STAGE FRIGHT? 4 TRICKS TO BREAK FREE!
«How many times did I freak out and wind up giving a lousy performance because of it!»
Let’s take the example of a play by French playwright and director, Patrick Braoudé, by the name of “Du ronron sur les blinis” (Purrs among the blinis). Patrick was still working as a vet at the time and, with his insatiable sense of humor, had written a comedy about a crazy Bourgeois woman (aka “moi”) who lures four thugs into a highly lucrative pedigree cat kidnapping ring!
The climax of the play comes when the snobby girl pulls a CAT out of her purse (not to say “out of the bag!”). The ten-minute scene that follows has the audience completely hooked because an animal on stage commands ALL the attention for the duration of its “performance.” This cat scene was written as THE show-stopper of the whole play!
We were auditioning in various theaters, trying to get booked. This particular day was crucial because we were going to be performing the play for the managers of a major Parisian theater.
Patrick is a total livewire and he’d already more or less convinced the theater director to take us on, before the guy had even seen our play!
We kicked off and, thirty minutes into the piece, we were rocking it! When the high point arrived, I opened my purse to pull out the cat… But, horror of horrors – there was no cat!! Dun dun duuuun!!
I had been so stricken with STAGE FRIGHT, before the play, that I’d completely forgotten to secure the feline inside the bag! The expressions “frozen to the spot” and “wanting to crawl into the deepest hole I could find” were written just for me, in that terrifying moment! There was no way I could just slip out and grab the animal: It was most likely curled up, fast asleep, in the changing room, upstairs.
Time stood still. Then, Patrick and the other actors started improvising the best they could. But the whole point of the play was lost…
Yes, you’ve guessed it: The theater managers didn’t find the scene very funny – they were waiting till the bitter end for the “famous climax” Patrick had been raving about.
They thanked us for our audition and bid us goodbye, not without a hint of sadness in their eyes…
This ordeal of an experience taught me a huge lesson. After that, I adopted a system to ensure that I’d NEVER forget anything, EVER AGAIN. It really made me see things in perspective and convinced me to find the ways and means to “cure” myself of the dreaded stage fright!
STAGE FRIGHT: The performer’s biggest bugbear!
What is it ? An emotion, very similar to the emotion of fear. The symptoms are pretty much always identical: Anxiety, fear of losing your train of thought, dread of forgetting your words, sweat, hot flashes, wobbly knees, shaking, shortness of breath, butterflies in your stomach and a horrible urge to go to the bathroom.
There are many reasons for this, often due to the Fear of being judged
1-GET RID OF THE FEAR OF BEING JUDGED
The fear of being judged! This fear comes up very often among the clients I coach on public speaking. Indeed, as soon as you are in front of an audience you expose yourself to the eyes of others and to their judgment. Do you know that the first of your judges and the most virulent is none other than … yourself and yes! You are often and without realizing it, your worst enemy, so become your best friend!
How? In the first place, be vigilant to extinguish this little voice, this censor who yawns in our head and comes to parasitize the thread of our ideas. Stop listening to him and shut him up. Then, try to be kind and convince yourself that you will give it all, in this speech, conference or representation. Remember, we can’t please everyone it’s important not to focus on a mistake during or after your intervention but on those things which were great.
2-BE PROFESSIONAL
Be professional! It would not occur to you to go on a stage half dressed, similarly you won’t speak in public being half prepared. The more you repeat your intervention both in terms of content and form, the more confident you will be. Moreover a professional is not a critic, it is someone who has a positive attitude and who stay focus on what is successful and has value and gives little importance to blunders.
3-OWN THE SPACE – OWN THE STAGE”
This well-known motto among artists simply means “occupy the whole space” or “be the master of your own domain.”
A few hours or several minutes before the performance is scheduled to begin, when the venue is still empty, seasoned actors prepare themselves by walking around the venue – the stage, the wings, the hall… They familiarize themselves with the place, make themselves at home.
By sitting in the front row, then moving to the middle and, finally, the back of the hall, the artist gets to see the venue through the audience’s eyes. This allows him or her to really get a grip on the location which he or she will be communicating in.
Get into the habit of “taking possession of the location” before you get up there and speak. When you really get your bearings, you’ll be in a much better position to defeat that famous Enemy #1 – Stage Fright!
Still frighten?
4-PRACTICE EXTREME SPORTS
If despite these tips you still have stage fright: “to great evils the great remedies”! When I did the book signing of Bye bye stage fright at the Touquet’s book fair I had a talk regarding this subject with famous journalist Patrick Poivre d’Arvor. He told me he had suffered stagefright before every newscast he was presenting. He finally managed his stress, by practicing extreme sports, such as bungee jumping. ”Throwing myself into the void I learned to master the fear of emptiness and vertigo and it definitely cured it my fear of the public”!
Fortunately I did not have to throw myself in space (: phew! I acquired the pleasure of throwing myself into the arena by practicing over and over the above advices. I hope that alike the thousands of clients who successfully trained on my techniques, you will shine!
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See you soon!
Carmela Valente
«Talent as well as competence and confidence, comes with practice, training and repetition»
This article is from Carmela Valente’s book Bye Bye Stage Fright Become a great public speaker. Copyright © 2015 Carmela Valente. All right reserved.
Pic’s credit of Carmela Valente on top this article ©Camille FROMENT
Carmela Valente & Patrick Poivre d’Arvor : Carmela Valente personal collection