E110 SCARY STORIES

Dale Carnegie once said,

“There are always three speeches, for every one you actually gave. The one you practiced, the one you gave, and the one you wish you gave”.

 

Stage fright is a common trait in 90 percent of the population (Sharma). The utter fear of all those beady eyes looking at oneself and observing every breath and action made is enough to instill a paralyzing, throat drying, knee buckling fear in 9 out of 10 people you will meet today. The fear of public speaking is known as glossophobia and it is very prominent in many aspects of life. It does not only affect the stage, it has crept it’s way into the crevices of our day to day lives and rests comfortably in the shadows until it’s time to strike.

Many famous celebrities are ridden with stage fright even at the peaks of their careers with years of experiencing holding them up. Famous singer Adele says she vomits several times before going onstage to perform, although never on the set itself. Rapper Jay Z states the reason rappers are constantly grabbing their crotches onstage is because they feel naked; and when you’re naked what do you do? You cover yourself up. (Acocella)

 

It is apparent that even with years of experience performing in front of hundreds of thousands of people, stage fright can affect anybody. Surely there is a bigger reasoning as to why. They say to get rid of a fear you must face it and conquer it, but this particular phobia often can be solved by practice. This phobia can not be solved by holding the source of said fear in your hand; this particular phobia can not be solved by talking yourself out of it; this is not an irrational fear of ghosts where you can tell yourself it is not real. Stage fright is very real; stage fright is very prominent, and can be a tremendously daunting fear to overcome.

 

One possibility as to what the source of stage fright is could be that it was culturally bred. 20th century theatre enforced the mindset that tending to the audience's desires and to force oneself to solely entertain them was forfeiting their artistic abilities, caving to the desires of others rather than expressing artistic capabilities. Art became much less about tending to what the audience desires and rather expressing oneself; which makes the reasoning for being afraid of judgement and negative criticism so much more prominent. We stopped listening to others and doing what we wanted; and in turn this gave the audience even more reason to be critical, because rather than criticizing the work presented; we began rebuking the artist’s ability to convey it.

 

Another scapegoat for the amped up habitation of stage fright in our day to day lives would be technology and it’s ever so expanding involvement in performance. This is not to say technology created stage fright, but molded it into what it is today. Everyone has seen videos of someone slipping up in a presentation or concert; and to put oneself in the shoes of the performer is nail biting; not only did the performance get messed up but now there is a tangible copy of this screw-up; instead of unceasingly playing a re-enactment of the performance in our heads, there is a likelihood of this being recorded and posted on social media and having the performer be the butt of the joke in yet another Youtube video or Snapchat story.

 

The coming of the “iPhone generation” is often castigated heavily by the previous generation and perceived as a blessing by others. It has affected how we do everything, from communicating with loved ones to paying bills to ordering pizza; it has changed society in a whole and is amplifying the pace at which it is progressing into something new. It is plausible to think taking the stage is going to undergo changes also. On a day to day basis one can go through his or her Snapchat feed and see what peers are up to, what they are viewing, and especially what they are criticizing. If a concert was missed, worry not; for someone somewhere has a recording and with the Internet as an outlet, finding a performance is a piece of cake. This only accumulates the pressure do well on stage. It’s easy to entertain an audience directly in front of you as you can get a variety of feedback, but the view from behind the 5 ½  inch retina screen your audience is holding is a totally different story. You don’t know who could view your speech or song or presentation; the internet is vast and audiences are potentially unlimited. This only adds onto the necessity of doing an exceptional job. That 30 person crowd you are pouring your heart and soul out for is not what it seems, their relatives could view it from the comfort of their home and crack jokes at every stutter and forgotten line; that 30 person crowd could develop into 300 with a tap of a virtual button.

 

Ryan Vincent is a freshman at the University of Delaware who has his own experiences to share pertaining to technology's influence on stage fright. As an amateur rapper from Central Jersey, he has quite a concrete understanding of it. Ryan began  freestyle rapping with close friends two years ago; what started off as a simple way to pass time eventually grew into a hobby and eventually a passion, a passion he was more than willing to share with the world. By the end of his senior year he had been performing in front of others at parties and get togethers and soon became well renowned as “the town’s rapper”. When asked if he had ever experienced any form of stage fright he responded, “Well, when I first started off I was unsure of my skills, so the thought of rapping in front of other people who have never seen me perform before was pretty nerve wracking.” This is expected of any entry level performer, showcasing your abilities can be daunting even for veteran artists. Ryan stated as he got better the edge was taken off a little, but there was another unpredictable factor that fluctuated his confidence levels on a regular basis: the ever so dreadful camera lens pointed at him. I asked Ryan if he had ever had a moment where he had preferred to avoid any types of recording of his raps done and he responded, “When I first came to school I was recorded on a snapchat. I was rapping with other guys and didn’t have my best verse. The part of me that got recorded showed me at a worse skill level than I usually am, and think affected my views on my performing capabilities for a little.” Interesting enough, Ryan could have performed and not done his best and brushed it off like it was nothing, but what set this very moment apart was the fact that there was a tangible copy of himself performing on a weaker skill level than he usually expects of himself. Without the 10 second Snapchat story, it would have just been a memory, instead, now he had a visual reminder of his flawed act.

Social media can be a saving grace for artists and performers alike, but it can also destroy one’s confidence in their capabilities if their abilities were not represented at their absolute best. I asked Ryan how he felt about social media’s presence in his performances and if it adds any unnecessary pressure, to which he replied, “When I started off unsure of my capabilities it hindered my confidence and the flashing light of an iPhone camera in my face in the middle of a song would bother me and force me to compress my skills into a 10 second clip that I had no say in being recorded in the first place.” The effect this has not only affects Ryan’s raps in his small town to a small crowd of familiar faces, but also branches out to all sorts of sub-sections of performing arts. Whether it’s a speech, a role in a play, or just standing on an elevated surface showcasing poetry, there is always the potential anonymous audience barred behind a smartphone screen. A rap for Ryan which was meant for a few close friends could easily be posted on Twitter or Facebook for a multitude of followers to view, and for some, this can be a terrifying thought; possibly even to the point of discouraging new artists to display their abilities overall.

 

It is clear that stage fright will always have a varying presence on a personal level for each individual performer. To some, the notion of self expression in front of an audience of a hundred thousand is a walk in the park; for others, a crowd of 5 can be enough to cause a terror induced stutter or stiffness. This concept can be viewed as concrete and can vary from person to person, but there are recent underlying factors that can change this for anybody. Snapchat, Twitter, Facebook, and all forms of social media can be used to praise or ridicule, and nobody is looking to be mocked for what they did on the stage. The possibility of a 10 second Snapchat story of a stutter or forgotten line can engulf one’s visualization of their performance, leaving them with an increased underlying fear of messing up. It is evident that with the exposure rooted within social media brought on by this new technological era has brought on a wide array of fears and doubts amongst performers and speech givers worldwide. What was previously an anxiety inducing performance in front of an audience of 25 can be amped to a showcase of one’s self doubts and all that can be caused by a glimpse of a single smartphone camera. Technological advances are a blessing, this is apparent, but with the effects it has on stage fright’s prominence and its hasty progress, it may end up doing more harm than good for the confidence of actors and performers alike in oncoming years.

 

Works Cited

Acocella, Joan. "I Can't Go On!" The New Yorker. The New Yorker, 3 Aug. 2015. Web.

09 Dec. 2015

Sharma, Vijai P. "90 Percent of People Feel Stage Fright." 90 Percent of People Feel

Stage Fright. Mind Publications, n.d. Web. 14 Nov. 2015.

Vincent, Ryan. Personal interview. 9 December 2015.