Where in the world am I today?: Aruba, The Caribbean

Making yourself available to shake hands and sign autographs after your show leaves a lasting impression not only with the people watching your show, but also with the people who hired you to do the show in the first place.

I was talking to a country music fan who what a huge Garth Brooks fan. In part because he really likes Garth’s music, but also because of the way Garth took the time to sign autographs for anyone who wanted one after his shows. The word that came up during the conversation repeatedly was ‘Class’ – Garth was a ‘class act’ for taking the time to acknowledge the support of his fans.

Now admittedly I don’t have the same sort of star status that a celebrity like Garth Brooks does, but the lesson that can be learned from this is clear. Acknowledging that people might want to come up and shake your hand after your show makes the performer/spectator relationship somehow more real and your willingness to make this connection leaves a very positive lasting impression.

I think this is one of the things I really like about doing busking festivals and street shows. When people come up to throw a tip into your hat, it’s not just that they’re acknowledging that they enjoyed the show enough to pay you for it, they also want to make a personal connection with you – person to person.

In other venues, I try to find a way to allow for this to happen. The picture above was shot at a consumer trade show in China, following my shows in this venue I handed out trading cards just so I could make that connection. When I’m on cruise ships, I make a point of getting to the entrance to the theatre as people are exiting my shows so that I can shake hands and thank them for sharing their evening with me. I’ll often hand out free souvenir postcards as well just to leave a positive and lasting impression and get my web site information into their hands…

Ya just never know who’s in your audience and taking the extra time to connect with people may well lead to other performance opportunities.

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