Bittersweet Candy Bowl

In school, you’ve certainly had to present something in front of the class… be it a speech, group presentation, or acting out scenes from a play. You might have even been in the school play, or maybe had a musical recital or concert in front of your family and friends.

so what I want to know is: how did you deal with it? “it” being the performance anxiety you get before doing something you may or may not like in front of a group of people. Or do you not get nervous at all, and it’s just natural to you?

(other factors I’m curious about: Does the demographic of the audience help/hurt you in any way? Does it help to have friends in the audience for comfort, or does it add extra pressure? Do you have any physical handicaps when performing, like shaking, sweating, etc? Do you have more psychological handicaps like hyperventilation (extreme, but I’ve seen it happen&hellip or completely blank on what your performance is about?)

I’ve had some bad stage fright in the past… I’d like to think I’m getting better with it, but there hasn’t been consistent progress. Standing in front of a group of strangers and talking for x amount of minutes is still daunting to me, though.

now how about you?

I’m deathly afraid of speaking in front of people, performing in front of people, or even speaking out loudly in normal conversation. If I have friends in the audience, that usually helps quite a bit.

Although, I never have any problems once I’m up there. I may stutter or talk incoherently if I’m not properly prepared, but I’m not nervous while I perform. It’s a state of bliss, if you will.

Of course, I spend days afterwards regretting ever doing whatever I did, and wincing at the way I did it. ^_^

I’m a very strange person when it comes to stage fright. If i’m in front of my class giving a presentation, I’m always so nervous and I make so many mistakes, and forget so much. Yet, I have been in multiple plays, and have felt no fear at going out and acting as my character at any of them. So what I do now is that whenever I need to present something I create a character, I don’t know why, but when I have a character to portray I don’t feel afraid anymore, I have to put in extra work for it but I don’t mind.

People simply don’t care enough in general to judge you; they are too lazy. So worrying about giving a presentation is pointless, as it just is not going to be a bit deal most of the time. Unless you’re presenting something which will significantly impact your future, there’s just nothing much to worry about in the first place.

And of course, even then, fear is irrational.

The easiest way to get over stage fright is just to do it until you are no longer afraid. Get in front of people as much as possible to do such things, and you will eventually realize that there is nothing to be afraid of.

I get REALLY self conscious whenever I go in front of an audience. If the crowd is full of people that I don’t know or I know don’t like me, then I freeze up and generally suck. If there’s at least a few friendly faces out there, then I usually put my amazing crowd pleasing abilities to the limit and have fun with whatever I’m doing.

I didn’t have a problem with it when I was younger, but when I moved to Arkansas, it became a problem. This was partly because I started recognizing the difference between me and other people. Being northern-born in the south didn’t help either.

I just roughed it and I’m better at performing and giving speeches yadda yadda yadda. Talking to people can be a problem sometimes though. But I can get over it.

I have never gotten stage fright,you wimps.

Same here doc.

I had some anxiety occasionally, but that simply gets my adrenaline flowing, which helps me focus…I guess my advice would be; People notice less things about you, than you think they do, in fact many people don’t care. Even if they do, it’s not like it’s the end of the world if a few people don’t like you. Just stick by the people that count and give it your best shot…

And that’s why the Taeshizzle’s a artist/writer and not a speaker.

Yeah, I’m also very strange about that. I’m only nervous when I am performing in front of a small group of friends. The larger the audience, the less I am affected by stage fright. I deal with it by consistent practice. When I’m confident that I have everything covered, stage fright vanishes, and the audience becomes more or less my friends. Don’t know if I can help you much though, but I’ve never had much of a problem with stage fright. Just don’t ask me to sing on a dime.

Maybe it’s not for the best, but I ignore the audience as best I can. Get caught up enough in what you’re doing on-stage and you won’t even notice you’re being watched. Or wear shades so you can’t see them.

I’ve always been a pretty good speaker in front of the the class like when I did my biography on Stephen Colbert, happy days ^.^ I got an A++ for that. But gawd the pressure of being the star in the play and it being 5 minutes to show time o-o I guess i just had to ease up, relax, force my heart to stop pounding against my chest and just get out there and remember my lines, even though i did mess up on 3 separate occasions I did a great job Now if i only i could just stand still… that’s probably my biggest problem, pacing on stage. It’s not a face pace or anything, it’s just a slow, steady pace. For me having my family in the crowd encouraged me to do better. But oh god memorizing ALL THE LINES O: