Nov 05 2009
Beefy Tostadas
Hard to find these days, but, when you do, it sorta makes your mouth water even before you dig in.
No, I’m not talkin’ about sex (sigh!) … I’m talkin’ tostadas, man (at least for now …)
Here’s why:
Awhile back, in the back pages of an old, dusty Sanskrit manuscript that I found hidden in the top shelf of my library, Ye Untolde Saga of Rocque and Rolle, there was an interesting tidbit. After removing it (it was part of that Archway cookie I lost last Christmas), I read a question posed to early performers by some obscure TV anchorman:
What do you do onstage to keep from getting stage fright?
Natch, that means so you won’t freeze up on the vocals or guitars, etc. It was almost uninaninimouse: The performers would think of something pleasant — something to look forward to after the show, for example — first.
One club singer said, I think of my girl, and how she’s waiting for me to come home. She’ll have a hot meal and also some hot kisses waiting at the door. Which is nice. But a hot meal waiting at the door is an open invitation to every cat in the house to eat it before ya get there.
Another said: A nice, hot cup of the finest coffee, two sugars, one cream. I suppose “shaken, not stirred”. Still another, You can’t tell if there’s an impresario in the audience. I want to impress the hell outta him.
But the kicker was the young rocker who said: Beefy tostadas. I dunno, maybe he was doing a Tex-Mex act. Nonetheless, they all had a valid point.
Look ahead of your gig … check the waters beyond, and give yourself something to look forward to after the show. Score points toward the big reward by pulling your best set out, dusting it off, and doing it like you mean it!
Then, after the show’s over and the last fan’s gone … go out and enjoy!
Another question (being a mid-’70s, post-Watergate publication, it was after the ad for that deodorant that says it’s working but has its own agenda to cover up the tell-tale odours. It was called Nix-On …) was How do you face the audience without being afraid?
Some said they looked just above eye level, checking the fans’ foreheads instead of their expressions. Worked well with everyone except Manson followers.
Others? We just imagine everyone sitting there in their underwear. I believe this trick folded when mothers-in-law were invited to gigs …
John Lennon had a great concept on handling audiences: “They’re out there, and they’re me, and I’m them, and she’s he, and he’s her and we’re all together.” And, if we’re all together, we’ve got nothin’ to worry about, right??
Okay, the quarter’s up (actually, I still had some minutes left from the last one), so just remember to tune in tomorrow for more musical madness. I’ll see ya on the flip side!
