Where in the world am I today?: Flying home from Fort Lauderdale to North Vancouver…
Got off the GRAND Princess and am on my way home… Feels good to be getting back before Christmas though I still have a small pile of stuff that needs my attention before I can really kick back and enjoy the Holidays. Still, the mere fact that I’m heading home and will be able to get to ‘The Pile’ while at home and get to sleep in my own bed is pleasantly comforting. I’ll hit the switch in my head, click into travel mode and before ya know it I’ll be arriving home… Ahhhhhhhhh… In the mean time however may as well get to the blog topic for the day – Introductions.
On ships I almost always get asked how I’d like to be introduced before I head out on stage. Typically it’s the Cruise Director or Deputy Cruise director on the ship who does the intros for the shows and the easier you can make it for them to get you on stage the better. If you can craft something simple for them easy to remember that elicits a laugh from the audience so that they get to play the comedian, so much the better. Depending on what sort of day they’ve had, the sort of energy they’ve got to sell you before you show and any number of other factors your intro may get the crowd whipped into a frenzy before you even step on the stage or it may just do the simple job of telling the audience who is about to hit the stage.
I travel with a couple of prepared introductions each of which has a bit of a comedic slant and aren’t too taxing in terms of memorization…
Intro #1 –
Though best known for his award-winning juggling antics, our performer this evening also shares something in common with comedy greats Jim Carrey, Mike Myers and Dan Aykroyd. He too is Canadian. Please welcome to the stage the one and only David Aiken – The Checkerboard Guy.
Intro #2 –
This evening’s guest entertainer’s prize-winning comedy juggling performance has been a huge hit around the world! In fact, he has just come back from an extended tour in Japan where he was doing his entire show in Japanese. We thought it would be fun to get him to do his show for you tonight in Japanese as well. Please welcome the comedy juggling sensation, The Checkerboard Guy, David Aiken!
Having two gives who ever is doing the intro a choice in terms of which one they feel more comfortable delivering and I always let them know that these are just suggestions. A place to start… The guy I was just working with on the GRAND took the basic premise from Intro #2, that I was going to do my show in Japanese, and weaved a whole different set up for it… Great! Different people have different levels of creativity and energy to put into these things, but the objective is to set up the fun that the audience is about to experience.
If #2 Intro is used I always walk out and start the show in Japanese just for effect and again the show starts off with something a little unexpected (well unless I’m in Japan) and gets the crowd ready for the journey I’m about to take them on.
In a very real sense, any piece of marketing or promotional material that you create is an introduction to a possible client so if you’ve put a ton of effort into creating a website, a promotional video, business cards etc. to try and get the job, well then why not make the effort to craft an introduction to the show that’s fun and in keeping with your personality so that each audience also gets the right sort of introduction to you and your show.
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