Stage Fright.

I have experienced stage fright the entire time I have been doing standup. I will be honest, to this day I still get nervous most days before a set regardless of how many people are in the audience. I can finally eat a meal before I perform, but that was only after about 3 years in. The biggest thing for me is that I realized that I need it. I need to feel nervous to prepare and to have the energy required to put on a good show. If I am too relaxed, then I just don’t care, and my performance suffers. I have learned to work with the energy rather than against it. For me the goal is not to eliminate fear but to learn to work with it, because I need it to succeed.

“Find out what you’re afraid of and go live there.” Chuck Palahniuk.

A few years ago, I realized that I need to do something that scares me and to push myself outside of my comfort zone at least a few times a week just to feel normal. It is a big reason I picked up standup comedy, I needed to be scared a few times a week but in a way that wasn’t unsafe. I had reached a level with my skateboarding that to achieve this was beginning to get seriously dangerous. Public speaking for me was always I would rather backflip off a bridge than do any public speaking. For me, every time I got up on stage it’s like jumping out of an airplane. I learned a lot about this and ways to make it easier, here are some of my favorite things that help me work with my stage fright.

Make it not so special.

If I am doing a show every night of the week or more my stage fright is a lot less. If it’s the only show I am doing all month, yeah that’s a lot more unnecessary pressure. If it’s one of 7 sets that pressure is spread over those. This also is just the more sets I get under my belt the less fear I have. Find ways to make the sets less special. Also practicing more helps to reduce fear and increase my confidence.

Why specifically am I nervous?

I will list out to myself all the specific things I am nervous about. Then work through and counter each one. I quickly realize that often the things are totally irrational, but if there is a legitimate concern I will address it. Like maybe I am not fully prepared, though for me often I need to be a little less prepared so I can be more present. I will make a set list but it’s more of a list of joke intentions. I plan but allow myself the freedom to deviate. If it’s something like I am worried I’m going to bomb again, then I focus my attention on what I can learn from the previous bomb. Write heckler comebacks or crowd work directions I could have gone that would be better than what I did. Identify the weaknesses and make them strengths.

Am I present? Get present!

Fear is always about the future. I am rarely nervous when I’m actually up there performing, I’m too busy talking to be nervous. It’s a fear of the future, the unknown, the worst-case scenario. I found fun ways to make myself be in the moment. My personal favorite way to get present is to begin narrating everything I am doing and thinking. It is very silly and always makes me laugh. “Bjorn taps his feet to some unknown beat blissfully unaware he heard it in car commercial last night. He stops as he realizes where it was and moves on. He quickly becomes aware that his typing is also to that beat and remembers some of the lyrics, a slight smile turns to a laugh….” You get the idea. It’s silly and breaks a lot of tension for me.

Go for a walk.

This one is huge for me. Most of the time I am sitting just worrying about an upcoming show and when I go out and get even the smallest amount of exercise that energy is released, and I begin to get excited. I think of my fear like central air in a house. I want to keep it within a threshold not so cold the heat kicks on but not so hot that the AC kicks on, it’s about finding that perfect balance of energy. Finding ways of releasing some energy when there is too much or building energy when I am tired. Get right into that homeostasis. I do have the added benefit of a small dog living with me who is always down to walk. One of my favorite things is to park kind of far from the venue so I can get in a walk on my way there.

Standing up.

This one is more for myself right before a set. I have done research on myself but for me it is so important to stand or stretch before a set. If I sit down my energy drops and fear sets in. It is crucial for me to stand before a set. Sometimes I will just be at a high top but not use a stool. I noticed a significant difference for myself in when I sit or stand before a set.

Schedule nervous time.

For this one what I do is I set aside a set amount of time where I am allowed to be nervous, then I am no longer allowed to be nervous. In that allotted time, I give myself full permission to express my nervousness and fear. I can scream or cry or do whatever I want for that time. But only for those minutes then when nervous time is over, it's over. I always give myself permission to scream or cry, but I honestly have not done either. I tried to schedule 30 minutes of nervous time, and after about 5 minutes of fully leaning into my nervousness, it was gone. I think for me what makes it last longer is in the resistance of it.

Mediation.

I’m someone who meditates every day and I have become a huge proponent of it to anyone who has a lot of anxiety, like I do. It’s about getting present and just focusing on your breathing. The biggest shift with meditation for me is when I let go of the idea of doing it right or wrong. It’s just about when my mind wanders I just note it, now back to the breath. Like just “oh, that’s thinking”, now back to the breath. Regardless I think that meditation is something that all comedians should be doing. I think of a lot of great joke ideas when I am trying to just focus on my breath. Yeah, I’m not doing mediation right, but I am stoked to have new jokes and less anxiety, so that works for me.

These are the things that I do to help work with my fear. I feel I must note the use of drugs for this. I would caution against this. Like for myself it adds relief to the hours leading up to a performance but the actual performance itself suffers. I am not as razor sharp and I tend to relax too much. I do not want to develop a dependence on a substance where I feel I can only perform when I have this perfect amount of drunk or high. I strongly believe that it is easier to learn to work with our fears and perform naturally.

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Thank you for reading, You’re doing great. 

Bjorn RG.