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, emcee, drag, burlesque, performance art, or street performer, this is the show for you.
Speaker 2Hey rock stars, Reggie Dawson, your host of the Being On Stage podcast. Thanks for tuning in. Today I'm going to give you two words. That's right, just two words that are going to get you through any performance. And I think that these two words are going to describe every great performance that you will ever see, and it doesn't matter what they do on stage. This is something that I use speaking when I'm giving presentations or when I'm giving recognitions at work. This is something that I've used when I'm dancing on stage. This is something that I use when I sing. These two words can honestly fit any style of performance, and it tells you exactly what you need to do to create that audience connection. Go out there with a purpose of leaving a legacy behind. You ready for this? There's a hand motion that goes along with it. I'm going to share that on Instagram a little bit later. I'm a little nervous because it's kind of a corny hand movement. But here we go. So the two words, embellish and animate. So what do those two words mean? Okay, so first the hand movement, start your hands at your shoulder. You rotate them out in front of you and then back into your chest, and that's embellish. And then you almost do like a wax on, wax off movement with both hands, but at the same time like a sunshine movement. So it's from your shoulders around to you, around in front, back to your chest, and then wax on, wax off, sunshine. I'm going to share that on social media later. It's going to be great. But anyways, embellish, what does it mean? What does it mean to embellish something? It's you're adding something to it. You're, you're kind of going, you're taking it over the top, if you will. I'm sorry. I got the sniffles by the way. So you may hear up once in a while, but you, you add to it, you take it over the top, you make it more than it needs to be as the definition may describe. And I'm not looking at the definition here. I'm just giving you like the common man's definition. If you, I think I should, I should write the common man's dictionary and just, you know, write it in simple terms, but yeah. So to embellish something, you're, you're bringing it up over the top. And when you perform on stage, you have to embellish your act. That's how you create a bigger wow factor to your audience. What do you need a wow factor for? Because that's when they're going to follow you and come to your next show, because they know. They're going to be entertained. So the embellishment is adding something to your outfit, adding new movements here and there. Even if you're a singer, you can still add some movement, some, some energy to, to your show. You know, I'm not just talking dance here. Comedians, same thing, speakers, the same thing, add some movement, add some embellishment to what you're doing on stage, capture your audience with your embellishment. You know, I think of embellishments, think of like clothing, you know, you take a plain jean jacket and you add some embellishments to it. Maybe some rhinestones, maybe some lace. And this is not just a girl thing. Guys did this too, especially in the eighties. You embellish it, you add to it, you make it more than it once was. That's what your performance needs to be. Second word, animate. Well, we all know what being animated means, right? It's, it's kind of like embellishment. But the person, okay. You need to be animated on stage. Here's why. I come from a performance in which there was a lot of lip sync. Okay. And I'm, listen, lip sync is a talent. I don't care what anybody says. No, it's not as talented as singing by any means, but it is a talent. When you're lip syncing, your mouth has to be open much wider than it usually would need to be to form the words so that your audience can see that it appears as if you're actually singing. Even when you are singing, your mouth has to be open wide. That's it's, it's part of it. So you think about being animated, your, your person has to be bigger than what you think would need to be. Because here's the thing. When you do a simple, like, maybe you just raise your hand slightly in front of you while you're singing just a little bit, that looks like nothing to people that are 20, 30 feet away. That looks like you have a nervous Twitch. But if you raise your arm with purpose, like, like there's meaning behind it, like you're Whitney Houston hitting that high note, may she rest in peace. When you do that and you become more animated and bring yourself and your movements over the top, or what feels like the first couple of times you do it, you're going to feel like you're just taking it way over the top. But when you go back and you watch the video that was taken from 20 to 30 feet away, I recommend taking your video at least 20 feet away from you, by the way. Just so you can get, like, a overall feel of what the audience sees, not just focal on you. Promo videos are great. Focus on you, that's great. But if you're doing it for the purpose of going back and watching, which you should be doing, you know, take it from at least 20, 25, 30 feet away, depending on how large the stage is and everything. Anyways, that's neither here nor there. But when you, when you watch that video, you're going to see that the bigger the movements that you feel like you're making, like, huge, goofy movements. On stage, they look natural, they look normal, and they look like they're done with purpose as part of the performance. That's why you have to be more animated on stage than you would be in normal life. So here's an example. Here's a, let's, let's think of a famous song lyric, and I'll give you the example, one that, that really we all know. Okay, I got it. I'm going Whitney Houston because I've already mentioned her and, you know, she, she really is a great artist. So let's go with the Whitney Houston. So let's go with the Whitney Houston song, "I Will Always Love You." Okay, just that one line, you know, the big drop at the end of it was like, and I'm not singing, but that drop, everyone knows that drop. Okay, now imagine Whitney Houston singing that song without, you know, being, without taking the deep breath, without using her real voice, you know, holding herself back. You know, holding those arms and having that beat drop right beforehand. Imagine that happening. Like tone that way down. It's not going to mean as much, or just, just simply imagine someone standing there, you know, raising their arms slightly and saying, you know what, I'll always love you. It doesn't hit you in the same way as when you listen to that Whitney Houston track, especially the live one. Oh my God. Those, the words mean much less until you add the feeling, the emotion, the embellishment and the animation to it, especially when you watch it. Oh, I get goosebumps every time. You probably will too. Go, just go watch the live version of that, or even the video, whatever, just go watch her sing that song. You, there's so much into it, but if she didn't add that emotion and she didn't add that feeling and she didn't add the movements and the power behind it, it would just be words. And it probably wouldn't be one of the most played songs still to date. Especially at, you know, weddings and funerals and proms and it's played everywhere. I mean, drag shows. That's for sure. It's definitely played a lot of drag shows. So you have to add that embellishment. You have to add that animation because, because if you don't, then it's just words and movement and, and you, not that, no, listen, listen. It's not a bad thing to be out on stage. You are amazing just for stepping foot out there and putting yourself out there. But then what? That's when you need the, the added embellishment and the animation that we're talking about today. So take those two words. I hope they hit you as hard as they hit me. And I hope it means as much to you as it means to me. Keep pushing forward. If you need a little help kicking the pants, whatever, or if you just need to work through some things that you're working on for your next show, hit me up. You can jump on my calendar. Let's chat. Getonstage.com/calendar. Talk to some really great people. So far, a couple of people suffering with just stage fright, just not sure how they can get on stage and get through it. One of them reported back that they actually did it. So, you know, Louis, great job, buddy, calling you out on the podcast. But yeah, so one of them actually stepped up and accomplished his goal of getting on stage for the first time. So, whoop, whoop. Peace. All right. I'm checking out. Thank you so much for tuning in. I appreciate it. Oh, yes. And I always ask. I don't always ask. But I'm going to ask, if you haven't done so already, please hop on iTunes or wherever you listen to podcasts. Leave a five-star rating and a review. I'd greatly appreciate it. Or a comment or whatever it's called. All right. Thanks again, everybody. And keep on shining.
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