Getting Over Stage Fright

Hey, what's going on, rock stars? Your host, Reggie Daughson, with the Being On Stage podcast. Welcome to episode two. If you made it this far, I just want to go ahead and say thank you. Thank you for sticking with it through the first episode. I hope you like what you heard. Today, I'm going to get in a little bit about me, and today I actually want to talk a little bit about stage fright.

I think stage fright is something that we've all suffered from at some point. If you've never suffered from stage fright, congratulations. I highly, highly admire you. I, myself, was a victim of stage fright. I call myself a victim because, quite frankly, that's kind of how it felt. It crippled my life for quite some time, most of my adolescence, actually. And it was rough. It made school difficult.

I was at the point at one point, I didn't even dance at school dances. That's how afraid of being in front of people. I didn't want to be anything in front of people. That's how afraid I was of that. Really, what I want to get into is there are three, there's really three types of stage fright. Most stage fright can be broken down into one of these three categories. And there's not any, like, technical name for them.

This is me just telling you about the three different types of stage fright. That's one thing you're going to get to know about me is I'm not a very technical person. I'm very direct. I'm going to give it to you real. I'm going to give it to you raw. That's what we need. Isn't it? Just honesty and truth spoken directly to you from one human being to another. There's three types of stage fright.

There are the people that just absolutely freeze on stage. I mean, given any opportunity, any time that they are in front of people, they just, they shut down, man. They just freeze. I went through this stage of stage fright. I was seven years old. They had a singing contest at our mall. When it first opened up. And I begged my mother to let me go on stage and sing. And she finally agreed.

She let me go. I gave them my song. It was a, I don't know the name of the song. It was something about heart, heart. And I got up on stage and the music started to play. The words came on the screen. I just, microphone in hand, stone face, froze. I remember looking around. I still remember what some of the people looked like. Um, but I remember looking around and just, I just, the words would not form.

The sound would not produce. And it felt like five minutes before the guy, the host came over and, uh, patted me on the back and said, Hey, you know what? You did really good. Thanks for coming up here. That took a lot. Like he really built me up. He made me feel great. People clapped for me when I came down. But man, I froze most of my childhood because of this instance. Like, ah, I just, I just could not do anything in front of people.

Absolutely nothing. I was in marching band, so I could blend in and look like everybody else. So the second type of stage fright is, uh, the nervous type or the, I can't do it type. Um, they're the people, and I actually just met, I actually just met one this weekend. I went to my, I went to a friend of mine's wedding. Uh, I was, I was the best man and, uh, I had met someone that I, like they said, I could never, I could never get on stage.

I could never, I could never speak like that in front of people. I could never do anything on stage. And I told her, I said, listen, you were just in a wedding. That's like the same thing. You were on stage, but there's the, I can't do it. People like that, no matter what, they just feel like they can never be on stage. It's not in them. And it's because they're, they think they're the frozen type instead of the nervous type, the nervous type, most of the time, like the nervous type, we can get over stage fright.

Within about 45 seconds in the right environment, the third type of stage fright is, so we went over the two types. There's the frozen, like the, they, when they get on stage, they freeze. They just absolutely tremble at the thought of doing anything in front of people. They freeze, they shut down, they walk away. That's it. Goodbye. Second type is nervous. Doesn't think they can do it.

Third type, the third type of stage fright actually gets on stage and actually does perform. And sometimes they're, they do very well. One of the things about this third type is I call them the can't let go type. These are the people that, you know, they get on stage and they do the performance and they have that proper builds. Every performance, no matter what it is, dance, comedy, singing, band, motivational speaking, any type of onstage entertainment has a build.

And there's a climax when it's just like, this is the point that this entire show, this entire block of entertainment, whatever it is, has been building up to. This is where we let it all hang out. We go crazy on stage. This is where, you know, the singer's jumping off the speaker or the bass drum. This is where the guitarist is spinning in circles. This is where the pianist is, you know, really going to town on the piano.

This is where the singer is like letting it go and arms going crazy and like hair is going crazy and everything. The climax, there's people that just can't get there. I went through a little bit of that with karaoke in a way. And I had started getting over my fears. Like I had eventually joined a puppet team with church. Yes, a puppet team, you know, stick the hand up the puppet and move the mouth.

I had joined a puppet team with church. I started performing a little bit with them. Sometimes I was in front of the stage. From there, I got into karaoke a little bit and I would not sing. Everybody I said I wouldn't sing. But I started doing rap. I actually, Eminem to be specific, at karaoke. And I got really good. I actually became pretty well known for doing Eminem at karaoke. But that was like that, I can't let go, I can't cross that line.

And I eventually did and it turned out I was a pretty decent singer. But all these three types have one thing in common. Well, two things in common. All three types are afraid. They're afraid of looking stupid. And all three types just have a lack of confidence. And lack of confidence and that fear of looking stupid really goes hand in hand. You can't live with that fear of looking stupid.

You can't live with that lack of confidence. You have an art that you've been given. Like this is a gift that life has bestowed upon you. And you need to share it with the world. And that fear. That fear of looking stupid and that lack of confidence is preventing you from sharing your art with the rest of us. So one of the things I wanted to get to in this episode is I do have a system or a tip to help you with stage fright.

And this is for anybody. Like this is no matter, even if you've been entertaining, maybe you fall into one of these three categories. Maybe you don't. That's okay. But I'm going to give you something that helped me get over my fear. What helps me, and I was always afraid of speaking in front of people. Like always. That was one of the things that terrified me the most was actually people hearing my voice.

What helped me get over my fear of speaking in front of people and really helped a couple of my previous clients get over their fear of doing things in front of people is do the one thing that you're afraid to do. Do it. Do it. And I don't mean go jump off a cliff because you're afraid of heights. I'm talking in regards to entertaining. So here's the example, okay? So if you're afraid that your clothes are going to fall off on stage and you're going to be caught naked, go to a nude beach.

Now, you don't have to go to a nude beach and de-robe. I do encourage you to eventually get to that point. Maybe go a couple of times. But if you're afraid of being naked on stage, like not because that's what you're going to do. Maybe you're afraid of being paid to do. God, that's not what this is about. But if that's one of the fears you have is nudity on stage, go to a nude beach and just experience that.

For me, it was talking about myself in probably the most intimate way. There was probably like 20 people in the room and I told my life story and that is what helped me get over my fear. So let me put this all together for you. No matter what you do, if there's something you're afraid of, if you're afraid of people seeing you dance, go dance in the street. If you're afraid of people hearing you sing, start singing in the supermarket.

If you can do the one thing that you're afraid that people are going to judge you for, if you can do that one thing, then everything else is a cakewalk. If you can talk about it. For me, it was if you could talk about that one thing that you're afraid to talk about. Myself, everything else is cake. Now I can talk to you about entertaining. and live performance art, and I can share what I've learned and what I've picked up.

I can share that with all of you. And the reason I can do that is because I have already done the one thing that I was afraid to do. I've already talked about it. I've talked about myself. I've given my life story a few times to perfect strangers who have no idea who I am. You have got to put your art on stage. And if it takes you getting over some fear to do it, I'm here to tell you we need it.

I want to hear if you do what I'm asking you to do. If you dance in the street, if you sing in the supermarket, if you go to the nude beach, or if you talk about the one thing you don't want to talk about, I want to hear about it. Shoot me an email at reggie at beingonstage.com. That's R-E-G-G-I-E at beingonstage.com. Let's talk about it. Tell me what happened. Good, bad, ugly? I want to know.

Let me end with this saying. Once again, we need your art. We need you on stage. I am here to help you get there. I want to see you succeed, and I want to see you entertain. As always, rock stars, this is Reggie Daughson with Being On Stage Podcast. Keep on shining.