Getting Ready to Take the Stage – Pre-Game Warm-Up

Years ago I was backstage with a speaker friend, a seasoned veteran in the industry, who asked me why I was jumping up and down and looked like a complete spazz.

I didn’t know the reason I started doing this practice, it just came natural to feel the need to bounce around until I was so buzzed, energized, and excited, that I was ready to burst onto the stage like Tasmanian Devil meets Winnie the Pooh’s Tigger.

I told him, “A few minutes ago I was sitting down, before that I was on an airplane.  Now I have to go out on stage in front of 2,000 people and somehow convey that I have so much energy, motivation, power that the entire audience, even if they were sleepy when they showed up, will be lifted by my energy, enthusiasm, and readiness.  I do this to get ready to make a difference in their lives, but I must be at the highest level of pump I can attain.”

He laughed and said he’d never thought of that, but it seemed to make sense, so he joined me in his best hop up and down in a suit way.

We shadow boxed, did some P90X type plyometrics, warmed up our voices, with diction and getting the clear-the-throat sound out before it was our turn.

Pretty soon we were laughing hard because we knew how silly we looked, and it was exactly what we needed that day.

I have found this to be the perfect pre-game for me.

Only of recent have I learned this is common practice for motivational Giants like Tony Robbins, who actually puts a small trampoline backstage to do this exact thing I figured out on my own, him learning it from his extra scientific studies of health for the body (if you haven’t seen his movie, “I Am Not Your Guru”, I recommend it.  Very vulgar language, yet very powerful learning for a stage performer from a true master.).

Of course there is reason to do other meditative and trance state practices, where you can hypnotize yourself into focus, going over lines, making certain you will be automatic rather than just sound memorized, and then to the next level of sounding improvised.  Yeah baby!  The last minute glance over the words, but even more importantly to become 100% present to the task at hand.

I have mistakenly checked my phone before going on stage, finding out a friend had passed from cancer, and then it’s my duty to go out on stage to an unknowing audience of my sorrow, and make them laugh, after my own private devastating news.

My suggestions:

Airplane mode your phone.

Only think of what you’re about to do.

Tell people you can’t talk backstage if needs be.

Shake out the jitters.

Jump around, walk back and forth, do the moonwalk.

Go to the bathroom, really get it all out, #1 & #2, which constricts your freedom of movement and thought if holding in personal “garbage”.

Go scream or laugh or sing or yodel.

Whatever it takes to blast yourself into a new realm of awesome in order to transfer awesome to your audience.

That is your Promise to The Audience.

I’d love to hear what you do to get ready to take the stage.

 

~ jason hewlett

Jason Hewlett, CSP (Certified Speaking Professional), CPAE Speaker Hall of Fame, is a Keynote Speaker for the largest corporate events in the world. His primary message, The Promise, is essential for Leadership, Management, Sales, Marketing, Direct-Sales Companies, and is a combination of engagement and entertainment meets inspiration. Jason has even received standing ovations from IT guys. He has been acknowledged as life-changing by Conference Attendees, C-Level Executives and Hollywood Elite. jasonhewlett.com

 

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