Thanks to Beth Lapides and Greg Miller of Un-Cabaret for sharing their words of wisdom about how to look cool on stage. You can see more at their website, including “Finishing School (Nine Tips for Completing a Project)”. Obviously, they are good at making lists.

11 Things to do if you are nervous about going onstage

1. Stop thinking about how nervous you are! Remember that almost everyone is nervous almost every time. So what?!

2. Start thinking about something specific that you are going to say that you really want to communicate.

3. Have a conversation with someone else. The bartender, someone in the audience, another person who’s going onstage. This gets you out of your head and into your voice.

4. Do some deep breathing. This is very calming and centering. If you don’t know deep breathing techniques, go to a yoga class pr search it online, or just take a few long slow breathes through your nose

5. If your hands are shaking and you have to hold paper onstage, hold your paper on a stiff notebook or clipboard, which will mask the shaking.

6. Steady yourself by touching yourself (not like that!). Hands in pocket, or on hips etc. This reminds you that you are still in your body – not floating outside it!

7. Look for (or imagine) the friendliest face in the crowd and direct your material to them. Remember that they are really interested in what you want to communicate.

8. Run through the bullet points of your material in your head, remembering that you know what you are saying.

9. Remember that the physical symptoms of excitement are exactly the same as nervousness. Nauseous, lightheaded, tight in the chest, full of adrenaline. Try to convince yourself you are excited not nervous.

10. Focus on your opening line. In the unusual event that you don’t remember your opening line, look at your environment. Maybe you have something to say about the person who’s onstage before you or how hot/cold/dark/light the room is. This remark will bring you and the audience together in the present moment – and that’s what live performance is all about!

11. As soon as you get onstage, hold onto the microphone stand. It literally grounds you – and makes you feel more like a rock star.

Greg and Beth are in LA but they came to Tucson a few years ago and I took a workshop from them, The Comedian’s Way or The Un-Cab Lab, which is a “widely effective page to stage method for writing and performance (and self-discovery)” and it was fabulous! It’s great for anyone who wants to find their inner performer, not just comedians. I hope we can get them back to the Old Pueblo in the near future. Send them an email at uncabaret@earthlink.net if you’d be interested.

I recently joined an online social/professional network,  Professional Storyteller, that has a number of special interest groups. I joined a couple of them including OUT Stories and saw this post, “I am always toying with the idea of using gay themes in my “adult” stories and wondered if anyone else has used or heard stories with this theme”.

This was my reply:

For the last 5 years I’ve been inviting a diverse group of people to tell personal stories to a mostly heterosexual audience at Odyssey Storytelling in Tucson, AZ. Many of the tellers have been lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender (LGBT). Some of the stories were specifically about the LGBT experience i.e. the transman who started his story on the theme The Thing About Hair by saying “when I was a little girl I had long hair”. That got the audience’s attention.  Sometimes the teller casually mentioned a same sex partner. And everything in-between. I love that the audience is exposed to everyday people who happen to be LGBT in a very “safe” environment. I’ve never heard an adverse comment. Obviously the tellers feel supported to share.

I’ve done four LGBT themed shows, two at Wingspan, the LGBT Community Center, one at University of Arizona, and one for the Center for Inquiry. These shows were very well received.

I’m very lucky to live in Tucson, the little island of blue in the sea of red Arizona.  LGBT content is just some of the “tough stuff” I’ve exposed the audiences to.  Some of the other “difficult” stories have ranged from child abuse to mental illness to prostitution.  My intention, besides using storytelling as an entertainment, is to give people something to think about.

Maybe some people get offended and don’t come back but at least they’ve had an experience of hearing another persons truth.  Mostly I find that people are being educated and that’s one step on the way to dispel prejudices.

What are the fears that stop people from using LGBT content / references / themes in storytelling and other spoken word events (including theater)?  That they’ll lose their audience?  That they’ll be banned from other shows or festivals?  That they’ll alienate people?

I just watched Around the World in 72 Days, an American Experience DVD about journalist Nellie Bly.  She is most famous for an undercover exposé in which she faked insanity to report about the conditions inside a mental hospital and for her record-breaking trip around the world. The time was the 1880′s and she had to fight for the right to be published alongside male reporters.

She taught herself the art of self promotion and constantly struggled to keep her name on the front page with strange and difficult escapades, doing things that women just didn’t do in those times.  She needed to pay the bills.

When I switched off the DVD, the TV came on and there was a PBS show on Amelia Earhart in the 1920′s, smiling at the camera, climbing into airplanes in trousers and a leather jacket and generally looking very dashing.  She knew how to use the media to promote her various stunts and achievements and was regularly featured in newsreels and newspapers. The novelty of a woman aviator had captured the imagination of the public.

She needed to keep her image vital so that she could pay the bills.

Seems to be a thread here.  Journalists, adventurers and performers all need an audience to be able to practice their art and they need to produce revenue in order to continue.

Recently there was an article in the NY Times about how performers have used The Moth Storytelling Slams as a jumping off point to further their careers.  Being seen in a popular event is a good way to prop up their reputations.

I Googled self promotion and came up with more than 14 million references.  Networking and blowing your own horn is a legitimate business strategy and face it, artists are in the business of getting  their work out there.   Because, after all, artists have to pay their bills.