We cover a lot of different stage shows here at Independent Philly. This includes everything from concerts in small venues, major music festivals, comedy shows, performance art, and beyond. Having performed as a stand-up comedian myself, I am well acquainted with the notion of stage fright. I can be fully secure with the material I’ve written and that the audience will react favorably to it, but in those brief moments in the green room before hitting the stage, especially in front of a crowd of hundreds of people, the butterflies are palpable. Thankfully I’ve always been able to fight through them and take the stage. Once that happens, things tend to go as planned.
It would be easy for stage fright to hold talented people back from stepping out in front of a crowd to showcase their unique abilities. It happens, all around the world, on a daily basis. What would happen if someone was thrust into the limelight, unknowingly, at the very last second? It’s hard to say…until now. The folks at Heineken recently conducted just such an exercise in Ireland, bringing in people under the guise that they would be showcasing their talents for a single camera. What the performers got instead was a crash course in overcoming stage fright.
Check it out:
Aside from the misuse of grammar at the 0:04 mark (“Heineken were looking” should be “Heineken was looking”) I found this video to be quite amusing. Without knowing the participants personally there is no way to tell the level of stage fright they suffered from prior to being thrust onto stage. Assuming for a moment that it was a high level, this is a sweet twist on (force-fed) Cognitive-behavioral therapy.
What I most enjoyed about it, was that after the initial shock of being lowered into a theater with a cheering audience (they all looked like deer in the headlights), they all rose to the occasion and performed admirably.While you don’t get a long look at any of their particular talents (I would have liked to see a little more) it’s hard to argue that they all brought it to the best of their ability. It just goes to prove that sometimes we all need a little push, even if we didn’t ask for it.
[Article by David Miller]
