datamusicata

Someone recently asked me about reading an audience. This is a tricky thing for a number of reasons. The first being that I have heard recordings of shows that I did where I thought everything I did was on the money and that the audience was right there, but upon listening to it, discover that not only was I not on the money but the audience wasn’t either. That being said, let’s talk about when you can and do read an audience correctly.

When I was doing two hundred and fifty to three hundred days a year on the road, my audience reading ability was uncanny…I think. I  explain it as a sort of pressure you receive from the audience in general. You can feel them pressing against you with their attention. I know that this sounds a little “Beverly Hills/new age/crystal” but it’s true. My experience supports the premise. And here’s where it gets interesting. If someone in the audience of not larger than say, 2500, is not into it, not paying attention or not enjoying it, you not only can feel it, you can feel where that inattention is coming from.

What I do is walk out on the stage and try to psychically engage everyone in the room. I like to look around and smile before I begin the first song, the first note even. Just look at them and try to connect on that mysterious level. Then I will start the show and as I perform, I look all around the room making certain that I maintain eye contact with as many folks as I can. Now when I feel that inattention and I feel where it’s coming from, I direct some energy in that direction until I feel the pressure even up from that area. If you pay attention you can sense it. It takes time, but you can learn to do this. After I have evened up the attention there, invariably I will feel it lagging someplace else. This is pretty standard behavior. You drop something, you stop to pick it up, you drop something else. It’s not unlike that.

So you have the attention of this area, but you feel it flagging in this other area, so you begin your psychic juggling, by maintaining your connection to that part of the room you just engaged and you also give attention to the part of the room that’s drifting. At some point as you pay attention, you will have the entire room focused and that’s when the level goes up and the magic really starts.

Keep in mind that you must do all this while you are performing; singing, playing, standing, etc and that none of that can suffer. That’s the reason you practice so much, so that you can do that without having to pay so much attention to that that you forget you need to relate to the audience. And eye contact and preparation go a lot further towards connecting with them than rambling uninteresting monologues.

If something is not entertaining them, there’s no need to say that the next night. I’m not talking about something funny not going over some nights, I’m talking about giving your history or what a song is about, etc. Unless the audience are rabid fans, these are matters of supreme indifference to them. If you are going to go onto the stage and perform you best be entertaining. Otherwise you can do this in your room and just send around recordings of your music.

So all that being said, you still must be in the moment.  An audience can feel when you are into the song and this gets them into the song.  Listening to what you are singing and playing and responding to it; responding to the song you are singing; and incorporating whatever else might occur while you are doing the song.    And sometimes it is best to play right thru a distraction and sometimes it is fun to incorporate it. You be the judge. During a tender song where the entire audience is engaged, making a joke about a distraction will pull them out of the ambience you’ve created.

I do funny monologues and serious songs. And I commit to the performance of each. While I’m funny, I’m funny. When I get into the song, I try to stay there, tho there are times when you can step out of it for the amusement of the audience. Just keep in mind what you want to have happen, tempered somewhat by what they expect from you and the evening. They came to see you, so you are already on first base. If you are the opening act it’s a different story entirely. We’ll talk about that Wednesday.