Messing Up on Stage

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, rock stars, Reggie Dawson, your host of the show. Welcome back to the Being On Stage podcast. Hey, can I ask you something? Listen, if you haven't done so already, can you go into iTunes or wherever you listen to podcasts and go ahead and click subscribe? That way you get all the new episodes. And then while you're at it, huge favor I know I'm asking. It doesn't take much time. No, if you could just leave a rating and a comment, that'll help other people find the show. We're always growing, always expanding. I'd really, really appreciate that. So let me talk to you about mistakes. It is 100% inevitable mistakes are going to happen on stage. Listen, honestly, you can rehearse and rehearse and rehearse, and you should. You should be very well rehearsed by the time you hit the stage. And by rehearsal, I do mean actually going through what you are going to be doing on stage. I'm a firm believer of rehearsing as if you're performing because here's the thing. If you haven't rehearsed the performance, not just your talent, not just your singing, your dancing, the routine, whatever you're doing, but the actual what you're doing for the performance on stage, you haven't rehearsed. So you should be well rehearsed. But all that aside, mistakes can still happen. Mistakes can come in all shapes and sizes. Listen, you could mess up. You could make, I don't know, you could trip and fall. You could sing the wrong notes. You could do the wrong dance moves. I've been in a group where someone stepped in the wrong place and they ended up getting pushed off the stage. Because here is the cardinal rule of performing. When you mess up, notice, notice I said when, not if, when. Because again, it is inevitable. If you are so concerned about being perfect, stop. I don't know what else to say. Perfection is a myth. Perfection is a fallacy. Perfection isn't real, especially when it comes to a performance. Why? Well, you're a human and human beings are imperfect. And as a performer, you're putting a piece of yourself on that stage. So it stands to reason that if you are not perfect, then the piece of yourself putting on that stage is not perfect. But the audience doesn't want perfect. They want real. They want exciting. They want energy. They want someone. Who's going to give everything they have on stage, no matter what happens, no matter what mistakes may come. So when you make a mistake, cardinal rule again, like rule number, call it the golden rule, if you will. When you mess up, don't stop. Keep going. Act. Listen, sometimes you got to act like it never happened. Sometimes you got to shrug it off and laugh. There's a bunch of different ways you can deal with them. If it's a mistake, it depends on what you're doing. If it's a minor mistake, wrong note, wrong dance move, you almost tripped and fell. Roll with it. Like, just try to roll with it. Just keep going. There are some mistakes that you can make that people won't even notice they happen. And chances are, unless like I saw a drag. I've seen drag queens flip their wigs off. I've seen singers like start coughing in the middle of their song, like no matter what happens. So you got to keep going. Like when the wig flies off, you keep going. When you cough in the middle of your song, keep going, sing it, sing the words, excuse me, and then keep singing, you know, make, make something fun into it. If it's, if it's something like you, you stepped the wrong place or you rehearse something, something you were a movie you were doing in a certain way. And it's whatever move it is. Maybe it's a dance move. Maybe it's just walking. Uh, if you step in the wrong place. The only way, the only way the audience knows you messed up is if you let them know that's your facial expressions. Your, your, well, if you stop, they're definitely going to know you messed up. So the, the Cardinal golden numero uno rule of being a performer. When you mess up, keep going, roll with it. The audience wants you to recover. Let me tell you, let me tell you this. Okay. The audience. And I don't care how big the audience is, how small. All the audience is who is in the audience, what type of people they're made up of. I don't care. Your audience wants you to succeed on stage, period. And yeah, I said it, the people that are out there watching you perform, they want you to be successful. Why? Because when you're successful on stage, they have a great time and they enjoy themselves. So they. Want you to be successful so you can get your, you know, get your mind out of the, oh, they're judging me. They're, they're critiquing me. They're not, they're, they're really, really not. They're just waiting to be entertained. They're waiting for something to happen. They're waiting for that energy. They're waiting for that, that something that you're going to, that you're going to bring to the stage. So when you mess up, they want you to recover. They want you to get better. They want you to come back with a vengeance and they want you to show them that you got this because. Truthfully you do, you're rehearsed, you know what you're doing. So you made a mistake. So you fell. So you broke a heel. So your wig came off. So you busted your butt. I I've done it. I've done it where I went to jump over a chair and I was wearing baggy jeans and my, the crotch of my jeans got caught on the chair. And I'm telling you, I almost ate stage, like face planted on the stage. But what ended up happening is I kind of did like this weird. Like leg lift, the chair fell down. I landed okay, but I, I was still falling. So I went down all the way to the ground and I did some kind of like ground movement stuff. Like I moved it into like ground moves. Um, and I recovered nicely. I picked myself up. I had terrible, terrible man. My knees were busted. Uh, my hand, I got some skin off my hands when I did that. Like it was, it was some pain involved, but I kept going and I kept recovering. And I, I, I don't want to say I hit it because I'm pretty sure they knew that I messed up, but I recovered. And that is what it's all about. So when you make a mistake and again, it is going to have, if you've never made a mistake on stage ever, well, I don't believe you. I think you're a liar. So just put that out there. So when you make a mistake on stage, bottom line, keep going, brush yourself off. It's going to be okay. No need to be embarrassed. I mean, you may, you can be able to laugh about it later. Truthfully, I, the story I just told you, man, in that moment, I was freaking out. I was so nervous to that. They thought it was sloppy or, or unrehearsed or in any of that. And actually the jumping over the chair was unrehearsed well with that chair, but that's probably part of the problem. They had a higher back than I intended. I didn't support my lab. Where's wearing different jeans than when I rehearse. So that thus is also the. The importance of rehearsing, how you're going to perform, including the outfit and the props and the materials that you're going to be using on stage. Um, but yeah, like when that happened, I was so, so embarrassed, but I kept going and you need to keep going too. So if you're, if you're healed and I've seen it, I've seen ladies bust a heel on stage and they keep going. They just go. I've seen, I said the wig, the wig flying off. Um, I've seen someone get pushed off stage cause they were in the wrong spot. I mentioned that when you're in a group performance, man, it is, it is even more important to keep going. I, and sorry about it, but if you're the person that messes up, the rest of the group's going to keep going. So if you get a foot in your back because you messed up, so be it. It's about the performance. You know, it's about recovering the performance and keep going, recover as best you can get up, get back into it and go get it. Go get yourself some energy on that stage and give it to your audience the way that they want it to be given to them. Make them love you, just, just recover from your mistakes. You know, and at first it's going to be difficult. Bottom line, if you were super into your show, if you were like feeling it, you're, you're into it, you're, you're in the, in the zone, you're, you're, you're, the energy is flowing when that mistake happens, man, just roll with it. Like it already happened, you know, like that's, that's kind of what I'm getting. Like it's going to happen once it happens, it happened. So move on, you know, this may not be the pep talk that I intended to give today, but, um, I hope it hits you in the way that you need it. So again, just, just roll with the mistakes. You know, they're inevitable. They're going to happen. Don't let them slow you down. Um, it's okay to be embarrassed, but don't let it stop you. Don't let it hold you back. Don't let it cause you to, to not perform. Again, you know, get back out there, keep getting started. stronger. And you know what? Keep messing up. Forget it. Making the mistakes is going to make you a stronger performer in the long run. So make the mistakes. Just recover and keep going. And of course, keep on shining.