Shock and Aw

    "It's all about the shock and aw value."

-My Dad

      As a performer, is it better to have a performance that challenges you or a performance you know the audience will enjoy? That is a question that has been on my mind today. The way I see it is that there must be a balance between the two, but for me personally if you sacrifice appealing to the audience your performance turns into a glorified practice. No one will stay to watch or listen. I also think that there are always going to be aspects of the performance that will challenge you. It may not be the amount and speed of the notes, the steps you display or even the brush strokes you splash on the canvas, but the energy and emotion you convey. 

     As performers, we perform to deliver a message or story. Without our message or story, our art is meaningless. Now you might be saying now that "you can't dumb down your art, because then I wouldn't be being true to myself" but Eintstein said that "if you can't explain something simply, you don't understand it well enough." Being as he was one of the most complex minds in history, that's saying something.

     So before you get all angry about not being able to go shred on stage and melt everyone's faces, think about the reason you want to perform. If you want to perform to perform do it. But if it's just to get up on stage and wave your giant banner on stage saying "look what I can do", be a street performer or a YouTube sensation or whatever you see that is best for you. The fact is, is that performers see performances differently from the non-performers. 

     As a performer, I want to get better and be able to perform more difficult things, but not at the cost of losing my audience. Like I said earlier, a performer is not a performer without his/her audience. Sometimes it's more important to be quietly confident and know you can play those difficult things, so that when that opportunity to show off comes, you can shock and aw your audience. 

     Performing in the arts is a difficult business, but it doesn't have to be if you know your audience. Performing helps me LIVE NOW, and it has brought much fulfillment to my life. What is that you perform? Who is your audience? Just think about that when you're stepping onto your stage. Thanks fore reading and we'll talk soon!