As a 15 year old, Jim Carrey’s first performance in a comedy club was a place called Yuk Yuk’s in Toronto. As he describes it, it didn’t go well.
If he couldn’t already tell he was bombing, the sound of Jesus Christ Superstar’s “Crucify Him! Crucify Him” coming over the house PA and the host droning in the offstage microphone probably gave it away. “Totally boring. Totally boring. Totally boooooorrrrrriiinnng.”
Carrey left the club that night and he didn’t get back up on that stage for two years, but when he did return - he killed it.
What did he do in the meantime? He prepared. Working on his material, watching the other comics and watching the audience to see what they were looking for.
I think we often spend so much time focused on what we are doing as creatives and performers, and rarely enough time actually looking at our audience. Not to measure how much they’re enjoying what we’re doing, but to really understand what it is they want.
How can we do more of that? We can watch the audience at other performers’ gigs. What makes their faces light up? When do they get distracted, look around the room or start coughing?
Can we observe someone as they click through our website for the first time? What delights them? What bores them? What confuses them?
Don’t wonder why the audience isn’t understanding you. Instead, ask how you can better understand your audience.
Watch the audience
What a great start to the day this post is. Often were looking at things from our own perspectives instead of others. I think we can help to answer the questions you posed by being audience members ourselves and understanding our own reactions to those upfront. Great leaders are ones who know how to follow...Great teachers are ones who know how to also be students. I think having the mindset you laid before us today will help us to truly give of ourselves in a way that we hadn't before.