"It was pretty interesting education to be on the backside of the stage looking at audience faces," Brandi Carlile told Terry Gross on NPR’s Fresh Air. "I learned the things that they react to, how a smile is contagious. ... And I remembered thinking, standing back there in my poodle skirt going, 'Actually, I want to be that dude.' "
That desire to be that dude—that is, the performer on stage—drove Brandi Carlile to her career in music. Today Carlile is a six-time Grammy-winning singer-songwriter and the author of Broken Horses, a memoir of her life, one that began tough. At four, she was hospitalized with meningitis and nearly died. Growing up with an alcoholic father was challenging. She was also gay and found it difficult to blend in with her small town.
Music, however, was her salvation. She wrote her first song at age ten. Her musical interest led her to become a backup singer to her friend's father, an Elvis impersonator. She and her friend learned to imitate the harmonies, phrasings, and counterpoints of the Jordanaires, which often backed Elvis.
Learning stage presence
What the quote above illustrates is what performers discover: how to behave on stage. It is an act, but it is learned. The best performers, like Carlile, take their cues by reading the audience. And for that reason, the quote above is worth dissecting.
Watch. As you speak, pay attention to what people are doing. Are they listening? Are they taking notes? Or are they checking their phones, chatting with the person next to them?
Respond. Watch for cues that your message is hitting home. A scribbled note or a nod means you are connecting. A vacant stare or a head slumped in sleep means you are not. When you sense a lull, modulate your pitch. Or change to
Smile. Or as my grandfather, quoting a song of his era, used to say, “Smile, and the whole world smiles with you. Your smile, as Carlile notes, is "contagious." Employ them liberally. It connotes the joy you feel in what you are presenting. A smile can also contrast with your content. If you have a stern message, you close with a lighter touch, expressing confidence in your audience. Use your smile as a form of reassurance.
Such lessons emerge from performing and getting up on the stage and doing it, and additionally, looking out at the audience to see how your message is playing. It takes discipline to observe and further discipline to integrate those observations into lessons that make for better presentations.
All life is a stage
Stage lessons are rooted in life experience. Carlile, whose life, despite being leavened by success, has been challenging. Yet, the challenge of our time, the pandemic, has enabled her to gain greater clarity on her own life. As she said on Fresh Air, “I need to get a grip on my ambition. I need to start enjoying being here instead of constantly trying to prove that I have a right to be here, constantly trying to fit and assimilate. And at some point, I need to realize that I am where I'm supposed to be and that I don't necessarily need to keep climbing. ...”
Some of that perspective comes with age. “As I'm sitting here and I'm looking at 40, and I got my kids, and I got my wife, and I have some of the affirmation that I always wanted around my music, and now I've written this book. I think I'm starting to really feel sort of solid and loved in my world. Like maybe I've kind of finally found my place.” On stage and in her life.
Doing these things may not win you a Grammy but will make you a more compelling presenter, one with a voice that resonates and a stage persona that appeals.
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April 09, 2021 at 03:55AM
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Brandi Carlile: On Stage (And Life) Presence - Forbes
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