Creating a Comic

Following the story of the worst stage fright I’ve ever personally seen, I’ve been thinking a bit about my own pre-stage jitters before a show.

I still get a bit tense before a show, but it’s gone from nearly debilitating to fairly mild. If a 10 is passing out on stage, a zero is total comfort, and the guy from my earlier story was maybe a 9.5, then I’d say the worst my stage fright got was about 8.6. Someday I’ll talk about what goes into that estimate, including the time I almost peed myself…

Nowadays I probably don’t spike higher than about a 5. Whereas I used to be nervous and unable to concentrate on anything else for the 2-3 hours before the show, these days I can happily relax and read a book on the bus trip on the way to the club.

Part of this is just that I’m a lot more familiar with my material, now, but the greatest help is simple experience. And I do still get butterflies about fifteen minutes before going on stage. I worry that my mind will go totally blank, etc. Then my name is called and I feel a surge of adrenaline; I’ll spend the first thirty seconds on stage a little stiff, but after the first laugh or two I’ve usually calmed down.

 — Posted by CJ under Creating a Comic. Please comment or trackback!