Performance Enhancing Thoughts

I make an effort to come up with catchy titles for my posts. Today I am pleased with myself.

So I just watched a video of one of the girls from Destiny’s child falling in the middle of a performance. The remarkable thing about it was that the other two just glanced at her before turning back to the crowd and going on with the song. At first it was just something to laugh at, but then it got me thinking about performance technique.

On Sunday I got a chance to see Eric Roberson perform. When DC had an interruption to their performance, they pretty much pretended that it didn’t happen. On the other hand, ER had tons of interruptions. He kept stopping in the middle of songs to respond to things people in the audience said. After responding, ER would return to the song without missing a beat. That kind of interaction added so much to the performance. I’m not saying DC should have stopped the show to have a conversation, but damn, they could have helped their girl up. Mainstream performances nowadays are so choreographed that there is no room for the spontaneity of accidents or the spontaneity of momentary genius. At a performance I did a few years ago I started one of my favorite songs at the time. I was throwing all my passion and energy into it when I realized – I didn’t remember the next word. After messing the song up, I stopped the band, told the audience I didn’t want to do a messed up version of the song because I loved it so much, and I started over. Can you imagine if DC had done the same thing? For them, starting over again would have meant doing the same choreographed walk to the center of the stage followed by the same pre-planned hip shaking. That kind of thing doesn’t come off well a second time around.

A good performance is a dynamic performance. If someone falls on stage, make it a part of the show. Give them the chance to laugh at themselves in front of everybody to make it a little less embarrassing. That way people will go home saying “she busted her ass and still killed it” instead of just “she busted her ass.” A good show should be planned and practiced until you could do it in your sleep, but paradoxically, the thing that will set it off is good improvisational skills.