http://www.ted.com/talks/joe_kowan_how_i_beat_stage_fright.html?utm_source=newsletter_weekly_2014-01-25&utm_campaign=newsletter_weekly&utm_medium=email&utm_content=talk_of_the_week_image
Humanity's sense of fear served us well as a young species trying to avoid being eaten by beasts. But it's less wonderful when that same visceral, body-hijacking sense of fear kicks in in front of 20 folk-music fans at a Tuesday night open-mic. Palms sweat, hands shake, vision blurs, and the brain says RUN: it's stage fright. In this charming, tuneful little talk, Joe Kowan talks about how he conquered it.
I love this story. How many of us haven't felt that sense of total panic and fear when getting up in front of other people to present? Maybe there are some people who have always been at total ease, however, I was not one of those people and struggle with it even to this day.
After watching this I now wish I could write songs, sing and play a small guitar to help me through it!
It makes me wonder..what really makes us so frightened? People rarely throw rotten tomatoes or boo you during a presentation and I have to say I have never heard a musician booed off stage. So what is it that we fear? Why stage fright? I suspect it is our own inability to accept that maybe we aren't good enough and that people are holding us to a standard that we just don't know about. Fear of the unknown!
For example, if I am going to sing a song by Carole King, I better know how to make it sound as good as her or expect to be booed. But, if it's my own original song, I think I could give myself a break.
My admiration goes out to Joe Kowan for relentlessly going back until he found a way to embrace the audience in his nervousness and then have fun with it. I will remember and take stock in Joe Kowan the next time I get up to speak or perform in front of a crowd. He had a great way of poking fun at himself. Something I hope to embrace and can learn from!