stage-fright-public-speaking-fearWhen I write about fear of public speaking and stage fright, it’s from first hand experience. I suffered from severe stage fright when I made the decision to become a comedian.

While I have been totally free from stage fright for many years now, I have never forgotten what it felt like when I had stage fright — the nausea, excessive dry mouth, shaking hands, profuse sweating and the need for frequent urination before a show.

Now, it all seems so darned silly to me. But it certainly didn’t seem silly at the time. I had stage fright that was so severe that I knew I didn’t have a chance of making any real progress as comedian unless I could get rid of it.

Let me give you some reasons why new comedians (and even experienced ones) have stage fright that may give you a perspective on how to conquer this crippling condition yourself.

First of all, let me say that it really doesn’t matter why you have stage fright. What does matter is what you are doing to continue having stage fright in the first place.

That’s right—if you are experiencing stage fright, you are actually causing it to happen.

Let’s think about this logically, even though logic gets thrown out the window when you are in fear for your life…

It’s not the audience that causes stage fright because the fear and all the associated symptoms that you get happens BEFORE you ever even step in front of an audience, which means that…

Whatever false scenario you have about speaking in front of an audience is played in your head over and over again before the audience even gets a chance to see you.

As long as YOU keep associating standing up and speaking in front of an audience with being a horrible, nerve wracking experience, you will continue to have stage fright.

So, my question to you would be — when you think about standing in front of an audience, what do you really think about? If you keep thinking about how horrible it is (or will be), it will continue to be horrible because you are training yourself for it to be that way.

But that only covers why fear of public speaking or stage fright persists.

So, if you want to know why I believe stage fright has such a grip on people in the beginning, there is one factor that leads the pack, and that is:

People are simply not confident with their preparation BEFORE the get to the stage or behind the speaking podium.

It’s really no different than knowing you have a make-or-break final exam in school and then not studying for it all. How do you feel when you are looking at that test, knowing full well that you didn’t study for it?

Deep inside you know you are destined for failure.

In stand-up comedy it’s even worse because if you follow what all the popular books on stand-up comedy tell you to do and what most of the stand-up comedy classes and workshops teach…

You STILL won’t be prepared for the stage because:

1. You can’t “write” your way to being funny on stage, in spite of the popularity of this myth. If you do that, you are trying to “pluck funny” out of thin air — attempting to “guess” what may be funny to an audience — while essentially abandoning your own unique sense of humor and point of view in the process.

2. The vast majority of “funny” power you have — whether it be in a conversations with friends and co-workers or on the stand-up comedy stage comes from how you say what you say (your delivery), not the words and sentences you use. But that’s not a factor worthy of any major consideration in the “traditional” way stand-up comedy material is developed.

3. The “traditional” definitions for the process of developing comedy material won’t give you a single clue how YOU can be funny for an audience. But that’s really all you are going to get from popular stand-up comedy books, classes and workshops.

That’s like trying to study the dictionary to figure out how to write a novel.

4. Rehearsal, which is critical to a comedian’s success on stage, is rendered useless if you don’t have confidence in the comedy material you are rehearsing in the first place.

Not to mention that this critical aspect of success is little more than an afterthought in virtually every single so-called “credible” reference on comedy writing, with the focus being on that which is “written” and “reads” funny from a piece of paper.

HINT: Audiences aren’t going to “read” your stand-up comedy material. They will experience it the way you say it and deliver it. Most stand-up comedy material won’t “read” funny from a piece of paper.

But armed with what the so-called comedy “experts” and “coaches” teach…

Now you have a great recipe for a vicious cycle for failure and for reinforcing your public speaking fear or stage fright.

You go on stage under the false assumption that you are prepared (or don’t need to because it’s all about how funny your stuff “reads” on paper). You fail. You study even harder and “write” more jokes. You fail again. You study and “write” until you are blue in the face. Maybe you even rehearse until you are blue in the face. But you continue to fail to get the laughs that you want on stage.

That’s where I was at when I started my own stand-up comedy career.

Each time this happens, it’s just like giving a treat to a dog each time he rolls over. You are now in a cycle of reinforcing your ability to fail to get laughs rather than reinforcing your ability to succeed and generate laughs.

Now let me ask you this…

What would happen if you didn’t worry about “writing” stand-up comedy material and knew how to effectively structure YOUR own unique sense of humor for the stage? What would happen if you knew how to rehearse and felt confident about the comedy material that you were rehearsing?

What would happen if you were truly prepared BEFORE you went on stage? Wouldn’t that GREATLY reduce your anxiety and fear when standing in front of an audience? If you answer those questions with a resounding YES, then you will understand why the Killer Stand-up Comedy System is so far removed from the “traditional” comedy material development methodologies.

We always seem to have the most confidence in ANY endeavor when we actually prepare effectively for a positive outcome, know what we are doing and can mentally predict a successful outcome BEFORE we even take on a task. Why should stand-up comedy be any different?

So, let me leave you with this question:

Is the process that you are using now to develop your stand-up comedy material and prepare for the stand-up comedy stage (or for the speaking podium) helping or hurting you when it comes to conquering your fear of public speaking or stage fright?

Cheers,
Steve Roye
The Professor of Funny for Money

About the Author/Founder of the SCP Blog


Steve Roye is the author of the Killer Stand-up Comedy System and is a globally recognized expert in the field of stand-up comedy material development and presentation strategies -- for entertainers as well as speaking professionals.

Please check out the Featured Articles page for direct links to articles on this blog for pro comedians, comedy entertainers, and speaking professionals.

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