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The Biggest Mistakes Performers Make

Welcome back this lesson is called the biggest mistakes performers make and how to avoid them she's going to throw out a couple terms to may, and I'm going to demonstrate the mistake that's made and then give you some advice on what to do instead. So throw the first term housekeeping, housekeeping. One of the things that people often do is start with housekeeping, so I have some housekeeping and well, as soon as an audience here's housekeeping, they know. Oh, good, I can check my phone for a few more minutes and they're down here doing this so nobody wants to do housekeeping. So forget about that word get right to the material and something that is relevant to them happy, be happy. Yes, another thing that people often do. So I'm really happy to be here. Well, what's the alternative that you're really pissed that you're there so you don't need to say you're happy, just show them that you're happy through your work now, of course, if there's if there's a very unusual circumstance that ma...

kes you unusually happy, maybe something like, you know, you made a goal five years ago to get on creative live, and you did x y and z over those five years to get on creative life, and you finally did get on creative life well then maybe that's the story that you lead in with and you've been talking about how happy you are that you achieve your goal that you set the goal in the first place so remember, we keep telling you there isn't one way to do anything the performers job isn't part to break the rules, but these suggestions no housekeeping you don't need to say you're happy they are things that people do all the time so you don't need to do them and a zoo result you actually look unusual just by not doing a few simple things what's next let's get started let's get started the same thing we don't need to say let's get started just start next week language week language so weak language so basically I'm going to talk about this it's sort of like this uh it's kind of all week language so when you make a statement make a statement when you have a question, ask a question it doesn't mean that you have to say you're right it doesn't mean that you use phrases like have to everybody does this it's always this way you can say it seems like this it's often like this that's not weak language that's just the truth week language is basically going to talk about four things, so get rid of the weak language it's like uh do this at home you can take a coffee cup or maybe a glass of red wine whatever your favorite drink is and every time you use some weak language pour some water into it and by you know you and you might find in an hour to the whole thing's water down and then you know if that's your favorite expensive glass of wine then you might stop using the week language next center stage center stage so we're this is a stage it's a soundstage essentially even though there's no platform there no risers but in the one of the other sets you may have around stage one of the things that sometimes we see folks do when they come on stage if they haven't if not starting on stage they come on stage follow me over here they will walk to center stage hi I'm really happy to be here and then that's how they start so if you're coming on stage as soon as those cameras see you you're on so if you're coming over here you're on soon as you come on you're on and you know what? You can talk and walk at the same time that's perfectly normal thing to do just don't walk on the most important statements or the biggest ideas but you can walk and talk at the same time I'm sure don't look down don't look down uh this is a big one one of the things we see when people are thinking on stage is they look down now it's fine every once in a while because it's a normal thing to do we looked out we can think and we can talk however it becomes a problem when during the majority of your transitions you look down so for example, I'm telling a story I'm talking to some folks over here and and I'm not sure what I'm gonna do next I looked down and now we're going to talk about these things over here and I talked to these people and I go over here and and now so it becomes this this like, you know, up and down movement up, down, up, down, up and each time you go down, you lose some of the audience each time you go down and look at the floor, you're not connected with them, so there may be times when you don't remember what you're going to say next that's okay, you've seen that happen to us throughout the course we leave in all the mistakes, we sometimes purposely make mistakes, we're not, you know, that's not an excuse for making mistakes, we we sometimes we'll just be able to demonstrate that you can still give a great course and not be perfect, but if we forget something, we stay connected either to the camera or to the audience or to each other, we don't check out, and usually when you stay connected to the audience, it will actually come back to you because you were just talking to the audience, so you're connected to them. Hare hare? Yes, I don't have this problem clearly, but if you have long here and you tend to flip it out of your face after a while this could get a little bit annoying. So make sure that you work with makeup artists and hair stylists s so that the hair is not something you have to worry about at all. Now, fortunately, got great make up artist great hairstyles and there usually going to make sure that that's not a problem. But if there's a particular style haircut that you get that makes your hair come across the face that there's really nothing else you could do with it. Then you might want to consider a different cut before you come on stage and especially on camera. Then what was the other thing about here? I think that's all I have about here, right? Ok, good next hiding. Ah, yes hiding. So can I borrow your chair for you? So if you have any kind of furniture on stage, have you spent much time behind it? It actually looks like you're hiding something wrong with every once in a while, you know, going behind a chair, but if you feel like they need to be behind something a lot, you know, this looks less confident than if you are standing on stage and you take the stage here's your chair back. Thanks possessed. Don't touch the mike don't talk to me like we've been doing don't touch the mic, so I think you get the point. Don't touch the mike, don't excited don't walk sideways, yes, so pacing is often an issue was a problem, so we you saw it when I was doing the looking down, but even if you're looking up, sometimes you'll pace because you're not sure where to go, and when we worked on rehearsal, you learned about blocking so that you choose to go somewhere because you're trying to make a point, or you're trying to create a contrast, you're trying to create a particular visual composition on the stage, but if you are just wandering back and forth wall, you're talking that's very problematic. The other thing that happens is walking sideways. So, um, sometimes we'll see people do this because they feel like they're supposed to get it to the other side, but they don't want to turn their body because they think they're not supposed to turn you know, because you could just walk like this this is perfectly fine way to walk and you can walk this way too, but we don't walk like this that's not a normal way to walk so you may not realize it but it's very possible often women do this more than men standing like this like, you know it looks kind of weak and then there's the crossing then there's the crossing of the feet the other thing you gotta watch out for this is really important went on camera is side to side motion so sometimes you'll see people do this they'll sort of move their feet from one side to the other and it might do this for a while but actually this could make your home audience a little bit seasick because I'm rocking back and forth so the camera operators will tell you this is not a good idea and you might not even realize you're doing it you're just shifting your weight that's all you're doing see right now the camera operator who's on me is cracking up trying to not me getting noise, eh? So we can keep this uh particular take but see how annoying this is incredibly annoying good that's to turn your back don't turn your back on the audience just like we were talking about your power point you don't turn your back on the audience uh unless there's some specific reason you like look look at my great wings I've got these great wings or a fin comes out of my back but just try and not try to avoid turning your back to get somewhere if you want to go back on stage you could move back on stage this way if you feel like you know you get caught down here okay you don't need to just turn around walk back here and then turned back around high I'm happy to be back up here now you know you can walk forward and you can walk back it's not a problem if you are working like when we were doing her own public speaking of course we had people on stage were walking in and out of the audience that's a little bit different you know we're going to walk into the audience were in the honest now we're walking back on stage that's fine but it's different than when you when you're staying on stage and it's just you and you are turning around to get where you want to go is a little bit strange uh don't yes I'm not gonna do this at all don't curse I don't know what the rules are here about cursing but you're not supposed to curse I'm sure it happens once in a while they'll try to cut it out but you don't want to make them work to cut out curses from good content that you've been teaching it's one of those things that I think some people think it's cool like makes you a regular person like, hey, I'm just regular on cursing and blah, blah, blah, but a lot of people have a really hard time with that. It just doesn't feel good. And some of those curse words are very harsh words, and they can feel harsh to somebody doesn't mean that I don't curse. Trust me a curse. I've paid myself a lot of dollars because every time I curse out to pay sixty cents, but just try to avoid it here don't point uh, try not to point you khun again, remember, there aren't, um, these rules khun made to be broken, and every once in a while we might go oh my god, that's! Awesome! But sometimes the pointing can feel aggressive, you know it puts people on the spot instead of pointing you khun show upon you say yes, your turn you go, you and us together is a very open way of connecting with the audience tell a story. Ah, yes, when you're telling a story, you don't need to tell the audience that you're going to tell a story, you can just tell the story, the best stories are the ones that you that the audience doesn't realize they're in until they get hit with the conflict, and then the resolution makes them really happy or touches them in some way. So remember, you don't have to start a story by saying this let me tell you a story you can if you want, but you don't have to next vague on the details on if you're telling stories be very specific, try not to be vague on the details, so if you're telling a story about a relative who was in the army and you say, well, I had my grandfather was in the army, he was a corporal captain, I'm not really sure what he wants. Well, I'm not sure you're ready to tell the story if you don't have those details specifically worked out. However, if you don't know the answer, so you're not really sure you can say my grandfather was in the army hey was a high ranking official boot and move on because some details in this story are more important than others, and all we might need to know is that he was a high ranking official and then we can move on remember to unpack yes remember to unpack your content if you say you're going to share it so if he said I'm gonna teach you the three keys to walking upstairs, make sure you teach them the three keys to walking upstairs because if you only teach them one key they're not going to get very far and they're going to disappointed that they didn't get all the keys because they really want to walk upstairs overact aah! And you don't need to overact when you're performing meaning you don't need teo do this now we're starting it's going to be great you're gonna love it you know you don't have to go there that's not performance it's not necessary storyteller voice ah the storyteller boys you also don't need to go into the storyteller voice now I'm going to tell you a story and all of a sudden my voice changes it's like there was a land far, far away you might be laughing like I don't do that, but you'd be surprised how often we do these things and we don't even realize it don't keep going after you're done uh don't keep going after you're done so when you say okay, segments done segments done and then you go boom as opposed to ok now it's not always actually one more thing on we'll keep we're done well don't actually another thing too once you're done, you're done, get off the stage, go have your break chill out and your line producer will tell you when it's time to come back, but don't run away right, but don't run away either, so when you're done, you don't know, okay, now we're done and brought away really quickly. You just say fantastic. Thank you, we're done. You take your applause for that, you know, for that particular section, if you have an audience there, thank you very much and then they will say out and then you can go because you cannot leave the stage until your line producer tells you that it's clear break the rules and ultimately your job is to break the rules. That's what performers do that's what thought leaders do, but don't break the rules just to break the rule? Lt's don't break the rules just to be rebellious break the rules on ly if you can figure out a better way to do something, then it's currently being done, thank you very much. Thank you, amy, for helping out and that was our segment on what not to do and what to do instead by