage with you. You have this group. You're a group on stage for a reason. You're a team. You're a unit. Be friendly with each other. Rock out together. You know, have have an awesome time doing what you all love to do together and show that to the audience that you actually like each other. It seems so simple. But the reason I do, I do episodes like this, where I give you this on stage coaching, if you will, is because these are things that I see professional performers ignoring and not even doing. So I wanted to share this with you in hopes that you can use one or all of these methods to boost your performance and get your audience to erupt for you on stage and scream shouts and hollas. And of course, applause, applause. As promised, if you want to work together, it's really, really easy. We do a free 30 minutes first off, just kind of talking about your goals, your long term goals, your short term goals, what you want to accomplish, where you're at in your career, where you want to go. And then, you know, we kind of formulate a plan, a couple of steps that you can honestly start doing immediately. So how you get this session, it's easy. You go to beingonstage.com slash calendar, put in your name, email, phone number, pick a date and time. I will call you from my cell phone and we'll talk about that. So if you want to do that, you can do that. So if you want to do that, we'll chat it up. You'll tell me what you were, what you know, what you've been working on. You'll tell me where you're at in your career. You tell me where you want to go. And then we'll talk about next steps and we'll formulate a plan. And yeah, I'm going to be honest. Let me be honest. We're going to talk about working further together as, you know, one on one coaching. But for now, I mean, why not? Why not take a 30 minute session with somebody, get three or four things that you can start doing immediately and no cost to you and you improve your performance and get more gigs and connect more with your audience. Sounds good to me. So again, beingonstage.com slash calendar. Also, if you want to get in touch with me about anything else, you can email me Reggie at being on stage.com. We're on Instagram at being on stage. We're on Facebook, facebook.com slash being on the stage. And I'm on Twitter too. I don't use Twitter very much, but I'm on there at being on stage. If you would like to follow, um, you there's not, it's just a podcast update. So if you do follow and you want to keep up with the podcast, Twitter, or again, you can hit subscribe wherever you listen to your podcasts. We are on iTunes. We're on Spotify. We're on Stitcher. Uh, we're on speaker, uh, cast box, pocket cast, all that good stuff. So the only thing I'm not on is I heart radio and, um, they're really tough to get into. So if that's your chosen platform, I'm so sorry. I'm not there. But Hey, I know this was a long one. I appreciate, I so appreciate you sticking around to the end, uh, to reward you for sticking around to the end. If you sign up on my calendar, I'll actually give you a 45 minute session. So you get a free extra 15 minutes. Hit me up. Thank you so much for tuning in. I can't tell you how much I appreciate to see all these downloads rolling in and, and all the new people listening to the podcast and checking it out and, and hopefully, uh, learning stuff and implementing it. So thanks for tuning in all the way to the end. 17 minutes almost is a really long time. So again, a firm and gracious. Thank you. And as always, my friends keep on shining.