How do I work an audience?
I once heard a talk by Livingston Taylor (James’ brother) about winning over an audience. The thing that stuck out most from the talk was basically: If you want the audience to like you, you need to like them. When you’re on stage, even if there’s only ten people in the crowd and you’re in some hole in the wall club in the middle of nowhere… and even if you have to pretend to yourself… that audience in front of you, right now, is the best crowd you’ve ever had. If you believe it, they will believe it, and they will love you. It was a fantastic talk. He had 150 in the palm of his hand for 90 minutes. Although he’s known as a musician, he also teaches at Berklee College of music and he’s written a book you may be interested in: Stage Performance.
My sister has been a stand up comic for about a decade. It’s hard work. I’ve heard endless stories about horrible people/audiences who drove her to tears later when she was alone. Having seen her many times, I’ve also seen tons of *terrible* comics (especially when she started and was going to amateur night). Fucking brutal. The big difference I feel between these people and the pros was always that the pros just talked and WERE funny. The Ams said things they thought were funny–you could see them *trying* to be funny. The Ams that weren’t great but didn’t “try” to be funny, I saw over and over again and they got better. The Ams that tried to be funny gave up shortly thereafter. I saw them maybe one or two times and then they vanished. I suppose what I’m saying is that the people who work their asses off end up going places. The people who assume it’s easy and “know they’re funny”, don’t. All my sister’s friends are comics. Not a one of them has ever said “It comes naturally” or “It’s
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