Extremely so. Dancers learn this from day one. So do cheerleaders. Smiling and eye contact with the audience. It's just as important as not flubbing a note or singing your backups in tune. Learn how.
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I can't smile and play at the same time
- Thread starter Corbin
- Start date
Extremely so. Dancers learn this from day one. So do cheerleaders. Smiling and eye contact with the audience. It's just as important as not flubbing a note or singing your backups in tune. Learn how.
Yeah, but he's 70 in one pic and 30 in the other .
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I've been told to smile more many times by my wife. It's not that I'm not having fun at gigs. I'm just not really the smiley sort; even away from the stage in everyday life.
wmhill
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- Aug 20, 2012
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I just do whatever is natural, I don't consider myself entertaining either,but sometimes ill crack a joke mid song to a bandmate to crack them up and/or to get myself to laugh or smile
The guitarist in my current band has an incredibly piercing gaze. His guitar is a wall of sound. He makes eye contact with everybody in the audience while he plays. It is quite menacing. It is kind of like if Billy Zoom was a WWII submarine captain. Its awesome when you are playing loud creepy rock, but it might affect the bookings as an "event" band. I smile on stage frequently, but certainly not constantly. In my other band where I am a percussionist, my role demands me to lock in with the audience on a personal level, so anyone who is feeling it is going to lock eyes with me at some point and that is my moment to help draw them in even further into the pocket...
Show started in 1951. By 1955, I'm sure that every band member and Welk himself thought of nothing during Adios, Au Revoir, Auf Wiedersehen, save for planning rather elaborate suicide scenarios in their heads in case they ever had to play that song again. And yet, they smiled, sold the song, sold the show, and played that song for 27 more years.
That's being a professional.
Don't get me wrong. If I am feeling like it's fun onstage I do show it.
But part of it is also cultural. I was born and raised in America. As were my parents. But half my cultural background is Russian on my father's side. And the relatives on his side, who came from the old country, had a lot of influence on my upbringing. And a smile meant very different things to them than they do to Westerners. Russians do smile. But far less often, and for very different reasons than we do. And having that mix of eastern and western upbringing in my background, my smile reflex is a little schizophrenic at the best of times.
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We have one guitar player that will suddenly start making faces or laughing--or you can see him fighting that--if that happens I try to see where his wife & daughters are sitting.
They're normally the cause.
One of the better paying gigs I had, was playing at a Winery on Sunday afternoons. The owner loved having us up there. Why? Well for one thing, even though none of us were smiling the whole time we were performing, it was pretty obvious that we were having a good time.
It's much easier for him to sell $$$ bottles of wine to people who are having a good time. If we're having a good time, then they're having a good time. And Vice versa. And the tip jar tended to reflect that, too.
It's much easier for him to sell $$$ bottles of wine to people who are having a good time. If we're having a good time, then they're having a good time. And Vice versa. And the tip jar tended to reflect that, too.
I have Never Ever been to an artistic dance performance where any dancer smiled at the audience. You would actually get fired for something so stupid. Dinner theatre in the Catskills, yes. I have seen dinner theatre from the kitchen, but I am not a musical theatre kid, I'd Rather be in the kitchen. I saw the 1st performance of the latest revival of Pippin and the last performance of Cabaret with Alan Cumming, and while the performers smiled at the audience, it was a part of the drama and the magic, not a smile designed to charm the paying customers. Yes, cheerleaders should smile. While they can...
Psst.... not that kind of dancer, dude.
WHERE AND HOW DO YOU GET THAT KIND OF WORK?! I'm soooo envious.I will comment on this...
I personally smile if the band is killing it, if one of the guys plays something that MADE me smile, if the onstage banter
between me and one of the guys onstage tickled me... If someone in the audience did something that made me laugh, OR smile.
I DON'T just start smiling because I'm stood in front of an audience. If I saw someone just smiling at a show from beginning to end, I wouldn't think it was showmanship, I'd be thinking ... "Hmm, possible mental illness more than likely, or he's getting a LOT of money!" (Maybe even the recipient, or soon to be recipient, of a sexual favor)
If you're on the stage a lot, or know you DESERVE to be onstage, then smiling isn't always a given... and I don't do weddings or similar gigs. I act onstage the same as offstage. Sometimes you laugh, sometimes you cry... Especially if the drummer is bad...
Hmm... I once did a recording session and finished the song in 15 minutes. I think I got between $5000.00 and $7000.00 for that session. THAT MADE ME ******g SMILE, BIG TIME!!!
an "exotic" dancer, dude? a stripper? (I mentioned smiling dinner theatre dancers) That's an example of what a bass player should go for in your world?
They would definitely be a type of dancer that doesn't get fired for smiling at the audience.
No. Unless they agreed to that being in the contract or something.
