Stand up comedy is one of the toughest forms of public speaking. The content is usually very personal, and it relies on the successful execution of humor. If either or both aren't well received, the results can be pretty emotionally crushing for the performer.
Last Friday night, my husband and I met a couple of friends downtown in the West Village for drinks and dinner. Finally, a night out in NYC! After dinner an we got corralled into a the dark, dank basement of another nearby restaurant that was being used for stand up comedy performances.
Truthfully, when it comes to speaking onstage, I don't generally go to see stand up comedy, because I usually feel sorry for the performers. I hate listening to what seems to be people onstage telling the audience how terrible their lives are while desperately seeking the audience's approval. (Chris Rock is an exception.) One friend and I agreed to laugh like crazy at all of their jokes so that the comedians would feel more confident and start being funnier.
As a public speaking coach, I always advocate taking command of the audience. The speaker leads the audience, not the other way around. Watching these poor young men and women repeatedly take the stage and giving up their power made me cringe internally.
Why were these poor comedians doing this to themselves?! I had to go to my online friend Adam Lawrence, a stand up comedian based in Germany, for answers. Here's what he had to say:
"One of the most direct metaphors for stand-up comedy is the firing
squad. It's an obvious comparison – the comic traditionally stands
against a (brick) wall, has only a microphone to hide behind, and
cannot see the audience. They have the power to lift him to new
heights, but also to shoot him down on the spot."
So why do we do it? It's partly the buzz of risk. Stand-up is the
most risky stagework I do. It's my material, written by me, rehearsed
by me, remembered by me, delivered by me. (Big stars have directors,
but most of us don't). If I fail, the failure is all mine.
Conversely, if they love me, it's only, purely, solely me they love.
We don't need to go too deep into clown psychology to see how that
feels good to lots of stage folks."
I think we saw about 5 different routines before it was time to head home to relieve our sitter. They were all the same, except for one. There was only one stand-up in over an hour of performances who gave a distinctly different speaking performance from the others:
- He didn't care what anybody thought of him.
- He was confident. If we didn't laugh, he shrugged it off.
- He was self-effacing, but he didn't feel sorry for himself.
Therefore, when he led, the audience followed. He took extended his energy and took over the room.
Trust me, your audience wants to like and respect you. They want to be positively impacted or entertained. Your audience wants to feel comfortable with you. Please, for everyone out there willing to take the emotional risk of stand up and experience the highs, please make sure you're confident with who you are before you take the stage.
Adam Lawrence is an experience designer, a comedian and a businessman. He's a trainer, an actor, a singer, a stand-up, and a consultant who works all over the world on stage and in top businesses. He's an Englishman, but you'll usually find him in Germany or the Caribbean. He looks for the theatrical in everything! Please visit www.workplayexperience.blogspot.com to learn more about Adam and the many facets of his work.
Lily Iatridis of Fearless Delivery, has a proven track record and knows the key elements in effective and engaging presentation. Her expertise is in supporting professionals to get their message expressed clearly to deliver the biggest results in their live and online presentations. Secrets and strategies such as "how-to" shortcuts, personalized instruction and even packaging the presentation are just some of the skill sets that Lily brings to her audience to create a fearless and effective delivery.
If you've ever been nervous in front of an audience, please download Lily's free ebook, "5 Steps to Neutralize Difficult Audience Members– Without A Power Struggle!" In this ebook, Lily shares simple strategies that will put your mind at ease, arm you with useful strategies, and entertain you with some stories of her own bumps along the path to public speaking success.
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