Comedians try out new material in small sets and in small clubs to see if what they have is working. If the audience laughs, good. If they don’t laugh, keep working. After the show it’s pretty tough for the non laughing audience members to come and say ‘that was really great, we just didn’t laugh at all, but we loved it’. No. The comic has the answer as soon as the joke is told.
Music is harder. The lip service is so much easier because music is allowed to strike people a myriad of ways. Fist pumping, crying, quiet, singing along, smiling, clapping, arms crossed. So after a song is played, what is the measure for success?
I don’t have a concrete answer but I’ll give it a whirl…
The new material works if something changes in the room. If some people go from being quiet to excited. Talking to attentive. Unmoved to dancing. Dancing to crying. Eyes open to eyes closed. Happy to sad. Sad to happy.
And with that change, the energy in the room changes. When the energy in the room changes there is more visible change…and so the cycle goes.
»» This is also why it’s still important for artists to play live and try new material live. That’s the only way to see and feel the change…people shifting from one state to another. That’s what you need to know.
